#6 Alfie Kohn's What To Look for In a Classroom

When looking at Alfie Kohn’s What’s to look for in a classroom it goes through what are good signs and possible reasons to worry when it comes to categories within a classroom.  In class this week we looked at this chart within our groups based on the schools we have for our placement this semester.  In this blog I will be looking at each of the categories and explaining where my placement classroom falls under each category.  The categories in the charts are furniture, on the walls, student faces, sounds, location of teacher, teacher’s voice, students reaction to visitor, class discussion, stuff, tasks, and around the school,  

    Starting with the first category furniture I would say that my classroom falls under the good signs category.  In the good signs category it says that the chairs are around table that facilitate interaction and that there is open space for interaction.  My classroom falls under the good signs category because within the classroom there is an area in the front of the room where students can gather on the rug to learn together along with having their desk in groups allowing them to interact with each other.  Looking at the one the walls category my classroom also falls under both the good signs and the signs to be worried category.  My classroom falls under the signs to worry classroom because my teacher does have a reward system for the class as a total. If the kids do something really well they can earn a little reward that fills up a jar and when they reach the top of the jar they can earn extra recess or a choice in a different reward.  The class also falls into this category because of some of the poster in the room are commercial posters.  However, the classroom also falls under good signs because it does have student projects and work on the walls too. 

When it comes to the category of students faces, sounds, location of teacher, teacher’s voice, and students reaction to visitors all fall under good signs in my placement classroom.  These categories mean that my students are excited to learn and are welcoming to others that are invited into the room along with the teacher moving around the room to work with students and is also respectful and nice to her students and to visitors.  Every week when I enter the classroom I am greeted with a few hugs and waves from my students along with a positive greeting from the teacher.  Each week I go it has been nothing but a comfortable place for me to be in.  Within the classroom you can also hear frequent noice of activity happening within the students working. When it comes to class discussion the class mainly falls under signs to worry about because in the class students are raising their hands and are waiting to be called on by their teacher and are racing each other to see who can answer the question even if they do not know the answer right away.  For categories stuff, tasks, and around the school my classroom and school falls under the good signs.  This means that the school provides an atmosphere that is pleasant to be in and that in my classroom activities are taking place and that within the classroom it is filled with good books and supplies for the students to learn.

Overall my school and classroom fall under the good signs category with occasionally falling into the signs to worry category.  Although my classroom has some signs of worry in it I overall feel that what is being shown as a sign to worry really isn’t something that is to be worried about and I find is normal to have within a classroom.  I think having this chart from Kohn is nice to not only have to look at the experience that I am currently in within the classroom this semester but also to have for a future resource on things to keep in mind when teaching and setting up a classroom.