AimLanguageLearning.com

[erinf]

My colleague and I are very excited, as we will have our own classroom (to share) for French this year! Since both of us have been "on the cart" for years, we are looking for some ideas on how to decorate/set-up the room. Any suggestions on things to include? If you could share how your room is organized, that would be great! Thanks!

[kareno]

First of all, which grade levels will you be teaching? This can make a difference!

In any case, I would make sure there was a large carpet area for the kids to sit on. It's nice too if there's a projector attached to your computer, but this is not essential. As for tables and such, I have done a number of things over the years. It really depends how much space is in the room and what kind of furniture I have access to. At a couple of schools, I would have 1 desk per two students and the students would sit face to face. This gave me a lot more room to put other things in the French room. In any case, the desks or tables should be arranged so that the kids work together. For the bulletin boards, I like to put up things the kids will actually look at. Currently I have info about verbs as well as pictures for a bunch of verbs in the present tense. I have also had bulletin boards about assessment, homework, my French at home program, opposites, and the plays. Another important factor is just how things flow. If you hand out cards for speaking only in French, you need to think about how you are doing this. For example, at one school I was at, the cards were in containers on the tables. At the end of class, the students would help themselves, write their name on and then place it in the bag I was holding as they headed out the door. At that school, the students never had homework and so the pencils and duo-tangs were kept in the French room at all times. The students would arrive at the French room with nothing and then leave with nothing. If you have a situation where the students bring things but then you also provide pencils, expect them to go missing! I would discuss routines with the other French teacher and design the classroom partly around that. I hope this gives you a few ideas to consider. I'm sure there are other things too!

[BL]

The age of your students is a huge factor regarding set up. An equally important factor is your routines. Ex: I do a calendar time daily with my younger students, so I have all the necessary bits posted up. kareno made some good points as well (storing supplies, tickets, traffic flow, tech set up, etc).

I've also shared a room with another teacher, and personally, I find it to be easier to have separate desks/shelving to keep "my" stuff. Stuff that we deemed to be shared were stored in shared shelving. Another point to discuss with your partner teacher -- is it okay for you to be working at your desk in the room while he/she is teaching? This can be touchy for some people. Because there will be limited space, I think the two of you will have to think/decorate as one head. (Know what I mean?)

I often start the year with very little on the wall and then put things up as I need them. My wall stuff tends to be geared more to my younger students as they don't necessarily have a duotang to refer to. For my older students, I provide a lot of the basics on paper for their duotangs and I encourage them to treat their duotangs as a reference point when needed.

You may also want to read these older threads for ideas:
http://aimlanguagelearning.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=13940#13940
http://aimlanguagelearning.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2430&highlight=classroom
http://aimlanguagelearning.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2103&highlight=classroom
http://aimlanguagelearning.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1338&highlight=classroom

If you can come back with a rough idea, perhaps that'll jumpstart more feedback for you. Congrats on getting a French room!

[bembree]

I post popular questions all around my room along with an 8 x 111/2 photo of the action. For example, I posted the question "Est-ce que je peux ouvrir la fenêtre?`next to a picture of one of my students trying to open the window. The kids love to see themselves on the wall and they all know which question to look for when necessary. Eventually, of course, they don`t need the questions anymore but they make for a nice French environment. Some questions: Qu`est-ce que ça veut dire? Je ne comprends pas. Est-ce que je peux tailler mon crayon? Est-ce que je peux emprunter un crayon de la banque? Est-ce que je peux aller parler à Madame Carter? Je ne sais pas. Est-ce que je peux chercher mes devoirs de mon casier? Est-ce que je peux mettre ça dans la poubelle?

I also post all interrogative words with their English equivalent. I was reluctant to put up translations but I got this idea from Sylvia and it has proven to be a very valuable tool. Clothing, weather, calendar, possessive pronouns, punctuation/accents are other widely used ones.

Have fun decorating. You will enjoy having your own space!