Classroom Arrangements

Room arrangements can give a quick glimpse of what might be going on in the classroom. If you see individual desks all facing the front, you may infer that teaching is mostly teacher-centered with direct interaction with individual students. If you were to see a large circle, the class might be set up for student-centered learning with the teacher acting as a leader or facilitator. A bunch of desk here and there might mean that centers are used with students being able to interact with their peers and their teacher. Whatever the case, it does give us something to work with without being too intrusive in the teacher’s classroom atmosphere.

During my “walk-around”, I was able to quickly assess and tally the rooms throughout the entire school. I noticed that in most Elementary classrooms, there were horseshoe arrangements for entire class activities. Some rooms also included carpets with seating charts labeled with tape. In addition to the horseshoe, there were centers set up around the room and places for individual work. Each room had a clear traffic flow and it was obvious that differentiation goes on in the classroom through each day. Students and teachers take turns at being the centers of learning while the teacher has a clear unobstructed view of the classroom for behavior and work issues. Lastly, the classroom set up was very efficient and allowed for supervision to take place without interruption of the classroom activities. Again, since the school is small in size, but large in structure, the rooms lend themselves to being able to have such a variety of seating arrangements in one classroom. In other schools, this ideal situation would not be possible.

In Middle School and High School, classrooms were mostly made up of tables put together in either a horseshoe arrangement or clusters. This setting lends itself for group work, teacher lead discussions and lectures on the board. A few select classrooms, were able to have small group and individual work areas, but the restriction was mostly due to furniture and space. It is quite obvious that the majority of time in the upper grades is spent with lectures and then small group work. Two main goals of High school are to prepare the students to be collaborators and ready for university work. Therefore, the classroom set ups make sense.

In each classroom (with the exception of 1 out of 23), there was only one computer and it was for the teacher's use. This computer would then dictate where the teacher’s desk was located since the outlet and Ethernet cable are limited in reach. Most teachers throughout the school would have their desks in the front of the room, but not near the door. Some of those teachers did express interest in having the desk in the back to help monitor student activity, but the computer location restricted such luxuries. I find it very concerning that students do not have more access to computers in the classroom. In fairness, there are computer labs which may be reserved, more computers in the library, and wireless internet for laptops which many students bring. Technology is part of many of the teachers instructional tools, but without constant access, it can sometimes be hindered throughout the lessons.

In conclusion, it is awesome to be aware of how much insight a small quick observation can provide you. As supervisors, we will need to be able to make more detailed observations to help staff development. But classroom setup is a great window into the classroom environment of the teacher and student learning.