Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

It's back to school season, and it's time to set up your classroom. Maybe this is your most favorite part of the school year or your least favorite part. It was one of my favorite parts, but I'm gonna be giving you some ideas of what you can do when you are setting up your STEM classroom. When I first got my elementary STEM teaching position, I was a bit unsure about how I should set up my classroom. I really wanted to make sure that my room was functional and efficient from my littlest learners in kindergarten all the way up to 5th grade. It's a little bit harder than you think, but not impossible. Spoiler alert. Less, here's more. So let's jump into the main things that you can do for your STEM classroom back to school prep.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:23]:

I am all about having a functional space that is clean and accessible to all my students. When I had my K through Five STEM classroom, I only had a couple of teacher areas. There was my desk that I moved to this back awkward corner that I wouldn't put kids in. It was just a weird little corner. but perfect for my teacher's desk, which was a k, a table. And then I had underneath my TV, my screen where I would project things for students, there was a shelf underneath blocking all the cords, and that's where I put my teacher's computer so it was out of the way, and I could project what I wanted. But other than that, the rest of the classroom was available and accessible to all the students who came into my classroom throughout the day. If you wanna take a peek at what my K through 5 STEM classroom look like, this is a very requested thing from all of you, and I finally did it. I did take a video of my classroom and put it together into a video so you can see the layout of what I taught in all day in my fishbowl. I'm saying fishable because one of the walls was completely glass, and everybody could see what I was doing all day, which is totally fine. and a couple of little things for you to be aware of. I did take this video when everything was cleaned up, so there are not any projects going on. So, realistically, how it'd be at back to school or the end of the year when everything is cleaned up and organized? It did not look like this every single day. There are some main things that were pretty much the same, but everything is all clean, so you can get a feel of what the classroom was when it was set up. 

Also, I got very, very lucky when I got this elementary STEM position. During the summer, when I was getting hired, I actually got a newly remodeled classroom. So when I say I got a brand new classroom with limited and 0 curriculum, it was actually brand new, which was awesome and a little overwhelming, too, because I had to fill it up with all the things. So it is very fancy, schmancy. So I know that's not the case for everybody. However, I think this video will be helpful for you to get a feel for what a layout could look like and kind of where to put things and go from there. The 1st STEM classroom back to school prep idea is organizing your makerspace, and you can still do this if you don't have any makerspace supplies. When I am talking about makerspace, it's all of those recycled materials, and a lot of it actually can be reused, but lets get you all organized so you know the space that you are working with so that you're not overflowing with materials. You actually don't need as much as you think you do. In fact, I go into great detail about setting up your makerspace. 

Back in episode 5 is all about your organization and really some major tips and tricks I'll be sharing some of those here, but if you really wanna get into it, go and check out episode 5. And then the next one after that episode, I go on to explain how to manage the makerspace. So the purpose of today's episode is to discuss what you can do to set up your classroom. makerspace is one of those things. But again, those 2 episodes are really good to listen to after this one to really think through the organization and all the systems and processes that come along with it. But let's set you up for success. So looking at your classroom and the space that you have, the furniture that you have going on or hoping to get, you really want to have labels on those things. And this can be a little bit annoying and making all those labels or whatever and, like, sure, I'll get a label maker. Sure. You can do that. Get a label maker. I recommend having a label maker for some things, but not in the case of makerspace supplies. Think about all of your learners, not just kindergarten. There is so much value in taking that extra little step of having labels on your drawers that have pictures and words to what is in those buckets. It also helps me as a teacher too because sometimes I'll move drawers around because they are interchangeable where I had some of my things stored. And so I'm like, oh, okay. That's where things go. Or there are teachers helping in my classroom helping support students they also understood where the materials went. So, yes, it is a bit time consuming to make all those labels with the pictures and the words, but this will help with that environmental literacy where students are able to access that information, no matter what their abilities are. 

And it looks really nice as well. Let's be real. It does look good, but really it's to help out the students. Along with that, make sure that your things when students are in a makerspace project, they are all accessible at kid height. When I was jumping into makerspace projects, or there were some makerspace materials that I needed, I didn't have to go climbing in my shelves to pull everything down for the kids because most of the things were actually out in drawers for the majority of the school year. So what I could do is if we were shopping for supplies, they were able to open the drawers on their own. Or if I needed a specific material, I just pulled out the drawer that had those things for kids. And in the long run, setting this up now during back to school, maybe you're listening to this at the end of the school year, you can do this now at the end of the school year too, but getting this all organized, have it at kid height will save you so much time in the long run when it becomes to lesson prep. When it came to makerspace lessons, I hardly prepped anything. I was refilling things while the kids were working if I had refill options, but again, this is a definite life changer. if you do happen to have extra supplies, maybe you got an abundance of donations or collected things over the summer, create a nice place where you can keep most of those things in the same area. So if you do need to refill, you're not, again, tearing out your cabinets trying to find it. I had a shelf in one of my cabinets that were closed at a couple of cabinets, but I had a shelf where I kept those extra makerspace supplies. 

