Dhagat 1

Sandeep Dhagat
Professor Suk
EDUC 230-01 Education Field Experience
Fall 2017
Rationale Statement-Standard #3

Standard Three: Learning Environment

The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative
learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-
motivation (NJ Professional Standards for Teachers, 2014, p. 4).

Artifact: Classroom Management Plan and Layout Design

Date of Completion: December 11th, 2017 (Fall 2017)
Course Completed in: EDUC-230 Education Field Experience

Rationale Statement:
This artifact includes a floor plan for my future classroom and outlines the list of classroom
rules, procedures, and routines I would implement. The layout models a joint lab-lecture design meant
to save space and actively encourage the teacher to move away from longer lectures. Meanwhile, the
list of procedures and rules helps create a safe and comfortable learning environment that aligns
student behavior with best achieving learning outcomes. The article demonstrates how I would manage
the learning environment to actively and equitably engage learners by organizing, allocating, and
coordinating the resources of time, space, and learners attention (NJ Professional Standards for
Teachers 3.i.4, 2014, p. 4). While traditional science classrooms have a separate lab space and a
separate lecture space, this floor plan combines both to create a space-flexible design that increases
workspace area, increases student comfort, and provides more storage volume. Also, by automatically
grouping students and seating them around the freestanding utility-islands, teachers are encouraged by
the layout to intersperse shorter lectures with active assignments where students can do science.
My inspiration for the classroom design came from my AP Biology and Chemistry classes, which
had the same layout with the class split between a lecture and a lab section. However, because lab
space had larger area requirements, the lecture space tended to be cramped and claustrophobic. It was
hard for students to get up to go to the bathroom without tripping on someones backpack or desk. In
addition to using space ineffectively, the ratio of time spent in the lecture section to time spent in the
lab section was high. Teachers were not encouraged to give shorter lectures and more direct learning
experiences. My goal therefore was to combine the lab and lecture section into one space-saving design
that also forced teachers to abandon long lectures in favor of labs, experiments, and projects. One
immediate criticism of my design is that students are not comfortably sitting in positions that they can
see the whiteboard. However, this is purposeful because in my conception of the classroom, students
would be mostly interacting with each other or doing a lab that did not require looking at the
whiteboard.
Implementing this exact layout design in my future classroom is largely dependent on two
variables: (1) how much autonomy the school or department administration gives teachers to change
the class layout and (2) whether other teachers or classes use the same space. In both of those cases the
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design would have to be lobbied for, and I would have to present an argument for why the layout has
advantages over traditional designs. However, it does allow colleagues to consider how they can best
use space and help students be more active in a traditionally lecture-heavy area. However, I would tailor
them from year to year to reflect changes in school policy, positive suggestions from students or
colleagues, and the realities of the situation. For example, requiring students have no poor behavior
record for an entire marking period before earning a reward may not be realistic.

Reference

Professional Development in New Jersey. (2014, August 4). Retrieved from New Jersey State Department
of Education:
http://www.state.nj.us/education/profdev/profstand/teacherstandardscrosswalk.pdf