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What is agency and what does that look like for a….?

What is inquiry and what does is look like?  What are types of inquiry?

What do we mean by well- being?

How does play support learning ?

How are classrooms the” third teacher”?

What do we mean by “inclusive”?

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The physical space of the classroom plays a significant role in both the culture and community of your learning environment. In fact, I consider the space to be a third teacher, alongside the students and myself. Classroom space is most effective when it invites and encourages learning: bookshelves invite readers to read, math shelves invite exploration of geometry and algebra, and displays invite discussion or debate, just to name a few examples. And while it is tempting to fill up every inch of the classroom with displays and materials, it is essential to have a tidy, organized space that invites meaningful learning and interactions. As I set up my classroom, I keep three big ideas in mind:

Organization is key to the infrastructure. An organized space sets the tone for how things will be done in your classroom. I like to start with a minimalist setup in which materials are clearly labeled and accessible.

Minimize visual distractions. If it doesn't serve a purpose, store it to use later in the year or offer it to another educator.

Let the furnishings multi-task. Let furniture serve more than one purpose. Embrace the 70/30 principle: if 70% of the furniture serves a dual purpose, don't stress about the rest.

With these three key ideas in mind, here are ten ways to set up your classroom for success before students arrive.

1. Start with a clean slate. You'll spend most of your waking hours in your classroom, so make time to give it a proper clean. This is the perfect opportunity to consider what furniture serves multiple purposes and what you might be able to live without.

2. Channel Marie Kondo. Teachers often have a scarcity mindset when it comes to supplies. But purging unused items frees up space for those you do use and brings a sense of lightness, openness, and creativity. If you haven't used it in two years, you inherited it, or it looks older than you, get rid of it. It is an added bonus if you find someone else who can use it!

3. Inspect the walls. Are your walls neat and inviting or cluttered and distracting? Many of us tend toward an overabundance of displays, but a examining the effects of the visual environment on children's learning found that young children struggled to filter out the displays of a highly decorated learning environment. As a result, they spent more time off-task, and demonstrated smaller learning gains. Keep items on the walls simple, relevant, and organized.

4. Label meticulously. When things are put in the proper place, they are more available to students. Labels support students in finding materials and properly returning them. They also create opportunities for students to build autonomy and responsibility. Plus, this organizing will serve you well all year. If any labels wear out, invite students to make new ones!

5. Schedule space surveys. Once a month, schedule time to take stock of your space. I write this in my calendar so I don't forget or mindlessly start doing it when I have other work that needs my attention. What you're not using, put away, including any anchor charts that are not still relevant.

6. Plan Interactive Modeling lessons. Now that you have invested time in organizing the space, consider the routines and procedures students will need to know to be successful. Make a list of each and plan your Interactive Modeling lessons, or check out those already outlined in .

7. Post what is most important. We all have essential information that needs to be displayed, including class lists, schedules, and emergency procedures. Post these neatly in a way that supports their use. Consider using simple mats or frames or securing them to the wall with removable Velcro or magnets.

8. Plan a prominent display point for class guidelines. Each summer, I keep an eye out at yard sales or Goodwill for a new frame that will hold my upcoming class's unique rules. These rules will be the center point of our work, particularly in the first six weeks , so the display needs to beckon students' attention and reflect their intentions and hopes.

9. Make space for everyone. Whether you have tables, crates, or desks, each student needs a workspace. Look for opportunities to minimize what is on students' tables or desks by making a space for shared supplies to be stored. Many children do better with learning tasks when there is less in front of them. Plus, getting up to get necessary materials can provide movement that helps focus attention and build cooperation skills.

10. Secure your spot. Where can you station yourself for students' arrival each day to greet each student individually? Where is your workspace, and can you see the whole class from there? Do you need an entire desk, or will a portable workstation help you join small groups throughout the classroom? Minimizing teacher workspace often frees up more space for interactive learning.

Thinking proactively about your space sets everyone up for success. Take time now to assess your space and start with a clean slate. Soon you will be welcoming new students to the classroom-how will you show them the space is made for them and their learning?

Lisa Dewey Wells is a consultant and coach for the Center for Responsive Schools and co-wrote the book Empowering Educators: A Comprehensive Guide to Teaching K, 1, and 2 . She has taught preschool through middle school for nearly thirty years.

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Ten Ways to Set Up Your New Classroom for Success, Literally!

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Here are ten ways to set up and organize your classroom so that it invites meaningful learning and interactions between your students.

