Below is what I hope to have my future classroom look like. Things will change depending on which grade level I teach, but this is a starting place for all grade levels.
Creating a room that facilitates students learning can be a daunting task. You need to take many different things into account before you begin. You have to know how you want the room to flow and how you want the room to feel. Julie Diamond states in her book Kindergarten a Teacher, Her Students, and a Year of Learning (2008) “The room much be open enough to allow for a degree of flow of activities and materials, yet not so open that it erases all boundaries between areas” (8). It made me think long and hard as to why I had my room plan the way I did. I want it to flow nicely but also show that certain parts of the room are for certain activities.
When you walk into the classroom you will immediately see the three tables that hold six students each. I have them in groups to help promote a stronger sense of community. To enforce this throughout the year I will have activities that force them to work together to complete them, giving each student a piece of information needed to complete the task, but not all of it. Along with building a sense of community I will mix high achieving and low achieving students together. In The Principals of Classroom Management by Levin and Nolan (2010) it states, “Seating arrangements in which high- and low-achieving students are interspersed throughout the room can increase involvement and participation” (133). By placing these students together the higher achieving students will gain leadership skills and the lower achieving students will increase their performance scores and participate more in class.
If you look to your right when you walk through the door you will find a circular carpet with beanbags and a bookshelf. This will be the reading area that students can go to and read when they are done with work or during their independent reading times. As well as having it for a reading area, I will place a station that deals with primarily reading in this area as well. Since I do not know what stations I will be required to do on a daily basis I did not include them in my classroom. If I knew the basics of the type of stations I would have put them. I did leave many different areas open for rearranging and adding things when I have an actual classroom.
On your left there will be a storage unit that will have supplies and other things tucked away inside. Next to it will be a mini cubby space that they will place their planners and homework folders in at the start of everyday. They will have their names on it in alphabetical order from day one. Having things up and out of the way will keep the room from feeling cluttered and unorganized. Levin and Nolan state in Principals of Classroom Management (2010) “Many people find a cluttered area an uncomfortable environment in which to work and learn . . . A cluttered, sloppy, and unorganized classroom suggests to students that disorganization and sloppiness are acceptable, which may lead to behavior problems” (134). I don’t want the way my classroom is set up to end up causing behavior problems later in the year because of a habit they learned from me. I am supposed to promote healthy habits as a teacher, not bad ones.
In my classroom I will have not only a whiteboard but a SMARTboard as well. I would like both because with a SMARTboard you can do interactive lessons that get the students physically engaged and on a whiteboard if you write something on it, it doesn’t have to go away when you start another lesson, you can just move to another part.
Next to the whiteboard I will have another rug that is used for shared reading and other lessons that I want to have he students all together for. It could be for a science demonstration, a math lesson, or even a writing activity. It had bookshelves that will be full of different books for all types of things. They will be categorized by genre and by season or even holiday. It will also have a bookstand for the larger books that you cannot physically hold while you read. It could also be used to hang the current vocab words or other things that can be flipped back if needed. I will also have a T.V in that area for when we watch the morning announcements or watch a video that enhances a lesson being taught.
In the back of the room I have a kidney shaped table that will act as my table for guided reading and as a teacher desk. I don’t see myself as a teacher that keeps things piled on her desk. I like to think that I will get things graded and put into folders that track their progress. Behind my desk I will have a bookshelf with different storage containers that hold my binders for lesson plans, guided readings books (organized by level) and their folders that hold all completed work. I will also have my copy of textbooks placed there as well as supplies that I use on a daily basis. Having that behind me will allow for the table to serve as the guided reading table.
I decided that I would have a bathroom outside in the hallway. I never had one in the classroom growing up, so I figured in my dream classroom it would be in the hallways too. I will however have a sink and counter space in my room for when the kids need to wash their hands. I determined that science materials and art supplies would be placed near the sink as well. Having the sink in the classroom promotes good hygiene skills. Along with soap a bottle of hand sanitizer will be there for when the janitors don’t replenish the supply of paper towels and kids will just wipe their hands on their clothes if they don’t have towels and I don’t want to have to deal with that. So for those occasions, hand sanitizer will be used. Good hygiene is a habit they need to learn early.
At the end of the day, the physical environment can only be effective if the children feel that they had a part in it. I will have bulletin boards around the room that houses the student’s work. The science board will be placed where the science area is, the math work where the math work is, etc. Starting out at the beginning of the year, the room might look more bare than students are used to but I feel that collaborating with the students on what goes on the wall will help with the feeling that it is their room, not just mine. Julie Diamond states in Kindergarten A Teacher, Her Students, and a Year of Learning (2008) “I want them to feel—in their bones—this is their room” (8). It is all about working together to make the room what you want. Also I think bulletin boards that house the work of students who did a great job gives them a goal to work towards. They are going to want to see their work up on the walls, displayed for everyone to see. Levin and Nolan in Principals of Classroom Management (2010) “The more bulletin boards are used to recognize students…the more likely they are to facilitate and enhance student behavior.” (135).
