I've fantasized about my classroom for as long as I can remember. I've thought about the cute bulletin boards that will adorn my room with catchy phrases and how my class will come together as a group (The Cyz Superstars was going to be such a great bulletin board with the kids names in stars). I can't wait to decorate a room that will encourage learning and this week something was brought to my attention. The classroom should not be my space but it should be our space. A fun way to do this is have students design what they want their class to look like on the first day and try to find ways to incorporate this into our classroom.
In Debbie Miller's book Teaching with Intention, Miller discusses how your classroom space should somehow support your teaching beliefs. If I want students to see that I believe that are in charge of their learning then I need to show them by giving them a chance to have ownership of their learning space. I know this might be difficult to do at first but I think the idea of having a blank canvas (aka your classroom) will help your students see that you are on the learning adventure together. One idea I hope to incorporate is the idea of using the walls of the room as a timeline for the class. The students will do opening day activity such as a 10 Things About Me activity, which will serve as the beginning of the timeline and decorate one of the walls. As time goes on the class can vote on which activities in class they would like to display on the timeline. I also think I'd like to have student groups decorate some on the bulletin boards during rotation. By decorating the bulletin boards students once again are able to play a more active role in their learning because they have to come up with a way to display the learning topic to their fellow classmates through pictures and few words. I want to cater to all learning styles. I think a way to achieve this is to have stations throughout the rooms that are specific to each learning style. An example of this would be a kinesthetic station would included a table and few chairs with lots of hands on activities. A learner that is auditory would include headphones with parts of the lessons used with music or tapes that students can listen to again and again.
Another one of my beliefs that I want to incorporate into my classroom environment is diversity. I think a great way for students to truly learn about another culture is to see and experience it. Every month or couple of weeks I want to have a board or section of the room that will be decorated to match the culture we are visiting. I think that by having the culture so interactive students will be able to relate more and get excited to learn about it. Once again after the first month students can be in charge of the area. I hope to get the class involved in a "class trip" of sorts that will give students the power to chose the countries that we will visit throughout the year. Though this will definitely mean a lot more work for me I think it will make the activity more meaningful to the students.
I want my students to feel at home and I think a wonderful way to do this is to have a homey reading area. Not only will students feel comfortable but they will always be more excited to read, which is something I hope to instill in my students. I will make the reading area more personable by asking students their ideas to make the reading area comfortable. I also want to have book bins by theme not by reading level. I think students are smart enough to chose a book that they can understand and by sorting by theme students can explore topics that interest them not just what level they are in.
In Debbie Miller's book Teaching with Intention, Miller discusses how your classroom space should somehow support your teaching beliefs. If I want students to see that I believe that are in charge of their learning then I need to show them by giving them a chance to have ownership of their learning space. I know this might be difficult to do at first but I think the idea of having a blank canvas (aka your classroom) will help your students see that you are on the learning adventure together. One idea I hope to incorporate is the idea of using the walls of the room as a timeline for the class. The students will do opening day activity such as a 10 Things About Me activity, which will serve as the beginning of the timeline and decorate one of the walls. As time goes on the class can vote on which activities in class they would like to display on the timeline. I also think I'd like to have student groups decorate some on the bulletin boards during rotation. By decorating the bulletin boards students once again are able to play a more active role in their learning because they have to come up with a way to display the learning topic to their fellow classmates through pictures and few words. I want to cater to all learning styles. I think a way to achieve this is to have stations throughout the rooms that are specific to each learning style. An example of this would be a kinesthetic station would included a table and few chairs with lots of hands on activities. A learner that is auditory would include headphones with parts of the lessons used with music or tapes that students can listen to again and again.
Another one of my beliefs that I want to incorporate into my classroom environment is diversity. I think a great way for students to truly learn about another culture is to see and experience it. Every month or couple of weeks I want to have a board or section of the room that will be decorated to match the culture we are visiting. I think that by having the culture so interactive students will be able to relate more and get excited to learn about it. Once again after the first month students can be in charge of the area. I hope to get the class involved in a "class trip" of sorts that will give students the power to chose the countries that we will visit throughout the year. Though this will definitely mean a lot more work for me I think it will make the activity more meaningful to the students.
I want my students to feel at home and I think a wonderful way to do this is to have a homey reading area. Not only will students feel comfortable but they will always be more excited to read, which is something I hope to instill in my students. I will make the reading area more personable by asking students their ideas to make the reading area comfortable. I also want to have book bins by theme not by reading level. I think students are smart enough to chose a book that they can understand and by sorting by theme students can explore topics that interest them not just what level they are in.
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