Find the Seeds; Plant the Seeds; Cultivate!
S I X
W O R D
M E M O I R
The students are excited about being involved in the process of designing our room.
Thought: why didn't we ever think to ask them before?
Friday, Oct. 14, All five of my 6th grade classes took the student survey, online, provided by RESA.
What Bugs You?
Tuesday, Oct. 18, I asked the students what bugged them, using sticky notes.
I was not that satisfied with the results,
so I changed my investigative technique for the rest of the classes.
I used the Rally Robin technique, provided by Kagan, where students are first given
absolute think time, pencils down (eyes shut--if they wanted) and silent for a short, timed period. After that, they passed the paper back and forth adding to the lists of what they liked/wanted, then repeated the process of a separate list of what bugged them/they did not like in a classroom
Here are the results:
Top of the list in what would make them happy or better suited to learning:
Conversely( and often the direct opposite) these are things that bug, annoy or affect their learning negatively:
Thought: why didn't we ever think to ask them before?
Friday, Oct. 14, All five of my 6th grade classes took the student survey, online, provided by RESA.
What Bugs You?
Tuesday, Oct. 18, I asked the students what bugged them, using sticky notes.
I was not that satisfied with the results,
so I changed my investigative technique for the rest of the classes.
I used the Rally Robin technique, provided by Kagan, where students are first given
absolute think time, pencils down (eyes shut--if they wanted) and silent for a short, timed period. After that, they passed the paper back and forth adding to the lists of what they liked/wanted, then repeated the process of a separate list of what bugged them/they did not like in a classroom
Here are the results:
Top of the list in what would make them happy or better suited to learning:
- Comfortable chairs
- Desks that were roomy (fit them)
- Carpeted place to lie/sit on floor
- Different colors on walls (no agreement on color desired)
- More space to move around easily
- Ability to see/hear from anywhere in the room
- Change the lighting
- Room temperature
- They'd like a quiet place to work alone
- Replace chalk boards and white boards with newer ones
- Pleasant smells, or a natural breeze
- Plants, nature, or pets
- Inspiring decorations/posters
- Modernize the cabinets
- Sound system, or music available
- Removing distracting noises
- Always have technology available: Chromebooks, iPad or laptops
Conversely( and often the direct opposite) these are things that bug, annoy or affect their learning negatively:
- Chairs are uncomfortable, wrong size, or hard to move
- Desks are wobbly, gross or wrong size
- Floor is hard, dusty or dirty
- Wall color is dull, bland, boring or ugly
- Hard to move around
- Can't always see or hear the board, teacher or other students, or the clock
- The lighting is too bright, or not enough when lights are off, some suggested a dimmer
- Too hot, or too cold or too smelly
- Chalk boards bother them, and the one white board is too small
- They'd like more posters, and have some of the stuff removed
- The cabinets are too old
Summary of Data Provided by Students
After tabulating the above information, I further
categorized it into the top most mentioned by both
positive and negative comments. This data is
presented on the t-chart to the right.
There were some unusual, specific ideas like a slushie
machine or snack bar, but most were at least somewhat
similar to their colleagues.