- kimberleyadair
- Aug 28, 2019
- 2 min read
Ahhhhh, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, that beautifully crisp, white paper, and the quiet of the empty, pinterest-ready classroom awaiting the hopes and dreams of the young minds soon to inhabit it.
This time of year, we teachers are full of hopes and dreams for our students. We're working hard in our classrooms to ensure our students feel welcome in the space. We often spend our own money to purchase those "just-right" supplies and posters. I am no exception to this and I felt all of the excitement in preparing a new classroom for the students I'm bursting with enthusiasm to meet.
However, this year, something was different for me. While it was still important that I create a welcoming, comfortable space, I found it more difficult than I have in the past. I now recognize that, in my previous teaching life, the prettiness of my classroom was sometimes more for me than it was for my students or their learning. This year, I found myself struggling with the interior design aspects of classroom preparation because I don't yet know the kids. How can I prepare a space, that is as much theirs as it is mine, before I've even met them? I wrestled with this question and, while I initially wanted that pinterest-ready classroom, I chose student-ready.
Instead of spending scads of money at those well-known teacher stores, I chose to leave much of the canvas blank, ready for students to co-create our space, hopefully building a sense of ownership and care. I want the classroom to reflect the students who live and learn there.
The next thing I felt deserved real estate on the classroom walls were the thinking, talking and learning routines that will be critical in our work throughout the year. I added an interactive bulletin board that will serve as a space for us to reflect on our learning. I made space for learning targets and added sentence stems that promote deep thinking and problem-solving in literacy and numeracy.
Last week, as I was preparing, I had someone ask me with trepidation, worried they might offend me, "So I noticed your classroom is really white. Is that the thing these days?" And, I guess, it is the thing for me these days. As we learn and grow together, we will design our classroom together too. If I truly want my students to feel belonging, connection and ownership, I must commit to making space for that to happen naturally.
