Setting
Up Your Middle School Classroom Rand Briggs
Tables or Individual Desks
What you start out with has a great deal of impact on what you are
able to do in your classroom. Tables often limit the flexibility that
you need to quickly and easily change groupings. You can usually move
the desks around quite easily and put them into various clusters or
arrangements as the classroom activity dictates. If you are doing
a discussion activity it is sometimes useful to have students face
each other from opposite sides of the room. At other times, when you
are doing a demonstration or presenting new material, having all the
desks face the same direction is the best approach.
Seating Charts
One of the most difficult parts of arranging a middle school classroom
is the matter of seating charts. I have found that it is best to
start out with an alphabetical seating chart. This gives me time
to observe the students and get a handle on the personalities both
of individuals and the group as a whole (it also allows me time
to learn the names of my students). I generally learn the names
of the most verbal students first, and it often takes me longer
to learn the names of the quieter students. Since middle school
students tend to feel that they are in school primarily to socialize,
it can be difficult to find the particular arrangement that gives
the students some measure of closeness to their friends, without
allowing them a proximity that causes them to be disruptive or distracted
during class. It generally follows that when you arrange students,
they will be focused for several weeks, until they get aquatinted
with their nearest seatmates, at which point they begin to lose
focus. This is the point at which I make a few moves to mix the
pot a little bit.
I have found it best to make the
changes myself, rather than allowing the students to choose their
own places. Giving the students too much say in their seat location
may have an adverse effect on your ability to keep the class moving
in the direction that your would like.
Visuals and Posters
One of the things that I have noticed in my classrooms is that students
really like to see things on the walls and bulletin boards. If you
are teaching biology or natural science there are many very nice
posters available from the USDA Forest Service as well as from your
local and state Environmental and Natural Resource agencies. Additionally,
many science supply companies have a wide selection of display materials,
as do curriculum suppliers for math, social studies, and language
arts. Other excellent sources of display materials for your classroom
are your local and regional zoos, arboretums, art and science museums.
Extra Books
Sooner or later, one or several of your students will forget to
bring their books to class. Creating a consistent classroom policy
to handle this situation early in the year is the key to success.
I generally try to keep several copies of the text in my room for
classroom use only, however when things are going well, I sometimes
find that these copies walk out the door. I have known teachers
who trade a shoe for a book at the beginning of class, but I'm not
sure how well that would work with a group of eighth graders, some
of whom are usually looking for a way to disrupt things and get
some attention from their classmates. Whatever approach you decide
on, set it up early, make it simple and manageable, and be consistent.
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