I chose to design my classroom layout for twenty-four fourth graders. When designing my class, I reminded myself that I may have students in my class with special needs. For this reason, my classroom is designed so that anyone can get to one point to another without any problems. The rows between all the clusters of desks are wide, and there is a pathway around the whole room that can be used to go to different parts of my room. There is also a table at the back of the room that students with handicap disabilities may use if a desk is not suitable for them. This table may also be useful for students with an aide. Although it is located in the back of the room, it is still near the clusters of desks so these students will not feel left out from the rest of the class.
I chose to arrange my students’ desks in clusters of four, so that my students will be able to interact on specific assignments and group activities daily. I will not have four random students in each group, but rather place a high, low, low medium, and high medium learning ability student in each cluster. This will allow me to sometimes pair two lows or two highs or a high and a low together. This will be an advantage for all students because the highs will be able to assist the lows by demonstrating what needs to be done, while they are helping themselves from understanding concepts in a more intellectual way because they will be explaining them to others. These clusters are placed in the center of the room so
The small group area is close to my student’s independent work areas because I would like to be easily accessible to my students if they need my assistance during their independent work time. I also chose this positioning because it gives me the best vantage point, whether my students are at a center, at their desk or at the computers, they are visible at all times. The independent work area is located in the center point of the room, purposefully far away from other centers, such as computers, that might distract the students from their work. I decided to give the students desk, which in one way promotes their own independent work, but I also have pushed the desks together in such a way that promotes collaboration
When the brain is able to learn naturally we call this theory brain based learning we use our brain everyday to acquire and take in things that we learn and children are no exception. According to Jean Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory children use their brain to think, reason, and remember. Based upon his observations, he concluded that children were not less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently (Cherry, n.d.). Piaget described his theory using stages that children go through as they mentally mature. In his description of children he called them "little scientists," actively trying to make sense of the
The desk arrangement in the classroom will be flexible. Desks will be arranged into various formats to align with the intended learning objectives of a lesson. Desks may be placed in groups to promote collaboration and cooperation. They may be organized in a peanut formation to promote student-student and student-teacher discussion.
My observation this semester is in a self-contained classroom for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The class is taught by one special education teacher who is assisted by a teaching aide. The desks are spaced out from one another, allowing each student a lot of room to move around. I believe the desks are arranged this way so that the students have limited contact with one another. There are books and games on a shelf that the students are allowed to use during break time. There are also two computers that they may use during breaks or after they have completed their work. In one corner of the room, there are two bean bags and a sign that says quiet zone. The students are taught reading, math, and language arts in this room. They go to an inclusion room for science and social studies. They eat lunch in the cafeteria with the rest of the fifth-grade students. They also leave this room every day to attend related arts with the rest of the student body.
Kindergarten classroom of 25 students they all sit at tables that will hold up to six students, however I have them sitting 5 to a table for ease of grouping. Each table is a team labeled by a color, a large construction paper crayon hangs from the ceiling above each table, and they have matching crayon nametags on their desks. There is a Smart Board at the front of the classroom as well as a white board. My desk is at the front of the room to the right of the white board. Different centers are located around the room such as the art center, the math center, the reading tree is in the opposite corner from my desk. The room also has a single restroom and a sink and water fountain outside of the restroom. We also have circle area to the left of the reading corner
Problems might start arousing when a class is crowded with students because an LSA is not able to talk and explain in a quiet environment, students interrupt and furthermore. Classroom organization strategies can have real benefits for students like John and other students with special needs. Even the planning of the floor space and the kinds and placement of furniture used need to be considered seriously, especially when a student makes use of a wheelchair like John. For example, floors that do not have a nonslip surface or no ramps can make wheelchair difficult to move. Furniture that is not placed in a proper way can block access to other things or materials such as computers and make mobility difficult for John. In addition, stationary and books that are too placed too high up may prove inaccessible to John. The design of the classroom should be predictable to make it easy for John to interact more with his peers. This can be a problem when one makes major changes without first taking into consideration their impact on students with special needs. However Gardner says “that childhood education should not be ‘one-size fits all’. Not all children are academic but all children have the ability to learn, be successful and to teach others in their area of intelligence. As educators we need to provide learning opportunities for children that reflect their
Students are groups based on their academic level, and have their desks are set in 4 groups of 6 with one group being in a set of 5. Two groups are in the front of the class while the other two groups are in the back of the class. 2 students are placed facing the window and 2 other students are facing the closets (making the students facing each other), and the last 2 students are facing the front of the classroom. I find that this positioning of the students is great for allowing students to turn and talk, and work as a group for certain assignments. The down side, however, is that students tend to talk excessively to one another, and get distracted more
This school is a title one school serving more than 400 students. Out of this student population, 85% of students are economically disadvantaged. The school also serves students with disabilities (31%) and English language learners (6%). The dominating ethnicities are Black or African American (51%) and Hispanic or Latino (40%). This is an ICT fourth grade classroom with around 25 students between the ages of eight through ten. There are two teachers in the classroom, one specializes in special-education and the other in elementary-education. The students learn best through logical/mathematical, verbal/linguistic, bodily/kinesthetic, and interpersonal activities. Most of the students in the classroom are visual learners. Therefore, organizers, timelines, and artistic activities benefit their learning the best.
