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Your Space in the Classroom

Today’s video clip is about classroom environment  where you are, and how you use your space in the classroom for a high level of student engagement. Your space in the classroom is how you the educator uses the space, timing and relationship is part of the ‘choreography’ that supports a high level of student engagement.

Location, Location, Location
When you are facilitating a whole class discussion consider where your location is when calling on a student and their relationship to the class. When a student is answering to your question, they should be facing the whole class (their audience). People virtually always face the facilitator (teacher) when answering, so your location as the teacher is paramount in directing the student answering to face the whole audience (class).

Another consideration is to not repeat what the student says. The student answering should be the one heard and then they learn to be loud enough. It is from the heart that often students answers are repeated by the teacher, but that then has the students always knowing they will have a ‘voice’ to repeat what they say. It is better for the student to learn to speak loudly themselves for the class, for life.

Modeling Location
When you are modeling a method to the class — e.g. Think-Pair-Share — the location you choose will influence:

  • student engagement
  • student’s physical location to observe the process equally
  • students together as a community learning

When choosing a location several considerations to do with intention include:

centrally located so all students are involved

changing room locations so no students are always in the back and less involved

Practice with intentionality where you are located in the room and experience the change with student involvement. As always please share any thoughts and comments on your experiences.

 

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