Working Spaces

So while discussing different work spaces this week with our groups I got me thinking about how teachers set up their classrooms differently. As a science teacher I am somewhat confined to how the lab tables are arranged (its hard to change around work areas when there are gas lines) but I am often amazed at what other teachers do.

Example one. There is an old teacher (don't tell him I said old) who actually bought and brought in his own huge wooden table. He teaches using the Socriatic method and having them all sit at one table facilitates this. The English teacher down the hall uses this as well but instead of a fancy wooden table has just arranged the desks in a circle. Which do I find better? Well the large wooden table would always win. Its different for students. I think it helps to get them out of the normal school mind set and into a place where discussions and not preaching occur. Can the English teacher achieve this (can any teacher who won't be buying a 16 foot wooden table for their classroom)? I think so. But then it relies more on the teacher to bring the feel instead of the room naturally having it.

Example two. This links most back to this week's class discussion. I spent two semesters teaching an art class (stepped in for a teacher who left) and had the tables different for each semester. The first time I had them in a circle. The tables fit two kids each. that way I could walk around the front of what they were doing, I could set up a still life in the middle, and they could talk freely to each other. I liked the openness of this set up. It allowed conversation while working. Letting kids talk during class moves them beyond "work" and into a desire to make things mode. For the next semester I put them in rows like a 'normal' room. I made this change because of the students' behavior. The class was not happy to make anything unless they were making fun of the person across the room. To stop this I put them in rows so they concentrated more on their own work.

To me it is the difference between an open office and a cubicle. Depending on what type of work needs to be done and what type of workers you have in it.

I have also spent a lot of time substituting and am always interested to see how teachers set up their rooms. Clusters of desks or rows or circles. It seems that as students get older they get put more and more by themselves.

My preference? I like the 'old' teacher who, at the high school level, is bringing them back together.

-Carolyn