So if I happen to have something, I could refill it. It wasn't very often, but I knew it was in the same spot. Also, depending on your space, if there are certain materials that you know you're going to use again and again and they require specific safety rules, you can consider hanging up those posters in that area as well. So students are exposed to it, and then they know where to reference it when they're ready to go. things like a cardboard saw, maybe a hot glue gun. I have somebody who I've talked to on social media who actually has my hot glue gun posters, and they put them in cute picture frames from Dollar Tree, which I thought was a really nice touch, a really cheap touch, but a nice touch to make a poster look a little more welcoming and fit the space very well. Along with your makerspace, you do wanna make sure you save room for student projects. And I know that this can be a very hard thing, especially if you're teaching all the kids in the school, But keep that in mind as you are setting things up in your classroom, you'll notice in the video that I have some empty shelves because that is where students would put their projects throughout the week. Also, you're gonna wanna figure out a system for your general supplies. These are things that are used over and over again, maybe not just in makerspace, but all the time. Things like your pencils, markers, crans, glue sticks, scissors. I have done quite a bit of things with this. and what worked well in my classroom was keeping the crayons separated from everything else, and I had little buckets that were placed on the tables that students could come and grab. And then I also kept scissors and glue sticks in their own separate container. 

I used to have things combined and in these pencil boxes where each kid could get a pencil box, but then things got mixed stuff. The tops were breaking off. Kids weren't putting them away. It was way more work for me. They wouldn't stack them correctly. And then also I realized having scissors and glue sticks always available is a disaster for hair cutting. So don't do that. for markers, I actually kept them out all the time. They aren't used very often. I hardly restocked markers, but I got those drawers that you can put the paper in. You know what I'm saying? I'll go get 1. If you're watching the video, I just went and got the drawers. So it's the drawers that you put, like, Printer paper in. There are 3 drawers typically. They're plastic made by sterile light very often, but if you get I'm showing it in my video, But if you get these drawers, I sorted all my markers by color, and then it was super easy for kids to find the color of marker that they needed. and then clean up was extremely simple because they would sort the markers, and they actually liked that organization. Had a lot of kids Tell me they liked my marker drawer. So a fun little tip for you. After you have your maker's space under control, let's get to those building supplies. Oftentimes these are things that can be reused over and over and over again. If you can write a grant or maybe have a little bit of funds, I totally recommend buying the same size buckets that are about those shoe box sizes for everything. And even if some of your materials are in multiple buckets, That is okay. For 1, it looks really nice on your shelves and everything stores nice and neat. So it's all organized and ready to go. I also started labeling these buckets again with pictures and words when I could, and then you can put movies around as needed. So you'll see in the video I have them in certain ways on the shelves. I would move these around based on the unit that I was teaching. 

So, again, they would stack nicely, but I could pull them out for station rotations very easily if there were things that were missing on the floor. I could pick them up and put them inside really fast. One little tip about that, this is part of your supplies. invest or just find something at your house, a small bucket that is your lost and found bucket. So I put mine by the tissues because kids, I don't know why I put it by the tissues, but I have a small bucket. And if kids find random things on the floor, which they will, they're gonna come bring them to you, and then I would say, okay. Go put it in the bucket, or I would take it and go put it in the bucket. And then, at random times throughout the day, I would go through the bucket and put all of the supplies away. So having all of those random materials in those clear buckets that you know you're gonna use over and over again is extremely helpful. Sometimes I will actually keep the original boxes for certain supplies if they're really awkward in size, like my dash robots, Those little boxes they come in are a great size, but more often than not, I will take everything out, recycle those boxes, and then put them in the same size so everything stacks nicely and they are easy to find. Along with those fancy materials like robots, I don't leave all of those things out all the time. For 1, I don't need my robots to be charging for months, months, months, If I know I'm gonna be using them in October, I don't need them out. that way, they're also safe, and very curious hands aren't playing with them all the time, but it's very nice for me every unit, I would set things up and get them ready to go. So if it's robotics, I would put the last units' things away, and it helped me keep things nice and clean throughout the year, so the end of the year was really, really easy to clean up. 

Then I would set up my robots for the month or so that I needed them. So consider that too because if you're having so many students come into your space, if you can keep things put away, I think it's definitely okay because it's not as stimulating, especially for students who obviously need that less of that stimulation, STEM has a lot going on already. And so if you can keep some of those distractions away, well, you'll get to them at some point, but you don't need to have them out all the time. Trust me. And finally, my personal favorite part is adding in that little bit of decoration. It's okay to have that little flair when you are decorating your space, but I will say less is more. and even investing in a little bit of paint, and you can add the color to the walls. I had one wall that was blue. That was perfect for blue screen. I had another wall that was green that was the wrong shade of green for green screen, but it looked cool. It had too much yellow in it, and so, the coloring was definitely off. but even having a pop of color can actually help with the decoration because I didn't need to hang up very much. When it came to things for actual units, that certain grade levels needed. I had one place on my wall where I would hang up those things like what is the challenge we're working on, special directions that work for specific grade levels, I would have one spot on the wall where that would change out all time and students knew that was going to change and, understand what they are learning. Then I went and have another spot when it came to content specific incur charts or posters related to the learning. More often than not, I actually would use a lot of digital posters when needed and pull those up for students based on the grade level that they're at. So I had two places where those things would change. 

