Under the Influence

My first classroom was beautiful. Colourful and labelled and matching and themed. A place for everything and everything in its right place – resources I managed, displayed, and protected.

I curated the space to appeal to the eye, displaying only the best work and laminating precious posters so that I could reuse them for years to come. Noticeboards were decorated with unit titles and themed borders, and then filled with second-draft brainstorm charts that I scribed for the kids. You see, I always rewrote our charts before displaying them, careful to perfect my writing before hanging them in their prized places.

Forgive me if I sound a little cynical; I find it uncomfortable to look back on these days when I used such prime real estate so poorly but as the saying goes, ‘When we know better, we do better’. I definitely know how to better use the precious classroom walls, and my time, now.

What I have learnt since my early career days, perhaps even just over the last six years, is that these perfected walls perhaps didn’t ‘work’ for my learners or their learning. They were static and immovable; they often stayed put for the term, some even longer. They served simply to display, to ‘show off’ products, to prove that my kids were learning something, and sadly, they were owned and used only by me.

These old walls espoused a calm, orderly and organised environment, but that was the extent of their influence. During my classroom teaching days at Griffin, my walls transformed to work for learners and learning. I now support others to do the same. Our walls do the heavy lifting; they exemplify, guide, prompt, and sometimes answer. They are used, they are referred to, they support, they document. Our walls morph and change in response to learners and learning journeys.

Our walls are now ‘under the influence’ of our evolving Inquiry-Based Learning pedagogy. They house learning, questions, wonders, thinking, co-constructed tools, and unfolding journeys. Most importantly, the learners are visible as owners of the learning. It is evidenced on the walls that our identity as teachers is shifting. Our classroom walls teach and offer feedback as much as we do. Learners also use the walls to engage in peer reflection and to give feedback to each other.

Harnessing ‘working walls’ allows the classroom environment to become The Third Teacher. Process is visible and ‘point in time’ messy work samples are displayed, for they amplify the next steps for learning. There are few final products on show, the walls say more about the journey now. The learning environment is alive, responsive, changing, and growing with the learners and their learning. Our classroom walls are still beautiful, perhaps even more so.

Next: Inquiry Stance