Teachers know that rearranging the classroom activates minds and increases engagement. This is also true for your digital classroom, and here are two ways you can do this:

• Set your Bloomz homepage apart with intention and design.
• Seasonally switch your class banner and mascot this year.

To start my year I made a banner on CANVA to welcome parents to my page. I teach a multi-age classroom of first through third graders so I know most of the students that will be in my class.  I thought about how diverse my students are, their love for animals, and the pride they take in being "weird". Weird is a good thing in my class! It started with one student proclaiming he was weird in a very positive way, then the whole class took ownership of the word and made it cool to be weird. I absolutely love the sentiment. Here is the weird banner I made for the beginning of our school year. Our class is called the Horned Owls.

The cover photo aspect ratio is 16:9. The pixel dimensions of a Bloomz banner are roughly 507 x 284. You can type these dimensions directly into the Canva site to make your banner. I went ahead and made four banners, one for each season. Feel free to download them and use them!

[gallery ids="4725,4728,4726,4727" type="rectangular" link="file"]

The profile and mascot pictures are squares. Some ideas for a profile picture are school logos, mascots, picture day teacher photos, Bitmojis, or letters. The mascot pictures on your sidebar are tiny so the bigger the better when choosing your square. Letters seem to work well.

The importance of intention when customizing your digital classroom has to do with what kind of appearance you want to project to your school and parent community. Just like when we get dressed in the morning and choose what to wear to work. When people dress up in the work place others tend to take them more seriously. A clean and becoming aesthetic does not go unnoticed. Why not dress up your Bloomz page so that it is well-liked and in vogue with the latest season?

What do you use for your classroom banner and profile picture? Please add your comments in the section below.