21st Century Classroom - From Teacher Centered to Student Centered

At the end of last school year I thought about how my classroom was working to enable the learning that I had envisioned for my students. I considered the things that went well and the obstacles that got in the way. I came up with several things to change over the summer.

• First, my “teacher stuff” was abundant and often an obstacle that kept me from being able to gather the children to best facilitate what ever we were doing. The first photo shows a microwave cart that was repurposed to carry my teaching supplies. We (by we I mean my husband) also added sturdy casters so it is very mobile. The rest of my materials were reduced from 3 bookcases to 1.
• A second problem was the student desks. With so many little desks clustered around the room it was difficult for me to move around the room from one group to another and it was a huge production to move desks when we needed to. The second picture shows the desks are gone. We now have a variety of tables. Some tables have had locking casters added to the legs that will better facilitate rearranging tables (It was too expensive to add casters to all the tables.).
• The third issue was the whiteboards. Both of our whiteboards were mounted with teachers in mind. This did not make them very inviting for students to use while they were working. I moved and lowered one whiteboard to a space where it is more accessible to students.
• The fourth issue was the amount of direct instruction I was providing. I need to give more opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning in a hands-on way. I've been to several trainings (Cue Rockstar, Shift, DALLA, CA Teacher’s Summit) this summer which included project-based learning, green screen, Minecraft, and other technology or student-centered sessions.
• Lastly, I have reduced the amount of stuff on our walls. I've left some spaces open and other spaces flexible for the students to decide what to put up.

I also have a few projects still in the works. I've been working on alternative seating and developing a makerspace. You can see a green UFO looking blob under the table in the second picture above. This is a Runtz ball chair. Over the summer I submitted a Donors Choose project which was fully funded and I will soon have six more chairs. In the next few days I will be submitting another project to Donors Choose that I hope will fund another type of chair and supplies for our makerspace. The makerspace will be along the counter by the windows. As I gather and arrange more supplies I will remove some of the cabinet doors so that students understand they are there for them to use.

I am so excited for school to start. My classroom has changed from teacher-centered to student-centered. It is ready for my group of creative thinkers to come in, move around, and collaborate.