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I wish that there was more personality in my room but since I share it with other teachers there is not a lot of room for all of us to include things. This is especially frustrating because the students can’t reflect themselves in the room as well. In the community the school tries to add student art work and have the PTA very involved in everything that is done. We try to tie in culture by honoring holidays such as Lunar New Year. In school we do a celebration and have the Chinese Dance Club from the high school come down and put on a performance. We do change seats often in the room to keep things fresh and to accommodate to the small space. Since some of our learners have behavioral management issues we include a lot of breathing posters that have breathing and calming exercises on them to help them relax and we try to create as calming of an environment as we can.

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We add word that are tricky to spell but common it is important every students voice is heard on this wall, no word is too small!

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In the classroom we do not have a ton of space because this room was not originally a classroom but an extra storage room. We do have a lot of great storage though. Since the room is so small we have to use all the space for desks and tables. I wish we had more space for the library since it is very important. Since I also share the room with other teachers there is not a lot of room for personality of customization either.

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I like the mixture of large screens to show powerpoints but also the basics of a whiteboard that can be removed and taken to their table to write on then hang back up. To me this was a fantastic combination of basics low tech and high tech. The reality is sometimes high tech does not work. Also, I got more involved responses with writing, having them change seats halfway through the class and already in small groups, much easier to interact with each other. I was also able to move around the classroom very easily.

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I also forgot to add that there were large white boards along the wall and medium removeable white boards too.

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I taught Spanish 101 at my University for a Teaching Assistantship.  The round tables with 6 chairs comfortably was fantastic to get my students interacting.  

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I have included students work on display on the walls. I have included a poster with the rules, which I do have students reread, and I point to it whenever students start misbehaving. I have an area with extra copies in the back for students who need extra copies. I also have diagrams/posters with information based on the content. All the students are reflected in the classroom because all of their work is on display. The physical space looks like a typical high school classroom, but sometimes I have students move their desks together in groups of five or in groups of two for certain activities. I've also seen flexible seating arrangements in elementary schools that I'd like to try. Unfortunately, I don't think families and students played a role in organizing school environments, but now that I was made aware of it I can include my students in the classroom decorating process :)

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Here you can see my chalk borders with class discussion notes and due dates. I also have my students' work on display on the top right. I also have resources available on the top.

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This year I taught a Spanish Class. I used the Smart Board to display out activities. I use the chalk board to write notes and due dates. 

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This picture is from our Heritage Fair in May of this year. Each year our school organizes this fair to celebrate the many different cultures represented within our classrooms and community. Families volunteer to prepare food, decorate a table, dress in traditional clothing and be present at the fair. The physical space is both inside and outside of the school itself beginning in our Pre-k commons area and leading to an outside courtyard. Families are welcome to sample traditional food items, hear songs and see traditional dances from different cultures. This event celebrates diversity and promotes an inclusive welcoming environment for our students and their families.
Alix McMahon

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Soccer for social change creates a powerful learning experience that reflect inclusivity, unity, and transformation. In that picture, students from diverse backgrounds and abilities came together to promote soccer for social change, breaking down barriers of exclusion. The physical spaces were filled with laughter, teamwork, and a sense of belonging, where everyone felt valued and celebrated. Families, students, and school systems play integral roles in organizing schools for this purpose, working together to create safe and inclusive environments where the power of soccer is harnessed to promote social change.

Reyes Andon

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Dragon the students created in art class in celebration of Chinese New Year in February. 

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In school we have made it point to celebrate the culture of my students culture. We did both Morocco and Albania. We spent weeks learning about the different as we took time to learn about the language, the music, the art, the culture, the events, the clothing, the agriculture, and religion. Just doing this drew such engagement for all students with learning abilities. I really think this is a very important activity to do across all grades as it engages learners and welcomes all.
Patricia Medard

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This is a picture of students in my classroom learning using their Chromebooks. It also shows the design of my classroom. Our classroom desks sit in a "U" shape with a common area for a rug and bean bag chairs in the middle of the room. There's also a table in the back of the room for group work. I try to design my room so it's easy to transition to group work and students feel like the classroom is a warm and collaborative place to learn. I never want students sitting in rows. I also give students the opportunity to choose their seats whenever possible. Sometimes modifications need to be made, but they're mostly given choice as far as seating.

