Alfie Kohn: What to Look for in a Classroom & Classroom Tour Video

 Reflection: 

I found Kohn's article/chart to be really interesting. The things that he listed as "possible reasons to worry" really reminded me of when I was a student in school. I think that today, there are a lot more teachers that are trying to make their classrooms stand apart from the "traditional" classrooms. 

Growing up in schools, I can remember that the chairs and desks were mostly in rows and lines, there were either no posters or a lot of commercial posters and some students' works, I was usually bored, normally everyone was working on the same thing, and more. I was always interested in the decor of rooms. I remember all the posters and things that were hanging and the vast majority of the time, they were commercial posters or work done by "the best" students. One example of this that I can remember was in my art classroom. The teacher would display artworks but only a select few. I never thought anything of it when I was at school, but looking back, I can see how that could be insensitive. 

Kohn's article made me think about how different it is today than when I was growing up. The classroom that I am currently teaching in is decorated as much as it could be. There is student work all over the walls, even though the answers are sometimes wrong. The students sit in groups, as well, allowing them to interact with each other. They are always eager to engage and learn and they never complain about a task. The teacher is kind, respectful, and genuine. The students are extremely welcoming to all guests. The classroom that I am in has a teacher, a student teacher, another teacher, and myself so it is a very busy classroom, but the students were extremely welcoming to me right away. They also had a K9 come to visit the classroom recently and they were eager to hear about his duties. They were respectful to the police officer as he told them what the dog does and how to correctly pet him. There are also great classroom discussions and many group activities. I haven't seen too much of the school but from what I did see, I thought it was a great environment for students. 

Although there were some teachers growing up who had engaging classrooms, the older we got, the more classrooms were decidedly a space only for learning and not for creativity. I hope that as these 4th grade students I am working with get older, they will be able to enjoy creativity and engaging classrooms throughout their entire schooling. I think the changes are being made to make school a more welcoming environment and it brings me joy in knowing this.

I think these classroom design templates could be a good start for decorating classrooms at the beginning of the year and adding student work to the room throughout the year would really engage students. 

One thing I would like to focus on in class is how everyone else remembers their childhood classrooms. Were they inviting or kind of boring? How do you think that impacted your learning?