Is Your Classroom Ready for the New School Year?
Teachers from Teach For Bulgaria’s community share in pictures
Children haven’t started school yet, but their teachers are already in the classrooms. It is time for final touches before the school bell rings. We asked a few teachers who teach at different schools across the country to share some of their favorite classroom culture practices. We hope you get inspired.
Danny Georgieva, English teacher
Danny shares a traffic light self-reflection concept you can try at the end of every class. Students can pick where to place their pins depending on how they feel about the lesson they’ve just had. There are voice level posters in every classroom at Danny’s school as well as posters of the 5 signs students can use to signal when they are ready, if they want to answer a question, or when they need help. This allows all teachers at the school to have the same expectations and messages for their students.
Sava Tashev, English teacher
Sava shares a photo of his classroom and highlights two things – the party streamers and the book shelves. The streamers are there all year because “the classroom should be a cozy and pleasant place” and the books are waiting for their new readers.
Radoslava Georgieva, primary school teacher
Radi’s classroom hosts superheroes. The rules are above the whiteboard so that everyone can see them. Next to the rules is a description of what successful students do, so that every student can choose to be successful. There is also a poster with all successful accomplishments of Radi’s students. She adds any rewards or competitions her students win as the school year progresses. One of her goals is to get her students to use reusable bags so she has prepared special embroidered linen bags for every student. Radoslava has Friday reflections with her students. This allows them to share any thought or feelings about the past week. The emotions thermometer helps them during the reflection process. Children talk about their strengths during the first reflection for the year. Their strengths go on a special superpowers board. Radi plans to assign leadership roles every week. She has also prepared seeds in little paper backpacks. Her students will plant the seeds and watch the plants grow just like they will grow throughout the school year.
Victoria Tsotsova, primary school teacher
Victoria also has a voice level board in her classroom. Her students have the option to pick a greeting before class. Victoria is going to work on developing her students’ reading literary skills, so she has prepared personalized bookmarks for every student. There is a bookshelf with books for her students to read with special rules for reading.
Stanislava Stefanova, science teacher
Stanislava’s students have a special problem-solving algorithm. They are explorers who know that success takes a lot of hard work. Stanislava prepares extra tasks for students who finish early with their classwork. Every child can get additional materials from the shelf. Rules are observed with the help of a special tracker.
Veronica Todorova, English teacher
Veronica also has a bookshelf in her classroom. She uses it to store resources, handouts, and worksheets, which her students use in their individual or group work and when they finish early. She hangs their project work on a line on top of the shelf. The door is adorned with positive affirmations and there’s a special mirror board which lets students see who is responsible for their actions, words, and accomplishments.
Vanesa Ivanova, primary school teacher
Vanesa is still renovating her classroom. This year she and her students will be hard-working honey bees. The rules of the hive are on the classroom door so everyone can see them.
Elitsa Geneva, German teacher
Ellie shares an interesting way to visualize her classroom rules – she has turned them into comic strips. She uses an hourglass to track the time allotted for presentations and group or individual work. If her students keep the rules or accomplish a goal, they get stickers. When they collect 10 stickers, the whole class gets a prize.
Lilia Popova, primary school teacher
Lilia’s students are minions who have a minion reasons to go to school. She also has a board for her students’ accomplishments, but there is a special tree for good deeds there as well. Every time a minion does something good their cup gets a little fuller. Lilia has prepared a birthday calendar for her class as well.
Galina Valcheva, science teacher
Galina shares an interesting team building activity for teachers who will work with a newly-formed class. Last year was her first year as a class teacher and she decided to make this poster with her students on September 15. The poster is now framed – a perfect decoration for her classroom.
