Simple things I added to my classroom to help with my sanity and classroom management

When the school year was ending in 2024, I felt the most drained I have ever felt from teaching. I realized that through having children and with the lockdown, I had not worked a full year since 2019! I was exhausted for the next school year and summer vacation hadn’t even started.

As the school year approached, I took a serious look at my classroom procedures and came up with some ways to make my life easier. After three weeks of school being in session, I can’t believe I haven’t done these things sooner. Here are three things I changed this year that has lowered my stress level in the classroom.

1. Bell Work

I was realizing that my students were having trouble talking about art and would barrel into the art room asking me a ton of questions before the bell even rung. Within the first five minutes of class, I was already incredibly overstimulated and needed to find a way for my students to start their day without much direction. I merged my two needs by having the students finish this daily bell work assignment. At my current school, Mondays are a short day so I start bell work on Tuesday. When they come into the class, I pass out the page for them to keep in their art folder. Now they have access to it for the next four days without needed to wait for me to pass out their work. They know that the first 10 min of class is completing bell work.

Day one: copy and color the image and write the artwork information (provided by the teacher)

Day two: analyze the art work based on an element or principle of art

Day three: interpret what you think the meaning is behind the painting or why the artist chose it (this does not have to be correct, just allows them to start thinking about art on a deeper level)

Day four: evaluate the artwork based on your opinion.

Day four their bell work is due and is worth 8 points (2 points a page).

I have done this work for the past three weeks and it has made the first few minutes of class very manageable and the consistency helps my students get ready for class. Also, the practice they have had discussing art has shown in an increase in their ability to talk about art. Click on the image above to be taken to the resource page to download for free.

2. Portfolios

Another huge problem I was having was the time it took to pass out and collect projects. I would also get students claiming that they turned in items and would spend an unnecessary amount of time looking for it to discover they took it home or it was in their backpack. I worked with a teacher who had students make and store portfolios at school and decided to give it a try. I was reluctant at first purely due to the space issue of where to store the portfolios in my room without it looking messy or taking up too much room.

I assigned at the start of the year for students to bring in one poster board for their portfolio. I had several students not bring in their own so I would advise to have a few bought in case you too face the same situation. Here is a pack of 25 on Amazon. I recommend buying plain white so they have a chance to personalize. This also doubled as a one day activity for I had them decorate the front with their name, period, and any other artwork they wanted to include. I will say that it does take up a bit on my counter space, though, the benefits outweigh this con.

Benefits

• Students do not have to wait for me to pass out their work
• I do not have to pass out work allowing me to focus on classroom management and instruction
• Teaches students responsibility of keeping their work
• Students have access to all their work allowing them to work on unfinished projects or redo projects that they were unsatisfied with their grade independently

3. No technology

I went to college at the very start of online classes. When distance learning happened, I found creating online content and providing work through blended learning platforms like Google Classroom, Schoology, and Canvas to be a great resource for teachers and students alike. But, I feel like the access to technology compared to students inability to stay on task with unlimited technology access does not align. I found myself monitoring their computer screen and discovering the new tricks and hacks that hide what exactly the students are doing on their chromebooks. I decided at the end of last year I was going to make my room a technology free zone unless I was doing a specific lesson using technology like a research assignment, stop motion, etc.

The biggest drawback to this was the students inability to use references when they work. Yet, this also solved another problem of students using other artists work as their own. Many times students do not fully comprehend the idea of copyright believing that the art is their own because they physically drew it. Now students have three options:

• Print out references from home after they completed their rough drafts
• Print at the library
• Send me a file and I can print it out for them

I have found that this new rule as increased my students ability to use their own imagination and creativity and rely less on the abundance of ideas they have access to through the internet.

Since printing can become expensive fast, I recommend a printer with a subscription service. My personal home printer is an HP 6055. It initially comes with 3 months free subscription, but after that I now pay $5 a month. The best part of the subscription is that the printer, when connected to WiFi, automatically orders and ships ink when you are running low freeing the mental load of having to know when to reorder ink. I do not use a lot of ink a month, so my subscription cost is lower. Those who use more ink a month would need a more expensive subscription. This printer also scans and sends faxes.

Take Away

I am about a month into the new school year and my new strategies and rules have absolutely brought my stress level down to a more manageable level. Some of these new activities need more from me up front, but in the long run, it has helped in many other areas for me and the students.

If you have your own personal tips and tricks, leave a comment for our community!

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