For my classroom, I chose to design a Chemistry classroom for 8th graders. I would use this classroom in a middle class area in a public school. I have a lot of different thing in my classroom that I believe will help my students succeed.

To begin, I would like to start with the wall color. It is proven that students learn more in an environment with colored walls. When a class has white walls, a student will not learn as well. So, I have different colors on each wall. Also, this will help while directing students. For example, I can say ‘everyone look at the green wall,’ and the kids will know exactly where to direct their attention. The wall colors are an important part of the classroom.

As you can see, I have a few things missing from my room. I do not have a teacher desk because I would not have that room as my actual room. I would have, like most chemistry teachers, a desk in another smaller room. I have many different gadgets in my classroom. Using my unlimited funds, I will have a door that only my students can access with a pass. In the year 2015, there were approximately 52 school shootings in schools across the country. When I am a teacher, I would like the ultimate protection system for my children. I want my students to feel safe and happy in my classroom. I want them to have no fears and I want them to focus on the material in class, not if their life is in danger. Protection of my students are very important to me. In the corner on my lab table in the back of the room, I have a pair of goggles. These are not your average goggles, though. These are virtual reality goggles. These goggles can let my students work on things that may be too harmful to make in real life (for example, an atomic bomb). This will let my students access things that are normally unobtainable to students. Moving onto the center of my lab table, there are dispensers for chemicals. Most experiments are not done right because a student grabs the wrong chemical. I plan to have the dispensers labeled so that the students will never mistake a chemical for another chemical and their labs will work out (most of the time.) In the other corner, I have a kinetic sand pit. Students will be able to create different type of terrains and even a volcano. When they are finished creating the terrain, they will be able to access information on the terrain type. If it is a volcano, they will be able to see the inside of the volcano and how it works. Continuing onto the next wall, I have a bunch of different inspirational and positive posters on the wall. Being personally a victim to bullying at school, I plan to have a no tolerance policy on bullying. I have positive messages on the wall (Be Yourself, and Genius) because I want the students to express themselves and be themselves in the classroom without feeling the pressure to fit into a mold society has set for them. I want each student to be themselves and not be afraid of bullies or being judged. On the next wall is an interactive periodic table. When you press on an element, the wall will come out and show the students information about the elements, and also will show them what the element looks like. This will give the students a real view of the object to let them visualize the elements they see in some of their problems. In the corner near the periodic table wall and the positivity wall, I have a hologram machine. I have a hologram machine so my students can meet and talk with famous chemist and physicist that made up some of the rules they learn in class. This will let the students experience some of the rules of chemistry and physics in real life. On the wall with the door, I have a large touch screen board. This will be my main place of teaching and working out problems. This board will let my students be able to interact with each other, and they will be able to work out problems and do all the math on the board. Also, I will have a software where students will be able to ask questions (anonymously or not). The questions will pop up in the last five minutes of class so I can answer anything that I did not make clear during class. The tables will also be connected to the board so students can work on their work at their table and if their work is right I can display it for the rest of the class to see. Finally, the tables are set up in an open classroom format. Most open classrooms involve couches and pillows on the floor. In a chemistry classroom, this is a large safety hazard. So, the only way to have an open classroom is to have the students work around a large table. So, the tables not only work as tablet, they work for communication throughout the students at the table. 

Overall, I really enjoy my classroom set up. I feel as though all of the things in my room will be important to my student’s experience in the classroom. All the items are beneficial to learning more in my class and making connections to outside the classroom.