Working the Crowd and Room Arrangement
"Either you work the crowd, or the crowd works you." This is repeated over and over by Jones. He leads into the video with a section on proximity and working the crowd. He compared classrooms to a stoplight. Red is the fews feet around you, where the least amount of issues are bound to creep up, yellow is a few feet beyond that, where the middle ground is and students may be off task, and the green is the section where off task behavior will start. He stressed the importance of working the room. He said it is important to be able to go through all three colors within steps.
He drew a diagram on the board of a typical classroom set up found in most any classroom in the United States. He stressed that this layout is most convenient to only one person, the school janitors. He said it is easy to clean, but creates problems for the classroom teachers. He suggested that there is not one set layout for classrooms, because of room size, furniture makeup, and etc. He said the most important thing in room arrangement is to create great flow with minimal "cost" to the teacher. He stresses that teachers need to be able to exert the minimal amount of effort to reach all students. The cost refers to the amount of energy exerted by the teacher.
He suggests a compacted room design that creates horizontal aisles instead of horizontal ones. According to Jones, "The purpose of room arrangement is to facilitate mobility and proximity." He says it is important to have interior loops in your classroom furniture arrangement to allow the easiest access to all students. He also said to not have small narrow walkways, but instead wide boulevards.
I rearrange my room quite a bit, but I don't know if I have ever ...
... middle of paper ...
... work. Before we begin to help, take two deep breathes and formulate a constructive helpful response. An important part of helping a student is leaving before they finish the prompt. He says that staying while students finish the assignment signals to the student that you don't think they can do the assignment.
Praise. Prompt. Leave. Praise then for what they did correctly, prompt them onto the next step and then leave them to finish the assignment.
I have a bad habit of wanting to answer for students, if they don't know an answer. I need to do more praise, prompt and leave. Seniors need to be able to work independently and know what the next steps are. I hope that my students don't find me critical, but I will definately be aware of my responses to students during feedback times.
From this video I plan to use the strategies of room arrangement and feedback.
I must prepare the students for the next grade they are entering, so I must lay the ground work. Each year, a teacher builds off of what the students learned the year before. If I do not teach the students what they need to be taught, I am not only hurting the students, but I am also making the next teacher’s job much more difficult. They will have to go back and reteach information the students should already know. This becomes very difficult as they do not have a good gage of what they students remember from previous years and what all they need to start fresh with. This is why I must be a team player and help the next teacher. I must do everything I can to have my students ready for the next grade and make sure they are learning everything I am teaching throughout the
It is about management, motivation, and instruction. Teachers need to know how to design their classroom so that the children are going to get the most efficient learning environment for them. For example, students who are visual learners or have attention problems, should sit near the front. Teachers must be experts in motivation. Students will be open to learning and want to learn if they are excited, happy, feel safe, and have confidence. Teachers must be instructional experts. Not all children learn the same way, teachers need to have the skill to give the same instruction in different ways so that all students
As the time approached, my attitude toward student-teaching was one of confidence and in some ways overconfidence. I believed that I was equipped with all of the tools necessary to be a superior teacher. Little did I know what truly goes on behind the scenes of a teacher. Between grading papers, attending meetings, and preparing lessons, I would often feel overwhelmed. Still, student teaching would prove to be much more valuable than I anticipated. It would teach me to appreciate the wisdom of mentors and experienced teachers, value or being organized and prepared, and lastly the resilience of students.
I feel that in order for students to prosper they must be comfortable with their learning environment. I plan to have an well-organized classroom with various bulletin boards highlighting current chapters of study, as well as announcements and assignments. I also believe that you must keep students both interested and involved to achieve successful learning. Desks in my classroom will be organized in one large “U” formation facing my desk in the front to create a feeling of unity and coherence. To further promote this goal I will assign a seating chart (possibly alphabetically) to aid in the diffusion of cliques and to avoid exclusion of these who may have the tendency to be isolated. Individual and group projects will be incorporated into my curriculum to provide students the opportunity to work both independently, as well as a team member.
The physical layout in this classroom consists of the students’ desks in small groups around the classroom and three small group tables at the front of the room, side of the room, and back of the room. There are also cabinets up againt the walls and drawers in the counter in the back of the room. They have the alphabet twice on the wall and numbers one through twenty on the wall, along with pictures that show each number. The room is not very colorful because it is a bluish white color, but the things on the wall make it more comfortable. There is a master schedule on the wall as well. There are labels around the entire room like wall, chair, desk, window, door, etc. There is a Smartboard in the front of the room behind one of the group tables, and two computers beside it. There is also a board behind the Smartboard. To the right of the Smartboard in the c...
