Hannah Liss EDTE 402P January 30th, 2012 DOA #4 Room 311 of Dreher High School is rectangular in shape

and seemingly less-thanaverage sized. Upon entering, the neutral toned room appears to be slightly larger than necessary. However, upon seeing the students lab work in action one immediately notices the tight squeeze of the lab area. Student work is not plastered upon the wall, but neither are many other decorations or posters. There is a tasteful amount of dcor, with a few funny things hinting at Mr. Holladays personality in addition to a few posters relative to course content. In addition, there is a TV, a smartboard/projector, and a few teachers desks. This simple manner in which the classroom is decorated does not scream neglect- but instead minimalism. Students are not overwhelmed with a busy classroom, and instead more driven to focus. This does not necessarily go along with Ayers favoritism to student work displays and differing classroom areas. Though the classroom itself seems large, it is actually small once you take into account the fact that it is divided into two halves: a lecture half, with desks aligned into rows, and a lab half, with experimental benches. Students are moderately close to one anothers groups, which may be problematic in many ways. Though Ayers would certainly applaud the sense of community being built among students due to their closeness in proximity during lab-time, there may be such a thing as too close. Students are less likely to learn from their own mistakes (in groups) if they are easily able to peer over and witness what their neighbors do. The lab benches also seemed a little cramped, which may add more stress.

The other half of the room- the half more geared toward lecture- has desks arranged in a more behaviorist manner. The desks are arranged into rows facing the smartboard at the front of the classroom. Mr. Holladay has a good system set up as far as desk placement goes. During lecture and other more nitty gritty class-times, Mr. Holladay keeps his students into these rows. However, he often will act out a common procedure involving instruction followed by the command Go! When Mr. Holladay yells Go! the students know to move their desks into small groups and begin their work. This adds nice variation for the students and is a tactic I would very likely mimic. As Ayers mentioned in his piece Creating an Environment for Learning, it is important to display student work along the walls/certain areas of the classroom. I believe student work displays can be great promoters of self-efficacy and motivation. This is not something I noticed in Mr. Holladays classroom. One small poster is taped on the wall with Get well soon Mr. Holladay inscribed upon it. For my classroom, I like the idea of having the behaviorist modeled desk rows then breaking up into groups when necessary. This variety seemed to be effective with the students. Though I appreciate that Mr. Holladay lacks clutter in his classroom, I think that my classroom will exhibit more student work and content relevant posters. His classroom has shown me that a classroom does not have to seem more warm and inviting- as Ayers classroom might- in order to still be a comfortable learning environment.