The Perfect Classroom
I have never been an orthodox teacher, nor have I been orthodox in really anything in my life. Growing up, I was the student who couldn’t listen and comprehend at the same time. My teachers would give instructions, and when it was time to do what was told, I realized I was daydreaming the entire time. This accidental aloofness, mixed with a fear of asking questions, forced frustration upon me. But it also forced creativity and originality into my work. I did things my own way in how I understood them, with the information I learned. To this day, my vagabond mind stays with me, and has helped transform every technical in-the-box idea about education into something with passion and soul.
As educators, we all have this grand “idea” of what our perfect classroom looks like; mine will never be the same as yours, and yours will never be the same as anyone else’s. It is this subjective notion that has stemmed from what works for us, and what our priorities are in our classrooms. This “idea” is made up of instruction, discipline, our classroom environment, and assessments. Each area contains our ideals as educators. But along with our ideals comes the importance of our learners getting what they need. That is how a perfect classroom begins to form.
Instruction
Instruction in my classroom has always been something I have focused hard on. It is not just about the factual knowledge of the content, or making sure that our learners meet their grade level on standardized tests. It is more importantly about how our learners can best discover the knowledge, and apply it.
Differentiation was a term I learned about while studying my undergrad. It made sense then, and continues to be more and more relevant in every area that we teach. The past few years of teaching and differentiating have continually seen success and excitement in my learners. I have learned to study my learners, and get an idea of how they would best succeed in gaining the knowledge and acquire an enduring understanding. From concepts like collaborating, blogging, and webquests that I have done in my classroom, I want to build more of an “explorer” mentality into my learners. This upcoming school year, all learners are receiving an iPad. This gives everyone the opportunity to explore, discover for themselves a deeper concept they are curious about, and find themselves more in control of their education. Reciprocal teaching is a great opportunity I want to capitalize on this year with technology. The world is at my learner’s fingertips, and I want them to realize that and create their world. I want them to become the person they are meant to be, with passion and curiosity for more knowledge.
Another area of instruction that can help my learners achieve our enduring understandings is reflection. Reflection will be a big instructional area to build this year. I want to get my learners to not just reflect by saying, “This assignment was fun!” or, “I learned a lot from this project.” I want to teach my learners how to look back on an activity or project we are creating and wonder what they are learning by doing this, and how it relates to their own experiences outside of the classroom. With reflection comes a need to remind learners that there is no mistake you can make. Your personal reflection may be different than one of your peer’s, and that is okay. I hope that in making reflection meaningful and intentional, my learners can explore and discover our enduring understandings in comparison with their own lives.
With reflection comes a need to remind learners that there is no mistake you can make.
Community dialogue is the pride and joy of my classroom. With allowing my learners to be more in control of discovering their knowledge in relation to our enduring understandings, and focusing on the reflection piece intentionally and consistently, our small and whole group discussions will be very enriching. Socratic Seminars are something I want to implement into my instruction more often this year, to help my learners dive deeper into the concepts we are focusing on. Not only that, through this dialogue will come personal experiences of the concepts from learners themselves. Learners applying their personal reflections to the concepts being learned or the article information itself can teach the class in it’s own way. Not only will they be gaining knowledge on the unit or standard we are covering, but making connections with it through personal accounts and reflection.
Discipline
Through our exploration in my classroom, I want my learners to know what standardized skills they are gaining. However, it is not just the skillset that I want for them to focus on. I want for them to gain these skills and pieces of knowledge while building up to answering our essential questions. I want to be able to open up a new unit with a basic idea for them to reflect on linked to our enduring understandings, and while exploring, they discover their “ah hah!” moment and answer our essential question. Through answering our essential question, my learners will be able to then apply their newly gained skills with a deeper understanding to connect it to. Along with this, I also want my learners to create their own ideas from the skills gained through answering our essential questions, and have that mirror the enduring understanding in their own life.
Environment
Some of my favorite classes were the ones where I would walk into a community of people, not a classroom of students. It was in this environment that I felt the safest, and where I learned the most. Community building is something I have always done with my different classes. Not every class is the same, so each building effort looked different. When building a community, there are expectations, ownership, and everyone has their roles. I want to put more of our classroom expectations on my learners, so the majority of everyone is in agreeance and can help one another achieve these expectations. Expectations could be anything, from “be to class on time”, to “have an open mind”, to “respect one another.” Having these come from the learners will be more meaningful, and I hope they will hold eachother accountable to these values of the community.
