Morgan Leslie

Dream Classroom Rationale

In my classroom, I want learning to be the top priority. I don’t want a lot of distractions.

For colors, I want to have pastel rainbow colors. I love the organization that rainbow colors

provide, but I want them to be pastel, so they are less distracting. Starting at the door, directly to

the left there is a sanitation station. In my sanitation station, there will be hand sanitizer,

sanitizing wipes, and baby wipes. In the front of the classroom, from left to right, there is a white

board, a smart board, another whiteboard, and a bulletin board. On the bulletin board, the

classroom expectations will be posted as a reminder throughout the day. Under the boards, there

are shelves that have room for manipulatives and games. In the front of the classroom, opposite

the door, is the teacher’s desk. Starting behind the teacher’s desk and following along about ¾ of

the wall, there are more shelves. The shelf behind the teacher’s desk will hold teaching materials

like lesson plans and curriculum that the class is learning right now. The rest of the shelves on

that wall will be the classroom library. Above the shelves on that whole wall is huge windows. I

wanted maximum natural lighting, so we could keep the fluorescent lights off a much as

possible. In front of the shelves, there is a rug and two bean bags for the students who want to be

comfy and read or just chill out during free time. They can also move the bean bags when the

time allows. For the last ¼ of the wall, there will be a high-top counter with barstools, on top of

the counter will be a charging station for iPads. The counter will be a good place for group work

or free independent work. The back wall is full of floor-to-ceiling cabinets that will hold all extra

materials, lesson plans and curriculum that aren’t being used and just a ton of organized space

for the teacher to use. Behind the sanitation station is a game shelf that faces away from the door,

so there can be cleaning instructions taped to the back for the sanitation station. Next to the shelf
with adequate amount between there is a materials station. In the materials station is extra

writing utensils, extra paper, and also art supplies. That would include construction paper,

scissors, markers, crayons, colored pencils, glue and glue sticks, and anything else I could think

of when setting it up. Above the table is another whiteboard and another bulletin board. In the

corner of the room opposite the door but on the same wall is a game rug. This has a short table

for floor seating for games and group work. In the center of the classroom there are 6 tables with

4 chairs at each table. This encourages group work and discussing about the work they’re doing.

In the four corners of the classroom, there are lamps. I prefer lamps to fluorescent lights, because

the lighting is softer. I would also like to have those small Christmas lights in rows across the

ceiling, if they are allowed, but I do not know if there are fire hazards with that.

For classroom expectations, I would have the class work with me on the first day to

create expectations. I would include keeping the classroom safe, being respectful, and working as

a team. For the safety key, I feel like the room is safe physically as there is enough room to walk

around between the tables, and the things that should be easily accessible are child level and easy

to grab. For the success key, I tried to keep the walls pretty plain, but there isn’t a lot of wall

space anyways. This keeps the students focused on the front of the class or wherever I am

teaching. There will also be adequate manipulatives and additional resources for lessons, so then

if a student needs help, they have those resources. For the love and belonging key, I would assign

the students classroom duties that would be posted near the expectations. I would also have

birthday and holiday calendar to make sure all students feel included. I would include all

holidays, not just Christmas and thanksgiving. For the freedom and independence key, I would

have the students help create the expectations. I would also have a suggestion box at my desk, so

the students can suggest ideas about how they would improve their learning. For the fun and
enjoyment key, I included the game area and the bean bags, so there is some non-conventional

areas in the classroom. I believe these keys all together will help with classroom management

since I am giving the class some control over their learning, but also give them adequate time to

be kids and play around and be comfortable. For affordances in my classroom, I made sure there

was enough positive affordance for the students to not feel overwhelmed. This includes the walls

and also the room itself so there is some open space.