Every teacher and education specialist will tell you that the classroom’s interior and equipment are as important as the professionalism of a teacher. The issue becomes more pointed when we talk about creative curriculum classrooms.
Here, I would like to represent my image of a perfect innovative curriculum classroom.
What Is Creative Curriculum?
The creative curriculum is not a pure class, where students just listen to a teacher and make notes. To cut a long story short, an innovative curriculum is more than a form of education. It is an environment where each student is a part of a team. This team is free to show creativity and find the answers through discussions, activities, games, etc. Such an environment does not imply cramming but accumulating emotional and mental processes and finding other, complicated ways to learn the material.
A creative curriculum has a set of goals that affect the classroom directly. Here they are:
- Social development includes such aspects as the sense of self of a student, fighting for their own rights, and supporting others in the same action. Through games and cooperation, a student develops proper social behavior.
- Physical development implies training the motor functions through games and actions with small objects, playsets, etc.
- Cognitive development includes training of an ability to learn and solve different problems. Also, it promotes a student to search for alternative and creative ways to overcome a task. The innovative curriculum program implies logical thinking training, as well.
- Finally, language development means training an ability to structurize thoughts, ask questions, read, and write productively.
Depending on the age of students, different goals and disciplines might be included in this list. The first rule of a perfect classroom for creative curriculums – consider the goals and the age of your students to get the maximal positive effect from your interior.
Creative Curriculum Classroom Checklist
When we talk about creative curriculum classrooms, they must have all the advantages and follow all the requirements to standard classes. First of all, make sure that it is a well-enlightened place with good sources of both artificial and natural light sources. So, it must be a room with big windows. However, let’s proceed to our list:
- Size: a curriculum classroom must be more significant than a standard class. The best variant is 1.5-2 times bigger than a standard class. Consider that a curriculum classroom implies different activities and lots of stuff around. Students must feel free and comfortable. Plus, they need much air to breathe, so never underestimate the size of your classroom.
- The second essential aspect is the furniture. A blackboard is an absolute must for any classroom. It can be standard, with a set of chalk pieces. However, a wide blackboard designed for magnets and markers is preferable: it is less dirty and allows many students to work near the blackboard simultaneously.
- A teacher must have a table used for writing, collecting materials, and working with papers. It must not be too big or massive: students must not feel that a teacher belongs to another social class or has too much authority over them. The devastating majority of the time, a teacher must spend among students, being equal to them.
- The creative curriculum does not imply standard desks and their position. Usual position (several lines, each one is situated further from the teacher’s desk) does not create the spirit of cooperation. All the chairs and desks must be equally located. It can be a circle or a square attaching the perimeter of the classroom. It can be a good decision to replace the desks with chairs, devoting the separate section for proper writing. In our age of tablets and laptops, handwriting becomes less essential.
- Make sure that a classroom has a lot of shelves to store books, toys, equipment, etc. They must not be tall, so every student can reach everything they need without someone’s help.
- A perfect curriculum classroom must be divided into areas. Each area must be devoted to a different activity that the curriculum implies. For instance, you can build a writing zone with comfy chairs and desks, a playground with lots of toys and soft carpets, a zone for discussions, where students can face each other and easily communicate, a zone of experiments, where students can learn disciplines through practice, a library, and a computer section.
- As for the equipment, everything still depends on the goals of creative curriculums. The decision will depend on the purposes of the school. However, there are some aspects equal to everything: books, computers, and design.
- A library of the curriculum classroom must be wide. There, a student must find all popular genres useful in education: drama and poetry, science fiction, popular science (encyclopedias, dictionaries), and science textbooks. Also, pay attention to creativity: supply a classroom with materials for painting and drawing.
- At least a couple of computers is a must for a modern creative curriculum classroom. The internet is an authoritative source of information. Also, there are many examples of educational software and video games. At least, a teacher can play some audio files or videos.
- The design should meet the expectations of children. Add some colorful and creative paintings and buy impressive learning materials – world maps, human body schemes, etc.
- Consider that everything should be safe to use by a child of an intended age. Hide all the wires and pipes. Cut all the sharp corners and edges.
I hope this little guide will provide you with an image of a place where students will be the most productive. Do not forget to check other exciting posts at our professional essay writing services.
Written by: Lauren Bradshaw, an expert at professional essay writing service CustomWritings.com