For the winter break I will be posting daily reflection prompts from earlier in the school year, from before I began posting prompt on this blog. Many of them are connected to the date when the prompt was originally posted, that will be pointed out in my response. Enjoy.

Right now, is there a class that you feel most comfortable in? What is that class (and WHY?)

(From 8/17/22)

For the uninitiated, one might think that all classrooms are all alike, just four walls, some tables and chairs. Well, there is some expectations for “whimsy” at the elementary level, but Middle School/High School, it’s just four walls and some tables and chairs. I’m sure that there are some teachers who do not care one bit about their classroom set up beyond there being enough tables and chairs for their students and a means for them to give instruction (that might include a projector, screen and white board). My room is complicated greatly because besides finding the best way to have 30 to 40 students get all class instruction, they also need to be able to work in teams and I need to set up safe, accessible storage for dozens of robots in various stages of construction and thousands of parts and tools.  I’ve spent weeks during the past two summers trying to figure out the best way to manage my technology inventory. Like most things, it’s an iterative process and I continue to try to make things kid and teacher friendly and accommodating for small mostly plastic robots. 

Here are some examples of my classroom set up from when we first started teaching online in the summer of 2020 to short video from a couple weeks ago:

This doesn’t necessarily answer whether students feel comfortable in my room. But within functionality requirements (mentioned above), I hope that they feel comfortable and that their space, when they’re here, is recognized and respected. Do you remember experiencing a sense of comfort in your classes in the past?