Do Classroom Decorations Matter? Designing Optimal Classroom Environments

You know when you are spending hours poring over Pinterest and Instagram for the best classroom decor -  have you ever stopped to wonder if the time, energy, and money you pour into your classroom decorations are actually making a difference in your student's learning? 🌟

In this episode, we dive into the big question: What is the best classroom decor and does classroom decor really matter? 

Let's separate fact from fiction, dig into the educational research, and find a balance for you and your students.

Key Points:

• 🎨 The Great Decor Debate: Does a Pinterest-worthy classroom enhance student learning or just your Instagram feed?
• 🧩 Evidence-Based Insights: Discover what research says about the impact of classroom environments on student outcomes.
• 🌈 Finding Your Balance: Whether you're an "extra" teacher or a minimalist, we discuss practical, balanced approaches to classroom decor.
• 🧠 Focus on What Matters: Learn which elements of your classroom setup can truly boost student engagement and learning.
• 💡 Practical Tips: From optimal classroom layouts to effective use of wall space, get actionable tips to create a conducive learning environment.
• 🧘 Mind Your Budget: Understand how to enjoy decorating your classroom without financial stress or pressure from social media trends.
• 🤝 Student Involvement: Explore ways to include students in the decorating process, fostering ownership and a sense of community.

Before you blow your hard-earned money on having a Pinterest-worthy classroom, I hope you listen along and maybe even pass this episode along to that one "extra" teacher we all know!

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Transcript

 Welcome back teachers. Here we go. This is part of my summer series where I'm trying to tackle a few subjects that are a little kind of low key, but I know you are spending your time and your energy thinking about over summer. And here's a big one.  Classroom Decorations. Classroom decor. Does it matter?

Does it matter what theme you choose? Does it matter to your students and more importantly to their learning that you spent so much money of your own and your time curating this, you know, Pinterest worthy, Instagram worthy kind of classroom vibe? Does it matter? It may be it matters to you, but does it matter to them?

What does the evidence say? What do I think that would be a good, medium, halfway accommodation for those of us who are extra and those of us who are maybe minimalist and prefer to have a classroom that looks like an empty jail block. You know, not ideal.  But let's dive in, let's give you, I will give you some of my opinions, but more importantly I'll also give you some evidence based fact for really design and, and planning an optimal learning classroom environment because that's what it boils down to, right?

Are the kids smart?  OK, we'll get into it. Some people will have strong opinions. We're OK with that. Alright, I will see you on the inside.  Welcome to the Balance Your Teacher Life podcast where we talk all things avoiding educator burnout, setting healthy boundaries, and achieving better work life balance.

If you're passionate about education but tired of it consuming your whole life, this podcast is for you. You have found your home in the podcast universe. I'm your host, Grace Stevens, and let's get going with today's show. Okay. 

Before we get started, first off, thanks for being here. Listen, yay you for investing in something that is hopefully helpful. Inspiring, supportive, and just something that is a little bit different. I know you have a lot of options for listening to podcasts and I appreciate that you are doing something to try and live your best teacher life.

Because if you're living your best life everybody benefits from that. Students, your family. Everyone. So if you find this podcast helpful I appreciate you hitting those stars. And more importantly, Oh my gosh, tell a friend. It's like, it's a big secret out here. Here we are trying to change a world one episode at a time.

So anyway, thanks for being here. Consider sharing with a friend and let's get into it. So let me start off by saying goodness. There was nothing I liked better than the teacher supply store. Now those of you who are a little younger, who are used to Etsy and Amazon and all those things or your online shopping options may never know the excitement of driving to a town that had a teacher supply store.

Lakeshore, oh my gosh. And just the excitement of buying all those things. I always taught lower grades, you know, the problem is Pocket charts, right? Like all of that stuff and, and there were so few options for actual kind of theme decorations and it wasn't, you know, we didn't have access to color printers to print our own stuff.

You know, the height of excitement was finding a new color in bulletin boarder, bulletin board border, and I'm telling you, it was back in the day, you know it, maybe you had it in your classroom when you were a kid. But some of us loved it as a teacher. Was the scalloped border that was made of, of corrugated paper.

You know what I'm talking about? We had to be careful when we stapled it that we didn't squish it too much. Otherwise that, that corrugation would be flat. And oh my gosh, trying a line. up those scallops in the corner. It was a thing, y'all. But anyway, there was nothing I love more than that. I spent so much money.

