Mrs. Brown’s Classroom Melissa Matheny October 5, 2015 Classroom Design Second Grade Mechanicsville Elementary School

Security and Shelter Behind Mrs. Brown’s office space, there is a shelf with family photographs, flowers, memorabilia, figurines, and a wind chime. This brings a little bit of her home environment into the classroom and gives the room a comfortable feel. By creating a space that emulates a home environment, Mrs. Brown and the students feel safe and nurtured.

Social Contact The classroom is set up with centers around the room that serve as a place of social contact for the students. Below is the computer center, with the listening center and guided reading center behind them. Above is the reading center that is used for buddy, Independent, and group reading. This area provides for security and shelter by having the comfortable rug to spread out on, but also allows the students to have an area of social interaction.

Symbolic Identification Setting a tone for the classroom community through classroom work displayed on the walls. Mrs. Brown encourages the students to embrace diversity in her classroom with the diversity poster that the students made above. They also read The Empty Pot (Demi, 1996) and made a pledge to be honest. Both of these activities foster a classroom community, and the art activities displayed are symbolic reminders to be honest and respect one another.

Symbolic Identification Mrs. Brown has laminated signs that she can place at the top of the blackboard in the front of the class to remind the students what the centers of the day consist of and the rotation of groups through the center. This is a valuable tool as the students move between groups, and I observed many students referencing the board to remember their center assignment.

Symbolic Identification A daily and weekly schedule is posted on the wall where all students can look for reference. This assists the students in remembering the order of their day, and preparing them for the tasks that are coming up in the remainder of the day and week.

Task Instrumentality Classroom jobs are assigned to each student. This continues to create a community in the classroom, as well as ensure that classroom tasks are accomplished.

Task Instrumentality This is the student mailbox. Throughout the day, student work that they will need to take home is placed in their envelopes. Towards the end of the day, older students from another classroom come in and deliver the envelopes to each student as they are packing their backpacks to go home. This streamlines the process of collecting, organizing, and distributing homework.

Pleasure Mrs. Brown has a soft rug in the reading center, as well as many small soft individual rugs that the students use for the writing center (Stylemarket, 1995). Because space is limited, she has the students each get a rug and a clipboard and then they can do their writing assignment spread out in the front of the classroom. This is not only comfortable for the students, but gives them a chance to get out of their seats.

Growth To encourage student growth, Mrs. Brown had each student fill out an “I Can” chart, listing all the things they can do. They are displayed at the front of the classroom. At the end of the year they will fill out another “I Can” chart to show their growth and progression throughout the year.

Works Cited Demi. (1996). The empty pot. New York, NY: H. Holt. Stylemarket,(photographer).(1995)Nain Rugs [digital image] Retrieved from http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/Nain-Rugs-/10000000007220183/g.html