Now when it comes to your actual setup or your classroom of things that you wanna have all year, again, less is more. One thing that I had when students came into the classroom is there was a STEM affirmation station. So I purchased one of those floor length mirrors pretty cheap at Walmart. It was $7. Purchased one of those hanging up on the wall, and there were different affirmations around there of different things that they could believe in their selves. Like, I am a scientist. I am a mathematician. All of these little resources, too, I'm mentioning. They will be linked in the show notes you don't have to go and create them. Save yourself some time. I got them all done for you. So that was something really fun. They would come in, and then while they were leaving, they would look at your themselves. I would check my hair in between classes. So with the teachers, when they're picking them up, so invest in a STEM affirmation station, It's always a good time for everybody. Along with that, something that I would keep up near my door, and then it also switched to the hallway just based on how I was feeling, but having a monthly bulletin board where you could switch that out easily, you can print cut, and hang, based on the different seasons of the year or what is going on in STEM is just a great way to keep engagement and spark that conversation. If you could hang up something like that where students line up, again, it gives them something to look at that has a learning experience, and it could possibly tie in with what you are learning as well. So once I printed all those out, I printed. I laminated. I cut them out, and had them in ziplock bags. So then, each month, I could easily switch those out. Took me 5 minutes. Switch those out. You can have a parent volunteer do that for you. and just a nice flair to think of STEM in a different way. 

Again, I have all these made for you, so don't even worry about it. Another great thing that I referred to throughout the years is having growth mindset sayings, and there were different things that we would focus on in our or things that I would say over and over again as it related to our Sam lessons and really to life. So having that available, again, All of these things that you have would be accessible to all grade levels, things that would connect throughout the years, and then you could, keep referring to them and the kids knew where to refer to them as well. Another cool addition is having a STEM and technology alphabet so how they can think about STEM in the real world, and if you wanted to even adding in key vocabulary that you're learning throughout the year. I started adding in the vocabulary. It got to be too much as contents change quite often. So just leaving up the vocabulary was a great place to start. and really helped along with different ways when we were spelling in our plans or doing some research that could help us with what we were working on. And also adding in a little bit of flair is totally okay. I mean, it's your classroom. Come on. You're there all day. so having things like, I would find things all over the place, Michaels, Amazon Hobby, or whatever. I have a, oh, man. I have a hard time saying no to these things, but, I'm holding up a sign that I loved. It says be the maker, and that was just a cute little wooden sign that I had. So even adding those little pops in there, conversation starters, one time when I was in Chicago with my teacher, honey, We were walking in this random place. They had little shops, and I paused. I'm like, oh my gosh. I know what that is. It was the patent for the Lego brick. And so when you look at a patent, they have to make sure they describe every part of the invention to make sure that people don't copy it. So super cool is on a board, and it was burned into the wood, and it was all about Lego bricks. 

So I ended up buying it, and I put it over by my 3D printers. I know they're not 3 d printed, but it was a cool place to put it. but it brought a lot of conversation. Like, kids would sit down there and talk about it. I used it a lot when we were talking about our plans and why we wanna have a detailed plan. and really think through our design. So it was just a cool piece that, yes, it was decorative, but it also brought good conversation. I also had these posters. It said boys can and girls can. And I found this Addie Farmer's market, actually, and it was really, showing and breaking down those gender stereotypes and how girls can really do those things that are traditionally that are made for boys. Like, we think a boy's doing and vice versa with the girls, and the kids loved this one. And that one definitely had a lot of, inspiration and great conversations. And I always started off. What surprises you about this? so just things like that where, yes, you're decorating your space, but how can they have a dual purpose? can there be a learning experience from that? So, very intentional about the things that I would hang up on my walls and keep all the time. Sometimes I'd hang things up for a little bit and then take them down. Like, I had a solar system. I kept up for a bit for a space unit. And, again, good conversation. And I took it down for a bit just just to change it up and keep it fresh. As a rate cap, here are those 3 STEM classroom back to school prep ideas that you can get started for the school year. First is setting up your maker's space and how you want that organized. Next is those building materials. And again, getting organized and having things in places that make sense and are usable. And finally having some decoration that is very purposeful and can relate to many lessons and grade levels. I hope the best for you when it comes to back to school season This is a very fun time when you are anticipating the students that are going to be coming into your classroom seeing ones that you might already know and it is such a very, very unique time that we as teachers get to enjoy. To help you with all of this back to school prep, All of those resources that I talked to you will be linked in the show notes where you can grab all of those things individually I also have them bundled together. There's a whole big STEM posters bundle that has all these back to school things and even more I didn't even share that can help you with your STEM space along with other content specific posters that can help you in your lessons as well. Thank you again so much for being here, and I will see you in the next episode.