I feel that the physical arrangement of the classroom is one of the most overlooked aspects of classroom learning, organization,

and management. The arrangement and the aesthetic of the classroom can hugely affect the feel of a class, it can affect the effectiveness of teachers, and it can tremendously influence the attitude, behavior, and learning of the students. A perfect classroom should be both functional and comfortable. The classroom should be reflective of your classroom values, the way you arrange the seats and the way that you decorate your walls should encourage your goals for the class. Your seating arrangement should mirror the level of studentto-student engagement that you want to encourage and facilitate. Your desk and your teachingspace should also be dependent on how much of the attention you want to be on you, and how much time the students should be focused on what you are saying and doing (i.e. writing on the board, lecturing, modeling, etc.). And the room should be decorated in such a way that it is aesthetically pleasing and comfortable to be in for an extended amount of time, the appearance of your room should reflect the mood you want to encourage your room (i.e. a chemistry lab should be well lit, clean, and full of laboratory gear; whereas a lit classroom should be full of literature and create an aesthetic that is reminiscent of a comfortable reading room). Our classroom (appendix 1) is organized in such a way that our entire teaching space is located at the front of the classroom, and the students are lined up in rows facing the front of the classroom. This arrangement facilitates teacher-led participation and activities that require modeling and direct instruction. We also have a lot of aisle space so that there is a lot of room for us to monitor the classroom and check up with each student, as each student is seated next to an aisle. In addition, the tables going down the center of the classroom all seat two, which is very functional for activities and labs to be done in pairs. Also, the tables can easily be separated distinctly into three groups, which is perfect for team activities. When I first came into the classroom this summer, it did not look appealing in the least bit. There was nothing on the walls or the bulletin boards, the windows were old and faded out so that you couldn't see anything outside, and the tables were covered in a thick layer of dust and God knows what. After a couple days in the room, we were able to decorate the walls with content-relevant posters, through some color and borders onto the bulletin boards and windows, and cleaned each table, and what we ended up with was a much more comfortable and aesthetically appealing classroom (appendix 2). In addition, we planned out our seating arrangement before the students came in, and placed sticky notes with the students names onto

the table tops. We did this so that each student would have a place of his/her own as soon as they entered the classroom, our intentions of this were to make the students feel more comfortable, and to show that we were not only anticipating each of them in our classroom, but that we were excited about the start of the school year. While I know that we did as much as we could with the classroom, there were a lot of limitations as to how much we could arrange the classroom, as all of the tables are secured to the ground and unable to move. Although this does limit how easy it is to dive straight into some classroom activities, it just means that we have to be more creative in our planning, to find ways to do things outside of what is usually seen as the norm.

Appendix: 1. Classroom Seating Arrangement, Daniel Chapman (9/14/2013):

2. Photo of Classroom Interior, Daniel Chapman (9/9/2013):