Space Management

One powerful tool while teaching is the space management of the classroom. It includes different aspects like :

Let's talk about these points a little bit


The class layout

At the beginning of the school year, a lot of teachers like to make their own class layout to chose where the students sit. Because I started last year almost one month after the back to school I didn't do that and I just let the students sit where they wanted (except when the class had a precise layout all the time and with every teachers). But I obviously changed students seat when they talk too much with their friends or when I realised that they work better when they were next to someone in particular. It was the case for one student : W. He was failing every class and every school subjects but when he was sitting next to N it was way better because N helped him like a big brother taking care of W. He didn't have better grades but at least he was doing something in class and he was working with N. Class layouts can be tricky to make but it's a very useful tool !


Student's set-up

I think it's better for everyone if the students change classrooms and don't have one assigned to them. If they stay in the same classroom all the time they start to feel too comfortable like they are on their territory. The teacher enters a hostile area where the students are well settled and relaxed as if they were in their living room. Students should feel good at school but not that much, or they'll be disrespectulf and maybe aggressive.


Teacher's set-up

When the teacher enters the classroom and sets up their things at the desk, they should be smiling and energetic and they should show that they are happy to be here, it activates the mirror neurons (very interesting subject). The teacher sets up the atmosphere for the class ! It's very important to give the same energy as you want your students to give too.


The teacher's movements around the room

The worst classes I've had happened when I was sitting by my desk and stayed sat. I had to do it because I was writing the lesson on the computer while the students were creating it. But it was the worst idea because I was at the same height of the students and I was not moving at all during this. One of the most important thing I do is to move aroung the room, so I go near everyone often (so they can't mess around too much), I come closer to the students I'm talking with, when I'm closer students are less afraid to participate because they can speak less loudly in front of their classmates so it's less intimidating, the lesson is also more alive because I can move my hands and my arms, I can use body language more. It really is one of my favorite thing to walk around the class while doing the lesson and work with the students.


Activities requiring student movement

One last thing that I think has potential is to sometimes do activities that require the students to change seats, to move in the room. But it's hard to set up because it depends on the students and the lessons, not everything can be done like this. The activity I did the most was to create teamgroups with students of the same English levels and give different work for each group. For example I gave different US amendments to translate depending on the difficulty of the language. They love to work in groups (eventhough I know there are always students that try to do nothing but I try to stay aware).

But it's also fun to try something different like one day I was working on the different communities we belong to and we don't realise and I made every student get up to create little groups like haircolor, sport groups, glasses/no glasses and they had to quickly form the groups by moving around the room. It's not always easy to do but it changes from the classic sitting lessons that they have all day long, they can change their habits and maybe they remember these lessons more because it was a little bit different.


I thnik it's really interesting to think about body language and space perceptions in a classroom ! But I think I've said everything I could :)


Thank you very much for your time and your attention !

Fetilon~