Room Arrangement

There are many types of classroom set ups in my building. All of the science classrooms have tables due to the nature of the various group experiments and collaboration activities that occur in these classrooms. Other classrooms have individual student desks. Some teachers, like me, break away from the traditional rows facing forward desk setup and place students in semi circles of clusters facing one another. No matter how the desks are set up most classroom configurations are set up in a way that all students can clearly see the front of the room where presentations and the whiteboards can clearly be seen. The placement of the teachers desks vary from room to room, some are in the back of the room, while others are right next to the entry door. In all rooms there is a clear traffic pattern. Every student work area is accessible by the teacher.
Computer usage is encouraged in the school. Every classroom had at least one working computer. Over 90 percent have two updated working computers and a network printer. Some ambitious teachers have held on to older computers and created a mini lab in their classrooms as a means of creating computer work stations for various class activities. There are three classrooms that are composed of computer desk where the computer is located beneath the glass desktop so that students have an open and clear workspace area. There is also one classroom that has access to over 30 iMac wireless laptops for a Carnegie math program.
Computer location in the classroom varies. Some are on the side of the room, while others are in the back. Most teachers allow students to use computers freely as long as the work they student is doing relates to the educational environment. There are no hard drives on the computers so students are encouraged to purchase and use their own personal flash drives.
I believe that room arrangement is an important part of the educational environment a teacher maintains. The direction students face is important because it could possibly lend itself to how well a student will focus on class work. For instance, not all of my students face my desk. Some face me while others' backs face me. I do this because I want to provide an opportunity for students to work together, when necessary, but I also want all of them to face the board. Certain students who I know are not as focused as others will face me, so that I can better monitor them from my desk. It’s actually funny because I almost have it down to a science. I can even tell which student it talking, even if I can’t see them. The kids think I have a sixth sense, but I really just pay attention to them.
I think it is important that staff pay attention to room arrangement and possibly have a professional development activity that focuses on it. For many teachers room arrangement is not high on the list of priorities for the school year, but it could definitely play a major role in how successful on is in maintaining classroom management and on student’s focus. Personally, I would be interested in learning about what research has to say about how desk arrangement affects students learning. I think it would be a great topic to center a summer professional development opportunity around.