Classroom set up

Why is it that the week before school, when teachers are invariably hauling boxes, moving desks, rearranging seating and running up and down the stairs of non-air-conditioned buildings to consult with colleagues, the weather in the GTA insists on skyrocketing into the 30s?!

This year, I am trying to be very conscious of how the physical plant in my classroom can support inquiry and collaboration; I am trying to create spaces -- given the limitations of the existing furniture and space -- where students can meet as a class as well as in small groups, where they can find a corner to work on their own or with a partner, where they can use their bodies, their pencils or their devices to explore and record their learning.

With the support of and guidance from my new Principal, I arranged my new classroom (I've moved into the North Building of our school, and onto the second floor) so that the seating begins in a large circle, with two tables, several desks and a reading corner around the perimeter.  There is also a large potential work space in the middle of the room.

The room itself is almost ready; my desk, on the other hand, shows evidence of much planning still in progress!!

The circle was something I'd observed in the classrooms of some of my colleagues last year.

I'm hopeful that this unconventional classroom arrangement, along with my foray into virtual classroom management through the use of Edmodo,  will foster a more effective learning climate as I move my teaching into the 21 Century.  It's a bit of new step for me, and I'm thinking of ways to effectively facilitate this new flexibility in the context of 40-minute periods and five different classes I teach, but I have a sneaking suspicion that once I figure this out, I will never go back to groups of desks.