S17: Blog 8: Room Rearrangement!
This past week I spent a couple hours afterschool rearranging my classroom with the help of my PRT (partnership resource teacher aka supervisor) and my fellow resident, Sara. The room rearrangement was brought on by challenges I have been facing with my homeroom group of students. My CT and I have found it difficult recently to keep the students engaged while we are teaching, as well as keep them focused while they are working on their laptops during iReady time. After a discussion with my PRT about some of the students in the room, it was decided that I would try to move around the desks, to see if new space would help to take away at least some of the distractions.
The desks had been arranged in pretty much the same manner since the beginning of the year. The desks, some of which are whiteboard desk and can be written on, are trianglesque- they have three sides but have curved edges and thus are not triangles. We, over 90%, of the time, kept them placed in groups of 3, so that each group would hold about 6 or 7 students. We also had larger tables that were placed around the edges of the room, one I used as my desk and the others served as places where my CT or I could pull a small group. In my homeroom, they also were where we put students that needed to sit by themselves.
A key piece of information that my PRT and I discussed before rearranging the desks was that I have several students in my homeroom who have been retained, making them older and already in a middle school mentality. One aspect of their middle school mindset we discussed was how they didn’t really like to work, or were unable to handle working, in cooperative groups but preferred or needed to sit on their own.
This was only one piece of information that I had to consider when deciding how I wanted the desks to look. I knew I had students that needed to sit along. I also knew I had students who liked to and could handle sitting in small or larger groups. I had to think about what I knew about how my students get along. If students were antagonistic towards one another, I wouldn’t want them sitting together. Finally, I had to think about my students as mathematicians. It is preferred at my school that our students sit together based on their ability in the subject being taught in the room. This allows for students of similar ability and understanding to work together. It also allows for quicker assessment of student understanding. We can see that if our students who usually “get it” are struggling we need to re-teach to the whole group. If just are students who typically have a harder time are struggling, my CT or I can pull them into a small group.
All of these things I had to consider made my head spin! I decided I needed to be systematic and create a list of my students and from there, decide who would sit alone, in a small grouping, or in a larger grouping. From there, I could decide which students should sit next to and near each other.
First, I identified five students who needed to or had expressed a desire to sit by themselves. This allowed me to know that I needed 5 desks or tables that would be “islands.”
The next thing my PRT and I did was create a “snakelike” chain of 4 desks that would serve as a large group, where about 10 of my students could sit. This is where I chose to sit my higher ability level students, so they would be able to easily communicate and work together when they needed to. It was still a little tricky deciding exactly where I wanted each student to sit, because I was aware of some conflicts between a couple students, and I was aware about how much some of these students love to talk!
Then we spent time deciding how to create smaller groups for the rest of my students. We ended up creating some groups by placing 2 triangle desks together. For other small groups, we decided to use a couple of the larger tables. This left us with enough desks to allow students to sit by themselves and still gave us tables my CT and I could use when we needed to pull groups.
It took some time to move all of the tables. It took even more time to get the students situated in a way I hoped would work. We also had to move other things in the room, like my desk, the ERT books, and my CT’s supplies for a committee she’s in charge of, to create space for individual student desks. When we showed my CT what we had come up with, she seemed pleased and hopeful for what the next day would bring.
I wasn’t in my classroom during my homeroom’s block the next 2 days because of a school visit and class, but I heard good reports from my CT. She seemed especially pleased with how the students who sat by themselves were doing. I found the same thing to be true when I finally got to spend time with my students on Friday. The biggest difference I noticed was how much more focused they were during iReady time.
I know that rearranging the classroom is not a miracle fix for all of the challenges I face with my homeroom. However, it felt good to finally take action and do something to help. This was one small step in the right direction of making my classroom a place where my students can learn, my CT and I can teach, and we all want to be.
FEAPS: 2a: Organizes and manages the resources of time and space to support student learning
2d: Respects students’ differing needs and diversity
2k: Adapts the learning environment to accommodate the differing needs and diversity of students
5d: Collaborates with stakeholders to support student learning
6d: Maintains a positive and productive relationship with colleagues
Evidence:
Pictures of classroom before
Picture of classroom now
Before:
After:
