As a teacher, you sacrifice hours of your life away from family to be with other kids. It's therefore very reasonable that you'd want to make the most of that offered time so your students can learn maximally.
But as you think about that, a problem arises: how do you arrange a classroom for effective learning? And what makes up effective classroom management?
Understanding What an Effective Classroom Is and What It's Not
You may have spent some time browsing through Pinterest to get insight into classroom design. What you see are primarily colorful materials and how to arrange objects in the classroom to obtain coordination among colors. Well, that is often 80% aesthetics. But in classroom design, we need to look at the bigger picture.
An effective classroom is not entirely one that's perfectly eye-catching but one that is functional and fosters learning. This would typically take into account how materials are organized to facilitate getting around the classroom for both the teacher and students.
When we talk about effective classroom management, having a functional design layout is a crucial part of it. It is about maximizing learning opportunities for the students at a given instructional time.
It also encompasses how you build relationships with your students, even with those who have personal struggles.
Creating an Effective Classroom Environment for Your Students
There is no one-size-fits-all approach when we talk about effective classroom layout. Every teacher has a unique teaching approach that works best for them, and this will reflect in the child's learning.
It's essential that you choose a suitable setup as a poorly laid one will make you lose valuable time if you and the students struggle to navigate the classroom to get to things.
Consider seating
If you're more the group participation type, think about making a seating arrangement of, say, four students in each seating group. This method, however, is best suited for group work. You can either form the seats around so that the students in each group face each other or get a more extended desk for them.
However, this will be very much ill-advised in other situations. Studies have found that students who are more centrally focused and aligned with their teacher tend to be more engaged in class, even to the point of asking questions. We can put this down to the fact that they feel closer to the teacher as they face him or her directly. So if the class doesn't require group participation, a semi-circular layout will be excellent. It's even more effective than the traditional rows and columns setup, according to findings.
Test the design
It is often helpful to test whatever classroom layout you decide on. Try it out for a few days and see how it impacts movement within the class, functionality, and learning. Even when you discover positive results, you may decide to try another layout to see if this yields a superior outcome.
Notably, carefully setting up your classroom layout before students arrive will save you significant instructional time.
And just as a functional classroom arrangement potentially impacts the student positively, a wrong setup will notably become an obstacle to their engagement and participation.
Organizing teaching/learning resources
Furthermore, it's crucial to state that the availability of learning materials in the classroom will tremendously impact how much they learn. But it's just as important to organize these materials so that they do not become a hindrance.
Remove all objects that serve as nothing but clutter, such as those outdated learning materials. But one thing that will never go outdated is desk globes. Desk globes have become a mainstay learning tool in elementary classrooms. With a world globe in the room, children can have a better relational understanding of different locations and that all races are under one sphere. And it makes a great interactive tool for a geography class.
Once you've gotten rid of all unwanted materials, replace them with well-arranged relevant ones. Get files for storing those documents you do not immediately have an immediate need for but would later become useful.
Helpful Classroom Management Practices to Adopt
Now you're clear with your classroom setup. And we have rightly said that arrangement is only a part of ideal classroom management. Therefore, the next focus is to establish practical techniques that will make you more impactful to your students.
Build good personal relationships
When it comes to learning, nothing beats rapport. Students tend to pay more attention to someone they like personally. So it's tremendously helpful to take time to talk to your students either as a class or one-on-one. Students crave it; be there for them.
Bring the "bad kids" closer
In every class, there's at least one poorly-behaved kid. And children misbehave when there's something wrong in their world. If you could reach out and connect with them, they can surprisingly turn into your favorite kid.
Of course, it wouldn't be easy. Such students can get defensive, with walls built high. But these kids also want to be successful. Consistent attention may just be what you need to break them and unleash their good, success-seeking side. And when they start getting good results in class, say things like, "I always knew you could do it!" rather than "Wow! I'm shocked you could do this."
Never forget self-care
As you care for yourself, do not neglect yourself in the process. You have to stay healthy, happy, and fit to be the best teacher for your students. Do not let yourself get too worked up, as stress can make you yell at students even when they don't deserve it.
Self-care is crucial to classroom management as it improves your empathy, judgment, and resilience -- to patiently manage children's frequent unruly acts.
Set rules, boundaries, and targets
Lastly, but just as importantly, create rules to keep your students in check. Set targets to inform them of what you expect of them at each given time. Young kids do not thrive amid chaos as they cannot quickly tell between what's right or wrong. The responsibility falls on your shoulder to inform them and keep them on the right track.
Final Words
Classroom design and management skills are vital components of effective classroom learning. Avoid prioritizing one and neglecting the other as it is both working together that creates the right environment for optimal learning.