Small classroom layout & design...?

Question

I teach 4th grade & have a VERY small room - less than 500 square feet for 18-22 students. Most photos I see on the web are for rooms 3-4+ times bigger than mine. Anyone have ideas for the best use of my space.

One wall is all cabinets & one bookcase. One wall has a shelf/pegs down the length of it. The front wall is all markerboard. The other wall contains the one 5'x7' bulletin board. The kids have standard desks, the ones with a "shelf" or whatever below the top for books,etc.

Nothing can be attached to the walls, unless it's light enough to go up with tape. No windows. Grid ceiling. I often put student work on the outside of the door & in the hall to expand my room.

Any suggestions or links to smaller rooms would be helpful.

Answer 1

For desks, either make groups of 4,6 or 8 together, or try to get tables from someone else (trade).  Tables take up less room.  I had a very small room and the only thing I did was group desks and work a lot on building classroom community (getting along with each other helps in small spaces).

Answer 2

My last 10 years teaching have been in temporary buildings which are also very small. I was not innovative in my seating plans. I put my desk in the corner and had seats in standard front direction, two students, space for walking, two students, space for walking, and finally two students. Therefore, I was able to get 6 students across and a number of rows back, enough to accommodate 18-22 students. I did put one row of desks right up against the bookshelves and the opposite row as close to shelves. There was no way I could leave access to the spaces next to the shelves and bookcases. If I needed to access them, I pushed the desks aside. Hope that helps. You do get used to it after a while.

Answer 3

Don't use tape to hang things in your room use stikki clips

http://www.dickblick.com/zz573/02/?wmcp=...

the stuff will stay up all year.

You can't make your room bigger but you can focus on classroom management ideas to make the space cozy instead of small. If your disorganized and the kids don't get along with one another the space will seem smaller!!

Another idea - try to get on a design show on HGTV!