It was a constant struggle to try and hide  from my family how much money I'd spent at the teacher supply store. But anyway,  did it matter? Did it make a difference to kids learning? I remember for years I had a theme wild about learning. Now it was okay, I brought in a ton of my own kids stuff because my son had had a zoo themed bedroom and all kinds of things, right?

I had the sofa. Far e hats we were wild about it was the whole thing the kids were kind of into it but did it really change anything for them later on i had this whole galaxy theme and now oh my gosh i stress out when i am on social media which i try not to be on too much and i just see the pressure that people put themselves under to these beautiful  curated classrooms.

And I see their Amazon wishlist and I would expect to find books you know, or supplies for students. And what I'm seeing is like this really extravagant, all the pens matching and the chair covers and the, oh my word, take this pressure off yourself. Let me tell you two things. So one, if it gives you joy  and if it doesn't financially bankrupt you, sure, go for it, but understand that it's for you. 

Understand it's for you, and that's okay. You spend hours and hours and hours a week inside that classroom if you want something that has a visual aesthetic that is pleasing to you and important to you, you got the time, you got the money to do it because you want it, not because you feel that pressure, you know, then go for it.

But let me just caution you this, The first time you have a student who is so dysregulated that you have to do like, you know, a room clear or whatever, and that student trashes the room.  If that is all things that you bought, you paid for, you lovingly curated to look perfect, you are gonna take that so much more personally.

Like it's gonna be so painful to you and so upsetting to you. So I just want to put that out there.  You know, you have this beautiful theme, when you see some dysregulated student ripping up your stuff,  pulling it off the walls, kicking it round the room. You know, you're really going to think it's just stuff, but it isn't to you if you really cared about it.

So, let me just put that out there. I'm not, if it's what you want, I'm not shaming you, I'm not saying it's silly. What I'm saying is it's sad that so many teachers put this pressure on themselves. But if it is what you want and you can do it, go for it. Just understand that it comes at a cost when the room gets wrecked.

Okay? And two, understand that it is for you.  It doesn't really impact student learning. And there is evidence about that.  And you don't even need the evidence. We can do a quick thing. I mean, if you're driving, don't close your eyes.  If you're walking, don't close your eyes. But if you just sit and chill and close your eyes, but just think of your favorite teacher.

Everybody had a favorite teacher growing up. That teacher that just, they they loved being with them, they inspired them. Maybe it was the teacher who inspired you to, to do better, to be better, to believe in yourself, to want to be an educator. Okay?  What did their room look like?  What was their room border like?

Do you remember?  Probably not.  I certainly don't. Okay, so it's about your energy. I say a million times, your energy teaches more than your lesson plans. And how you show up matters. So, if having a beautiful room with all the different mood lighting, I sometimes I see these people, you know, day, the vlog, the video blog of like day in the life of the teacher, they got to get to school 15 minutes early to turn all those lights on,  right?

Oh my gosh. Yeah. That wasn't me. So you know what I'm talking about. So anyway, let's talk about it. What does matter? What doesn't matter. Okay, so the first thing and I have looked at studies, you know, I'll put a couple of them in the show notes if you really care. I tend not to get too bogged down into the, to the jargon and the, you know, the, the footnotes and all that.

We all read enough academic things, but this all makes common sense, let me tell you. So the first things that are really the most important elements according to the research let me tell you. They will not come as surprising to you, but unfortunately, they're the stuff you can't control.  So classrooms designed with optimal environmental conditions, right, really are found to enhance concentration, engagement, overall learning outcomes and the classroom environment can impact 25%.

That was a study by Barrett and Au in 2015. And thank you.  But when they looked at classroom environment, they were looking at things like the temperature in the classroom,  right? Did you have access to air conditioning and heating?  Natural light,  right? Just not this awful fluorescent light, no windows, right? 

Insulation from noise.  How quiet was the classroom? Could you hear the kids in the room next door screaming or getting screamed at?  I hate to say it. Could you hear what, you know, science movie they were watching, listening to? Like, you know when you have those paper thin walls and you hear everything that's going on, it's so distraction.