I enjoy doing community building activities every so often, so get the learners out of their comfort zone and get to know each other in different ways. One of my favorite building blocks is the “would you rather…?” activity, where I ask them a question (example: “Would you rather be given $1,000, or give a charity of your choice $10,000?”). Everyone will choose one or the other, and go to a side of the room that their answer pertains to. I then ask for them to discuss with someone briefly why they chose that side. Learners will learn more about themselves, their friends, and others they may not know very well in this activity. It will create a dialogue of likenesses, help friendships grow, and challenge them to think for themselves. I would like to do more with these community building activities to achieve a comfortable and familiar environment.
Safety is the number one reason I work hard to help my learners become a community. Feeling safe in an environment will help learners trust those around them, and trust themselves with their thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Being open and honest in anything can be scary because we are allowing others to see deeper into who we are. In a safe community, I want my learners to feel respected and accepted by everyone. One thing I need to keep in mind is that I cannot control what is said or done outside of my classroom. Bullying is a very real thing, and it can happen anytime, anywhere. I hope that by creating a community out of my learners, they can feel a sense of loyalty and unity to one another. I want for them to achieve an enduring understanding and apply it to our classroom and community.
With the layout of my classroom, there are limited ways for me to be creative when trying to move my room around. I have an old science lab, meaning that my fluorescent lights bounce brightly off the white tiled floor. The counter and cupboards along the back of my room limits how my desks are positioned. I have wanted to get rid of desks for a long time and have only chairs so there are no barriers between anyone in our community. However, resources are very limited at my school, and this is just not possible. In the past, I have had my classroom in the traditional way: desks in rows facing the front of the room. I have tried grouping desks into pods of 6. But my learner’s favorite room setup is my “cat-walk” setup: desks are divided on either side of the room evenly, facing one another while keeping a walking space down the middle. With this setup, my learners are able to see each other well enough to stay engaged in whole group dialogue, debates, games, etc. and are able to see me as I move about. It is unfortunately very cramped in my room with 36 desks, and I will not stop attempting to find the magic setup until I find it. I want my classroom to be a place where they can focus easily, have enough space to do so, and are able to feel comfortable physically.
I make it clear that my classroom is their learning environment. It is not up to me to make it just that for them. We begin the year talking about what helps them focus, what makes a good learning environment, and how they will feel most comfortable. I have found that learners love having their work hung up around the room. They always have the option of doing this. By year’s end, my walls are filled to the brim with creative and innovative ideas they came up with. These pieces of work give a snapshot to the hard work put in, memories of the fun they had while doing it, and the skills and understandings they gained because of it. They love this ownership piece of their environment, and it ends up giving outsiders an illustrated notion of exactly who our community is and what we do.
Assessment
First and foremost, my learners learn from early on that mistakes are a part of learning. It is a part of life, and are inevitable. Mistakes are the building blocks of understanding, and I always let my learners know that it is okay to make mistakes. Some learners are perfectionists, afraid to take risks or do what they feel strongly about. Whoever they are is wonderful, but I will always challenge my learners. One big challenge is getting over making mistakes, persevering, and getting back up to try again. It is the concept of grit that I hope to see in my learners when they understand this kind of mentality.
Along with falling down and getting back up, is the concept of growth mindset. Through creativity and stepping outside of their box, I want my learners to see just how much they are capable of doing and learning. Through the use of essential questions and enduring understandings, my learners will see past grades and skills and classroom walls, and see life as a concept. In an English classroom, it is very easy for learners to not understand that there can be more than one right answer. It is such a subjective subject that exploration of all concepts is essential. And through this, they will begin to learn that the rabbit hole goes as far as you want it to. Continuing to grow this mindset will be an important task connected with learner’s reflections on seeing through it all and to keep on digging.
