KP's Teacher Tales #23: My Ideal Classroom

in steemiteducation •  6 years ago 

I love the SteemitEducation homework for the week! What would your ideal classroom look like?

When I first started teaching I really dropped the ball on decorating and maintaining my classroom as a learning space. I put up random posters, I didn’t really think about the best desk arrangements, and I was pretty messy as a rule.

Now, I’m still pretty messy, but I make a concerted effort to put up my students work, clean on a fairly regular basis and seat my students in a way that is conducive to collaborative learning.

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This is absolutely not to scale and apparently I only teach like... 15 students.

As a Model UN and history teacher, my ideal space would be a large and flexible room. I would want those desks that can be easily moved by students into different group configurations. I think for many of my classes I would like to seat students in a Security Council-esque semi-circle, but I would like to have the ability to change it easily at any time.

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Security Council Inspo! Image source.

I would also like to have mini spaces for students, like a reading nook with a cute little carpet and a large table for group work. If I could do anything in the universe I would have one large wall be cork board material so that I could easily put up student work without it falling off the walls. I would maybe have a small chalkboard space so students could draw pretty things as well!

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These are cool! Image Source 1.Image source 2.

Lots of shelves. All the shelves. Wouldn’t it be cool if they could be moveable so I could display big student projects on them?

I really want to hang framed pictures behind my desk. I have a lot of cute little pieces of artwork that I would love to display. I think I’m going to try to do this at the beginning of next year.

I already have a small student supply station but since I’m rich now I’d like to have a HUGE one with all the best things.
Like—never ending pencils and glue and coloured paper and paint brushes.

I want my space to be colourful so I would love to have one accent wall in a calming colour like blue or green.

So that’s it! I think the more things that would help me stay organized, the better. I’d like to display more art (student and otherwise) and really have different areas in the room for kids to break into while doing group work. Basically I want my room to be beautiful and functional! Here is hoping I get assigned a nice big space next year!

If you would like to read my last Teacher Tales post, check it out here!


KP’s Teacher Tales #22: I’m Still Hip

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I agree so much with your desk arrangement. I have often struggled with having too little space to have a circle in my room. I want students to be able to see each other because class discussion plays such an important role in what I do with my students. I want them to be able to engage with each other. There are so many other things that I would want. I might have to do a little steemiteducation homework myself.

Dreaming about the perfect classroom is so fun! But... actually getting it is a different story :)