(Re)Imagined Classroom

If I have windows in my classroom, I'll get shades for it. Thick enough they can't see outside but hopefully light enough to let a little natural light in. That way, kids who may get distracted by things happening outside will be able to focus a little more.

I still think having computers with internet access is something I really want in my classes so all my students will have an opportunity to do research. If not in my own class, then I'd want a lab somewhere in the school that we could go to if the kids needed the internet for any projects.

I feel like the ratio between teaching and conversing and doing activities will be more of a 1:1:2 ratio. I understand now that there are skills I will need to explicitly teach the kids because they need it. Group talking and doing activities will be to help assess understanding of the materials.

Rather than just straight lecture, I will still try to encourage questions of all kinds. I have a policy that I think worked fairly well in my lab that I taught. There are no such thing as HONEST stupid questions. There are such things as "smart-alec" stupid questions. What I noticed is that once I encouraged questions, and had more time where students constructively explored the subject they were learning, they would ask me questions while I was walking around and monitoring them. It was less stressful for those who may think they have "embarrassing" questions and wouldn't want to ask them out loud and in front of everyone. So the key was stressing the importance of questions, and making myself available to be asked questions in a non-stressful situation.

I still want to do field trips, but I also want to make sure that everyone can come who is interested. I also have to be aware of what they are doing in other classes and make sure I don't hinder the students or their teachers being able to do a lesson.

If I have a lot of specimens around the room, I'll have to make sure all of them are durable enough to be handled and have assigned times when people can or can't touch them. I still want to have a lot of things relevant to the lesson but also make sure that those specimens are relevant to the student's own lives and culture. Also in my room I would want to put either a pink upside-down triangle or a pride flag somewhere in the room so students know that my room is a safe room for LGBTQ kids.

I still think the ideal would be near the ocean, forest, and some sort of college. But really, there is always something to explore in the surrounding area. I would want to find projects with locals that have to do with biology, possibly having the students nominate people who they think would be interesting. If students don't know people, I could ask them to think of a subject we learned about that they enjoyed and I could find people.

I honestly don't know what kind of students I'll get. I'm sure I'll see every kind of student come through my classroom, so I really just want to judge it by each situation than try to imagine the kinds of students I expect to see. I want to see equal amounts of young men and women and encourage girls to join our class if I find that boys start to dominate my class.

I still want a seating chart that gets switched up every now and again. I'll let students have anonymous input in who they want to sit by, but mostly to see if anyone is getting excluded or possibly bullied.

I'm thinking of changing up the rules I originally had. I want them to be clear and posted in the room (if students need it in a different language, I'll give them a handout of the rules in their language after class). I honestly don't know what the specific rules would be, but I would try to make them as clear as possible. There will be a three strikes policy. The first time they violate the rule, I'll tell them what they did wrong and the better choice they should make. The second time the violate it, I'll have them call their parents after class or if their parents don't answer, they'll leave a message. Third time, we'll have a meeting with their principle and their parents.

I still would want daily low stakes quizzes over the material we learn in class. Possibly doing it as a warmup/review before class instead of at the end of class. I still like the idea of reviewing commonly missed questions and creating study guides for students based on questions they missed. I want to try really hard to have projects done more in class than out of class. I want assessments to be done more through projects that the students can choose, like doing a movie or doing a written report or something else. I still want to do a science fair but I would want to make time in class to work on it.