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.
2 comments:
Your pictures beautifully show your CT's classroom set up. I love the idea of classrooms setups that allow for group and partner work; I think mastery and exploratory learning are very important. My CT also talked about how she misses her Smart Board, I'm curious as to why the district chose to do away with them and switch to the Apple TV's instead. From your interview with your CT, they seemed very intentional about the placement of desks, posters, technology, etc. All in all, this classroom seems very efficient and I'm excited to see what your future classroom will look like, Erika!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Erika! It seems helpful to have a perspective of a teacher that moves around to different classrooms as that is pretty common in this district. I appreciate that you are thinking about how the seating arrangement of students can impact learning.
Post a Comment