A version of this post was originally published in July 2017 on Teach Secondary.
Student performance is not only affected by their own physical or psychological factors, but the learning environment as well. The space where children do most of their learning activities is, in its traditional form, rather rigorous and stiff. As a result, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to meet the diverse learning needs of young people – and also of teachers – in such a setting.
The best learning environment should be all about flexibility and diversity, and student-centered. Many educators have set the wheels in motion in order to create this new setting that is more student-centered than the traditional classroom, including things like:
Entire schools are already being redesigned this way, or even built from scratch to ensure the best functionality for teaching, learning, collaboration and creativity. But this requires plenty of resources – and clearly, not all schools have the means or the possibilities to redesign all their classrooms, instantly.
However, budget-friendly solutions exist.
Teachers are generally a resourceful bunch; and in fact, giving your classroom a makeover to meet modern learning requirements needn’t be prohibitively expensive. Many things can be done on a limited budget with a few great ideas and the school’s support. Some of the following tips and ideas will cost you only time, and whilst others might require some financial resources, the costs are minimal:
How to get all these things and more for free or on the cheap, you may wonder? Well, here are some ideas for that as well:
Spread your antennae to find out about the end-of-the-year sales that college students organise – expect armchairs and sofas, portable desks, laptop trays and much more;
As for the time investment dedicated to all these activities, you can do it all alone or you could ask your students to give a helping hand. Being involved in transforming their learning environment for a change really shows the impact of their work and may encourage even the most reluctant students to participate.
Building a better learning environment for your students doesn’t have to expensive, but it has to be done with the students’ learning needs in mind. There are so many things that can be reused or revived on a very small budget.
One last thing: if you’re looking for more specific ideas, inspiration and DIY hacks for your classroom makeover, then check out YouTube and Pinterest.