Middle School English Classroom Decor and Organization

This post is from the 2014-2015 school year! My classroom design style has definitely changed, but I still love the way this classroom was laid out and put together 🙂 I was so proud of myself!

I decided to jazz things up a bit in my 7th Grade ELA classroom. Here’s a little walk through of a classroom that I am very proud of! (Shout out to my mom and dad for all of their incredible help with getting everything together!)

My teacher corner and a small shot of our class library area. You can also see the weekly agenda, 7th grade class schedule, ELA homework board and a place for the CCSS and our school SLEs.

A darling welcome sign greets my students as they walk into our room. The welcome sign was downloaded from the Teacher Chick’s TPT Store. I didn’t have enough space on my door to string it out, so I just taped it up! I love it 🙂

I love how I arranged their desks this year. I don’t really like regimented rows or groups (teenagers talk too much!), and it took me a while to finally figure out what I wanted to do. There are three rows that have two desks next to each other and a fourth row that is only one desk. The outer rows are angled toward the middle to make it easier for students who are in the back to see. I’ve also added small pieces of duct tape to the floor where their desk legs should go – it was amazing to me how much their desks migrated forward throughout the day last year!

You can also see my awesome new paint color and pristine white closet doors! My dad and I painted my classroom a couple of weeks ago, and it just makes it feel so much less stark with some color up 🙂

I’m loving the saying from Socrates on my bulletin board: “the unexamined life is not worth living.” It’s great because we are starting off with poetry this year! I also couldn’t stand how cute the little owls were from Dorky Doodles’s TPT Store!

Our weekly agenda – I cannot tell you how much this helps me plan for the week and it also takes care of a lot of questions students might have about tests, assignments, etc.

My little 7th graders need the daily reminder of what their schedule is – we’re still holding their hands for two more years before we feed them to the high school wolves – no daily schedules posted there!

The homework board for both of my classes – there’s quite a bit due next week! Welcome back to school 😉

I also have a place to post the CCSS and the SLE of the day (one of my student jobs is to change these out daily).

My favorite part of my classroom – our classroom library. I am slowly growing my YA book collection after moving down from teaching high school. The shag carpet is from Target (and is easy to wash, too!), cushions are from World Market about 4 years ago (they no longer serve a purpose in our new home), the pillows are from IKEA ($14/pillow), and the rocking chair was a hand-me-down from our old landlord that had been in our garage for years! I think it’s pretty awesome if you ask me 😉

Bulletin board to hang up student work and our Evidence Based Writing model.

Another view. I bought my class set of dictionaries and thesauruses from the dollar spot at Target! Now each student can have their own dictionary when working on papers, in groups, etc. 🙂 The purple box is how I pass back papers and is incredibly time-saving.

Our school calendar with cute little people from Melonheadz. I also have bathroom passes for both boys and girls and a hall pass – all found at the dollar spot at Target (best place ever).

The left-hand side of the whiteboard is where homework for all classes is listed. I also have our date and announcements on this part of the board.

I desperately needed a good, decent sized table for the front of my classroom for many reasons, and this table from IKEA for $23 was exactly what I was looking for. It was incredibly easy (and fun!) to assemble and I’m thrilled to have found something of good quality for such a reasonable price.

You can see how I’ve angled the outer desks a little bit better in this picture.

What each of their desks look like – all of their books, my syllabus and my Close Reading Strategies Bookmark with their names written on them 🙂

Now this is my new favorite bulletin board! I found this idea off of Pinterest and couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. This is in the hallway outside of my classroom 🙂

And there you have it! Everything is all set to go for Tuesday! Now I just have to sit back, relax and enjoy my last few days of summer vacation 🙂

Have a great school year everyone!