The perfect classroom

Teachers always dream of the perfect classroom, but in the end it does not matter the design because we are always changing and growing. What we think is perfect today may differ in ten years as we grow as educators. This is a good thing from an educator aspect, it means we have found what works for us and our students. Eight years ago the school I work for did a building renovation of my shop, office, and classroom. At that time I had been teaching for two years, so when the architects discussed renovations with me I jumped into shop design to make it perfect in my mind. The problem was I put the shop above classroom design, I did not have a classroom before so I was just happy to have one. Eight years later in my current setup I have come to realize how important that classroom design should have been and how I would have done things differently.

A paper, published in the journal Building and the Environment, found that classroom design could be attributed to a 25% impact, positive or negative, on a student’s progress over the course of an academic year. The difference between the best- and worst-designed classrooms covered in the study? A full year’s worth of academic progress. (VanHemert, 2013) What a difference light, sound, flexibility, and color can make in our student’s education. The study included ten factors in all, I just hit the top four. If I had more experience at the time of our renovation my classroom would look considerably different than it does today.

My current classroom has the standard four white walls with the world’s best paint because no matter what you use, I can not get a poster to stick to the wall. The tables are fixed leg with little room to move them around and small wheeled chairs that can not be stacked for more room. We do have a projector and a whiteboard, but the screen drop down in front of the board so you are limited to three feet of use during power point presentations. The walls are windowless so you do not have any outside light for the classroom only has interior walls. My classroom is the meaning of basic high school classroom.

The questions I should have thought about in my classroom design eight years are:

• How do I want to use the classroom for teaching and learning?
• What are the problems are there with my current classroom?
• How will it change the teaching and learning that happen in the space?
• What are my ideas to improve the classroom?
• What resources would be necessary to implement my plan (computer, tables, chairs, ect.)?
• How will the new classroom meet the needs of my students?

All of these questions and more would have benefited my students education for the last eight years, had I thought through the classroom redesign.  This issue had honestly escaped my mind until a class assignment we had to do on classroom design. I had to start thinking about classroom improvements and of course I drifted back to the shop renovation I was involved with and why I had not done a better job back then. As for today and the eight years of experience I have in my classroom and shop, there are definite improvements that should be made.

I used the program SketchUp to roughly draw out the prefect classroom in my mind, to fit the Automotive Technology program I teach. The classroom area for my class has all interior wall so natural light is unavailable. It would be nice to have a large window into the shop area (on the left side of picture) to let in more light and so students using the classroom computer could to monitored from the shop area. A large double door into the class to allow for teaching aids such as demonstration engines, brake units, and differentials to be used for lectures. Folding tables and stackable chairs to accommodate different room configurations and student numbers. I have two classes per today with student numbers from 14 to 26 per class. Students computers are always in short supply at our school with only one computer lab for five classes to share. All of our technical service information is online, so computers are a must in our area. The large window to the shop would allow for students to use the five to seven computers in the classroom without direct supervision. I teach 11th and 12th graders that will stray off task once without teacher supervision. I would retain my projector for instructional videos and power point lectures as a key instructional aid. The changes provided in the drawing above would allow more flexibility for classroom instruction without the constant “area hopping” my students experience now, between our shop and classroom.

The major road block to this concept is renovation to the large window and double door, as this would call for a contractor to perform the work. These would be items I would work with administration on over time. The chairs and table are something that could be managed over a couple of years as replacement items. Computers are currently used in the shop area with the dust and debris, so our IT staff would love the chance to move them out of the shop environment. Change is always possible with time, commitment, and the drive to improve students education.

 

 

Resources:

VanHemert, K. (2013, January 18). Study Shows How Classroom Design Affects Student Learning. Retrieved July 22, 2016, from http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671627/study-shows-how-classroom-design-affects-student-learning