After the construction this summer caused new rooms to open up, Jordan Shelton, language arts teacher, finally got a room to herself to decorate. 

Shelton had originally been in one of the rooms taken over by summer construction and got moved this year. Until now, Shelton had always shared a room with other language arts teachers. 

“I like sharing a classroom because you always have someone to talk to, but it’s also nice to be in your own space,” Shelton said. 

With this new freedom, Shelton said she has taken to putting up tapestries with encouraging sayings and fun designs to add color around her classroom, as teachers don’t have the ability to paint the walls of their room. She pays for all of her decorations herself, and finds that tapestries can be a cheap way to decorate. 

Shelton also has decorations that hold more meaning to her. One of these gifts include a stuffed sloth from a past student, which was a heartwarming gift to receive, she said.

“I’ve accumulated gifts from kids throughout the years and you definitely start to accumulate things that have sentimental value in teaching,” Shelton said. 

Like Shelton, many teachers have taken to decorating their own rooms to create a more comfortable learning environment. 

In efforts to generate excitement in her class, Amy Sturges, math teacher, said she likes making her classroom unique to interest students.

Shelton said she has her room decorated with Disney paintings she made herself, and a collection of rubber ducks, which has done the trick in catching the attention of her students.

“If I’m spending eight hours everyday here and my students are in here for more than an hour every day. Who wants to look at beige walls?” Sturges said. 

Sturges said having paintings can offer students a chance to see more about their teacher’s personality, as many students have asked Sturges about her creations. She said students are always surprised when learning that they were homemade, and she enjoys having these conversations that allow her students to learn more about her.  

“It’s something that you don’t usually see unless you have random artwork in your class,” Sturges said. 

As an avid Disney fan, all of Sturges’ paintings are based on their movies and characters, with most of them being from the classic movies. 

For her duck collection, Sturges has about 100 in her room that she has accumulated over her years of teaching. She started receiving them as gifts from her family members when she was younger but has also started to receive them from students and other teachers. 

“I’ve got everything and anything,” Sturges said. “I’ve got big ones, I’ve got itty bitty ones, ones in costumes and even ones for the seasons.”

There are some regulations with how teachers can decorate their rooms, but Associate Principal Tracy Waekercle said she has never seen it as a problem. 

“I personally have never had any issues with teachers displaying inappropriate content hanging in their rooms,” Waekercle said.