More Space for Our Space!

Every year, around this time, I begin the process of rethinking my classroom space. What worked for my class last year? What was challenging for my students? At the end of the school year, each student filled out a survey about how the year went. There were a few questions about the space itself and it was very enlightening.

First of all, they all loved the carpet remnants instead of one large carpet. These carpet remnants have finished edges and were collected from Building 19 or Ocean State Job Lot. My sister in law gave me a few as well. Students mentioned that they loved the chance to work anywhere around the room with them. My reasoning in getting these was to keep my space flexible. I see one large carpet as very limiting. This is probably because I do not have a designer’s eye at all. When it is time for mini lessons, the students grab the carpets and come to the SMARTBoard or easel pad in the front of the room. Students worked together multiple times a day to arrange these carpets around the room to facilitate their learning and they really took ownership of the space. This was not wasted time because the students were more focused once in these self-selected spots.

Another piece of feedback that showed up on many of the surveys was the fact that it still felt crowded in the room. Students wrote about their desks/chairs being too close to each other sometimes, and the fact that a few people during the year had bumped into the bookshelf that is in the back of the room. The placement of furniture had been a class decision, but we just had such limited space; there were still issues. Many also shared that they wished the library area was bigger.

The last important feedback I received regarding classroom space was that they loved being in one spot for mini lessons and then moving elsewhere in the room to do partner/group work or independent work. Kids know what they need and found they were more productive with a little movement within the learning block. Thank you, brain research!

So, what is my plan? Simply put, create more space for my space! Thanks to my students’ feedback and some very helpful educators on Twitter, I have some concrete steps to take this summer to create a better learning environment for my class:

1. I am going to get rid of my teacher desk. This will not only allow for more space, but it will model that we don’t need our own personal desk at school.

2. Bazinga! Kids will not have their own desks. We already have communal supplies. In addition, I have purchased bins for students’ journals, Math workbooks, etc. In the past, each homeroom student had their own desk and then the other two fifth grade classes came in for writing in my room. There were multiple complaints a week of missing supplies from kids’ desks. Not anymore. Kids have a three ring pencil pouch in their binder for the other two classes outside of my room. When they are in my room, I think they will use the communal supplies mostly. Along with not complaining about missing supplies, this plan will allow for desks to be moved around easily since they will be SO lightweight. The placement of desks will now be as flexible as the use of the carpet remnants. Side note: On the first day of school, fifth graders are nervous and want to know where they are sitting. Temporary name tag tents will be on the desks to ease the transition to this new kind of classroom environment.

3. Now my homeroom class will be able to work together to figure out how we can make the library area larger. This plan allows for students to have a big say in where things will go in the room to make their learning successful.

There are so many other space changes that will be made this year, and I will share them in this blog as they arise. I am still trying to figure out how to handle the materials that the other two classes bring in. Do they put their materials on the floor under the desk like last year? They will learn quickly to bring only what they need. There are issues that I haven’t even thought of yet, but I know my students will think of more creative solutions than I ever could. Wish us luck!!

First Time Project with Educreations

Once again I see that my students are technology natives and can teach me so much! Last week the students created their Character Trait projects for their guided reading books. I was concerned that they couldn't save in Educreations until they recorded. That meant gathering pictures and photographs of their work in Dropbox or on the camera roll and then bringing them over to Educreations. Many students, however, wanted to use the vast image search within Educreations. One of my students realized that she could go into Educreations, do an entire page with text and images the way she wanted it and then just take a screenshot of that page. The technology specialist, learning center teacher, learning center para, and I never thought of that! We all are too old to be technology natives.

I always reflect on what worked and what didn't. I will still have students plan everything out in a storyboard fashion ahead of time including any hand drawn pictures they want in their presentation. That is why everything else went so smoothly. I will then have them go straight to Educreations to create one page at a time and take a screenshot of each one. That way the work won't get lost. When it is all created then they can record.

Recording was a challenge in the classroom, so I may arrange for some parents to come in next year when we are planning to record. Luckily, this year I had two Learning Center staff members that were able to find quiet areas in the school to do the recordings with a couple students at a time.

One of the students chose to write the text and not record his voice. Instead, he chose a song that fit his character well and recorded it from his Iphone. It came out great! Again, tech. natives!

Our tech. specialist created a school account with Educreations so that the kids could save it to the site. I know there is a way to share these presentations with parents using a link, but I am not sure how yet. I will figure all that out for next year. We did watch all of them in class on the SMARTBoard.