Memo 1- Student Perspective

Memo 1- Student Perspective

“What Does the Classroom Set-Up Say About Me and What I value?”

When considering which point of view to write from, I considered administration, coaches, fellow teachers and colleagues and decided on students. Who knows me better than the students that spend 8 hours every day with me, that is more time in school with me than at their own homes. This memo is from the voice of very close student and mentee that I have now had for 2 years.

Classroom Set- Up

When walking into Ms. D’s classroom, I immediately see bright colors and clean tables. The boards are bright yellow and green colors, and she always has something written on the whiteboard in colors. She likes the window shades open and rarely ever puts them down so her room is filled with bright light- sometimes we ask her to put the shades down, she will lower them only a bit. As I keep looking around the room I see lots of charts and things, like: class groups on the chalkboard, a class roles chart on the white board, a top performers board, a class points board, a chemistry updates board, and a restorative nook board. It is obvious that Ms. D is a science teacher because every board is organized as a table or chart. In the back of the room there is our school pet Felipe! Felipe is a crested eye lashed gecko, he is neat but sort of boring. Ms. D told us he is nocturnal, meaning he doesn’t do anything during the day and is apparently more interesting at night. We get to take him out here and there, Ms. D pretends she isn’t scared, but she is! As I keep looking around the room there are wooden shelves in the back filled with Felipe’s cage, books, supplies, painted boxes with quotes, a clock, and a calendar. In the corner of Ms. D’s room, she has a comfy beanbag chair that actually looks like a chair with a pillow for your feet. I love to try and sit in the beanbag chair during class, but always get asked to take an actual seat. Luckily though, I get to sit in this chair during PLT mentoring time!

Ms. D really likes it when we work in groups, she is always telling us that scientist need to learn how to work with all types of people and personalities and is therefore always changing our seats and groups. We never have the same seat or groups, everyday our seats are assigned, and we rarely ever sit in groups larger than 4. Since we are always sitting in groups, Ms. D has organized the lab tables in her room into 5 groups. The tables are placed so that 3 groups of tables are on one side of the class and 2 groups are on the other. The tables are also positioned so that no one’s backs are to the board- expect this had to change because of the big leak in Ms. D’s celling that no one has fixed yet. It is always dipping gross water and getting on everything. It annoys us, and you can really tell it annoys Ms. D. On each table there are group roles that no one ever really looks at and supply boxes filled with colored pencils or markers which we use regularly.

As I keep looking around I stop at Ms. D’s desk, it is very organized and clean. She loves to be clean- you can tell. On her desk is a printer, her computer, a container for pens and pencils, a chemistry themed mug, location, hand sanitizer, a rubrics cub, and two paper trays that stack on top of each other. She lets me sit at her desk regularly, especially if I am having trouble focusing. In our mentor sessions, we are constantly talking about how much potential I have and most of the time I’m on it, except for the times I get distracted by my peers. So, we decided together that when I get distracted by my peers I can use Ms. D’s desk as a place to do my work and get back on track. I like her desk- it is warm and inviting and behind her desk she has a charging station for our cell phones, a pretty bookshelf filled with more book and binders, and a closet where I like to hang my backpack and coat. I keep everything in Ms. D’s room. When sitting behind Ms. D’s desk you can see everything and everyone in the room, yet you’re not in the mix of it all and that’s nice sometimes. The last thing I should mention about Ms. D’s room is that on the big wall above the whiteboard she has the periodic table of elements and in all 5 windows on the other side of the room she has hung light blue and white curtains to make the room look like a home instead of a classroom.

Who is Ms. D and What Does She Value?

            Since Ms. D’s room is bright, sunny, and welcoming, I immediately think Ms. D will be the same. Most of the time she is! Ms. D tends to be very positive, energic, and caring. She sometimes is so caring and kind that we get away with things we shouldn’t, we know she can be a bit of pushover. But! There are times that Ms. D is not a pushover and has had, as we like to mimic her, “ENOUGH!”. Ms. D’s toughness is not seen immediately when you look around her room, but slowly after detailed observation you start to notice the organized structure to the room. Everything is charted, listed, color coordinated. You can tell Ms. D likes structure so there’s no surprise she gets frustrated when we are all out of our seats not doing our work. By looking around the room you can tell that Ms. D values kindness, structure, and group work.

            Kindness is one of Ms. D’s top values, she is always positive. So positive that at first we thought she was strange and we told her so. We said, “Miss you are so strange.” She asked why, and we responded with, “because nobody is that nice.” She seemed really confused in that moment and didn’t understand why we felt that way. To her, people always act like that, to us, that’s not the case. It took us awhile to get used to how nice Ms. D is, but we have come around. When you walk into her room you know its her room- its bright and colorful, it has a warm and cozy feel to it and is clean.  

            Another one of Ms. D’s values is structure, she loves her structure. Everything we do from the moment we walk into the door is structured. We look for our seating on the board, we grab a chromebook, start the warm up and wait for class to begin. Ms. D is so structured that everyday she stands at the door and repeats, “Hi how are, find your group, grab a chromebook, and take your seat”, over and over again until everyone is in the class, seated, and doing the warm up. She also lists all the behaving students on the board and has a board for class roles, we each have role at the end of class, like: chair duty, computer duty, trash, supply, and desk duty. Even the work Ms. D gives us is structured. Every concept is provided a process or step sheet to follow. Ms. D loves structure but since she loves it so much she sometimes stresses when we are not following her structure exactly.

            Ms. D also values group work, as I said above, she is constantly having us sit in groups and work with new people. She believes that we need to learn how to work with all people even if we don’t want to. If we sit at the wrong table or refuse our groups, she won’t start the class until we move. You can also tell that Ms. D love group work because even in our groups we have roles! The roles you can pick from are: Leader, Recorder, Question Master, and Time keeper. Each person is to have a role and contribute to the group work. Our work as a group is always handed in and graded. Sometimes I get a good group and like group work because we all help each other, sometimes I hate group work because Ms. D pairs me with people I don’t like and they don’t do their work, which is really annoying.

            All in all, when you look around and observe Ms. D’s room you are able to see what type of teacher and person she is. Her room is just an extension of who she is and how she acts and what she believes. I like Ms. D’s room and I am happy that it is not only my chemistry room but my mentee room as well.

This memo is a student perspective from the student’s point of view and her purpose was to analyze my room and determine how my room set-up relates to and explains who I am and what my values are. When writing this piece, I placed all thoughts from the student’s voice. However, I still feel as though my memo is biased, I am writing what I think my student’s thoughts are, which is still influenced by my own perception. I would love to know what my students think about my room set-up and its reflection on me and my values. To do that though, I would need to interview or survey my students and collect actual data. This could possibly be something I do in the future, to make sure my room is warm and welcoming to all students and truly represents me and my values.