As new teachers thinking about preparing the layout and design of our classroom, we must take many things into account. The age range we will be teaching, the physical set-up of the classroom, the curriculum, and the list goes on and on ad infinitum. However, what is particularly important, and what is very easy to overlook is the consideration of what invitations to learn we are offering our students. What context are we creating for them that will allow them to make sense of their own world, in an effort to escape the routine of being a “Chalk and talk” teacher that depends on direct instruction strategies. We must focus on preparing classrooms that allow for a maximum of independent, creative learning considering a wealth of distinct strategies and figuring out what is they best for a particular classroom.
In order to become change agents, teachers must free themselves first, free themselves of the idea that they are there to impose a particular agenda or support a particular ideology. Teachers are there to allow the students to make discoveries, about the world and about themselves. This can be a difficult and frightening prospect for some teachers. After all, when we were in school (or at least me) classes were regular routines of listening to the teacher and doing work, listening to the teacher and doing work. Hollywood makes few films about teachers that sit back and let students take control of their learning, but perhaps they should. It is not enough to teach students the three R’s, but what is needed is an environment to allow students to begin to make sense of the world, the good things and the bad things, the positives and the negatives. By allowing students the opportunity to explore, construct, and comprehend their learning space, we are equipping them with the tools they need to make meaning in the world. We must remember to strive to “ …create a learning context that supports what we want our students to explore in such a way that they are able to create a meaning of their own which comes close to that of the larger interpretive community.” For this to happen, we must always be considering what we are doing in class, reflecting on it, and ring to improve on it. We must always be focused on what the students are discovering, and if there are any ways we can help focus, clarify, and further enable them.
