It was interesting to walk around
the school that I had walked through for the past six years and realize that
I’ve never thought much about how the teachers arranged their classrooms. My school is under reconstruction, so
we have grades 3-5 in portables, and grades K-2 are inside, the majority of
those inside are preparing to move in December. With that in mind, rooms may be set up for temporary
purposes or to best use the space available.
There
are two arrangements that I observed in the classrooms. Students were either in groups or
rows. The rows consisted of two to
four desks touching each other with a space between the next group of
desks. The classrooms that were grouped
were generally desks facing each other in groups of four or five.
I
noticed that the teachers who had their classes arranged in groups had a very
different teaching style then those who had their desks in a row. The teachers who had groups walked
around the room as they taught.
They were also more likely to walk over to students, as they needed
help. The students were encouraged
to discuss things with their group and share ideas with each other. Those who had their students in rows were
more likely to stand in the front of the room with little movement throughout
the classroom. The students were
usually expected to be quiet and dialog with other classmates and idea sharing
was not encouraged. I also found
it interesting that when a student needed help in a classroom with rows, he/she
was asked to come over to the teacher.
I don’t think theirs anything wrong with having a student come over to
receive help; I’ve done the same myself.
But, I did notice that when the teacher went to the student, they
usually not only helped that child, but the others at the table. When the teacher went to the student,
they checked on the progress of others at that group and throughout the
room. This practice was helpful in
clarifying problems that the teacher noticed multiple students shared. Teachers who stayed in their seats were
less likely to notice and address issues that shared throughout the classroom.
We
currently don’t have any students with special needs that would require a
special desk arrangement. In the
past we have had students in wheel chairs. I remember the teacher being sure that the rows were wide
enough for the chair to move to the front of the room. It would have been easier to just have
that student sit in the back of the room, which was close to the door, but she
felt that it excluded the student from participating in the same way as other
students. I was impressed that the
teacher thought carefully about the student’s seat, it allowed him to go to the
board and made him feel like every other student.
Very
few classes in our school have computers.
Those that do have them are careful to place them in an area where the
teacher can view the screen. This
ensures that the teacher is able to monitor the student at all times as they
use the computer.
Room
arrangement is something that I have not heard discussed since I was in college
in 1998. It seems that one day of
class is dedicated to how to set up your room and it’s not discussed
again. I think it’s important to
provide teachers with professional development in the beginning of the year
that shares different classroom setups and how different arrangements affect
your teaching and vice versa. As
an administrator, if you value collaboration among students as a teaching style
and expect to see your staff utilize collaborative groups, it would be good to
share this in the beginning of the year.
Sharing the best seating arrangements for collaborative groups would
help the staff make collaboration a more natural process in their
classroom.
