In the
classroom I’m in for my practicum, the students work at desks in which are
arranged into groups of four. Each group has two desks side-by-side facing
another two desks side-by-side. The practicum I’m in has a unique situation in
which they do not have a classroom, rather teaches two classes during the day
in different classrooms. Their office and desk is in a separate location and
for class they have a cart which has all the materials they may need for their
students or to help class run. The walls in the classroom we are in are not by
the coordinating teacher’s decision, but include a number line, math vocabulary,
posters in which the school requires in the classroom, and things about the
teacher whose classroom we are in. Finally the technology in the classroom is
there is an Apple Smart TV, and the teacher brings to class an iPad and a Mac
computer to use with the Apple TV.
When
talking to my cooperating teacher about their classroom, we had to keep in mind
their unique situation and how they’ve adapted to this classroom environment. In
thinking about the organization of the classroom, the teacher had to work with what
they were given; which is teams of 4 at desks. How the teacher had organized
their classroom in the past was similar, but instead organized the students
into rows with partners, but would have students form groups of four when
needed. Having this different set up this year has made the teacher think more
about management with their classroom and putting more thought into how the
classroom would run. The teacher explained to me that the public schools
require certain posters on the wall such as positive behavior posters and rights
& responsibilities of students. With deciding the rest of the posters and
things they put on the wall usually, the cooperating teacher likes putting positive
posters and more specifically positive math posters. Some examples of these
ideas could be a bulletin board to display points for students or employee of
the month or birthday calendar. Another important thing they include in the
classroom is a schedule board for the week which includes objectives, homework,
and the agenda. Technology in the classroom, such as smart board and chrome books
are utilized to be engaging with students. The teacher did mention the preference
to mix up the use of technology and interaction without technology being both
important. One thing the teacher has
missed in their classroom this year is the smart board and really misses the
ability to annotate easily and have students write up their work easier.
Based
on my observation and conversation with my cooperating teacher, I started to
gain some understanding on what I would want the layout of my classroom to look
like. As my cooperating teacher explained in his classroom set up in the past,
I would choose to have rows of students paired up with the ability for students
to turn their desks to form groups of four for group work/projects. This will
help me achieve my goal of having a lot of group and partner work to learn and
master math topics. Another aspect of the classroom I would want to incorporate
is a smart board projector onto the white board. This allows for interactive
learning and is easy to demonstrate procedures to mathematical topics.
