Students & Learning Environment: Focus on places, spaces, and boundaries
Core Questions: What do you see in the spaces and places in the school? Describe what the classroom(s) look like (include a sketch if you choose). In what ways do these classroom space(s) indicatepower relationships? Does the space provide opportunities for all students to engage in learning? How did this space make you feel? How do teachers make classroom spaces more relational?
This was my second week at Marion McVeety School and again another great experience. I got to experience a grade 1/2 and 7/8 classroom. This school for spaces and places is typical in most classrooms. However, I did hear about a teacher in the school who has every desk turned different directions facing the walls with little white boards in front of each desk to get rid of the power dynamic. Next week I want to try go to this classroom to learn more about it. In the classrooms I did visit they were very common to what I have always saw. The grade 7/8 class that I visited had the teacher’s desk at the back of the room and everyone faced the same direction. Since I am so used to seeing this, I didn’t think of it as something to break the power dynamic but maybe it is? In the grade 1/2 classroom the teacher’s desk was at the front of the room but I noticed she never taught from her desk or from the front of the room really. Every time she spoke to the kids and was explaining something they all came and sat on a carpet in front of her. The teacher was on a chair and maybe she could have been on the floor to be on the same level with them. She is teaching 25 little kids, so I think she needs to be on a chair to get their attention. Overall, I think she did as good as she could with kids that young because young kids still need that direction. I think the carpet space was great for the kids, they all loved it and she really had all there attention because there was nothing for them to be distracted by in their desks.
This space made me feel welcomed and it really showed that the kids enjoyed it. I think teachers can make classrooms better by having spaces that any one is allowed to use such as the carpet, or a small work table on the side. Also all of her students desks were in clusters and no one was sitting alone. From what I saw eveyrone ws with friends and I feel like this makes it their space too.