This past week, I moved out of the classroom that I have worked in for the last three years. I am relocating to a classroom in the same hallway as the mathematics teachers I will be working with next year. My new room is larger and equipped with windows (!). It also has a set of furniture designed to be easily shifted into different learning configurations. The longest that I have ever taught in the same classroom was when I taught in Providence, RI (a 5 year stint). I managed to accumulate an alarming amount of stuff during that period and am happy to say that moving this time was relatively painless, mostly due to the tiny size of my old room. It was still time-consuming packing and unpacking, organizing and purging. This phase is the fun part for me and, thanks to a boon from the floor-waxing gods, I have been able to get into the room earlier than usual to putter and push furniture around.
This is a time for optimistic signage and aggressive nesting. I've learned that it is well worthwhile to invest some time in making my classroom feel like home as I will be spending so much time in it both with and without students. Well-proven small conveniences and soft lighting schemes have made the move with me. I'll be spending less energy with posters, inspirational quotes, etc. as I don't feel like these have any real educational value. However, having a place for everything at the start of the year (often with labels) makes it infinitely easier to stay organized during the chaos of the school year. A goal that I have for this year is for students to play a more independent role in maintaining classroom systems and using resources in the room. For this reason, intricate systems and crowded walls will be impractical. I'm excited to have much of the physical adjustment done so I can focus on planning instruction in the latter days of summer.
Comentarios