When the students are participating, I will give them verbal confirmation. If their answer is not correct, I will say “not quite” and then I will pick another students to share. For direct observations, I will also give the students verbal feedback. If I see students doing something really well, I will verbally let them know. If a student is not quite grasping the task, I will help him or her accordingly. I will sit down with them and I will explain that I can see they are having a difficult time with the task, and then I will allow the student to explain their troubles. I will give them verbal confirmation that they have a better understanding of the task, after we have worked together. While I am looking at the students’ work, I will also allow them to evaluate their work and provide their own feedback. This will allow them to reflect and monitor their own learning. If I agree with what they said, I will explain that I agree with their feedback. If do not agree, I will explain what I am seeing and then I will help the student accordingly. For the collections of their materials, I will write the feedback on their work. If they did really well, I will let them know. If there is something they need to work on, I will state that on their
The space and area in which a child is learning must be accommodating to all of their needs. A responsive environment is a space of any size that is set up and presented in a manner that promotes social-emotional development, physical development, spiritual development, intellectual/cognitive and language/literacy skills. It is important that the class or room promotes a healthy learning environment which allows the children to be independent while still pushing their skills and abilities. Environments are able to shape and direct a child’s learning experience, “We now know that the environment is a valuable teacher if it is amiable, comfortable, pleasing, organized, clean, inviting and engaging…This is true of floor space, ceiling, and wall space” (Krentz, Emerita, & University of Regina, 2013, p.44).
What I learned during the observation is that have a good layout and a good environment setting children are more willing learn and play with the children around them. They need to feel that they are apart of the classroom. That is part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need. You environment the classroom need to make children feel safe because if they don’t feel safe they are always going to be on high alert and not pay attached to what going on they are also not going to play or do anything in the classroom. Having the right environment makes it easy for children to explore and learn everything they need have those center or station is not just their for children to have fun and play that because while they are playing and have fun they are learning.
You kept students engaged through question probes and didn’t let them off the hook when they said “I didn’t answer that question” or “I don’t know”. You also encourage students to respond by stating you know they can do it and celebrated their success when they did.
I believe it is equally important to have a classroom that is student-centered. I do not imagine my classroom arranged with rows of seated desks all facing the front of the classroom. Instead, I think that students should have the opportunity to work amongst their peers in small groups, studying a wide array of topics. Students will not be required to focus their attention on on...
When building a classroom, the indoor learning environment will be influenced by the building and play area that surrounds the building. A classroom needs to have adequate space for children to play, explore and learn. Children need to have continuous access to water, bathrooms and a sink for handwashing. Although each room or center will be different they need to maintain areas that are easily and safely supervised from all areas of the classroom. The space needs to be organized into learning centers with well-defined areas. Areas such as science, art, sensory, bathrooms and eating areas need to be near a water source. Other areas such as block areas, library and housekeeping should be kept in areas with large area rugs or carpet.
Many teachers believe classrooms are too small. Many teachers and students believe classrooms are not big enough. If students are working on a group activity that takes up a lot of space will have to do activity in the hallway. If students are watching a film for class will have to move or adjust because most likely students in the back of the classroom cannot see. Teachers may not have enough desks some students may end up sitting in a part of the room where it could be the size of a coat closet.
For teachers to be effective their classrooms should be open, encouraging and safe environments, where a strong student-teacher relationship can be achieved (Marsh, 2008). Students should be treated with respect in order to meet their need for belonging (Eggen&Kauchak, 2010). The layout of the room and resources need to be well considered allowing different areas for different activities (Bennett &Smilanich, P. 1994) keeping in mind space for easy movement and creative work. Seating arrangements, noise level and room temperature all need to be taken into account when planning the classroom to maximise productive lea...
The classroom embodied the stereotypical music classroom with its various instruments scattered around the room. Every inch of the wall and door was covered with music notes while chairs encircled the room. Besides the teacher’s desk, there were no other desks in sight. The students had to sit on the ground in the center of the room away from the instruments. Even when playing instruments, the students sat on the ground. Although the setup was very different from a general classroom, it was appropriate for the kinds of lessons that the teacher taught the students. The teacher did not hand out any worksheets or assigned homework so the students did not need any desks for writing. Since the classroom was already small and cramped, having desks in the class would have impeded on the activities that the students performed.
During the first day of school, a variety of different students enter the classroom. These students are excited and nervous, they have their parents by their sides who are observing the classroom walls and arrangement. From the minute the students enter the classroom, students are observing the classroom environment and notice the everything. Everything in the classroom needs to have a purpose, but provide a pleasant environment. When preparing and organizing the classrooms, teachers need to consider the different variables that impact the classroom. Classrooms can be disorganized if the walls are cluttered and have no meaning The organizations of the desks, the wall decorations, and the seating arrangements significantly impact the physical environments. Students are like sponges, they soak up everything that surrounds them. In the article A comparison of actual and preferred classroom environments as perceived by middle school students in the Journal of School Health stated “studies have shown that classroom environments are closely related to a number of aspects of student