When you think of a classroom what exactly comes to mind? First off let me narrow it down for you, I teach history, in middle school, so when you think of a middle school history classroom what comes to mind. I bet I can guess, perfect rows of desks facing a chalk or dry erase board. The teacher in the front giving a lecture, then telling students to read a chapter, then handing out a worksheet that covers the information of the day. There would probably be a quiz about the worksheet the next day and the whole things begins again. As Elton John put it, its the circle of life, same thing everyday helping students learn to regurgitate history facts. This is correct and true for a lot of history classes. But this is also far from learning and at the same time far from what many history teachers do, myself included. First off let me tell you that by putting desks in rows it puts the focus on the teacher, which in a lecture based class is exactly what you want. But this doesn’t work very well for collaboration and learning.
I will admit, when I began teaching I had rows. Why you ask? Because it helped me take my time away from thinking about classroom set up and let me focus on the content I needed to teach. There is a lot of information you have to get out as a teacher in your first year or two and setting up a classroom was not something I had time to manage. I am not the only one to have this issue either to read more about the evolution of classroom set up please read this article by Colleen Lee, Published by Edumonic. Going through my college of education I always knew I wanted to set up my classroom in a variety of ways. I still believe that desk arrangement can be just as important as a book when it comes to learning the content. But my hire date for my first year was 2 days before school started. So I had a lot of planning to do and desks were not on my list. There was so much to learn that year (I didn’t even know the discipline policy until about half way through the year) that I never got to rearrange my desks how I wanted to for the content. Now that I’ve been teaching for 5 years I have had a lot of fun with classroom arrangement. It’s almost every 2-3 weeks I rearrange the desks based on what we will be doing in the classroom. If the assignment calls for a debate the desks go facing each other in two sides. If it calls for collaboration and group thinking they go into bunches. If it calls for discussion on the constitution or congress we set the desks up in a half circle around to room like they sit in congress. I have a lot of fun with the desk alignment and the look of the room.
When reading this you might think about my desire to rearrange the classroom. All of the things I talked about, debate, group work, discussions on the constitution, that can all be done in rows. I like to think of this as something I can chalk up to my passion quotient and creative quotient. Passion quotient (PA) is similar to Intelligence quotient (IQ). The passion someone exhibits in their work. This is also linked with a creativity quotient (CQ). A person ability to be creative (Freidman, 2013). Between the three quotients I would say that my IQ is the lowest, PQ is second and CQ is my best quality. I cannot stop thinking about new ways to make things more interesting. I usually get reprimanded by my peers for changing a game in the middle because it would add a new dimension to it. I feel though that PQ and CQ are very closely related. If you care enough about something and you have a great passion for it you want to make it the best you can. For me especially my PQ and CQ are directly linked. When we discuss the causes of the American Revolution in my class I get so excited about the content that could potentially be learned that I have yet to do the exact same thing in my class for the last 5 years. It continues to evolve. But I feel this is an important trait to have. Not only as a professional, but also as a teacher and as a mentor/role model. When students see things changing and adapting on the spot to help them learn more, they realize how important it is to be able to adapt and change. In Thomas Freidman’s article about the future workforce he creates the ideas of PQ and CQ along with IQ (Freindman, 2013). I feel that the best way to see these work is by example. When students see the change and then have to make the change with you, they start to realize that they can accomplish tasks in many other ways than one. When students start to look at things in different ways they begin to realize that problems are not that hard to solve when you have multiple routes to get there. They then realize that it’s even easier when you are creating the route that fits best for you.
All of this bring me to my topic at hand. My ideal redesign for my classroom. I was asked to create my ideal classroom and set it up to help integrate technology, my passion, my creativity, and my teaching all into one setting. I thought long and hard about what I’d like to do. I had to pose the question: Is this my ideal room with no restrictions or is this my current room reformatted? I was told that it could be whatever I wanted it to be. The more I thought about it the more I felt that I should try to redesign my own classroom to fit my best needs. I know very well that money is a major constraint to why I don’t, and won’t, have what I’d like to see in my classroom. But at the same time i wanted to make changes that weren’t so off the wall that I may be able to implement them in the coming years. I have two pictures for you below which shows you my classroom that I wish I could have.
