Designing my future classroom.

This past Friday in my Educational Technology, I tentatively designed my future chemistry classroom. It proved to be much more difficult to complete than expected. A crux of my teaching philosophy is based upon the importance of collaboration and clear communication, and piece of facilitating this is the physical environment.

In spite of these lofty goals, my drawing was pretty bare. It had an easily accessible whiteboard in the front. There were lab benches/fume hoods. The room itself was spacious and allowed for free movement of bodies, desks, and [hopefully] ideas as well. In the back of the room, there was a "science resource center" [computers, books, etc.] for students to use as necessary. I did not think about the walls, but I want them to be easily accessible for students to communicate/create artifacts of their ideas [I am a big fan of giant sticky notes].

This description says a lot about how I want to run my class and the expectations I have for my students. I plan to treat my students as the adults they are becoming. However, the students' respect for self and others will determine if this atmosphere will be conducive for learning or a place to babysit teenagers.

It will be funny to see how my views will change after student teaching.