Change is Good

I remember the moment well.  I was attending a conference in Saskatoon.  The Two Sisters were sharing their knowledge about Daily 5, CAFE and the new Math Daily 3.  For the first time in a long time this year I was feeling excited.  The topic at this point in the conference was classroom environment.  We were being shown images of classrooms that were centered around the Daily 5 model.  I was oohing and aahing over them, but I also found myself at a crossroads.  These were exactly the spaces I wanted to develop in my own classroom.  I wanted a reading nook, and a love seat, and rugs, lamps, small tables-I wanted it all!  But how?!  I only had a regular size space.  To do all that, I would need a huge classroom.  Wouldn't I?

Then it happened.  One of The Sisters said,  "Now I know what all of you are thinking.  You're thinking, 'How big is your classroom?!'  But I'm going to tell you that to make this work, we have half as many desks as we do students.".  That was it.  The lightbulb went off and I knew that I was going to be able to transform my classroom environment.   In the week that followed I put in long hours to change the landscape of that space, and the changes that happened in seven days blew me away.

In a previous post, I wrote about how my classroom started out and why a traditional classroom set up didn't work for my students and I.  You can find that post here.  Today, I'm going to share some images of the new classroom environment, and tell you a little bit about how it functions.

This is the closest to a full room view that I was able to get.  If you were able to look at the images from my previous post about our classroom environment, you would know that this is leaps away from the classroom set up that existed previously.  These changes were all made based the Daily 5 classroom model.

This space has been set up with a plan, and we have dubbed the work areas around the room to be Good Fit Spaces.  The table that you see in the foreground of this picture is the "Listen to Reading Station".  Students use the laptop, desktop and a recently added CD player to listen to audio books as they follow along with the companion book.  This allows something very cool to happen; students who may not be at a reading level for chapter books or novels are able to read them and enjoy the story as they are essentially listening to someone else read.  At the end of their reading session, they are asked to recount some of the details from the book they are reading in a binder.  

If you haven't yet, you will soon notice that there are only 10 desks in classroom.  This is not because I only have 10 students.  I have, in fact, 17 students in my class.  I know! The first question that I am asked every time someone new sees this space is "Where do all the students work?".  The answer is that they are allowed to work anywhere they like, and interestingly, only a small handful of students ever choose the desks, even though they are allowed to work there at any time.  The pods were created, for the most part, as a space for me to organize guided groups, and to help students improve on common strategies.

In the middle, right hand side of the picture you will see a small coffee table that I picked up from a local thrift store, and bumped up against the table is a small shelf consisting of three cubes.  The shelves hold materials for word work and classroom books.  The small table is the perfect size for my students to sit at and work.  

The large open space at the front of the class is first and foremost an instructional area.  Ideally it would be defined by a large area rug, but I only had so much time!  When I am teaching, this is where I do it.  Students are asked to sit in that space, close together.  The general rule of thumb is that they should have just enough space for themselves, and almost be touching knees with the person sitting next to them.  In this space, the person they are sitting beside becomes their elbow buddy.  I deliver short lessons, trying to maintain a 10 minute lesson maximum before letting students choose their Good Fit Work Space to practice the skill just introduced.  In the times when we are working as a group in this area (usually for Math using whiteboards), students are allowed to have a bit more space, but in general, they sit and work fairly close together.  Teaching lessons in this space this way has had a profound impact on classroom management.  There have been almost no interruptions to instructional time.  Let me say that again.  There have been almost no interruptions to instructional time.

Recently, a student told me that she preferred the classroom the way it was before.  When I inquired as to why, she said because I didn't notice when people were fooling around as much.  She also said they didn't have to pay attention as much.  I said, "Thank you for your honesty, but I think it's best for our  learning if we keep the room set up the way it is."  Mental fist pump!

I'm sure you have noticed the love seat in the classroom.  That is our designated reading area, although students may choose to work there as well.  The key to this, and any space in the room, is that students have to learn what is a good fit space for them.   I will talk about how to help students find their Good Fit Spot in an upcoming post.

The above picture is the classroom space to the right of the Listen To Reading Station.  The small table behind my desk provides extra space for students to work.  I have significantly downsized the Teacher Shrine area and became more organized and efficient in this process as well.  (To see what it looked like before, check out images from this post.).  It is important to note that students are also allowed to work at my desk from either side.  The table butted up against the wall in front of my desk is at our math station.  Students have access to learning tools and manipulatives that they can use at any time.  The counter on the right side of the image is extra space for students to work, and has become a popular area for them to go when they work independently.  (I think it's because this ledge faces the window, and it's a sunny spot to work.)

This is our classroom space in a nutshell.  These pictures were taken in March, a week after I attended the conference.  (I told you, I drank the Kool-Aid at that conference, and I'm so glad that I never looked back.)  A few more changes have been made to this space since these images were taken and I will share them with you in the future, but overall, the layout of the space has not changed significantly.

