A new classroom is a new canvas for painting. It’s been my experience that students do not struggle with math because it is too difficult; they struggle with math because they are afraid of it. To help overcome that, I wanted to turn my room into a comfortable, relaxing space that would make them feel the way I felt every time I walked into a Nature Company store in the 1990s.
I used a faux-Lazure technique to paint the walls, mixing a few drops of craft paint with roughly three parts Mod Podge and one part water to make a thin glaze that I scrubbed onto the walls with a circular motion. I layered the color onto the walls gradually, which gave it the soft, blended effect you see here. I like this technique because it has a luminosity that makes you feel as if you are standing inside a watercolor painting. I chose a soothing color palette that is supposed to help kids relax and focus.
I find houseplants very calming, so I bought a big plant stand from Amazon and covered it with fairy lights, plants from my personal collection, and a tabletop fountain that was given to me by a former student several years ago. (The kids LOVE the fountain.) I gave some consideration to the possibility of building a papier-mache tree in one corner, but the lighted tree was on sale for $80, which was less than I would have spent on materials to construct something myself, and it paired nicely with the icicle lights that I absolutely had to have after seeing that decorative overhang cantilevered above the windows. I love fairy lights and have used them to decorate classrooms for years.
The three ceramic squares are significant because two of them are imperfect: “GOOD VIBES ONLY” has a flaw in the glaze that looks as if someone smudged it before it was fired, and “BE KIND” was stamped at a 90 degree angle, so the holes that are supposed to be on the bottom of the square are actually on the side. The only one that is flawless is “DREAM BIG.” I tell the kids that’s because the only place we are perfect is in our dreams, and while it’s good to strive for perfection, I am never going to demand it in my classroom. All I ask is that they show their work, so if they make a mistake, I can help them correct it.
Foolish Wand-Waving 