2e: Organizing Physical Space

One of the most real, hands-on teaching experiences I've ever had was teaching English in the Dominican Republic to young students, ages 4 to 10. During this time, I had the opportunity to teach multiple classes daily. The school I taught at was very small for the number of students that were attending. When teaching these classes, often there were other classes and lessons occurring in the same room. I would be teaching my students in one corner of the room, while my colleague was teaching another lesson to her students on the other side of the classroom. At times, there would even be four lessons occurring at once in the same room. Unless handled properly, it could get really out of hand and distracting of the students. To make teaching more effective for these students, it was essential to situate the class for attention to be on the teacher. We situated the desks of the students facing away from the other students and others teachers in the class so their bodies were facing the teacher. This aided the students in their work and helped them to focus. Though this teaching situation wasn't ideal, I practiced organizing the physical space of a classroom. Doing so, leads to a well organized class, focus and engaged students, and effective teaching.

When I become a teacher and I have to organize my classroom in my own way. I would want to organize it somewhat like the image to the right. Next to the door are the cubbies where students can store their backpacks and coats. I would have the students be in groups to promote collaboration and support in the class. By sitting in groups, students receive different methods and ideas as they are learning and discovering together. I would also have a class library to have resources like dictionaries and different books in many genres and different reading levels. This is useful for students, after they finish their work or during reading time, they will always have the choice to find a book or find one in our class library. Around the class library is a reading nook. Students that have good behavior, or do well in class will have the option to do some independent work or read in the reading nook. It's a place where they can work quietly. At the front of the classroom is the whiteboard; all desks are situated in which no one should have their back to the board. In the corner is the teacher desk, still proxy to the students desks, with cabinets of resources and tools next to the desk for easy access. In the other corner of the class is the group desk. The group desk promotes group stations and can be a place for a teacher to pull aside a group of students or even work with a student one-on-one on their work. They can conduct writing conferences, ORFs, or MAZE assessments at this table and away from the distractions around the students.