Elementary school, for most people, is the easiest few years of school they’ll ever encounter. For me though, it was an uphill battle of trying to learn and fit in. Being diagnosed with a learning disability in second grade, I struggled to keep up with my classmates and my teacher’s expectations. By the third grade, I was put into the resource room all day instead of being allowed to stay in my classroom with accommodations. At the time, my teacher was a first-year teacher fresh out of college and because of my learning disability, she decided it was easier to put me in the resource room all day than to work with my accommodations. Ideally, the resource room is there to help students with disability’s
There is an important factor in grouping students together with or without disabilities. You must know how a student will work out in some different groupings, for example a student that will act out or misbehave in or around certain other students or vice versa how the student will act out if someone else acts good or bad will they follow along. Some placements will work in the favor of the class and help students come positively out as helpful or willing to work well with others. It is a great task to make some good decisions in helping group some students that may not be able to have had the experience of someone very different from themselves and it can bring out the best from each other. Mrs. Robinson has a rotational grouping so that most students get to work with each other at some point and time, it really seems to work out great in her classroom or resource room as they call it.
When working with students with disabilities you are faced with multiple challenges that make the task extremely difficult. Dealing with the day-to-day needs of this population, their parents, their paperwork, attending the meetings that go along with the job, can mean that there often isn’t a lot of time to interact with other students and teachers. It can be isolating and that can be hard. Limited operating budgets present additional challenges for special needs classes. You may have to do with fewer materials, and resources due to budget constraints. These challenges are all equally difficult and when combined, as they often are on a daily basis, almost impossible to juggle. There is the variablility of student’s needs; you will see students
After walking through the halls of Randall just during one passing period, one could say the hallways are filled with all different types of people,the couple, the eager freshman with the fear of always being late to class, the slow one and many more. If you were not too occupied with judging the types of people that surround you, you would notice how congested the hallways have become. Over the past few years, Randall has seen a huge increase in the student population.
The purpose of this project is to prove that that the benefits of creating a seating arrangement are beneficial. When a child is seated appropriately in the classroom they can be much more successful. When students are placed appropriately it has been proven that increases their overall success. Furthermore, creating a learning environment that is beneficial first need to have a great seating arrangement. In creating this the goal is to accomplish higher levels of success within the classroom for all students, while still accommodating to children with learning disabilities and special needs. The audience that will benefit the most from this project is all classroom teachers; especially the teachers who teach kindergarten through twelfth grade. This project is very beneficial
The modern classroom has many challenges that face it. Shrinking budgets, less parental involvement, higher expectations, and growing class sizes, just to name a few. If this list was not daunting enough you also have the special needs students that have an array problems in your classroom that need specialized attention, lessons and seating. There are many forms of diverse learners from students who suffer from ADHD to physical disabilities to students with autism to ones that are bullied in school. There are so many things going on in our students lives we sometimes forget they have lives, pressures and disabilities that affect their performance and attitude in our class that have a profound impact on how they learn. For this paper I
When I was in the classroom I noticed that all the kids were relatively the same height and weight, although there were a few students that were taller or weigh more. Majority of the students were mindful of giving other students their personal space, however, some of the taller students seemed to not notice that they needed to give other students room, personal space. The students that were taller or weighed more seemed to be more uncomfortable at their tables because there wasn’t a lot of room between the students and between the other tables. They taller students were put at farther tables and on farther squares when they were on the carpet.