Or are you right in the middle of the playground and the The insulation isn't very good. And you can just hear kids screaming and shouting all day long. Like it's really distracting. Okay. So the temperature, the insulation from noise, the natural light, the air quality. Right, we have pressure coming in.

That became such a big issue. Oh my.  During our little, you know, recent pandemic, I remember people coming in, checking our air quality, supposed to be putting filters in, supposed to be improving it. We never got to see the results but we didn't see any changes. That made us all a bit nervous. So anyway, so those things really impact student learning.

Guess what? You don't have a lot of control over that. Most classrooms I've ever been in, I didn't even have control over the temperature. It was on. The thermostat was programmed at the district level. So, the things that matter, the lighting, the temperature,  the noise insulation the air quality.

Those are the important things. We don't have a lot of control over that. Now, you know where I go. Focus on what you control, not on what you can't. Here are some things that really do matter that we do have control over. So the first thing  is the classroom layout. Like as a classroom, it needs to work.

There needs to be traffic patterns for safety. You know that certain configurations of desks that we want some kind of flexibility there so students have the ability to do collaborative learning. Or go pull back to a small group, a small table with the teacher, right? But you've got to have, I'm just going to say, you've got to have some, you know, little islands, those students who get very distracted and distracting sometimes need some space to be sitting by themselves.

So there is some, you know, logistics and hopefully you have. Desks that you can move. I know the last few years, flexible seating. Yes, a beautiful concept where I see some people go off the deep end with it. Oh my goodness me, took out every chair out of the classroom and felt this burden to go to yard sale after yard sale to pick up different types of seating and couches and bean bags and bouncy balls and everything else and it ended up just being a distraction.

So you know, moderation and all. I had a staff member who had a beautiful classroom. Oh my gosh, it looked like the inside of a coffee shop. It really had that vibe. But she would spend so much money on furniture. Oh my gosh. So beautiful. And then kids always arguing about where they sit. Okay, so the importance, we're always going to bring it back to facilitating effective learning.

Learning, right? The classroom needs to be organized. Everybody needs to be able to get to their classroom materials, right? Effectively, easily, safely, right? We're not having backpacks all over the floor, right? We gotta figure out a way. I know that the last few years I taught,  I was in a tiny room, a tiny room had been like a resource room and then suddenly I was in there with 36 kids, right?

What are you going to do? We couldn't even put the backpacks in the room. Well, you leave the backpacks outside but you know, extreme temperature In California, in the Central Valley, like, oh my gosh, our lunches are going to go bad out there, there's ants out there, and so the best we came up with was to have a big totes inside the classroom that we could stack.

So your backpacks stayed outside but you brought in your lunches and put them in the totes, and then we took the totes with us to lunch. So there's just practical things as far as being organized Everybody being able to get to their materials and having some flexibility as to where kids sit when we're doing different tasks.

Okay, so all of that is kind of common sense but you have a lot of control over that. For the most part you have control about that.  All right, the other thing that you know is the big question is  Right, we can't paint the walls. I know there's a lot of research out there. We tend to think that, you know, oh, primary colorations should be bright and colorful and all those things.

Yes, they should. But the research supports  harming or neutral colors.  are better  as a learning environment,  right? So calming blue or green or some neutrals, something that isn't overly stimulating, like too much visual stimuli, bright colors can be distracting, okay? It can really impact students moods and behavior and their cognitive function too.

So try and keep it a little bit mellow. And then the big question is, how much stuff should you have on the walls? I remember this was, I mean, we were at a school where  the principal would Bing round,  measuring tape. So and she always cited that it was due to safety concerns and the the fire we wouldn't pass a fire inspection if we had more than 50 percent of our walls covered, okay.

Some people had like, Oh, put this beautiful wallpaper up brick or like this barn motif. That's a big thing right now, the barn with the cacti and all that, and they'd covered all their walls. A great expense with this paper that looked like, you know, kind of, you know, the barn theme, kind of like, what would you call that?

Like, kind of raw wood kind of thing. And, you know, come in and spent all their time over summer doing that, only to be so mad. When the, you know, the couple of days we have before school the principal coming around like, no rip half of it down. You can't have it on the walls. It's a fire hazard. So whether or not that's your fire department saying that or I had a feeling it was just really it's not something that she liked.

