First Year Teacher Series- Setting Up Your Classroom

Today is our first First Year Teacher Series, a special post dedicated to highlighting a specific teacher tip strategy in more detail than I do during some of my regular posts. To kick off the FYT Series I would like to start with "Setting Up Your Classroom". How spacious, attractive, a modern classroom, portable, or even a pod that you will get the keys to is out of your hands, but what you do turn it into is in your control. While you are setting up and arranging things around you will need to think about the furniture and materials.



Furniture

With furniture, it is important to focus on classroom order and functionality. Many of these issues in the classroom start with furniture. Before setting up the furniture think about these questions. How many students will I have? Do I have enough desks or tables? What furniture arrangement will be successful from day 1? Let's look at two scenarios. 

A science teacher was placed in one of the smallest classrooms in the school. This size limits the teacher's options on how to design the space. The best option is to start off with desks in evenly straight rows. This allows movement between the desks and limits student interaction. Once routines, procedures, and structure are in place the teacher can move desks into tables for students to collaborate. 

An elementary teacher has a large classroom so the teacher can design his vision. He groups the desks into 5 for whole class learning. Then he has a classroom library in the back corner. The elementary teacher classroom is different from the science teacher's classroom because his classroom, student's needs, and comfort level are different.

When setting up the furniture make sure to monitor all students at all times no matter if you are not teaching. For example, if you have a file cabinet or a reading nook these are places where students can be hidden and take advantage of.


Materials

The last aspect of a classroom setup is the organization of materials. Make sure regularly used items are easily accessible while less frequented used materials are stored away when the time comes. What are things that students need on a regular basis? Pencils, Notebooks, Textbooks anything else? What are some things that students don't need as much? Scissors, glue sticks, Binders? Here are a few ideas if you still need help. 

A 3rd grade teacher made sure each student had a whiteboard and a clipboard in a seat pocket because those materials were going to be used regularly. Then the teacher placed the binders in the cubbies because they were going to be used rarely. The teacher also placed the notebooks into the cubbies because she has unsure if she would use them. 

A high school teacher knew students would have a notebook for the first day but he had extra in case. He also had a cup of pencils on his desks if they needed one but also had a sign-out sheet to make sure the pencils were returned. In a cabinet, he stacked textbooks by class and in order so he would hand them out. By planning ahead this minimizes the time worrying about other things than students and teaching. This also increases success when school starts.

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Effective Seating Arrangements

You get your new classroom key. You walk excitedly to your new room and unlock the door. Inside you see a stack of chairs and tables in the corner. So where to begin?

First things first.

 

You need to get your tables in an arrangement that will facilitate learning by allowing your students to see you and the board.

 

TEACHER DESK

 

The placement of your teacher's desk is important and is the first place to start. You need to be able to see the whole classroom and have access to storage.

 

Some things to consider are:

 

Line of sight. Are you going to have a good view of the room while sitting at the desk?

 

 

 

Are you going to teach from the desk? If you have a laptop that can only be plugged in at the desk, then you may have to use this your base but may want to invest in an iPad you can mirror your device to so you’re free to roam the room.

 

Where will you store your papers that need marking and teaching materials?

 

Once your teacher desk is set up you can then get a clear idea of how to set up the student’s desks.

 

STUDENT DESKS

Who do you want to be the focus of the class?

• Teacher-Centered Class: If your class is going to be a lecture- and presentation-centric, use a configuration where all students can see you and the lectern.
• Learner-Centered Class: With these classes, student discussion and group work are paramount. Find a seating arrangement that encourages students to interact with one another.
• Both: Many educators adhere to the belief that a balanced education has a healthy mixture of both teacher-centered presentations and student-based discussions and work. Look for seating layouts that are flexible and functional.

How do you want the class to interact?

• Minimal: Interaction flows from the teacher to the student. Student-to-student discussion is scarce. Testing and individual work also dominate the class.
• Small Groups: Students interact in pairs or small groups.
• Large Groups: Students engage in group discussions and lessons with the entire class.

 

Things to consider:

 

How do you prefer students to work?

 

- In groups.

- in pairs.

- independently

- combination of all three

 

Your decision making will depend on how well behaved your students are, which you won’t know until you get to know them. You may wish to start off in groups and then move to independent learning later. Don’t be afraid to mix it up each month but try not to change the arrangement too often as this can cause students stress.

 

Here are my favorite arrangements for the best teaching activities.

 

 

Clusters

Clustering the desks into small groups promotes student-to-student interaction. Students develop skills such as communication, problem solving, collaboration, and more in this arrangement. These clusters offer safe and comfortable environments for students to share ideas. Small groups with no more than 4 students. Remember the number of students is important because you may want to switch it up to do pair work. 

Good for: group works, team building, pair work within groups and behavior management and post scoring.

Bad for: chatting and some students may not see the board as easily as others. (Be strategic with who you place in each group and move those talkers around).This comfort, however, also lends itself to off-task behavior and a large increase in noise level and distractions. 

 

Rows

 

The rows configuration is the most common classroom arrangement. This type of setup complements class structures that revolve around teacher-based instruction and presentations. Old fashioned yes but sometimes necessary for a class with behavior problems. All students face the front and everybody can see the board.

Good for: Students are more focused on coursework and independent assignments. They are also less likely and/or able to cheat with this layout. Teachers - you can see everybody all the time and can nip those behavior problems in the bud right away. Also good for keeping those struggling students near the front so you can help them out easily. Pair work is easy in this set up if you keep the numbers in each row even.

