Halfway through my third year teaching, my principal unexpectedly stopped by my room. “Did you hear?” she said, sheepishly.
Immediately, I went into panic mode. Did the ever-present budget issues mean my position was eliminated? Did a parent complaint about me make its way to her?
“Hear what?” I cautiously asked back.
“Your classroom is being moved. We’re getting rid of the computer lab in the Social Studies hallway and making it your classroom…tomorrow.”
As a brand new high school teacher, my first three years were spent teaching in a room on the opposite side of the school from my Social Studies department colleagues. Surrounded by Math, Spanish, and Special Education teachers while sharing classroom space with a with a Health teacher, our remote hallway was an un-air conditioned catch all. In my frantic attempts to pack up my classroom in a day, I got excited. This new room was bigger, air conditioned, and would actually offer a chance to get to know my Social Studies teachers. This could be good!. Little would I know this new room assignment would change my career trajectory and my life.
Since that first, unexpected classroom move, I’ve taught in a variety of settings. I’ve spent hours afterschool making phone calls home in offices deep in the belly of large high schools with no natural light. I’ve also had an office literally on the town square. You can bet that people in the community noticed when my office light turned on in the morning and off at night! I’ve had to make challenging decisions about where in the building to put teachers, especially during construction projects. In an attempt to get my students back to in-person learning during the pandemic, I crawled around every square inch of my building, measuring dimensions and calculating the room’s social distancing capacity in a desperate attempt to get students back to in-person learning.
Now, after 20 years as both a teacher and a principal, I’ve realized that we often overlook the obvious solutions in our attempts to remedy the problems facing schools. We discuss establishing a positive culture ad nauseum. We preach the importance of self-care for school staff, yet also demand increasingly more from them…without adequate compensation, training, or support. There is something foundational that is overlooked by both educational research and the edu-guru’s: the physical classroom space a teacher is assigned to work in. Attention is given to designing learning spaces to enhance student learning inside the classroom, but where the teacher works is, I argue, just as important.
Here, I’ve designated 5 words that all start with “C” as points for a building leader to consider when determining the physical layout of their school. For each of these terms, I provide anecdotes from my career to show how the location of a teacher’s classroom truly matters for both their professional and personal development. Physical classroom placement can be part of a broader strategy and vision for schools.
Care
Care: The teachers whose room surrounds yours often become your work family. This is especially important for those who are just beginning their careers or time in your building. New teachers need the support of those who teach at the same grade level or department. With my mentor across the building, I had no choice but to run to the teacher next door for help logging into my attendance system my first day as a teacher. When you are physically separated from your colleagues, if makes you feel like you are expendable and do not belong. Putting teacher names on doors shouldn’t be an afterthought. A friend who is an itinerant ELL teacher proudly sent me a photo of a sign outside her (closet-sized) classroom space. This, in her mind, cemented her professional contribution to the school community. Even though she’s only present in the building for a short time each day, she is cared for. She has a name and a space.
Curriculum
Curriculum: Leveraging physical space can contribute to achieving building or district wide goals. For example, hands-on opportunities to gather outdoor samples can enhance science curriculum. Even better yet is when science teachers’ rooms have easy outdoor access. This could produce an increase in instructional time and demonstrates to teachers that you understand the distinct curricular needs they have. Beyond formal curriculum conversations, processing the day with the colleagues whose classrooms are nearby can become part of your work rituals between classes or at the end of the day. These are micro-lessons in the unwritten curriculum of teaching which all teachers’ must master: classroom management, parent communication, and the many service-related responsibilities (clubs, committees, etc.).
Conversations
Conversations: News flash – friendship and fun should be part of work! As the school year ebbs and flows, collegial conversations, even about the mundane, help forge connections. Conversations are not limited to staff, though; teachers can also talk with students whose lockers are nearby. For four years, I had conversations every morning and afternoon with a student whose locker was near my classroom. This was a natural way to fill the space as she gathered her belongings, and I was on hallway duty. Although she was never enrolled in my classes, decades later we are still in touch. The simple power of conversation led me to be a support for her – all because my room was there.
Cleaning
Cleaning: Schools have predictable timelines for maintenance and improvements, but teachers are often left out of the process. When a large hood vent was installed in one of my art teachers’ rooms, I was sure to involve that teacher in the process of where to install it. He was, after all, the content expert. Asking teachers what needs to be fixed is key. For most of my career, the wall clocks in my school building would not get re-set after a time change. This little fix could have been one less aggravation! If you want to know how fast news spreads among school staff members, all you have to do is say that a particular hallway’s floors have been waxed. Teachers will know that their hall is a “no go zone” and adjust their summer classroom set up accordingly.
Chokepoints
Chokepoints: This geographic term is defined by Mirriam Webster as “a strategic narrow route providing passage through or to another region.” Just as the Strait of Hormuz is a chokepoint in the Middle East, controlling access to the Persian Gulf, school buildings have chokepoints. In one school, teachers’ mailboxes are located down a deserted back hallway – except for a single room. The teacher assigned in that room becomes the de facto listening ear for everyone who swung by during her free period. This created stress for her. Do the chokepoints in your school create accessibility issues? A teacher who relied on a cane had difficulty accessing the staff door into the building from the parking lot due to a build up of snow on the ramp. This was the only way for her to come into the building, but this chokepoint was overlooked.
We focus on designing classrooms for student success and yes, that’s vital. But, as a school leader, your overall district or building strategy can and should be incorporated into your floor plan. Teachers will stay in jobs that provide them with positive working conditions. Physical working conditions are part of that.
So, how did being assigned a new classroom change my career trajectory and my life? Being around the corner from the main office instead of in a far off part of the building meant that I could complete my administrative internship during my free periods. My classroom location made it easy to pop into the main office to witness the myriads of things that administrators handle daily. Personally, the Social Studies colleague next door became one of my best friends. Our physical classroom proximity provided opportunities for relational building that simply couldn’t happen in sporadic department meetings. Real relationships are built through the everyday interactions with those who work nearby.
As you prepare your school building for the next year, consider the care, curriculum, conversations, cleaning, and chokepoints in your own context. As much as what happens within classrooms matters, so do the actual spaces and rooms to which your teachers are assigned. The spaces where we work can be the strategic setting for lasting career success.
