My Flipped Math Classroom Physical Layout

TeachThought's prompt today asks to take a picture of your classroom and describe what you see and what you don't see that you would like to see. This is a topic that I am particularly interested in because over the summer I saw something from ClassroomCribs.com and got really into designing a highly-effective learning space for my high school math students. I forgot to take a picture of my class before I left today, but I want to describe the layout of my class because I think I have combined a lot of original and stolen ideas to create a great physical space for my students to learn. I plan on submitting a video to the ClassroomCribs Challenge next week so those that are interested can hopefully see my classroom under the high school section there.

The layout of my classroom when you walk in has all of the desks in groups of four and wall-to-wall white boards. A cool idea I had for picking random groups a few years ago led me to put different color tape around the legs of different groups. I have a bag of ping-pong balls the same color as the groups so students pick a ball as they walk into the room and that color is their group for the chapter. Every wall in my room is covered with four-feet high whiteboards except for the wall with windows. Students are working both independently and collaboratively everyday at the boards after watching a video at home. This amount of whiteboard space allows my students to move around. The movement helps their thinking and reduces boredom.

The next thing you see in my class is the computer/calculator corner with calculators hanging on the wall and a laptop cart underneath. The laptop cart only has 12 laptops, but that is plenty for a flipped class. At any given time, most students will be working at the boards, you could see some working on their graded problem sets on WebAssign, doing tutorials on Sophia, or looking on the internet for resources to help them understand a concept better.

When our school was built 50 years ago, each classroom had a small area in the back with a lockable cage door for the teacher to store things. The cages have been taken out and I have turned that area into a "chill zone" for my students. I brought in some foam chairs and a foam couch for relaxing on the computer or thinking about a hard problem. There is a whiteboard on the wall there too if they want to do work there. I have a small bookshelf in the corner with brainteaser books and games and AP prep books for the Spring. There is an iPad on a stand with a bunch of math games and apps for exploring. And the whole area underneath the whiteboard is lined with pennants from colleges my former students go to school. The area over the whiteboard is lined with t-shirts from 7 different elementary schools and middle school the students came from before they got to high school.

My favorite thing about the classroom is the AP Wall of Fame board on the wall. It is 16 feet wide and has the name of every student that got a five on the AP calculus test on their own name plate. We just put up another board the same size on the opposite wall for the calculus 2 class we started last year.

The last thing you would see in my classroom is something I just stole yesterday and implemented today. My former student-teacher who we hired last year had an awesome idea. He got chalkboard paint and turned his classroom door into a chalkboard. I sanded and painted my door today after buying the materials last night when I saw his. I know chalkboards are old-fashioned and whiteboards have a lot more benefits, but my room is already wall-to-wall whiteboards. The black chalkboard with neon marker chalk really stands out and is the last thing students see when they leave. I am writing all assignments for each day of the week on the door for students to see on the way out. This will serve as one final reminder of each week. A lot of the AP students are involved with a ton of activites. This will allow me to help support them so they don't overlook something because of their busy schedules.

On top of things to add to benefit student learning, I tried to eliminate anything that was unnecessary in my classroom this summer. I took out any portable storage including shelves and my teacher's desk. I gutted my closet and permanent shelves and kept only things I have used in the last year. I kept a computer table in the far corner of the room for my workspace, but that was it. My class space is 95% student and 5% teacher.

I think there are many things that go into creating a great course for students to take. Unfortunately, the layout of the classroom is something that is not often considered. When you take time to think, physical layout is just as important as the problems you assign, the lessons that you give, and the technology that you implement...all important pieces of a big puzzle.

#learningspace #calculus #flippedclass #sophia #stealing