Learning Environment

Big Question 22 - On any given day, if a stranger entered your classroom what would they think about the learning environment you create? What would it tell them about you as a teacher, or your relationship with your students?


The baseline is: I want my classroom to be the safest environment that my students will be in during the day (besides, hopefully, their own homes).

I know that sounds really happy and cheery and everything, but that is honestly how I want to function.
I want my students to argue with each other in a civilized manner.
I want my students to bounce ideas off of each other.
I want my students to work together.
I want my students to be able to come in, sit down, feel absolutely physically comfortable, and know that they are going to be absolutely intellectually challenged.
I want my student to be able to present their work knowing that their efforts will be heard and appreciated.
I want my students to be a community of readers and writers.

That said, my question to the reader is: Where does one go to argue with colleagues in a civilized manner? Where does one go to bounce ideas off colleagues? Where does one go to work together with colleagues? Where does one go to be absolutely comfortable? Where can one go to be intellectually stimulated in all sorts of ways? Where does one go for community?

I submit that best answer to this series of questions is: A Coffee Shop

That is the atmosphere I want in my classroom because I feel that that is the atmosphere where literary discussion and presentation will be exemplified! If my students can come into my classroom knowing that they are going to be able to sit down with their favorite delicious hot beverage and discuss ideas that are floating around in their heads about what they have read or present a presentation to an audience of peers… I believe that they will learn!

I would hope that this type of atmosphere would say that I am a teacher focused on the idea of classroom community, who is willing to try outside-the-box thinking and be a little crazy while at the same time remaining real and relaxed with my students.

If a stranger came into my classroom, I hope his or her response would be something like, “Can I grab a cup and stay a while?”