Student perspective should always come first. It’s my passion to engage students, involve them in ways that they own their learning. 21st century, redesigned, modern classrooms go beyond looking nice, instead, they consider researched, brain-friendly, ready to learn environments.
The physical makeup of the space in terms of actual furniture used to be desks in rows to prepare kids for lines in factories, but our classroom has been transformed; students spend their day preparing for the skills of today’s world with a focus on problem solving, collaboration, engagement, and communication with others; a place where students can personally have a choice and voice in the what, how and why of demonstrating what they've learned.
Flexible, comfortable, user friendly, learning spaces are uniquely nontraditional. Tough questions must be asked. What works for the kids? How do they work best? Do kids like to lay on the floor, or would they prefer a small reading nook? How do they feel in the classroom, then create that space? Students connect to a student centered classroom and teacher when hard work, a growth mindset, goal setting, self efficacy and identity are at the forefront of learning.
My Project
This year our classroom's focus is on student engagement, collaboration, and responsibility. The more students know what is expected of them and the more practice they have with classroom routines and procedures, the more successful students feel. Students benefit from classroom structure. Providing a structured learning environment provides many advantages for the teacher and the students. Most students will respond positively to structure especially those who do not have any structure or stability in their home life. A structured classroom often translates to a safe classroom.
Our classroom needs student mailboxes to encourage a system that will help them manage teacher handouts, important school notices, and parent-teacher communication; students not only need a home for these items in the classroom, but reliable document bags to carry such information to and from school; self-stick index cards will help students label what papers need to stay at home and what papers need to be returned to school; and finally, the notebook is a place where we will record student and teacher classroom expectations, routines and procedures when laying the groundwork for home-school communicaiton responsibilities.
The first six weeks of school is the time to lay the groundwork for year long student success and with the help of these classroom supplies, student learning will blossom all year long.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Cimini and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
