Classroom Design

If I could choose what kind of desks I wanted in my classroom, this room would look somewhat different. However, it was not up to me on what desks I would be getting, though I was able to wrangle some circular tables and a few longer desks that I am happy with. While I only have between 6 and 12 students in my resource room, I have plenty of desks to choose from. It's always interesting to see where the students choose to sit and how possessive they become of their area. I don't make a seating chart unless absolutely necessary because I want these students to be as comfortable as possible in their areas. With that said, the round tables sit 4 and, without fail, there are only 2 students at each table. So, my current set-up is student-oriented in which I move around the classroom and work with students on an individual or small group basis.

Ideally, I would like to have a classroom that is station-based. If I had more instructional assistants (not complaining, just a fact), I could have an area for students (with goals in reading comprehension) to practice with ReadWorks passages and answer comprehension questions. I could also have an area for students to practice math, either related to what they are working on in class or to boost their confidence in previous areas that they are struggling with. I could also have a check-in station, about 5 minutes in length so I can work with each student briefly on organization, checking PowerSchool grades, and checking Canvas to make sure their planners have been filled out correctly.

With all that said, these stations don't need to be mandatory. I can set it up so that each student has to work with me or the IA twice a week for 15 minutes each or something similar to this. I don't want to take away their ability to work on homework, but recently, I've been working on finding engaging activities for my students to complete in the resource room as a way to work on their goals. It's somewhat tricky to get the students in the mindset that "Study Hall" is more of "Let's Work on Your IEP Goals" Hall. It's also going to be tricky to talk to the parents about this switch as they are often expecting their students to work on just homework in the resource room.

This change won't happen overnight, but I'm trying my best to ease everyone into this setting as best as I can.

Thanks for reading,

Kelli

(Playing a review game - answer a question then pass it on to another person to answer a question)