Bad for: Though this seating arrangement can be used with any class size, large classes may often see uneven levels of interaction as students in the front row will participate more while those in the back may lose focus.

 

Stadium

A variation of the classic row configuration and runway, desks are grouped in clusters but all facing the same direction. Like runway, this layout is best suited, teacher-centric classes.

Conclusion

When your classroom setup is in harmony with your teaching style, your students, and the space and furniture you have to work with, the benefits can be endless. But, when it’s not, it can be detrimental.

Many factors contribute to determining the most effective classroom seating arrangement. With some of these factors changing daily (and sometimes even hourly), it’s important to have a configuration that can be flexible to accommodate classroom variety.

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WBT & Differentiated Instruction

Dr. Carol Tomlinson


First of all, I wanted to address the WBT website has so many amazing strategies and resources that I will be able to highlight different ones on the WBT Series for quite some time. Thank you to everyone that checked out the posts and, as always, I look forward to your opinions and stories on these strategies.

Today I'm going to talk about Differentiated Instruction by Carol Tomlinson, (view her website here). We talk about Differentiated Instruction in every single one of our education classes. If you are not familiar with this topic, it centers on the idea that every classroom is going to have students that represent a broad spectrum of learners and, as teachers, we must plan for these differences. We need to keep in mind that our students are going to be coming into our classrooms with different ability levels, different learning styles, different backgrounds, etc. and we need to tailor our classroom to best accommodate all of our students.

One teacher that I saw in their classroom who had three different types of assignments/tests/projects that he provided for his students. There was the "straight-ahead" option (the easiest level), the "uphill" option (intermediate level) and the "mountainous" option (the most challenging level). The names for the levels were chosen with consideration as they are all meant to imply a step-forward in the learning process. Through conferencing and open communication, the students knew exactly what level they should be working at and they would pick the appropriate assignment. Although each level was tailored to a different ability level, they all focused on the same curricular outcomes which still allowed for group discussion within the classroom. It worked wonderfully!

This got me thinking about if some of the WBT strategies could fit into a classroom that is practicing Differentiated Instruction. A textbook that I found "Success for all Learners: A Handbook on Differentiating Instruction", put out by Manitoba Education and Training, a handy chart is provided that overviews what "A Continuum Towards Differentiated Instruction" looks like. The following will summarize areas of the chart and include my opinions about how WBT strategies* may fit into this model.

Culture & Climate
Traditionally, "learning is associated with silence".
Through Differentiated Instruction, "learning is associated with on-task student activities".
- Well we all know that WBT is definitely anything but silent! In my classrooms
  I encourage participation in WBT strategies such as "Class-Yes" (see last
  Wednesday's post) which is far from silent but still an on-task student activity.
  I think that by encouraging student's to share their information and discuss
  topics together they will be more comfortable in your classroom which leads
  to the development of a positive learning environment.

Ways of Learning & Demonstrating Learning
Traditionally, "teachers present new information through lectures and reading".
Through Differentiated Instruction, "teachers use a variety of instructional modes including music, demonstrations and kinesthetic activities".
- The possibilities with this one are endless! As far as I am concerned, it is a given that
  I will have some sort of visual to go along with my lessons but after that, I believe that
  a teacher's only major restriction is their creativity level. What really stood out for me
  with this one was the demonstrations and kinesthetic activities. Many WBT strategies
  incorporate visuals referred to as "Power Pix" that a teacher uses kinesthetic
  gestures and demonstrations to explain so I think that this is a great match.

Instructional Methods
Traditionally, "students are passive".
Through Differentiated instruction, "students are active".
- I think WBT allows for students to be incredibly active! In "Teach-Ok" students are
  continually engaged and participating in the lesson. It also allows for them to develop
  an awareness of their meta-cognition process because by having to "teach" material
  to their neighbor, they develop an awareness of how much of the material they
  understand. Teachers can then use this awareness when holding teacher-student
  conferences to help understand the student's individual style of learning.

Assessment
Traditionally, "assessment happens at the end of a unit or course".
Through Differentiated Instruction, "assessment is ongoing".
- Yay for formative assessment! I think that this is something that teachers can do
   in many different ways. Remember, your only restriction is creativity. When using
   "Teach-Ok" teachers circulate around the room as their students work as teams
   to review material. This is a perfect opportunity to assess if your students have
   understood the lesson or not. As this assessment occurs, teachers can then plan
   accordingly to either spend more time on the topic or move onto something a
   bit more challenging.

Classroom Configuration
Traditionally, "desks are arranged in rows facing the teacher".
Through Differentiated Instruction, "desks or tables are rearranged as needed to facilitate working groups and student interaction".
- I am a HUGE fan of moving around desks and tables.
  WBT incorporates a lot of group work amongst students and encourages
  discussions with peers so I would move around the desks into partner groupings
  or larger groups (up to 4 or 5) depending on the activity.

Through this summary, I am comfortable saying that I will be able to use Differentiated Instruction in my classroom and still be able to incorporate elements of the WBT strategies. In my eyes, they almost seemed to naturally go together anyways!

* I tried to focus on the strategy of "Teach-Ok".
(1996). Success for all learners: A handbook on differentiating instruction (1.12). Manitoba: Manitoba Education & Training. 

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