My Perfect Classroom

The way a classroom is set up is vital in whether or not students succeed. The layout of the room can either positively or negatively affect the learning outcomes of the students, so a great amount of thought should go into the design. Additionally, this room is like a second home for both the teacher and the students, and, after all, most young children believe that their teachers live at school! The environment should be warm and inviting; a place where children want to be for 7+ hours a day.

My perfect classroom would be rectangular in shape. Desks would be arranged in groups of four. That way, students would be able to easily converse with one another when given the opportunity, such as in writing workshop. Also, the six or so clusters of four desks would make it easy to create stations for centers. The students' desks would be arranged in a horseshoe shape. The teacher desk used for homogeneous group work and individual work with the teacher would be located at the open end of the horseshoe. (The open end of the horseshoe faces the back of the classroom.) This desk will be kidney-shaped, so the teacher can see the whole class while working with individuals or groups of students.

The whiteboard/smart board will be located at the closed end of the horseshoe. On one side of the whiteboard/smart board will be writing utensils such as pencils, pens, markers, etc. On the other side will be all sorts of paper, scissors, wet glue, glue sticks, etc. I chose to put these next to the whiteboard/smart board because they are things necessary for writing and drawing, and the main purpose of the whiteboard/smart board is for writing and drawing. Also on either side of the whiteboard/smart board will be the word wall. Half of the letters would be on the left side, and half on the right. The location of this next to the whiteboard is crucial; all students would be able to see it if they needed help with a word while reading or writing.

Behind the desk that the teacher uses for homogenous groups and individual work, I would place a giant rug that would be used for morning meeting, whole class reading, etc. The teacher would sit in the chair that she normally sits in for homogeneous group work and individual work, except she would be facing away from the table now. There would be an easel next to her, where the morning message would be written. The morning message will contain mistakes based on what the students are currently learning. On one side of the rug will be the library. Books will be arranged by numbers, with the easiest books being a 1 and the hardest a 20. Every two weeks, students will be assigned numbers ranging from 1 to 20, which will determine what books they are allowed to read for partner reading, independent reading, etc. The children's cubbies will be located on the other side of the rug. These will be numbered from 1 to however many kids are in the class. The children will be required to memorize their numbers. In these cubbies, students will store their backpacks, lunchboxes, and textbooks/reading books.

Next to the cubbies in the back left corner of the classroom will be where the teacher's desk will be located. A stapler, hole punch, and tissues could all be found here. Adjacent to the teacher's desk will be four computers. Every once in a while, students should use the computers for centers and other activities, such as learning how to type and compose their papers. Lastly, student's work would be displayed all around the room and outside the room for everyone to see and admire.

While this set up may not be the perfect classroom for every teacher, I think that it would be the perfect classroom for me. I tried to make sure that things that related to each other were located near the same area to make it easy for students to remember where things are. With this design, I would feel confident that my students could achieve success and have fun while doing so.

Here is the design that I just explained in picture format: