In our last class, we were broken up into groups to discuss topics we were interested in learning more about. The discussion I chose to participate in discussed how to build a class on a budget. This is something that interested me as I feel there is a lot of pressure to be an “aesthetic” teacher. This could include teacher outfits, classroom decor for each season, materials for students and an overall aesthetically pleasing classroom. I follow multiple teachers on TikTok who show their classroom and the colour coordinated decor, and do daily teacher “fit checks”. I find these videos intriguing and I often imagine how I would structure my classroom and the fun “teacher outfits” I would want to wear. Although I think these videos provide inspiration and foster idea generation, I cannot understand how a new teacher affords all these things. It’s my understanding that teachers receive a small budget from the school for classroom materials, however, in my Link2Practice, my mentor teacher explained that this money they receive is not nearly enough to cover the expenses for the whole year.
After our group discussion, I feel better knowing that most of us new teachers feel the same way and have come up with ways to limit cost. For example, thrift stores are a great place to start building your classroom library. They often have new or lightly used books at a low price. Additionally, in terms of the classroom decor such as letters of the alphabet, number lines and posters, I think we could use platforms such as Canva or powerpoint.
Here is used an image of strawberries from Pintrest and found a letter on Canva that allows you to replace the background with any image. I think this would be a great way to add character to your classroom without spending any additional money!