Classrooms are particularly prone to the build-up of particulates due to the high number of students using the enclosed space. Student’s track soil and pollen particles in from outside throughout the day, and each student creates a ‘personal cloud’ of skin flakes, clothing fibres, and bioeffluents.
Constant movement can resuspend these particles, which then trigger allergies and asthma in sensitive children, reducing their well-being and their ability to concentrate and learn.
It’s important to keep and maintain a clean and tidy classroom environment for a number of reasons. A clean classroom helps to minimize the spread of germs. It also helps to avoid the offending smells that may linger throughout the day. When you have over 20 children all breathing the same air, that air is filled with bacteria and the smell of food from the children’s snacks and lunchboxes.
This can all potentially give you health problems if the classroom is not kept clean. Besides the negative impact it may have on your health, it’s always a good idea to keep your classroom clean to show students the importance of living in a clean environment. Following are some ways to maintain a clean classroom, along with a few maintenance tips.
Nearly 1 in 13 children of school-age has asthma, the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness. There is substantial evidence that indoor environmental exposure to allergens, such as dust mites, pests and molds, plays a role in triggering asthma symptoms. These allergens are common in schools.
One of the best things that you can do to help maintain a clean and healthy classroom is to teach your students about health and hygiene. You teach them about everything else, so why not teach them about how not to spread germs? Proper hand washing is perhaps the most important habit students need to learn when it comes to health and hygiene. Germs are spread through our hands more than any other way. Regular handwashing will also reduce the chances of a widespread infection in your classroom.
It may be hard for some young children to understand the concept of germs because they cannot see them. To help them understand this concept, you can show them what bacteria looks like under a microscope. This may give them a better idea of what it looks like and how important it is to keep their hands clean.
Maintaining a clean and healthy classroom doesn’t have to be a chore, it can be done and should be done. Dealing with classroom germs is a team effort between you, your students, and the custodian. By asking students to follow good hygiene habits in your classroom, as well as keeping it clean, you can keep your room free of infectious diseases and germs.