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Here students were learning about symbols and how they represent something that is culturally defined. In different situations they can stand for different things. One student who came from Germany felt inspired to use a symbol from Germany that meant strength. Some kids drew a school because it was somewhere they enjoyed going. Other kids drew symbols to represent sports they play. The kids enjoyed trying to figure out whose flag was whose. Students also felt proud to share what represented themselves.

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Students created a small "flag" on a white index card and put three symbols on their flag to represent themselves. Next, we put all of the flags together to make the United Flag of Classroom 20.

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I teach in an elementary school in Far Rockaway, Queens - currently both in theater and as a 5th grade homeroom. My theater room (when I've had one) has always been open so that students can sit in a circle and move into different groupings quickly. This also allows different grades to be set up differently (I usually teach 3K-5). I am thinking of adding some tables and/or chairs next year to provide some more grounding. The 5th grade room was set up (not by me) to foster discussion and collaboration - students sit in a U and can move to cluster spaces at several tables and the carpet (either independently or with a teacher). I am trying to envision a way to keep the grounding of the desks in 5th grade (with its multiple groupings options) as well as the open space of my current classroom.
The maps I posted is in English only - which is unfortunately typical of my school, despite a large portion of the population speaking Spanish. I try to build my anchor charts in English/Spanish, as well as including visuals. I want to do a better job of building my boards (and classroom labels) representing the languages my students use (English and Spanish primarily) as I set up next year. I see this in some rooms, primarily younger grades or rooms with a high percentage of emergent bilingual learners. Signage outside of these spaces is almost exclusively in English, though notices and messages (school all call) are in English and Spanish.

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My school uses Thinking Maps schoolwide. This is a class created chart, but formats are also used for anchor charts and to help students organize their work.

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As I mentioned, this year I am teaching 5th in addition to theater. The 5th grade room includes a variety of spaces for collaboration (to which students sometimes elect to move and are sometimes asked to move).

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I usually teach theater and this year also taught 5th grade (which I will poste separately). My theater room is really open (which I like), with students usually sitting in a large circle (full group) or smaller circles (group work). The risers/carpet set up also supports classroom performances.

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My students and I working on a fun science experiment!

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One of the anchor charts in my classroom.

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I currently teach Reading AIS for 3rd-5th grade. I split my room with another Reading AIS teacher. We try to split the room up so that we have an even amount of space. In my area I always have anchor charts with visuals of what the students are working on. Since I work a lot on phonics, many of my charts are the different phonics skills we are working  on. After being in this course, I find it hard to find a way to include another language on those charts (but I really want to add that on them now). My coworker and I do not have anything that is a different language than reading. I would love to change that for the future. I feel that it might exclude some of my MLLs. I make it a point to include them while speaking with them by including Spanish and using my translator app, but now I would love to include some Spanish within my anchor charts. My school uses Class Dojo, which is a great way to communicate with families who speak another language. As a whole, my school does not really embrace our MLLs linguistically. The students state that they feel welcome and safe in our building, but there are no signs around the building in another language. I believe that the only place that has multiple languages is in the ENL room.

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Another anchor chart that I have up in my room. (All of my stuff is packed away for the summer)

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I have many anchor charts up for phonics

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I teach second grade bilingual in Brentwood, New York. Brentwood Union Free School District is one of the largest on Long Island. The majority of the population in Brentwood is hispanic. Brentwood has eleven elementary schools, four middle schools, two high schools, a freshman center and a kindergarten center.
My classroom is labeled in both English and Spanish. All anchor charts are written in both English and Spanish. Most posters and anchor charts have English written in blue and Spanish in red, so that the students are able to easily identify vocabulary. The classroom is colorful and the room is divided by subject with the reading corner as the focus. In the reading corner there is a carpet for the students and bookshelves with a leveled library in both English and Spanish. The school and teachers in the school are very involved in the community and events are set up throughout the school year to provide support and information to parents.

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This is a setup of my classroom this year. I like to have a lot of tables to use for centers and guided reading groups. 

