The Background Baddie Manifesto

I believe teachers deserve pretty things.

Not because they need them.

Not because a cute desktop background is going to fix education, solve burnout, or magically make a hard Tuesday easier.

But because sometimes, something can exist simply because it makes you happy.

And I think teachers could use a little more of that.

The little things aren't actually that little.

Teachers spend their days thinking about everyone else.

What will keep students engaged?
What needs to get copied?
Who needs extra support?
What email still needs a response?
What needs to be graded?
What needs to be changed before tomorrow?

There is always something.

And somewhere in all of that, I think we've started treating joy like a luxury.

Like if something isn't productive, educational, efficient, or necessary, it doesn't deserve space.

I don't buy that.

I think opening your computer and seeing something that makes you smile matters.

I think changing your background because it's October and this one has a cute ghost on it matters.

I think matching your phone to your desktop just because it scratches a very specific little itch matters.

I think walking into your classroom and thinking, okay, this is cute, matters.

Not everything has to change your life.

Or move the data points.

Some things can just make the life you're already living feel a little better.

And some things can simply be there to let you play.

Teachers need room to play.

So much of a teacher's day is built around being efficient and effective.

Data. Standards. Objectives. Assessments. Pacing guides. Scripted curriculums that must be followed with fidelity.

There are a lot of things teachers have to do, and increasingly, there are a lot of instructions for exactly how they have to do them.

But teaching has always needed play.

Play is where you wonder, What if I tried it this way?

It's turning a boring lesson into a game because you know your kids need it.

It's making a ridiculous slide just to get a laugh.

It's picking the font, adding the sticker, changing the colors, moving things around, and creating something that feels like you.

And I don't think that's extra.

I think play is part of good teaching.

Because it's hard to create playful experiences for kids when we've removed all the play from the adults creating them.

If teachers have no room to play, eventually students don't either.

And when play is absent in spaces filled with children, I think we do everyone a disservice.

That's one of my favorite things about these backgrounds, graphics, stickers, and all the other little elements I create.

They give teachers something to play with.

You can take the curriculum you're required to teach and put it on a slide that makes you smile.

You can add a ridiculously cute little ghost to the math problem.

You can make the rigid thing a little less rigid.

You can weave your personality into something that wasn't designed with your personality in mind.

You can take something you have to do and find a way to make it feel a little more like something you want to do.

That's not just decoration.

That's creative agency.

And teachers deserve to have some of that left.

Consider this my case for teacher dopamine.

Tiny hits of joy.

A fresh background.
A really good pen.
A coffee you didn't have to make yourself.
A student leaving you a ridiculous note.
A coworker bringing snacks.
A clean desk at the end of the day.
A desktop that feels like you.

These things aren't frivolous.

They're human.

And when you work in a job that asks you to give so much of yourself to other people, I think there should be little things throughout your day that give something back to you.

That's what Background Baddie has become for me.

Yes, I make backgrounds.

But I don't think I'm really in the business of backgrounds.

I'm in the business of tiny, unnecessary, delightful moments.

The backgrounds are just the delivery system.

So, here's the manifesto.

Make your desktop cute.

Use the good stickers.

Buy the pen.

Change your smartboard just because you're tired of looking at the old one.

Make the ridiculously aesthetic slide.

Add the unnecessary graphic.

Turn the review into a game.

Put something on your screen that has absolutely no educational objective other than I like looking at this.

Play with the things you're allowed to play with.

Romanticize the tiny parts of your day.

Find the dopamine where you can.

Weave joy into the everyday things.

And please, stop feeling like every single thing in your classroom has to serve everyone else.

Some of it can be for you.

Actually, I think some of it should be for you.

Because when teachers have room for joy, creativity, personality, and play, they bring those things into the room with them.

And the kids get to have some too.

That's what being a Background Baddie is really about.