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.

Whole Class Meeting Area

This year one of the main things that I wanted to change about my classroom layout was to have my Smart Board be a part of my whole group meeting area. However, because of various set components of the room, such as lockers, electricity and computer installations in the floor, and the mounted projector, I was not able to make that happen this year. When I wanted the whole class to gather around the Smart Board for modelling writing or to watch a video, some students were sitting on the floor while others were at desks, and it was not the same feeling as when we had whole group activities at the carpet.

In my new classroom I already requested from my director to leave space in front of the Smart Board for a whole class meeting area before putting in the laptop hook-ups, and she said that I will be able to decide where I want them. I am lucky that Debbie Diller gave me so many ideas in Spaces & Places on how to plan with a step by step process of which components to start with so that I can get it right the first time since once certain components are installed, I will not be able to change my mind.

The Smart Board is on the floor plans as being in the front and center of my classroom, so I am hoping that it will work out to have a small table/computer stand off to the side, a white board on the other side, and a carpet in front. That way I would have flexibility with whole class meetings. I could easily model writing and create anchor charts. Students would all have clear visibility with close proximity. I am very excited about the possibilities of my classroom layout working for me in terms of being able to utilize technology to the best advantage. Ideally, I will also be able to get a document camera to have by my computer to further enhance instruction.

One area that I was concerned about was the students not having accessibility to anchor charts done electronically. I was trying to think of a way to have them at their fingertips even when they are not on the Smart Board. This year for part of the year we had a drive on the network where I could put documents that my students could access. However, part way through the year this stopped working. Franki at A Year of Reading recently started a conversation about SmartBoards and reading and writing workshops. I noticed that one of the commenters, Monica, mentioned having a classroom blog where she puts a lot of information that she used to put on chart paper. This would be perfect because my students have laptop access and this could be the perfect solution. This also opens up possibilities for students and parents who have Internet access at home.

Recently I have seen other teachers' classroom blogs such as Stacey at Two Writing Teachers' blog. I had also wanted my students to start blogging, so the classroom blog could serve many more purposes than just a place to store anchor chart/whole class discussion information. I will have to get familiar with Scribd to be able to post Office documents. I noticed that is what Stacey uses a lot. I have also heard of Google Docs, but I am not sure how that works either. At least I know there is a way to make it possible and I have the summer to figure it out!

I have always loved floor plans and organizing. Since my classroom will not be ready until right before school I will have fun mapping out plans on paper over the summer.

Spaces & Places

I was so excited to get Spaces & Places: Designing Classrooms for Literacy by Debbie Diller in the mail this week. Yesterday was my last day of school with students, and although I am looking forward to rest and relaxation over the break, I am already so excited about next year. The gears are already turning in full swing. One area of excitement is that I will be getting a new classroom. Our school purchased two buildings last year and renovated the first one. The second one will be the middle school portion of the school, and next year they will be able to do the first phase of remodeling, including my new classroom. Thus, it was perfect timing to get the book.

I kept a pen close by as I was reading to make a list of ideas. Now I am tossing around ideas such as whether or not I want a teacher desk - something I had never even considered not having before. Yet, Diller's suggestion of saving space by having a table serve as small group meeting area during student contact time and teacher desk in the after hours makes sense.

I am going to take Diller's idea of mapping out a classroom plan on paper using sticky notes. I mapped out my room last year, but had not thought about using sticky notes instead of drawing the same floor plan over and over with different configurations. I feel even luckier because I can just copy my classroom off the contractor's floor plans, which will already have all of the permanent fixtures marked. Then I can play around with different classroom components.

Another area for excitement is that with a growing school we will have to purchase new classroom furiture. Whereas any other year I would not be able to give suggestions for classroom furniture as a whole, this year I can. I want to process the information, skim over the wonderful color pictures again and then meet with my director while it is still early enough to influence the type of furniture for my classroom.

I will be posting lateron throughout the summer with ideas on how I want to set up my room. I also went back and skimmed A Year of Reading's blog to find posts from the beginning of the school year about Trading Spaces, some fun posts that complement the book well (1, 2, 3, and 4).