Let's Stop Classroom Shaming

My pinterest feed is flooded with back to school ideas.  Friends in other states have already started their school year.  I know I have to set my classroom up soon but am already facing classroom shaming.

On my facebook feed, one of our district's other performance zones highlighted a new teacher's classroom that is completely done.  Yes, completely done...on August 6th.  We don't start in-service until the 21st and get students until the 25th.   Yet, this one teacher was completely ready. While I hope the intention was to celebrate this new teacher, the overall effect was classroom shaming.  Shame to those teachers who haven't meticulously decorated their classrooms yet.  To be fair, I'm not even allowed to get keys until next Wednesday.  Still, the message was shame to those teachers who aren't done yet.

I say enough.

Enough to the classroom shaming.  

My classroom will not be perfect.  It's not supposed to be.  In a few weeks, it will be filled with fifth graders. Perfection is not possible.

I have a few weeks of summer left and I'm going to enjoy it.  I don't need to be shamed about my classroom and all the unopened boxes.  I didn't spend my entire summer preparing for next year and that's okay.

Yes, I will do my best to make my classroom a colorful, organized, and fun place to be.  However, I will not spend hundreds of dollars doing so.  Like most of the world, I'm on a budget.  Everything won't be meticulously perfect and that's okay.

I'm not going to spend hours on bulletin boards and cleaning.  I'm going to spend that time on planning lessons, not decorating.

Enough with the shaming and pressure to make every classroom look like those on pinterest.  It's not going to happen.  It's unrealistic.  I love craft projects as much as the next person, but I also like sleep.

Every teacher is different. I'm going in on the earliest possible day and don't want to go in on weekends.  That's okay.  Other teachers won't go in until their contract days and that's perfectly okay too.  Some won't have their classrooms finalized until the students are finishing up their first week and that's okay too (as long as students are able to learn and move around safely).  Stop with the classroom shaming and holding all teachers to absurd pinterest/done three weeks early standards. My classroom won't be perfect. Stop the shaming.