Chapter 3: Setting Up Your Classroom The Classroom Walls An almost-blank classroom wall space is advisable at the beginning of the year. This leaves room for what the class will create together. When students walk into a room full of posters and bulletin boards and decor that the teacher has selected, they get the message on an unconscious level that the teacher’s personality is the dominant one in the space. When they walk into a room with almost-blank walls, and plenty of room for them to create, they have room for their own work to take shape. The visual clutter of walls papered with posters, maps, flags, and the like is distracting. We want to cultivate a sense of simplicity and unhurried calm, and the nearly-blank walls help to soothe us and our students. The reader is asked to trust that, if they follow this approach, their classroom walls will soon take on a feeling of student-driven ownership of the space. All I have up on the wall in my classroom on day one is a calendar/weather station (discussed below), and my Classroom Rules (provided below) located somewhere where I can easily walk to and touch. I also have spaces designated for a class art gallery, to be added in the future (discussed later in this book). Later, I put each of my classes’ artwork into the gallery, but for now it is simply a blank space with a sign for each period that says “Period One” and “Artists,” but with nothing yet in those spaces, and no student artists’ names, since I have not yet assigned those jobs. I also have a space on our whiteboard or a poster for listing the names of students who have jobs. Keeping that list current is up to the student “Human Resources Department” (discussed later in this chapter and in the Appendices). The Rules Poster The Classroom Rules that I use are listed below, but you are encouraged to think about your own wording and specific rules. However, please do not put TOO MANY rules, since they tend to get lost as so much background noise. I have found that three to five rules is sufficient without being overwhelming.
1. Understanding is the number-one goal. 2. One person speaks and the others listen. 3. Support the flow of language.
Please note that Rule One can apply not only to listening in class and understanding the language, but also to the “productive struggle” or “stick-to-it-iveness” in reading and not giving up when an unfamiliar word is encountered. The goal is mutual understanding and respect.
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