I’ve been out of the classroom for 5 years now, and sometimes it makes me a little sad. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a gifted coordinator, but sometimes I miss interacting with the students and fixing up a classroom. Today I was looking at old pictures of when I taught, and I came across some pictures of my old classroom. I used to really get into fixing up my classroom to match the theme of the units I was teaching. I suppose my favorite two classroom designs were for my marine biology unit and my unit on Ancient Egypt. I must have spent a fortune fixing up those classrooms, but it was worth every penny.
Whenever I decorated my classroom, I wanted the kids to feel they were immersed in the unit, so I kinda went all out. I thought I’d share a few of my classroom pictures with you. These were taken in
2000-2001 and 2001-2002 school years. You can tell by the computers!
Everyone always asks me how I made the murals on the walls and ceilings. Well, the murals on the ceilings were actually pieces of tagboard cut to the exact dimensions of the ceiling tiles. I copied the designs onto each one and painted them with acrylic paint. When they were dry, I just slipped them into the dropped ceiling frame. Now I was a lot younger then, so I don’t know if I would get on a ladder to do it today.
The murals on the walls were ecru sheets that I draped over some closets and using an overhead projector, to trace the designs from a coloring book about ancient Egypt onto the sheets using a sharpie pen and then I painted them using acrylic paints. I had an old mattress box I laid the sheets out on to paint them. Believe it or not, they still look as good and vibrant today as they did back then. The gifted teachers are doing a unit on ancient civilizations this year and four of the gifted specialists are using the murals in their classrooms. We had to have a drawing because everyone wanted one and I didn’t have enough to go around.
The next set of pictures was from my unit on marine biology. I hung shower curtains over the windows so it looked like you were in an aquarium when you entered the classroom.
It’s fun looking at old photos. What old classroom photos are your favorites that you like to pull out?
Well, that is all I have for today! Remember to always… Keep ’em Thinking!
