Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Classroom Environment Plans for 2016-2017

Today as students take a systemwide assessment, I'm do an analysis of my classroom environment. I've been working in a new shared teaching model this year and my classroom is mainly used for math and STEAM teaching.The fact that I no longer have to host the supplies for all subjects has given me greater flexibility with regard to the room set up including many more subject-specific supplies. This has enabled the teaching to be more flexible, responsive, and multi-modal.

All year I've been shifting and changing the room as I try to make it match teaching intent, philosophy, and expectations. I think I finally have a model that I like, and now as I order supplies for the end of this year and next year, it's time for finesse. While we have many traditional supplies in the classroom including desks and chairs, we move them around as needed to make the classroom more versatile.

In general what I need to improve the classroom organization and environment is the following:
  • More beautiful, inspiring, inclusive signage (Students can create some of this at start of year and I'll purchase some)
  • More good shelving and containers for the STEAM area. I really like the metal shelves and will likely get more of those. The plastic files work quite well too. 
  • Better organization of math supplies.
  • Repair of some of the existing organizational shelves and drawers.
  • Replacements for electric pencil sharpeners, colored pencils, math templates, 
  • Shelving for showcase portfolios and supplies. 

Model for classroom organization:

Current items and related ideas.