It doesn't matter if this is your first year of teaching or your twentieth year in the trenches of education—classroom design is always essential. After all, this is where you and your students spend most of your day at least five days a week. As a teacher, you want to create an environment of warmth and security, but you also want a place that fosters productive learning. To do that, you need to think about creating a floor plan for your room that meets all your needs.
Quick Links
Consider The Age Of The Students
If your students are young, how your classroom looks will be essential. Decorations on the wall should be educational rather than things that distract students from learning, like science lab tables. The size of your chairs, tables, and desks will matter, too, as you want students to feel comfortable where they are.
Design For The Number Of Students You Will Have
How many students you have in your classroom will help determine how to make the most of setting up your room. If you are teaching small groups of kids, it may be easier to set up designated areas of the space that they can move around to for hands-on learning. For more significant numbers, you will want to think about the traffic pattern in the room and use innovative classroom furniture.
Be Efficient
Stools instead of chairs are a great way to help utilize space as they can be easily stored under a table or desk and are light enough to transport to different areas of the room as needed. Arrange desks in small pods with larger groups to create collaborative learning opportunities. If you prefer to see all the students simultaneously, arrange your tables and desks into a horseshoe.
Decide On Your Lesson Style
What kind of lessons will you be sharing with your students? Are you lecture-based? Or do you prefer more hands-on learning? This will definitely affect your classroom design. Traditional classrooms are set up in a lecture format with the desks in rows and the teacher at the front. If you are planning group activities where students have to collaborate and share ideas, you may need a different format.
Zone Areas
It's easier for students to work in pods to accomplish collaborative learning, so you can use tables instead of desks. You can designate areas of the room where this type of learning can occur, or you can set up the room so that all areas allow for this. This decision will also dictate the traffic patterns in your room. Remember, traffic flow matters because it can affect the efficiency of your classroom and can help control behavior issues.
Puzzle Room
You've heard of common puzzle room challenges. Maybe even played a few. And you probably thought, "This would be such a great teaching tool! My students would love this!" And yes, your students would love them. You can't just take all your students to an escape room. School-based escape games are a great teaching tool. But what you can do is create escape-style experiences in your classroom.
In Conclusion
Classroom environment plays a role in successful student learning. Creating a solid classroom floor plan will help them meet today's students' challenges.
