Making It Comfortable

 Week 11: Journal Entry

In the past I have witnessed my teacher friends' obsessing about putting their classrooms together. That's what I thought of it anyway; that they were worrying too much and thinking about it too hard. After all, in elementary school all the kids need are some colourful posters, the alphabet on display somewhere, and maybe some rules spelled out and in plain site. Couldn't have been more wrong could I? And I'm the type that obsesses over making my home welcoming, interesting and comfortable. 

The kind of environment that makes me feel good is one where the arragement, colour, textures, lighting and furniture are warm and elegant. This makes me feel elegant which makes me feel I am my best self. How do I feel about clutter? At this moment I'm sitting in my office which has all the articles, papers, and books, of a full semester strewn about amongst the usual life and work stuff. It makes me feel as disorganised as it looks. It's distracting and makes it hard to think.    

Students spend a lot of their time in the classroom. Making it an organised, calming place that feels like home - a place they feel they belong in and have a "sense of identity" in (p. 71) will knock down walls of resistance, calm anxieties, and take away fear so that students' are relaxed and open to their classmates and learning. And, since the #1 cause of student's problem behavior is the lack of a feeling of control (Glasser, as cited p. 14), thoughful classroom organization and arrangement that student's have a say in can save a lot of time and upset down the road. For this reason I would let my students choose where they would like to sit but not at the beginning of the year. I think the students who are timid about making choices or need to know an adult is in charge in order to feel safe would benefit from waiting until they are more comfortable. 

Dr. Mamchur's stories about bake sales and buying a bus for field trips made me feel very nostalgic for the time when administration would allow buying and using a bus and parents weren't in charge of fundraising.      

I've included this journal entry to show that I was engaged in the course material during the entire semester. It's also a little bit of a knowledge wrap up and, as such, demonstrates how what I've learned has become part of my general thought processes.