I would love for my classroom to be a place that looks, ideally, very motivating but comfy and imaginative. I want examples of art from around the world represented on the walls of the classroom. Reflecting that hope, the room will be bright and colorful. The most surface-level version of "look" I strive for is group table seating that allows students to easily interact with their peers. This type of seating will make group disscussions and informal forms of critic super easy and allows for students to inquire about their art projects with one another. In "These Kids are Out of Control" the author talks about classroom management in a new sense of the word. Overall the book supports a student-centered style of teaching that supports learning and every aspect of my look, sound, and feel supports this idea.

 

The sound of my classroom is laughter. It might sound a bit sad to feel the need to say this but I don't want my classroom to be silent. The philosophy behind this is sort of controlled chaos. It may look crazy to an outsider but if you were to go up to any one of my students and ask them what's going on they'd be able to tell you and exactly what they are working on that day. Granted there would need to be times where the focus is on me explaining new projects or targets for the day, or certain students may need a "quiet time" to work because that's where they work the best, but that's where the foundation of respect we worked on will allow for the chaos to settle in sense.

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I learned from the book that our perception of the word control, in the sense of controlling students,  has changed from "sit down, be quiet, and listen" to a more collaborative community style of learning, management. With that comes a different type of classroom management. It's about a balance between having respect from student to teacher and letting students have choice or freedom in the classroom. I want my students to have fun, have passion, and most importantly to feel safe in my classroom. My goal is that my students feel safe to open up and put themselves into their artwork without fear of invalidation or judgment. I care about my students as individuals and I will teach and makes sure they learn, however, this semester has really validated my belief that knowing and putting students first can become more important than running a "perfect" lesson. Therefore, my classroom will feel inviting, caring, fun, and SAFE. We learned about Social-Emotional Learning this semester and I think this embodies this belief of mine. All this will happen based on the foundation of respect. I am wanting to work toward the future with my students. This includes talking about current issues but also working with current technology. With talking about controversial and more contemporary works comes respect in the classroom. If students are feeling safe enough to self-express, be vulnerable, and talk about something they are passionate about, there needs to be that foundation of respect for one another and understanding that we all believe in different things.

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