The shape of things to come

I was in a classroom yesterday, observing lessons (which is part of my day job running the PGCE), and it occurred to me that the arrangement of the room was pretty near perfect! I mentioned it to my colleague and co--observer and she agreed that it was just about the nicest thing to have - your own classroom set out in the way that you want it.

The perfect classroom?

I'd advise all new teachers, especially the inexperienced, to argue for their own classroom base.

In my final school-based job, as an 'experienced' and part time teacher, was not deemed sufficiently important to have my own classroom - or even one shared. Maybe they were being kind when they said that I would be able to handle it. But in practice, this meant that I had nowhere to store my books in a convenient place, each room was configured differently, and I felt like a hapless snail, dragging my work along with me to whichever distant part of the building was vacant.

I was not a happy snail!

Anyway - here's why I think this room works really well:

1. It's the teacher's own room. More than that, it's the room where pupils identify that their lessons WITH that teacher are going to take place. Pupils notice things. They like order and discipline, but also personality and nice things around them. My last school went through a phase of getting rid of all personality by painting the entire place in battleship grey. No notice boards, no pupil displays. You were allowed a thin strip of orange, green or blue (I think) around the top of the room, just below the ceiling. That made all the difference. NOT. The idea was that bright colours and wall displays distracted students from their work. I always felt it was like being in a prison (not something I have been in, but I have seen enough on TV to get the gist). It was notable, for all the SLT's earnestness, that at Open Evening and Parents' Evening, they went round and put out vases of flowers to brighten the place up. The room in the picture was warm, inviting and clean and tidy.

2. You'll see that the room is laid out horizontally rather than vertically. That means that no-one is too far from the back. The back row is always the place where pupils try to hide. And when the teacher is fiddling about with the daily register at the front, all sorts of terribleness can be had there. As someone who has very poor eyesight, I'm also accutely aware how much of a lesson is explained through use of a whiteboard: it means that most pupils are close to the front and can see it clearly (I couldn't see what was written on the board when I was a pupil myself and I DID sit at the front - but I am an exceptional case, I know!).

3. The pupils are sitting in rows. Now I know there are BIG DEBATES about rows versus groups, and a lot of paper is used in discussing the whys and the wherefores of pupil groupings. Passions can run high. As a teacher, I've always thought that rows are easier to get round than table groups (classrooms are usually too small for comfortable seating arrangements otherwise) and if you want, you can always ask pupils to turn round and get into groups. Just because pupils are in rows doesn't mean that they can't do work together.

4. There is a big gangway down the middle of the room. Pupils can get in and out easily - and the teacher can get up to the back of the class with ease as well. More important, the teacher can use it as a sort of runway for when they are talking or explaining and everyone can see - the teacher goes out among the pupils, not crouches hidden behind the PC at the front. The area can also be used as a kind of 'performance space' if you want the pupils to do something more demonstrative.

5. The front of the classroom is divided into three zones: a large, standard whiteboard for live-modelling ideas, capturing pupil responses and for use as a whole-class memory board; an interactive whiteboard / screen for demonstrations, projection of text or images; a display board of pupils' work. Careful interplay between the three can lead to some very powerful teaching and learning.