With the pandemic (hopefully) coming to a close, students return to schools with an entirely different view on learning. How can you transition them from remote learning to in-person learning while letting your classroom grow and change? Here are some simple ways you can modernize your classroom.
Survey the Class
The best thing you can do to understand your students’ desires is to ask them what their desires are! Have an open discussion about the parts of the classroom that they feel are helpful and any areas that could use improvement. Adults can only guess what a child wants to see in their learning, but they know better than anyone.
This tip has the added benefit of showing your students that you respect and value their opinions. If you implement some of their suggestions, it’s proof that their input matters.
Change Your Seating
You can purchase new standing desks or buy beanbags for the classroom, but you can also get creative with the seating you already have. Organizing desks to encourage collaboration improves social skills, like teamwork and communication, in addition to freshening up the space for your students. Desks are quite mobile—use this to your advantage and utilize desks in different ways throughout the day.
Build a Quiet Space
Depending on your classroom size, it may be challenging to dedicate space to one-use areas. However, building even a small quiet space is beneficial for young children. While we can work hard to make school a stress-free environment, many students find the setting stressful, nonetheless. Providing an area specifically designed to take a breath and enjoy quiet reading time mitigates this natural anxiety.
Design for Active Learning
Active learning spaces encourage critical thinking and creativity, and they’re a definite departure from traditional lectures. However, students today require areas like these to get the most out of school, so we must do our part to build active learning classrooms.
Now that you understand these simple ways you can modernize your classroom, create a space that you and your students will love.