There are only a few changes for this room that I don’t have in my current room. Before I get to that though let me tell you about the room you see. First things first, I would LOVE to have a 1-1 Ipad classroom. If you notice though I do not have a section for the Ipads in the room. If I had my ideal situation the students would have their Ipads with them 24 hours a day. That way they are constantly connected with not only the social networks and internet they want but also a part of my classroom. If they students are anything like me there are moments of boredom with the technology and they start to look at the apps that are available. I feel it would be nothing but beneficial to have the apps I have preloaded for them and the classroom content be a part of that boredom relief. Plus it allows them to stay connected all day long with the class. I would like to use blogs and social media to turn in assignments and discuss content outside of the class. If they have their Ipads on them there is no reason to not participate, unless they just don’t want to participate (which makes my job easier because now I know who to talk to privately).
I would have three different white board with projectors and apple TV connected. I would prefer 3 different apple TV’s as well. Giving my students access to the apple TV board so during a discussion or debate they can pull up their information on the board for all to see.
I would like to add a computer station for the students as well. Not everyone enjoys typing on an Ipad and this would give them an opportunity to use laptops to complete assignments over just Ipads. I did choose the shape though to continue with collaboration and discussion while working at the computers. I thought about just having a classroom set of laptops for the students to use but I liked the separation of the laptops to give those who are working on similar assignments their own space to work that feels separate. If they just grabbed a laptop and sat at their desks they may not be near anyone working on a similar assignment, which would prevent them from properly collaborating.
The desks are currently arranged in a way that I feel would be a main stay or the default set up. I would still plan on moving desks around at my own pleasure but I don’t want to students to be able to move where ever they choose. I do this because many times the set up is part of the lesson. The way they sit might have significance or importance to the lesson and I like to have the students figure that out on their own. If they are free to roam in their desks then I don’t think it has the same impact. The way the desks are arranged in the default setting though allows for not only collaboration but also for debate and discussion. They are facing each other but also in groups. It give space for someone to be the forefront (if they have a point that needs attention drawn to) but also gives them their privacy and intimacy to discuss amongst themselves.
Overall this allows me to have whatever type of lesson I would like to do. Even though I don’t think lecture is the best way to learn sometimes telling a story can be beneficial to students trying to learn (Gee, 2013), I still have the opportunity to do that if necessary but the focus isn’t on me, it’s on them. That is the important part of teaching. Is allowing students to realize that the focus and importance of learning isn’t coming from the district, the school, their parents, their teachers, or anything else they think it comes from. The focus of learning has to come from them. Personal ability to adapt comes from their passion in a subject, their creativity in a subject, and their intelligence in that subject. I feel my classroom allows them to find these three things in their lives to become what they want to or need to become. Technology alone is not the final answer. This has to come from within. Technology can bring it out, content can bring this out, good teaching can bring this out, but the thing that will do it best is the combination of all three. (Mishra and Koehler, 2013)
References:
-Lee, C. (2014) What Your Classroom Setup May Be Saying to Students. Edudemic. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/classroom-setup/?fb_action_ids=694559880791&fb_action_types=og.likes
-Friedman, T. L. (2013). It’s P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/opinion/friedman-its-pq-and-cq-as-much-as-iq.html?_r=0
-Gee, J.P. (2013) The Anti-Education era: creating smart students through digital learning. New York, NY: PalegraveMacMillan Press.
-Mishra, P. & Koehler. M. J. (2009). Too cool for school? No way! Using the TPACK framework: You can have your hot tools and teach with them, too. Learning & Leading with Technology, 36(7), 14-18