The research supports  that. We do not need chaos on the walls. It doesn't work for a lot of students.  Optimal amount is between 20 and 50 percent of the walls covered, okay? Absolutely no more than 50 percent of the walls. Like I said, that might be fire code for you, but it might also just be, you know, it's just common sense that we don't want too much visual stimuli.

Now I know that we love our anchor charts, right? We do love our anchor charts and there is such a lot of research to provide that, you know, kind of environmental you know, learning, staring around the room, looking at the anchor charts is really helpful, but when there's too many of them, it just becomes too cluttered.

Okay? So the ideal things to have on the wall would be anchor charts. So things that support learning. So you're the chemistry teacher. You want to have your chemical elements up there, right? You teach a math. We wanted our math formulas up there. Our multiplication charts, all those things, right? Things that could help the students.

However, you know, you've got to live with the fact that come testing time, you've got to take that all down, right? So, but still, so that's one thing. Number two, the big thing to have on the walls is students want to have ownership in their classroom. So student work, absolutely. Student work is a beautiful thing to have on the wall.

Now, I always, you know, would have this, especially with the lower grades, we feel that pressure. Oh, we got to have our theme, we got to change our walls every month. I used to change my walls every month with a writing sample. And a piece of art that went with it for every child, you know, drove myself crazy doing all of that.

Okay, but a few key pieces, something I would always do, and there is research to, to back this up, that is important, you know, we would have, you know, Back to school very quickly. You know, within the first week of school. Well, we wouldn't have a lot of stuff up on the walls, obviously. And I would address that with parents.

I would say, you know, we'd like to decorate the classroom collaboratively. It was a nice way of phrasing it, right? And we didn't have enough, a lot of stuff on the walls. But certainly by back to school, the first day of school, I would always take a photo of their child. Like I said, if it was, we had different themes.

So, you know, of course it would be a themed photo. They were in their safari hat or we were, we had one in the galaxy. Whatever, but just a photo. And maybe a little writing sample of what the child wished for that they hoped they were going to learn that year. Something. One, for ownership. They felt like they belonged in the classroom community.

Two, it helped them learn the names of the other students in the room, which was important.  And three, when the parents came, oh yeah, look. They belong in this room. Somebody's made an effort to make them feel like they belong. So, somewhere in there, very quickly in the year, something created by students and something with their name, something with their photo, especially if they're younger grades on the wall.

So that's important. So that, the anchor charts, and then, you know, the inspirational stuff. Role models wanting to look at posters of role models to know what is possible making sure of course that there is inclusion in all of those things that every everybody is, is fairly represented.

Kids need to see representations of people, you know, who look and feel the same as them who have been successful. Okay, and I've said on that, you know what that means. Okay, so there is the data on that no more than 20 50 or 50 20 to 50 of the walls covered and if you have the Opportunity to influence the covers the colors the greens the blues and more  neutral calming colors.

Okay, so we got practical considerations for space, for safety, for flexibility of moving students around the room in different learning situations, and for traffic patterns. Okay, we've got, you know, the cultural sensitivity of what's on the walls.  We have got not too much visual. stimulation so that it's overwhelming.

And a last part, which isn't, you know, so much about the decor, but about your style, but is proven a lot of evidence for this.  Just be organized, like minimalize clutter.  Now I know I, I worked with a teacher who had stuff everywhere. Everywhere around the room. Oh my God. She'd been teaching forever. And you know, back in the day where like, don't ever get rid of anything, not a toilet roll, not a piece of yarn, not an extra copy that you made in case you need it, right, really that kind of that kind of mentality of lack.

Like, oh my God, we're always getting the budget cut. Like if we don't keep it, if we don't use it, you know, we might not ever get it back. Her room was so. So overwhelming and cluttered. Firstly, I truly believe it was a safety issue. But secondly, like some  people, I was going to say some students, but you know, I'm still this way.

It stresses me out. I cannot function if there is clutter everywhere. Okay. Apart from the fact that she would always spend so much time looking for stuff that stressed me out and it was a waste of time, but just visually looking at everything, like piles of stuff everywhere, just everywhere. smacked of chaos and overwhelmed to me and really when I was a student, it wouldn't have worked  for me.

So so make sure there is very little clutter. Okay, the last piece of common sense because I have seen so much of it over the years, not great here's the common sense. I, I think people are getting better about this. We shouldn't be having students grades on the wall. When my daughter was in kindergarten, the teacher had these charts.

