Organizing the Learning Environment
Although Mr. Got-It-Together makes managing a classroom seem simple, it takes a while for every teacher to develop strong classroom management skills.
Following Miss Wing-It’s visit to Mr. Got-It-Together’s classroom, the director asked Mr. Got-It-Together to visit Miss Wing-It’s classroom.
Miss Wing-It began the day with circle time. She read a story to the children, and they seemed to really enjoy it. After the story, the children asked her if she would play the “Hokey-Pokey” tape. Miss Wing- it agreed, but she had to get the tape recorder from the other side of the room and then she couldn’t find the tape. When she finally found it and returned to the circle, two of the children were engaged in a wrestling match and three others had left the circle and were racing across the room. Miss Wing-It called everyone back to the circle and put on the “Hokey-Pokey” tape. After two rounds of “Hokey- Pokey,” Miss Wing-It told the children that she had a special surprise. “Hokey-Pokey,” Miss Wing-It told the children that she had a special surprise. “Find a chair and sit down at a table and see if you can guess what it is.”
Miss Wing-It showed the children a bag of flour. “I know,” Cecile shouted out, “we’re going to bake cookies!” “Maybe later,” Miss Wing-It responded, “but right now, we are going to do something else.”
After a few more guesses and a lot of laughter, Miss Wing-It told the children that they were going to make play dough. She put a big bowl on the table and started to set out the ingredients. “Okay, now get ready to work,” she told the children. “Oh dear,”Miss Wing-It interrupted herself, “I seem to have forgotten the salt!”
At that moment, the director asked Mr. Got-It-Together to come into her office “So, what do you think of Miss Wing-It?” the director asked.
“Oh, she’s a great teacher,” Mr. Got-It-Together responded. “She is full of fun, and the children seem to love her. The only thing is that she is a little bit disorganized.
“You mean she can’t seem to get it together?” asked the director. “Do you think she’ll ever learn?”
“Of course she will.” Mr. Got-It-Together replied. “She just needs a little help with organization. I’ll be happy to help her.”
Some teachers are by nature more organized than others. Even so, caregivers and teachers in child care settings need to know where to find things when they need them. A good way to think about how you would like to reorganize your classroom is to think back over the last two weeks and make a note of each item that you needed but couldn’t find without a search.
Well-organized teachers offer the following suggestions:
Teacher Materials
• Place the things that you use on a daily basis on one shelf. This should include items such as scissors, stapler, hole puncher, paper clips, note pad, pens, tissues, First aid kit, and lesson planning book. Also keep a notebook that includes children’s birthdays, a list of children with allergies, parent contact information, and any other vital information that you need to keep at hand.
• Place the special items you are planning to use for the week on a second shelf. This should include books and tapes you will use and materials for crafts and other special activities.
Record Keeping
• Keep a folder for each child. Include anecdotal records and observations, work samples, notes and follow-up plans from parent meeting, and any observations or recommendations by consultants. You may want to include a list of goals you are working on with each of the children to help you track their progress.
• Keep a file with all the blank forms you use on a regular basis. Place them in folders, labeled and organized alphabetically.
If you are a family child care provider, you may also need a separate place to organize all the paperwork related to running you child care business. You will need a system for tracking business revenues and expenses. Remember to keep there separate from household accounts and be sure to account for all program-related expenditures. Keep records required by the Child and Adult Care Food Program (if participating), immunization and other required child records, other records for insurance and tax purposes, and records of your professional development activities.
Learning Environment
• Give the children visual clues so that they can help maintain their environment. You might post the daily schedule (with pictures), make a job chart that shows whose turn it is to pass out the snack or feed the pets, use pictures and labels to show what belong on specific shelves or in certain bins, and put stickers on the wall or floor to show how many children can be in each interest center.
• Look at the learning environment from a children’s point of view. Does everything have a logical home? Are items placed near where they will be used? Have children practiced clean-up routines so they know where and how to put items back when they finish with the?
Planning
• Strike a balance between following your plans to the letter and going with the flow. Remember that you can accommodate children’s wishes without granting them immediately. For example, if a child wants to share a long story at circle time but other children are getting restless, you can make “an appointment” to hear the rest of the story.
• Balance activities that require a lot of preparation with ones that you can do on a moment’s notice. Introduce only as much variety as you and the children can comfortably handle.
• Plan some activities that evolve over time. For example, you and the children could build a “store,” adding new items each day. Later, you can introduce play money, add a new department, or expand your “city” to incorporate another area of the room.
• Keep a “to do” list in the back of your plan book. Check off items when you finish them.
Remember to schedule time for yourself. Give yourself time for planning; collecting materials; arranging spaces, wall displays, and activities; documenting children’s learning; and reflecting on your lessons and the children’s progress.
Share the work and share the fun. Ask other teachers and parents to help you with big projects. Celebrate your success by doing something fun and relaxing together.
Weekly Plans
Weekly plans provide a way of mapping out the learning activities that will take place each day. An effective weekly plan describes the theme of the week (if applicable), the special learning activities planned, new materials to be added, and the changes needed to activity centers to develop specific concepts. The plan should also provide a place to outline the preparation needed in order to carry out an activity. In addition, the plan can include modifications that enable all children to participate fully and some activities designed especially for children who have special needs.
Because infants are on their own schedules, teachers may want to have individualized plans for infants, or plan a few activities for each day that can be done when infants are ready. Toddlers are beginning to be able to follow a teacher’s schedule with planned activities, so having a few planned activities can be helpful, although toddlers are likely to have difficulty remaining in a structured activity for long. Toddlers need teachers to be flexible, so planning out a variety of activities and having several back-up plans or “old favorites” you can use to help children regroup is important. Preschoolers are ready for more structured activities and enjoy participating in large-and small-group activities. Teachers should plan some structured activities and also plan and provide environmental supports for child-initiated activities.
Reflective Question
What kind of planning do you do in your program? What is most helpful? What could you change to improve your current practice?
The weekly plan does not need to include the events that take place every day, such as breakfast, washing up, rest time, and closing time. However, these are prime learning time and teachers should be aware of how they are using these times to further children’s development. “Teachable moments,” when teachers can capitalize on a child’s interest and use it as a teaching opportunity, often occur during daily routines and unscripted conversations.
The key to good lesson planning is to think about what you want to teach children and why. Once you know, you can begin planning lesson to intentionally meet your goals. Sometimes activities and lesson serve as a way to assess whether children have met your goals. Sometimes they serve as a way to introduce a new concept or help a child practice a current developmental skill. When your lesson plans reflect your intention they become a useful tool for tracking progress and planning curriculum rather than a list of activities. They help your colleagues and parents to know why you are doing a specific lesson and help you remember what you did from one day, month, or year, to the next so you can repeat favorite learning opportunities.
On a planning form, you should have spaces each day for the following types of activities, with a brief description of each activity, its objective, and relevant notes:
• Group times (songs, stories, games, special topics)
• Story times (book to be read and activities to extend the story)
• Small-group learning activities (special activities offered by the teacher during activity time or free play)
• Outdoor activities (special activities to enrich outdoor time)
• Special planned events (classroom visitors, field trips, etc.)
• Additions to the library and other learning centers
Lesson plans also need to include any individualization you want to make for a specific child. This might include alternatives for children who are more advanced than their peers or for children who need additional ti