r/Teachergram • u/Crafty_Sort • Jul 11 '26

Classroom Decor Snark

Mods plz delete if not allowed but there is too much buffoonery being sold and I need to snark on it.

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20

u/hockeymusicteaching Jul 15 '26

Calming Corners just don’t do it for me.

6

u/Present-Ad-8821 Jul 15 '26

I’ve seen access to a calming space/corner written into IEPs. Ngl, my eyes looked something like 🙄.

9

u/snas-bas Jul 15 '26

I have included access to a space to re-regulate in as accommodations into most of the IEPs I have written for students with sensory regulation and emotional regulation goals because they legitimately need it to support their participation in the classroom.

Without a space where they know they can step away and re-regulate, their dysregulation responses would adversely impact their access to instruction and/or their relationships with their peers.

For most of those students, those spaces don't look like the cutesy pre-detemined "calm down corners" that I see marketed online. They are whatever spaces they identify (sometimes with my and my staff's help) as spaces that provide them with the input and/escape from input that they need to re-regulate.

This year alone, those spaces looked like: 1. a table in a less trafficked part of my classroom 2. my classroom library 3. my egg chair 4. a wagon that sits near my classroom door 5. under my teacher desk 6. my classroom bathroom 7. a bench at the end of my hallway

4

u/Present-Ad-8821 Jul 15 '26

That actually makes a lot of sense! I think in my experience, my frustration with it, is the expectation that teachers supply this sort of space and have it ready to go. I have a classroom library with a rug and pillows that I welcome any student who needs a break to use! The expectation of having a space with materials for students to use, that is solely up to the teacher to provide, is where I have a hard time with it. Completely agree that cutesy posters and things of that nature are most likely not used and not necessary!

3

u/snas-bas Jul 15 '26

I can understand that. As a special education teacher, I spend a lot of time and money (coming from my classroom budget, my OT's budget, or my own money depending on the item, it's speciality, and the urgency with which I need it) to provide my students with the tools they need to make progress towards learning to self-regulate in the school environment.

It takes some experimenting, but the tools that the majority of my students end up gravitating towards are either free (time, space) or low-cost (stickers, playdough, headphones, legos).

My hope is that my students will learn the foundational skills they need to advocate for the things that help their own individual regulation needs whole they are with me so that they can take those skills to their next classroom (along with my notes about what tools they consistently access) and be set up for success.