Environment, Environment, Environment!

Did you watch the video above?  Pretty funny, right?  Let's suspend disbelief for a moment and forget that it's a parody of a real-life classroom.  Sort of on point, isn't it?  Obviously, classrooms don't come together in matter of seconds simply because David Spade lays on the schtick just before the network cuts to a commercial so they can rake in the millions from sponsors (if only it were that easy!  And funny!).  What's important here is that the underlying message is drawn from real classroom situations and carries with it a sense of validity.

Let's face it, classroom management is a key ingredient to creating an effective learning environment.  I don't think any teacher will argue that.  There are many parts that make up the whole, but when thinking about how the classroom environment - and by environment I mean the spatial quality of the actual room - affects student behavior, designing the classroom setting in an effective way is paramount for effective teaching and learning.

During a recent observation, I quickly realized how the physical arrangement of the classroom inhibited the teaching and became a breeding ground for unruly behavior.  The desks, or rather conference tables, were incredibly bulky, heavy, and literally absorbed 60% of the classroom space by their sheer size alone. There was little room for mobility and any work stations at the perimeter of the class where impossible to sit at without having to get up every other minute in order to let someone pass.  Only but so much of the blame can be thrown to the teacher, he was, after all, working with what the school provided.  But could he have been more clever in his arrangement?  Or simply removed some of the office furniture posing as desks?  By my count of the number of students vs the amount of tables in the room, the teacher could've tossed out at least five of the fifteen conference tables.  This would've had a dramatic impact on student behavior, attentiveness, accessibility to technology, learning stations & equipment, movement, safety (don't even get me started on safety!)...you get the point.

Whether it's organizing seats in traditional rows or in a circular pattern which facilitates class discussion (or any other plethora of ways as demonstrated in the image above), desk arrangement should be flexible, void of any potential congestion areas so the teacher and students can move freely, and, as Robert J. Marzano suggests in The Art and Science of Teaching, "provide access to any student within four steps from where the teacher spends most of her time".

As I said, this is just one element of creating effective and successful classroom management.  Check back soon for three other suggestions that I think will help improve the environment and begin to nurture what is most important in the classroom - LEARNING!