This past week in EDU 270, my class was assigned to write a paper on what we would want our future learning environment to look like. I have been thinking about what I would want my classroom to physically look like ever since I was in elementary school myself. I am a perfectionist, I like everything perfectly organized and aesthetically pleasing at all times. Above everything else, I envision my classroom to be warm and welcoming for my students. I want my classroom to have tons of bright colors, but not distracting enough that my kindergardeners can't focus properly.
I get all my ideas for my classroom layout, bulletin boards, and other things in the classroom from Pinterest, which I'm sure all of my peers use too to get their ideas. Scrolling though Pinterest, I always see various bulletin board set ups involving students pictures and names. For example, this birthday calendar. I think birthday calendars make students feel like a valued part of the learning community which is really important. Also, this picture outside the door listing all students names I think is a great idea because once again, it makes the students feel apart of the classroom. Also, it creates an opportunity for arts & crafts which all kindergardeners love!
I plan to have my classroom extremely structured and organized. I'm going to have everything color coordinated and labeled properly so that my students will know that there is a place for everything and everything has a place. I have seen a lot of elementary school classrooms where teachers just have too much going on in the room. I think there is a fine line between fun and colorful, and messy and unorganized. I think one of the most important aspects of the classroom that needs a lot of focus on organization and formation are the tables and chairs. I know from working in a preschool that five year olds have an incredibly hard time trying to stay still and focus on one thing at a time. Because of this, table and chair arrangements in the classroom are really important to me. A lot of people don't believe in having assigned seats, but I will have assigned seats in my class that change every month or so. I want to have round tables in my class to promote collaboration between my students, and learning from one and other. Instead of having regular plastic and metal classroom chairs, I plan to have yoga balls or some other form of seating so children can move around while they work. I understand that kindergardeners are very physical and need constant movement, so having yoga balls to sit on will keep them moving around but also focused on their work.
Pinterest is definitely a good resource for teachers to use because they have such creative ideas that most children can do. Pinterest even if not looking for teaching ideas it can always be a useful tool for everything and everyone I think. It’s a chance to get your ideas out to people and get ideas from someone else. I like the idea that you are going to make your classroom colorful and not just all one color. I’ve seen many birthday bulletin boards in classrooms and I think that one has to be the best one I have seen. Its creative and not only does it include all of the student birthdays it does not mainly just focus one student. It can also cause problems in the classroom if its just one students birthday and they are on the bulletin board for the day. Therefore, I think that is a great way to have the birthdays written out and you could help with the students remembering when their birthday is. One problem that you could run into with being color organized is that if you have a student who is blind or color blind.
ReplyDeleteI loved doing this exercise in EDU 270! It really got us thinking about our future classroom and how we want to be organized. Pinterest is great for classroom ideas and I use it as well for projects like this. It is a good tool for creative ideas you will use in the future and allows teachers to share ideas with each other. I love that you said how your future classroom will be organized, which will be great for your future students. They need organization, even though they may not know it yet. Having different seating arrangements each month in your class will be extremely helpful to the young kids. They need change in little things like that, so they don't become bored, or too talkative with other students at their table. Having the birthday pictures is so adorable and the students will definitely like that idea because having that up in a classroom would be exciting for the kids to see. Lastly, using different colors throughout your classroom will keep the students awake and excited to learn!
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