Part 3 of the Designing a New KS3 SoW series. Reflecting on the teaching and learning that’s taken...
I spent Friday rearranging the equipment in my department as per the plans that I laid out in my last blog post. By and large, everything was the same as my plans, except that I had forgotten about there being no plug sockets by the door, so I had to move the location of two stations. I also found myself putting the piano by the door, which gives a lot more space in the middle of the room. The final layout looks like this…
Facing the wall
I’ve always found it confusing when I see classrooms with keyboards around the edge of the room so that each pupil is facing the wall. One of my first actions when I started at this school was to get rid of that. On Friday, however, I found myself moving the stations so that almost all of them were against the wall. It created a lot more space in the middle of the room and ensures that I will always be able to see what’s on the computer screen. The reason that I don’t think this is a problem, is that the workstation model itself allows pupils to work effectively in small groups. The extra space in the room makes this easier to do.
Having a second classroom that is dedicated to workshopping more than makes up for any shortcomings of the ‘facing the wall’ issue in my mind. The pupils can be moved to whichever classroom is most appropriate for the work they will be completing.
Preparing the pupils for change
It’s all very well and good to plan out a new classroom layout and to have a clear idea in my head as to how it will work but the pupils are the ones that need to make it happen. I’m eager that all classes get the same information regardless of which teacher they have, what I remember to say or how many coffees I’ve had. To that end, I created a video that explains what’s changed and the behaviour I expect from the pupils and I hope that it’s relatively amusing too…