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My school is located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. More than half of our student population are multilinguals. This year I worked in a 2nd grade ICT classroom. The way the room was set up was to provide students with accessible resources for both group and independent work. We used a lot of visuals for students throughout the classroom and have student examples easily viewable. The art exhibit gave 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders a chance to share their art work and their feelings about it. The students in the visuals I provided are all multilingual learners. The school also made the art show accessible to parents who were able to come into the building and ask their child about their art work. All notices were sent home in the student's native language and sent out through the RemindApp or ClassDojo. The show was recorded live for those families who were unable to make it.

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Two of my students showcasing their art work and the stories they created about the characters using the platform ScratchJr.

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A former student next to his art display. The school had an art exhibit where grade 1-3 students shared their art work along with a writing piece. All students in the school visited and families were also invited to see after school.

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The Writing Center Board displaying student work and a shared writing that was done whole class. Along with it is a shared drawing that was created and labeled with entering and emerging ENL students.

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Here is a visual map of my classroom. A similar template is displayed for students with their names when my co-teacher and I do station teaching.

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My ENL classroom is shared by three teachers, one other ENL teacher works with 3rd graders and I work with 4th and 5th. It has a layout that is conducive to the language learning. This includes a large central table arranged in a U shape for group discussions, visual aids and space for students to move around. There are a range of materials to support language acquisition, that includes textbooks, workbooks, literacy materials, bilingual dictionaries, wall word words, charts, audio and video resources. I use interactive whiteboards and laptops to create engaging and interactive learning experiences for students. There are multicultural resource such as flags, photos, books, and maps that celebrate diversity of the students. There are flexible seating arrangements that allow students to work independently or collaboratively.

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I work in a very diverse school in Queens Village, NY. My current classroom is very small.  My classes all have fewer than 12 students. I like to set my desks up in a horse-shoe to promote participation and discussion amongst students.  This also allows students to see one another while speaking.  I also like this set up because I can move freely in the center to confer with students during independent practice.  Also, our triangular desks make it really easy to rearrange to work in groups.

In the photo, you can see my students working in groups to complete some vocabulary practice.  There are 4 MLLs pictured here. They're grouped heterogeneously with their peers.  Student work on the bulletin board is inclusive of all students--even if they're not perfect (although, I do hide the final scores).

Unfortunately, our school PTA isn't very active. I've noticed this is a trend in middle schools. Parents are a lot more hands-off. We do have some parent volunteers help out during book fairs and other similar events. My principal has been very cautious as we emerged from the pandemic and has just begun allowing these types of events this school year.

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In the map, the desks are arranged in groups of 4 to promote collaboration and conversation. The bulletin board in the back has posters and student work, primarily if not exclusively in English. This does include students in the process of decorating but everything being only in English excludes MLLs. However, in one of the other classrooms I'm in is visually more inclusive as seen by all of the flags on the back wall. Also, this is an example of one of our circle discussions. Ideally, I would move the desks out of the way. The talking piece one of the students is holding is a coqui which I introduce in the beginning of the year as an aspect of my Puerto Rican culture

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I'm in several classrooms but this is the set-up of my favorite one.

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My classroom will look a little different in September. Right now, the room is divided lengthwise. We are getting Smartboards! I am so excited about this addition! The classroom presently has a makeshift divider. Both sides of the classroom have a carpet, kidney table, closets and an easel. My new room will be divided the opposite way in order to be able to utilize the Smartboard. I am very familiar with Smartboard technology and am excited to be incorporating it into my lessons next year. I think this will add even more variety and interactive participation with my students. I can't wait to start!

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Labels are in the room to help assist my ENL students.

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Student work is displayed. This gives a feeling of familiarity and comfort to the students.

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I utilized sentence strips with visuals. This was a game changer. I have these anchor charts around my room to help students during classwork.

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I share my classroom with another ENL Teacher. This has been a blessing. I was able to observe her teaching and we were able to plan together as well this year.

