Last year I threw myself into technology and as a result I went on many Professional Development (PD) courses. Some of these PD courses happened to be at schools where technology played a major part in the curriculum. Looking around the schools I gained an insight into how they set up, run and manage a classroom. What I took out of this was the way the classroom was set up and the colours used. This is where the inspiration hit me to try and change the look and feel of my classroom.
My classroom was what I would
call very bland. The walls were half yellow and half pale yellow. The desks,
while useful as they had storage compartment in them for the student’s books,
were over 15 years old and showing their age. The classroom had very little storage
in it. There were shelves to store items, thought they were very narrow and
half of them had a computer desk over them making them very hard to access easily.
I got talking to my grade partner,
Liz, about what I had seen at other schools and she had the same opinion as me,
the primary classrooms were in a bad need of a make over. So we took it upon
ourselves to see what was out there and where schools got the furniture from.
We went to the stock standard school furniture companies that have bland desks
and chairs which don’t make anyone want to feel proud of them. We then scoured the
internet and came across and few sites with different furniture. The one that
caught our eye was Biz Furniture (www.bizfurn.com,
yes I know it’s a shameless plug). One look at what they had and we were sold.
The desks they had were not standard or bland. They had a curve to them and
could be coloured. In fact most of the furniture you can get from them can be
coloured to your liking, teacher desks, cupboards, tubs and ottomans. Looking at the furniture I thought this would
make a classroom more personable and a place where a student would want to
spend their time and feel comfortable.
One of the major features of the
furniture we were looking for was that it had to be easy to move and
adjustable. The reason why the furniture needs to be easy to move is that Liz
and I were looking at having an open classroom for lessons. We had found out
over time that we were covering the same lessons and the same topic at pretty
much the same time. Often we walk into each other classrooms and were able to
help the students without having to ask what it is that they are doing. So
throughout last year we would swap classes or pop into each others class (when
we didn’t have our own class) and help out. Having an open classroom just made
sense.
We put our idea to the Executive
Committee of the school before we jumped into the whole process. Their response
was to get 3 quotes and they’ll go from there. It wasn’t hard getting the 3
quotes and it turned out the Biz Furniture was the cheapest. We got a partial
approval and had to get a final costing on everything we wanted to do.
We had many meetings between some
of the Executive Teachers and our fellow grade partners to plan out what we
wanted and the best way to achieve it. Liz and I took full control of
everything and sourced the furniture we wanted, colour of the classrooms, all
the while trying to keep it all under a reasonable budget that would be
accepted by the Executive Committee and the school’s Principal. After much
negotiating with the Executive and Biz Furniture we got the furniture we wanted
and at a price that was acceptable to the Principal.
The order was placed before
school broke up for the Christmas Holidays and the furniture was delivered and
classroom painted before the students came back at the beginning of this year.
It was amazing to see the difference new furniture and a lick of paint can make
to a classroom. The classroom now feels like a place where I’m enthused to
teach and a space that students would be comfortable in. The best response I
got about the new classroom was from the parents whose son started at the
school this year. The parents were in awe of the classroom and I even heard one
say that ‘the teacher’s desk seems less threatening, and is a place where
students would want to come a work’. Another great reaction was from two former
students, now in Grade 10. When they entered the class their jaws just about
dropped to the floor. They couldn’t believe the classroom, and were quite upset
that they don’t have something as calming, inspiring and comfortable as what we
now have.
During the first term of this
year we didn’t open the classrooms that much as we had to get use to a group of
new students that came from about 11 different schools. When we did open the
classrooms the boys got a little bit silly. Though looking back it was nothing
bad as they too were getting use to this new concept. One of the advantages of
having only a few openings is that we got to see how the boys would react and
what we had to do to make opening the classrooms effective and worthwhile.
During Term 2 of the year, and
after a lot of planning, Liz and I opened up the classrooms a lot more. The
boys got the advantage of having 2 teachers at the disposal. It didn’t bother
them in the slightest that there is now 2 different teaching techniques and they
are working with a larger cohort of students. They in fact quite like this are
only have positive feedback on what we have done so far.
We have so far opened our
classrooms up for Literacy, where we break the boys up into 4 ability groups
with each doing a task. 2 groups are always working with a teacher. We also
opened up for Science and HSIE. In Science we got the boys to do experiments
together working with a boy from the other class. In HSIE, one teacher would
present to the boys, much like a lecturer, then the boys would go off and
complete tasks using a combination of De Bono and Gardner’s 6 Hats strategies.
The boys are loving the open
classrooms as they like the expertise of 2 teachers and working with students
from other classrooms. It’s got to the point that when teaching other subjects
the boys are asking if the classrooms were going to open.
It’s been a great experience of
designing a new classroom that the students enjoy and are eager to
learn/participate in activities to the best of their abilities. What’s even
more pleasing is that the parents are on board and happy with their decision to
send their sons my school. So far I have only received positive feedback from
the parents about what is going on in the class.
This is just the beginning of me
getting my hands dirty, challenging my students and making the way I teach more
effective and enjoyable for the students.
The Old
The Old
The New
