When putting your classroom together it is important that we think of how the design works for our students. This article emphasizes that teachers need to make their classrooms "Landscapes for Learning." It does take more time and thought, but the end results outweigh the extra work and time in the beginning.
This article offered some great suggestions on how to make a classroom both safe and inviting. I recognized the importance that a classroom layout can have while noticing the difference between two classrooms at a school last semester. The teachers had completely different teaching styles and completely different classroom layouts. One was organized, bright, and students had access to clearly defined spaces. The other was filled with unorganized bins without lids and missing game pieces. The students were constantly interrupting small group time to ask the teacher if it was "okay" to visit certain areas of the room. It reminded me that this problem can be solved if all boundaries are clearly defined. This article sums that up!
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