Differentiation, like I said before, is a huge part of my classroom. After my learners have had differentiated instruction given to them (and maybe even created by them), their assessment is even more than that. Getting to know my learners means that I am able to differentiate the assessments I give them. However, these are only my ideas of ways they can successfully apply their gained skills. A part of my learners owning their education, is by knowing how they can best prove to me their knowledge, skills, and enduring understandings. That ownership is the power of choice my learners get. Their ownership in the work they produce through differentiation ends up becoming vital to them in knowing what their strengths and weaknesses are. They have the freedom to understand what their capabilities are, and how to challenge themselves each time. Differentiation has forced learners to apply their knowledge and skills into something new, relevant, and tangible in their lives. They have the responsibility and opportunity to create an understanding of content for themselves, in ways of originality, creativity, and innovation.
Some of my differentiated assessments have been posters or powerpoints that show the learner’s newly gained skills and knowledge, as well as a personal reflection piece that mirrors our enduring understandings. Some have been my learner creating a video based on the unit and application to her/his life. Other learners have created a Facebook page that has information on their character for our characterization unit, to show their understanding of the elements of characterization, or a script of the book they read putting their character in a modern-day moment. Though I give my learners options to choose from, I also am open to them creating their own project. However, they must conference with me stating what their project idea is, how they will prove their skills and understanding to it, and why they feel that is the best way for them to show their knowledge and understanding. The creativity really comes out during our project time, and I really get to know my learners in this way.
Not only are learners responsible for their learning within these assessments, but as educators we are responsible for giving timely and meaningful feedback for learners to reflect on. It is so important for educators to know their learners and how they best learn. Reflection is hard for many to understand and do, as stated before. Meaningful feedback is hard for some educators to give. But both reflection and feedback are connected and vital to deepening understanding for the learner and educator. Reflection and feedback opens a dialogue of what both parties need from each other. Keep in mind however, that formative assessments are important for me to see where my learners are at in their understanding, what they need from me, and what more I need from them. Before getting to the summative assessments, I should have a good grasp on knowing my learners are ready for it. Giving learners exit slips to fill out, surveys, through small and whole group dialogue, or even a quick traffic light check can help me formatively see where we are at.
I have the privilege of teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Language Arts. With that, I am able to scaffold all of my lessons, activities, and assessments. My learners have the opportunity of going further than just their grade level. They are able to soar as high as they can through my guidance with scaffolding. With me knowing all three curriculums very well, I also am able to scaffold my essential questions and enduring understandings. Each year we build in a number of standardized skills areas: theme, characterization, poetry, drama, etc. Without going faster or loading on more work, I am able to get my learners thinking about concepts, skills, and ideas, even in the slightest, beyond their grade level.
One thing I am hesitant yet excited to try this year is student self-assessment. With middle schoolers, I am not sure how thoughtful they will be when evaluating their work and themselves. Self-reflection and growth mindset will both be the stepping stones toward creating an intuitive learner who can evaluate themselves meaningfully. Honesty is hard when you feel doubtful of yourself, or when you do not care about your education. And knowing if the learner is reflecting accurately is hard to know for the educator. I am excited to see how my learners will handle this concept, and see how they grow from it.
I WANT TO BE ABLE TO OPEN UP A NEW UNIT WITH A BASIC IDEA FOR THEM TO REFLECT ON LINKED TO OUR ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS, AND WHILE EXPLORING, THEY DISCOVER THEIR “AH HAH!” MOMENT AND ANSWER OUR ESSENTIAL QUESTION.
The End = The Beginning
Through constant reflection in my own life, experiences, and classroom, there is never going to be a “perfect” classroom. Our clientele changes every hour, day, and year. One should never stop reflecting on the impact they are making everyday with their learners. Nor should one ever stop trying new things and taking risks. As a lifelong vagabond of the mind, my aloofness has created some extraordinary work, ideas, and opportunities for me. It has also deepened my understanding of how different we all are. How different all of our learners are. Keeping that in mind, and taking a look at yourself at the beginning and end of everyday, is a good start. This next year, I want to remember all of these “ideas”, remember what I wanted as a learner, and remember to listen to my kids. I want to be the classroom that they feel safe and loved in. That they get excited for because they can be themselves amongst a community of people. I want them to find confidence and explore deeper meanings to content that inspires them. I want them to take my challenges head-on, and learn to challenge themselves. Most importantly, I want them to leave my room every single day thinking,