My physical environment is going to change many times over the course of my career but right now, I feel that the room I have created would facilitate the students learning and help them be successful rather than set them up for failure.
When you walk into the classroom you will immediately see the three tables that hold six students each. I have them in groups to help promote a stronger sense of community. To enforce this throughout the year I will have activities that force them to work together to complete them, giving each student a piece of information needed to complete the task, but not all of it. Along with building a sense of community I will mix high achieving and low achieving students together. In The Principals of Classroom Management by Levin and Nolan (2010) it states, “Seating arrangements in which high- and low-achieving students are interspersed throughout the room can increase involvement and participation” (133). By placing these students together the higher achieving students will gain leadership skills and the lower achieving students will increase their performance scores and participate more in class.
If you look to your right when you walk through the door you will find a circular carpet with beanbags and a bookshelf. This will be the reading area that students can go to and read when they are done with work or during their independent reading times. As well as having it for a reading area, I will place a station that deals with primarily reading in this area as well. Since I do not know what stations I will be required to do on a daily basis I did not include them in my classroom. If I knew the basics of the type of stations I would have put them. I did leave many different areas open for rearranging and adding things when I have an actual classroom.
On your left there will be a storage unit that will have supplies and other things tucked away inside. Next to it will be a mini cubby space that they will place their planners and homework folders in at the start of everyday. They will have their names on it in alphabetical order from day one. Having things up and out of the way will keep the room from feeling cluttered and unorganized. Levin and Nolan state in Principals of Classroom Management (2010) “Many people find a cluttered area an uncomfortable environment in which to work and learn . . . A cluttered, sloppy, and unorganized classroom suggests to students that disorganization and sloppiness are acceptable, which may lead to behavior problems” (134). I don’t want the way my classroom is set up to end up causing behavior problems later in the year because of a habit they learned from me. I am supposed to promote healthy habits as a teacher, not bad ones.
In my classroom I will have not only a whiteboard but a SMARTboard as well. I would like both because with a SMARTboard you can do interactive lessons that get the students physically engaged and on a whiteboard if you write something on it, it doesn’t have to go away when you start another lesson, you can just move to another part.
Next to the whiteboard I will have another rug that is used for shared reading and other lessons that I want to have he students all together for. It could be for a science demonstration, a math lesson, or even a writing activity. It had bookshelves that will be full of different books for all types of things. They will be categorized by genre and by season or even holiday. It will also have a bookstand for the larger books that you cannot physically hold while you read. It could also be used to hang the current vocab words or other things that can be flipped back if needed. I will also have a T.V in that area for when we watch the morning announcements or watch a video that enhances a lesson being taught.
In the back of the room I have a kidney shaped table that will act as my table for guided reading and as a teacher desk. I don’t see myself as a teacher that keeps things piled on her desk. I like to think that I will get things graded and put into folders that track their progress. Behind my desk I will have a bookshelf with different storage containers that hold my binders for lesson plans, guided readings books (organized by level) and their folders that hold all completed work. I will also have my copy of textbooks placed there as well as supplies that I use on a daily basis. Having that behind me will allow for the table to serve as the guided reading table.
I decided that I would have a bathroom outside in the hallway. I never had one in the classroom growing up, so I figured in my dream classroom it would be in the hallways too. I will however have a sink and counter space in my room for when the kids need to wash their hands. I determined that science materials and art supplies would be placed near the sink as well. Having the sink in the classroom promotes good hygiene skills. Along with soap a bottle of hand sanitizer will be there for when the janitors don’t replenish the supply of paper towels and kids will just wipe their hands on their clothes if they don’t have towels and I don’t want to have to deal with that. So for those occasions, hand sanitizer will be used. Good hygiene is a habit they need to learn early.
At the end of the day, the physical environment can only be effective if the children feel that they had a part in it. I will have bulletin boards around the room that houses the student’s work. The science board will be placed where the science area is, the math work where the math work is, etc. Starting out at the beginning of the year, the room might look more bare than students are used to but I feel that collaborating with the students on what goes on the wall will help with the feeling that it is their room, not just mine. Julie Diamond states in Kindergarten A Teacher, Her Students, and a Year of Learning (2008) “I want them to feel—in their bones—this is their room” (8). It is all about working together to make the room what you want. Also I think bulletin boards that house the work of students who did a great job gives them a goal to work towards. They are going to want to see their work up on the walls, displayed for everyone to see. Levin and Nolan in Principals of Classroom Management (2010) “The more bulletin boards are used to recognize students…the more likely they are to facilitate and enhance student behavior.” (135).
My physical environment is going to change many times over the course of my career but right now, I feel that the room I have created would facilitate the students learning and help them be successful rather than set them up for failure.