Maybe you've seen them, you buy them like at the teacher supply store back in the day where you could write the kids names and then you'd color it in squares and whatever, and they would track everybody's, Math score, or reading score, or this or that. And you know, my daughter was always like, How come I'm always behind?

I still remember the kid's name. I don't know if you're listening. If you're all grown up, I'm sure you turned out to be great. But Sean Wu, I heard his name a lot of times. Like, why am I always behind Sean Wu? Like, it was just, and I mean, she was in the top three. Imagine those kids who are always in the bottom three.

It should not be environmental print on the wall. Shaming kids about their scores. Just don't do it. That's, there's confidentiality issues, obviously there's self esteem issues. Now, if there are awards or extra things that kids are working towards and you want to make it fun, okay. Like, let's say accelerated reader points.

You know, a lot of schools do that. And we had a program which was all Star Wars themed. And so you were a Jedi and you got certain points and the kids got to color in their own charts, or if they reached a certain award, they got a part of a lightsaber and they could go put that on the wall until they built the whole lifesaver light say, but so that's.

You know, that's different. That's something extra fun, extra incentive, voluntary, not mandated curriculum.  in kids be seeing, you know, being ranked against other kids publicly on the walls. Okay, so there's no room for that. But if you have some fun incentives for extra things, sure, make it fun, make it cutesy.

But here's what I really want to say from the bottom of my heart. Do I regret all the time that I spent decorating my room, sewing curtains, making it cheerful? You know? No, I don't. But I wasn't under  I'm kind of glad that I didn't have to worry about it being, you know, all over social media. It just wasn't a thing.

I never felt that need to compete. I never felt that you know, like, Oh my God, the kids want to be in the other room more because it's, you know,  Or anything like that, right? And I never spent money I didn't have. I guess that's it. I see a lot of teachers really like having to make wish lists and, and all kinds of stuff and having to have, you know, the only, I had a wish list, it was for kids to have wiggle seats, right?

I had so many kids that needed to sit on you know, those, those spiky cushions. I, you know, that was appropriate. It was for the kids, but not to, like, be soliciting funds from, you know, friends and family for you know, different decor that was matchy matchy. I, I think that's taken it a little bit to the extreme, especially when you go back to the evidence.

Does it serve students? Does it help? Facilitate learning, you know, probably not. So anyway, I, you know what I'm always going to encourage you. If you have money to invest this summer, you invest so much time, so much energy, so much money in your students, in your classroom. I'm going to encourage you to invest it in yourself, invest in yourself, learn some skills.

Learn how to set boundaries. Learn how to say no. Learn how, all the things, right? All the things I teach. True personal development. That will move the needle in your life and it will move the needle in your classroom and student engagement. You will show up as your best self when you're not overwhelmed.

When you your whole identity isn't about teaching. Okay, all of these traps I see us being kind of forced into. Okay, so, that's it. With love of my heart. If you are, you know, on a texting train with your friends. I know when the school supplies come out we were always texting. Oh my God, Staples has the books at 25 cents.

No, Walmart has it at this. Like, we were always, it was this big scavenger hunt who could find, you know, the cheapest things. Because, my gosh, we were buying 30, 40, 50 of them. And then I remember, oh, how many years, my poor kids. I would buy the folders. my own children and then I would print out, you know, the student's name with the appropriate graphic, whatever our theme was, and the kids will be gluing them on and putting plastic on top and you know, and then it would get lost.

Then I'd get annoyed. That I had spent an hour on their folder and the kids would lose it, and you know, like I said, that was the risk. That was if I just put them at, you know, the, the cheap folder and written their name in sharpie. Would it have changed anything about their learning experience? No, but I'd have been less annoyed when they lost it.

Let's be honest, or destroyed it, or scribbled all over it. I used to take those things very personally. So take care of yourself if it brings you joy. To make your classroom, you know, look like a boutique, go for it! But, again, know that it's for you. You do spend a lot of time in there, so  Make it something pleasing to you, but for me something that's functional and practical and just a little bit fun Really was the nice kind of happy medium.

Okay, however, you are spending your summer I hope you're spending it on things that bring you joy, and I thank you again for listening in and until next time create your own path and Bring your own sunshine