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Joni Taylor | Thermometer vs a Thermostat

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If you design learning with physical space and interaction in mind, it absolutely can.

Desks are a staple of the 'modern' classroom as we know it. Usually, these learning spaces are simple, and simply arranged: places for students to sit and read and write, lined up neatly in rows. While progress has been in the design of schools and classrooms, it's usually only in pockets of well-funded 'future schools' with very little application for the rest of us.

So what can we do? That's the point of this post. If you think of the following ideas as exactly that-ideas-then you'll realize that none of these are either good nor bad. They're ideas. If they are used well to solve a problem or promote a characteristic, they are being used well; if they don't, they're not. Many of these aren't immediately reproducible in your own classroom. They may not work for your grade level or furniture or budget or content area. But you can take it as an idea, learn from it, and use it (or not) accordingly.

So, the bit about 'classroom setups impacting thinking.' Learning is an ecology. Classroom design impacts classroom management impacts curriculum needs impacts lesson and unit design impacts teacher personality impacts technology needs impacts literacy strategies and teaching strategies, and so on. Each one of these possibilities will only work as well as you are able to adapt the way you plan instruction and design learning experiences. Yes, you can design a classroom using a Fishbowl approach-and not just to host a Fishbowl discussion, but for longer periods of time.

You can also set up a 'Google Room' or 'Maker Space' and not promote thinking at all, or have students performing stunning cognitive acrobatics sitting by themselves on a cold floor. The idea here is that new ways to set up your classroom can help you think differently about how and why you use certain arrangements, and then design more intentionally moving forward (even if you just stick to plain ol' rows).

In fact, if you think of rows and rows of desks as having pros and cons, causes and effects, you'll see that these rows lend themselves well to certain things (organization, paper passing, etc.), while not so well to others (collaboration, movement). You've already (perhaps unwittingly) adapted your instruction to whatever design you normally use. You plan with it in mind. If you take a new approach, you'll need to design with that in mind as well. And that's where the actions and behaviors that promote thinking-interaction, movement, study, making, collaboration, thinking alone, and so on-become a factor.

Note, we've placed an asterisk* beside those approaches that are more strongly suited to 'thought' than others. With that preface, on to some of the possibilities (there are many more!).

20 Ways To Setup A Classroom To Help Your Students Think

How this is structured depends on your space, content area, grade level, etc. But any content area can use 'making' as a primary teaching and learning strategy, and to do so, you'll need to create the spaces for that to happen. A mix of the 'Learning Labs' approach and the 'Google Room' may work well.

2. Geometric Mix

This approach takes a mix of forms-rows, groups, semi-circled tables. While the furniture in the pic above may be beyond your reach, you can produce a similar effect with a combination of tables and desks.

3. Differentiation Stations*

This is physical grouping, but based on areas of differentiation-background knowledge, reading level, an individual skill, etc. If instruction is tailored for a student in this way-with their Zone of Proximal development-there is more opportunity for thinking, teaching, and learning that 'fits.'

Also a teaching strategy, Fishbowls sees a group of students in the middle, and a group on the outside in a circle facing the group in the middle. You can also arrange your classroom this way permanently-or at least for an extended period of time. The 'fish' in the middle have one function (e.g., reading roles from a play, solving a problem, analyzing art, etc.) while the group on the outside participates in a #backchannel twitter chat with a love running log on a screen. Here, everyone can have a voice-and an opportunity for thought.

5. One Group + 4 Rows

This one is what it sounds like it'd be-one group complemented by 4 rows. This setup could be useful if the majority of the class is often working on one activity-or part of an activity, while the bulk of the class works on something else. It obviously can be used collaboratively as well.

6. 2 Groups + 2 Rows

Same as above, but more of the class is in a group this time, so the class is split more evenly.

7. Function Pods*

This one is similar to Differentiation Stations, only the idea here is less about differentiation and more about a task. Think literature circles, for example, where everyone has a role. The difference here is that the whole classroom is set up that way.

8. A 'Google Room'*

Think colors. Lots of colors. Shapes and textures, too. Diverse lighting sources. A lot of natural light, if possible. Areas to work alone, in pairs, or in groups. Sitting. Standing. Openness. Collaboration. May not be possible to realize completely, but you could use it as inspiration.

9. Two Sides*

You can also split the classroom into 'two sides.' This may be comprised of rows, but the room is set up in halves oftentimes facing one another. This can be especially effective for Social Studies classes, or other content areas that use Accountable Talk as a teaching strategy.

