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Environment:
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Color is important in a classroom for several
reasons. Having color in the classroom can help engage students in studying,
concentrating, being calm and relaxed. Studies show that warm colors like reds,
oranges, and yellows help to increase brain activity for students. When the
brain activity is increased the students are able to learn new material
quicker. While warm colors increase the brain activity cool colors like blues,
violets, and greens create a calm and relaxation atmosphere. This is useful
when trying to keep the class calm and quit like for reading. This mix of
colors is perfect for an early education classroom mixing both brain activity
and relaxation.
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Having a classroom that allows freedom of
movement is important for young children. According to Scholastic, “elementary
school aged children learn best when they are allowed to move throughout the
classroom.” Elementary students are at an age where they are active and learn
best with their hands and through collaboration; having a classroom set up with
desks in rows is not accommodating to their needs. Classrooms with lines of
desks don’t allow students to move around at all, the classroom is stuffed and
not a lot of room is available for freedom and movement and expression. The 21 classroom
is designed with tables instead of desks that allow students ample space to
work with hands or on paper as well as work together to accomplish more tasks,
work on teamwork skills, and learn from each other. The 21 century classroom
also has many environments or stations to work in. elementary aged students are
antsy and have a hard time staying concentrated for long, allowing for stations
where they can engage in different activities is important for them. This
classroom is similar to the High scope model of a classroom, where active
learning comes from teacher to student interaction and stations for reading,
writing, art/ freedom of expression, and a technology station. The new class
model adapts this and turns it into a modern version changing the advancements
in the classroom setup.
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The classroom organization promotes ritual and routine
through the daily schedule. The classroom is always set up the same throughout
the year and the schedule is the same the whole year. This creates a routine
for the students to follow and be adjusted to. Young children need a routine,
this allows them to feel safe in the classroom and do their best work. Students
learn what each station in the classroom is for and how to use it every day
also creating the safety feel and allowing them to work to their fullest. The organization
contributes to learning, by allowing the students to feel like the classroom is
theirs and that they can use all the resources in the classroom. The 21 century
classroom organization is more students oriented than previous classroom designs.
The classroom use to be rows of desks that left the room empty and made the
students feel as though the classroom wasn’t theirs and that they were below
the teacher and was not an open feel; by allowing the classroom to be open and bright
it changes the feel of the class and promotes a comfortable and free expression
room.
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Technology today is more advance than ever. Today
almost every classroom is fully equipped with a smart board, laptops, document
camera, and gadgets that connect to these. In the perfect classroom there would
be a laptop for every student so that they could always be connected to the
bigger classroom and learn resources and webpages online to assist in their
learning. The laptops can also help engage them in creating a blog or
connecting on Google. Along with the laptop I pads are in this classroom, these
connect to different apps that can be useful in lessons and a more upgraded way
of searching online. Also through these I pads presentations can better be
shared and created in the classroom. A smart board is also a new technology available
for every classroom and I think should be in every classroom. There are two
different types of these interactive boards; there are promethium and smart
boards. They are both similar but I think the smart board is better for a classroom.
The smart board allows your finger to
touch and control the board, which is better for an elementary scholar. A promethium
board needs the special pen to control it. With the smart board power point
like presentations can be made that are interactive and can involve games for
the students. There are also test taking gadgets that connect to the smart
board that allow the students to enter their answers on a remote and get
results instantly. Also on the smart board websites and resources can be shared
to the class and integrate the whole class. A document camera allows paper or
books to be shared to the whole classroom by projecting the image onto the
board. This can connect to the smart board and you can write and annotate books
while teaching to the whole class. The document camera also allows for students
work to be shared to the whole classroom easier so each student can see and be
proud of their work. Technology in the 21 classroom is all about engaging the
students in the online community of learners and letting them learn more than
what is just in the books. Technology allows easier access to information to
promote learning and help students to learn in all kinds of different ways
promoting differentiation.
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Accommodations in the classroom can be as simple
as placing a student closer to the board for seeing or hearing help or creating
lessons that help them learn the curriculum easier. In the new age classroom
this can easily be done. Students with exceptionalities are now being more integrated
in to the classrooms and today we have the resources to make this possible.
There
are resources in classrooms today either technology such as computers or books
on audio such as an I pod, or through new advances in learning techniques for
the students with exceptionalities. For hearing impairments accommodations can be
made like wearing a mic that connects to their implants so they can hear or an interpreter.
Many students with hearing loss also have speech trouble; accommodations for
this can be online help with sounding words or creating words by showing them
how to create words through online programs. For seeing impairments bold line
paper can be used or brail. For more serious exceptionalities online resources
can help or infinite solutions. Computers
can talk for students and allow them to connect to the classroom even though in
earlier centuries they would be excluded from school and would fall behind.
In the new
21 century classroom continuing to grow as a professional and learner is easier
and clearer. The new technology allows for teachers to constantly need to keep
up and learn what is new and useful for the classroom. All the connections to
online allow for teachers to always be connected to each other and learn new
techniques and lessons. Being connected also shows teachers how to better
explain technology to the students and show them how to be lifelong learners.
Students
can easily be connected to other students through websites like blogs or
through Skype students can chat and learn from students all over the world. The
great thing about internet is that it connects an entire world to each other
and express and learn from one another. Connecting students all over the world
can be done online by putting your students on to safe websites that allow them
to post and ask questions and then allow other classroom students to comment
and they can all learn from each other. The students can also connect to
experts online by reading blogs of experts and wikis or online pages from
experts students are learning about in class. Parents can also be connected
online. One way for a teacher to online connect with parents is through a blog
that a classroom teacher can make and allow parents to view it. In the blog you
can discuss what was done in the class each day, connect parents to the
resources you used for the class, and allow for them to openly as questions and
connect parents to each other through this blog. 
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