Community Comes Together to Give Classroom a Face Lift

Last week, I asked the community for help with one of my classrooms. The technology department at has two classrooms: a woodshop and an old computer lab with a very outdated carpet and a 35-year-old paint job. There are no windows in either room, and this year our class sizes increased quite a bit. When my students are working on projects, they have very little space to work. Because my class is based on hands-on learning, space is a necessity. You might be asking, "Okay so what are you doing about it?" My answer: a classroom renovation.

I plan for this renovation to take one week of serious work. Students who are interested in helping will be painting and assisting me in turning the old existing tables into counter tops. By transforming these into counter tops, everything will be pulled to the perimeter of the room and off the floor. When things are off the floor, it leads to a much cleaner work environment because it can be cleaned easily. has kindly agreed to donate the lumber and screws, for which we are very grateful. Other parents have donated paint, paint supplies and other needed materials to allow us to transform the classroom. The community of Arlington amazes me every year and the students are very excited to help. 

The biggest change that will be made to the room is paint color. I have done a lot of research on classroom colors with regard to learning and I have decided to go with some color. White is the typical boring colorless classroom, so I hope to start a trend for the teachers and to ask the community to help in creating better learning ambiance for our students. I know parents and students would help paint classrooms after school if we organized with the community. Heck, maybe even painters will donate their time to help Ottoson Middle School get a face lift. Sometimes students feel indifferent to taking pride in their learning environments or responsible for taking good care of it. This projects will allow students to take the tech-ed rooms into their own hands and will be proud of what they have done, and now there will be more room for them to problem-solve and use innovative thinking to figure any problem out that I can possibly give them.

Last year I painted a little hallway between the rooms with a croissant-color paint that was going to be thrown out. The students were amazed at the difference they felt when walking into the rooms. Many students told me that they wish all the teachers repainted to brighten the learning environment. They said it was the only color in the entire school and they loved it. School needs to be engaging, not sterile.

Let's trigger the innovation with with a splash of color.