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Even though I teach chorus, my classroom isn't much off anything but an empty auditorium with chairs, a piano and a computer on a cart. I love it though. Most of the time I use a chromebook and a speaker, combined the grand piano to teach voice. It does not have a typical classroom feel, which is why I chose my neighbor's classroom. She happens to be in the background doing inventory since our students are graduating or taking regent exams. She also has a piano that she uses to teach orchestra and voice. She uses 3 rows of chairs which is a similar setup to what I have as well. She has a promethean board she uses for classroom purposes; I have a projector and screen in the projector but I rarely use it because of setup time. I prefer to use google meet to have kids watch a clip or use educator apps for collaboration, integration and participation. Orchestra uses music stands whereas students in my choir uses their chromebooks for music most of the time.

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That is my colleague, doing inventory at the end of the school year.

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I did my best to do a schematic of an orchestra classroom. Even though I am a chorus teacher, I decided on drawing my colleagues classroom because it is much more interesting than my space.

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I am a reading teacher and currently share a space with another reading teacher.

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In my future classroom I would want an open set up with the tables in a u- formation, so that all the students can work together and interact to promote socialization. I would have a carpet area near the library for students to sit on and read as well as a chair for me to sit in for read abounds and morning meetings. In the library all of the book boxes would be labeled and I would have books that reflected different cultures and holidays so that all students feel represented and are able to be educated on cultures and communities outside of whats in our classroom. I would want to have a play area with games, toys for building, things for imaginary play such as dolls, food, trucks, etc and another thing else that the students are interested in or contribute to them learning about the real world through play.  Lastly in terms of the physical space I would  want to have a bathroom in the classroom especially if I am teaching younger students for their convince. Interms of decor I would have labels and phrases with corresponding pictures  around the classroom so that students can independently get materials and navigate the classroom. I would also like to employ the use of nonverbal hand signals so that students can communicate with me without disturbing the whole class and I can meet students needs. I think that it is important for studnets to feel valued and repeated in the classroom so for that reason I would want to have a affirmation wall with phrases that remind the student of how loved and import they are. Going off of this I would want to have students art and work displayed around the classroom so that the students feel their work is important and to remind them of what we have done. In terms of parental involvement I would invite parents to come into the classroom on a weekly basis if they would like and come and be a guest read and or opt to teach a lesson where they teach the class on their job, culture or holiday. I would also keep parents in the loop by sending weekly or monthly news letters on what has happened in class and what we are learning as well as individualized progresses plans where tips are given for how parents can help at home.

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Labels on everything and phases for students to know in both english and the students home language

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I would want to have a affirmation mirror so that my students are reminded of how valued and loved they are in the classroom.

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examples of student work display, art and what we are up to in class bulletin boards. 

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I would want to have student work and art displayed in the classroom as well as posters of what we are currently working on.

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Since I do not currently have my own classroom here are a few things I would want in my future classroom environment.

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I am currently am getting my masters so I do not have my own classroom yet. However, this is what my ideal classroom would look like.

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Lindsay Ferrone

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The map of my classroom shows a layout for small group ENL instruction. The visuals around my school reflect the home languages of our student population. We have many students who speak Ukrainian and Spanish, so most of the print on the wall is translated to include the students in our community. Many teachers have updated their libraries to include bilingual and multicultural books, and provide scaffolds such as discussion prompts and helpful resources. We display family photos, flags of different countries, and our students’ “name stories”. The images represent translanguaging practices, culturally/linguistically responsive learning, and building community.
Lindsay Ferrone

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Lindsay Ferrone

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Lindsay Ferrone

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Lindsay Ferrone

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My classroom is a smaller space, fitting only 20 students at desks. It is used as a reading intervention room, so the posters on the wall focus on pronunciation of vowel sounds and images/words that provide examples in context. I have plants hanging in different parts of the room and in small posts around. The bookcase on the side contains workbooks needed for class, highlighters, pens/pencils, and Spanish/English and Arabic/English dictionaries. At the front of the room is the promethean where the teaching happens, but my students' favorite spot is directly below that where I keep mindfulness coloring, markets, Uno, and word games that we can play when we finish a reading lesson early. Different parts of my room are labeled in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Polish (i.e. door, window, desk, etc.) to support my multilingual learners. on the right side of the classroom there is a large map on the wall. On the map, each student and instructor in the room throughout the day was given the opportunity to add a post it flag with their name near the country they come from, their family comes from, or that they identify most with.

Jamie Wilen-Spencer