Learning spaces need to engage or energize, focus and calm students’ brains. Being in a space that is overstimulated or totally empty is not optimum for meaningful learning.
Classrooms often have four walls. Educators can use one wall to energize/engage students’ brains, one to focus their brains, and one to calm their brains.
Energizing or Engaging
As a teacher, you can provide a place, ONE wall, or a corner where you provide many things for your students to be creative while feeling engaged and energized.
Put up bright posters and bright lights. Include project ideas that can be completed standing up. This adds time and space for brain and body building movement. It also enables them to be more creative and enthusiastic about what they are doing. This active learning can in include crafts, puppet shows, podcasts, commercials, STEM projects and more.
Consider displaying unfinished projects. Work in progress recognizes active learning and makes it easier to move to the next activity without having to put everything away.
Focusing
Use one or two walls to display things that will help your students focus on what they need to learn. Simplify to remove eye-catching and brain-distracting extras.
Dedicate white space on at least one wall to focus the brain. Train students to look in that direction to regain focus when their mind wanders or they are distracted by those around them.
Calming
Walls can play a significant role in your learning space; some consider wall space a third teacher! Plan your wall displays to include an area that contributes calmness. Your brain and your students’ brains will thank you for leaving much of one wall completely blank. Declutter, declutter, declutter!
Provide a “calm corner” with wall display and materials that help relax your students’ brains. This area might include sensory bins, books, audiobooks, neutral wall colors, objects from nature, dim lights, etc.
Designing dedicated spaces to focus, energize, and calm your students’ brains will contribute to optimal learning and fun in your classroom.
Author
Yanina Jimenez
Yanina is an SDA multigrade teacher in Illinois, Ph.D. Student at Andrews University, and author of the book Brain-friendly Teacher https://bit.ly/BrainFriendlyTeacherBook.