I will say that I love this new space.  My students are excelling in it, and I frequently have colleagues come in and sit with me on the couch in the mornings and after school to talk about it.  I can tell that it's the beginning of a wonderful journey that will link environment to student learning, and I am thrilled to finally be doing it.  I have also heard from several other teachers who work with my students that they have also noticed a positive change in them.  They have told me that they are more focused, they are problem solving better and they start working faster and stay working longer.  All these great things from changing our classroom environment!  

I Have a Dream

I have a dream that my classroom reflects the ideas that I have about teaching and learning.  It accommodates many different learning styles, encourages collaboration between students, and allows me to moves seamlessly among them to guide them on their individual learning paths.  My dream begins with a classroom that is comfortable.  It is inviting.  It doesn't look like this...

There are probably many of you who are looking at this picture and saying, "But Ashley, there isn't really anything wrong with this.  I have seen many classrooms like this."  

This is my Grade 4 classroom in March of this year (2014-2015).  I can only say that I never felt completely comfortable in it.  I'm about to walk you through this space and tell why this does not work for me, and more importantly, why it doesn't work for my students.  

Desks and Desk Arrangement.

I entered into this space at the beginning of every day, and the first thing I saw without fail was books or pencils or papers or scissors or garbage or shoes or erasers sitting on the tops of the desks, and I became instantly annoyed.  Not a great way to start the day.

Every student had a desk where they were responsible for keeping their materials.  The thing about a desk is that students have everything they need right at their fingertips, and in theory, it is a very good thing.  In reality, it's a nightmare because they have everything at their fingertips.  I would frequently lose instructional time because of problems with classroom management relating to desks.  Students would have their hands in their desks, or would be fiddling with something on the top of their desks, or they would be distracted by each other.    

Pods can be great.  I love giving students the opportunity to work together so they can learn and teach each other.  The thing about pods is...students sit in segregated groups spread around the classroom, and it can be very difficult to monitor all of the students and keep them focused during instructional time.  As a result, I was forever trying to strike a balance between effective instruction and the perfect pod group for all students (which doesn't exist by the way).  My favorite phrase quickly became, "Ok Grade 4, I need everyone to practice self-control".  

The alternative I had to pods was desks in rows, which I hated and my students hated, and which all but stifled any collaboration between them.  As a result, I opted for pods.  It was the lesser of two evils for me.

One Environment Does NOT Fit All

When you look at the picture above, you can tell this is a homogeneous environment.  There is a desk for every student to sit and work in.  Knowing this, I would often find myself wondering why one student or another was always out of his or her desk.  While there were some students more than others up and out of their desks, all of my students did it at one time or another.  My spidey senses would tingle because I knew that this environment was not conducive to what my students needed.   The classroom needed to be more dynamic, but how?

The Organization Illusion

You would think that, if every student had a desk, and every student had a locker that keeping a classroom organized would be easy.  Well think again.  Part of the problem is that desks are very hard to keep organized.  Those little people have a lot of materials to cram into that little space, and if they are not explicitly taught how to keep it clean, it is likely they will not be able to.  I can't count the number of times that I thought my own desk was not big enough, so I can empathize with my students here.  This brings me to the next issue...

The Teacher Shrine

I love that term.  I heard it at a conference I attended this year led by The Two Sisters.  It's hilarious because it's true.  I consider myself a very organized person.  I like to have a clean, clear, well ordered space, but you'd never know it by looking at this picture...

If you can, look past that student desk that is giving me an instant migraine just by looking at it, to my area behind.  Just look at all that space designated just for me!!  It's embarrassing.  As one of my nearest and dearest goals is to create a student-centered space, I think it's safe to say that I was moving in the completely wrong direction in achieving that environment.

I'd also like to say that the cabinet behind my desk is full of "stuff", and almost none of it was useful to me.  The only items I kept in there that I used frequently were my scarf and mittens.  What a missed opportunity for organization!  Some of the "stuff" was mine, most of it was not.  Looking back it would have been prudent to clean it up, and put in all those binders and teacher resources I had sitting on the counter to the left of that cupboard.  I guess hindsight is 20/20.

Colors in the Classroom

As you can see, I covered the bulletin boards with basically every color in the rainbow.  Oh boy.  Here's the thing about this: I know better.  I know about color.  I think most people do.  There is a reason that schools are painted that ghastly eggshell color.  While it's nobody's favorite, I believe it does serve a purpose, and that is to ensure that the space for learning is not overstimulating to students.  Thankfully, there has been learning in this area and we've found out that natural, neutral colors have the same affect as "eggshell".  Alleluia! 

Again, here I am doing the exact opposite of what I know to be true.  I know that pink, and lime green backgrounds, used with orange and white chevron boarders (I know, even I couldn't look at it for long), are not the best use of color to create an environment that encourages calm and collected independent learners.

The good news here is that in order to do better, I had to start somewhere.  In my next post, I will share the transformation of this space, and trust me, there's a difference.