Thank You Debbie Diller

Earlier this spring I read and thoroughly enjoyed Debbie Diller's Spaces and Places. I had already been reflecting on how I wanted my new classroom to be set up and the book gave me more ideas to consider. Lately I realized just how handy it was. Because of her suggestion to create a classroom map on paper (which I had done previously) with sticky notes (a new idea for me) I jumped at the chance to enlarge the section with my room off of the floor plans. I made a few copies for future reference and set to work with my sticky notes.

Luckily, my director has let me go see my room throughout the stages of construction so that I could see it visually. I realized that my first idea of how I was going to place my student desks was not going to work because it was too narrow. However, since I had used Diller's post-it idea, I was able to quickly rearrange the desks in a new way. This way I did not have to sacrifice the vision of my room having a meeting area at the front by my computer and the Smart Board to facilitate integrating technology in with my reader's and writer's workshop.

Pre-planning is vital in my situation because once I make decisions having to do with some of the pieces of technology I will be locked in to certain configurations. For example, once they put in data drops from the ceilings, the desks will have to be arranged in those areas. Thus Diller's post-it planning has been an essential piece at making sure that I was able to allow a classroom set-up that will help me to implement ideal teaching practices.

Once I had my plan my director and I were able to go into the room and mark up where I wanted certain components with chalk. For example, we allocated the space for my teacher desk, Smart Board, white board, and pods of student desks. This will help make sure that data ports and phone lines are set up according to how I want my room to be. I was lucky that my director was so creative in giving suggestions with my plan. She pointed out areas that I overlooked and suggested we draw an arc around the room so that my pods of desks would be aligned.

I can't wait for my classroom to be ready. It changes so much day to day. I feel so lucky to have this unique opportunity to be able to have a brand new classroom and to give so much input.