You can also have the two sides comprised of angled rows. This isn't a huge change from traditional rows, but it does offer a few advantages if you've got the room, namely that students are in the line of sight of one another more naturally.

10. Giant Oval

Usually, this is used for team-building activities, but it's possible to run a classroom this way for a full unit if you plan for it effectively. Maybe a steady diet of agree/disagree, debate, Socratic Seminars, and Accountable Talk, for example.

11. Teacher In The Middle

Picture a 'regular classroom,' but with the teacher (and their desk, if they have one) in the middle. Changes the dynamic of the classroom quite a bit. Whether that's an effective teaching tool or not depends on how you use it (the same goes with all of these, I suppose).

They're out there. Write a grant proposal, put your desk in the middle, and make it work.

13. Horseshoe

An oval with one end missing. Kind of. Not sure this would be very effective long-term, but for a reading activity or a write-around (which are terribly underrated as teaching strategies), it'd work swimmingly.

14. Two Circles

Circles allow students to face one another and encourage conversation. It's not ideal for small group work, but fordirectn instruction and literacy activities, it has potential. One giant circle may not work well for a daily setup, but two circles might. With two circles, the size is obviously reduced compared to one, giving you a bit more flexibility for classroom management.

This is less about the shape of the desks, and more about the workflow and lesson design. The idea here is to plan lessons and units that require students to work together with different groups for different reasons, and to keep them moving, whether within one class, one week, or the unit overall.

16. Middle Circle, Outer Square

Putting a square on the outside and circle on the inside-or even vice-versa-is really just a 'geometric variation' of the fishbowl, but the size of the circle can be adapted for daily use by a large cluster of students.

17. Learning Labs*

If you can recall back to the high school science lab-high desks, 'things' to tinker with, students standing and moving around small areas of collaborative learning space-that's the idea of learning labs. This can be used in any content area and any grade level, and doesn't even necessarily require hands-on manipulatives. Students standing around a high desk solving physics or geometry problems while 'mixing' isn't a management nightmare if you've planned a lesson with this approach in mind.

18. A Learning Studio*

This is one example non-traditional classroom setups-imagine a Starbucks mixed with a library mixed with a classroom mixed with a maker space mixed with a design studio. Probably wouldn't work if you have 35 students, but if you have less than 20, this kind of approach could change the culture of learning in your classroom.

19. Open Square

Similar to #10, this one came on twitter from , "I do an open square with the open side facing the board & I put a table in the middle for my materials."

20. Fluid

Change your classroom setups weekly. Let the learning goals dictate how you use your space-and how students use their individual spaces. A fixed learning space reflects a fixed mindset. It's not 'a lot of work,' it's adapting.
20 Ways To Setup A Classroom; 20 Classroom Setups That Promote Thinking; adapted image attribution Google, flickr user makerfestivaltoronto, bsfinhull

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20 Classroom Setups That Promote Thinking

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How can you design classroom setups that promote thinking and creativity? From learning studios to maker spaces, here are some ideas.

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More posts:

Articles I've written elsewhere:

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Learning Space Design Books

This is a fabulous book for any educator looking to change up their learning space to support students collaboration. Even though this book is not directly about primary and secondary school environments (it focuses more on offices and universities) there's so many practical lessons to be taken from this book. Also be sure to check out the book's resources page. ( My review here).

This amazing and beautifully designed book was created by a team of architects and designers who took a look at education and school learning environments and created a list of 79 practical design ideas for schools to implement. This book is chock full of amazing interviews, statistics, and examples of beautiful learning spaces. ( My review here)

This book, published by ISTE, contains research on active learning space models and advice on planning, transforming and creating active learning spaces in school. This book inspired my 6 Active Learning Spaces post. (My review here

This book is a fantastic collection of research and resources for renovating and redesigning existing schools as well as constructing new schools. It includes 29 different design patterns for schools, and many of them have strong applications in the library. ( My review here)

This book showcases fifty different library design projects and contains plenty of inspiration and ideas for redesigning school libraries. More information on the organization here.

Published by the American Association of School Libraries, this book focuses on creating modern library spaces with user-based design strategies.

Unlike many of the other books, I've mentioned here, this one focuses on constructing and moving into a new library media center. It has lots of great resources and information.

This beautifully designed and inspirational book is almost more like an artist's workbook. The authors guide educators through questions and ideas to help them reimagine their learning spaces.

Articles/Resources:

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Learning Space Design - Renovated Learning

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We need to rethink how we design our environments for students. The resources here will help you to use learning space design to transform your space.

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