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.