I would like to give everyone insight into how another center creates its learning environment and see if anyone else has a learning environment such as this.
At the school I work for the themes are different in all of the rooms. It is not structured; whatsoever. One group may be learning about bugs, another spring, and yet another birds. Our director is very hands-off and just lets the staff decide what they feel they would like to do. This in turn, makes it very difficult for teachers trying to plan for new weekly themes.
Since it is summertime, we have been given theme calendars from the director on what we will be doing for each month. These are the only structured themes that I have ever been given.
Our centers are basically the same all of the time. This is a very different environment for me based on my years in teaching. The centers are unchanging. New books about a theme may be placed on the bookshelves, but that is about it. The science area always has pinecones, shells, magnifying glasses, and color panels. The math center puzzles and other manipulatives etc.
I believe the reason staff would give for not changing out centers is that they do not have an incentive to do so due to lack of management. News is often heard through the grapevine and will trickle down to staff through notes, being called into the office, or speaking with other teachers.
We are supposed to have monthly staff meetings, but I have only been to one live session. Otherwise, we just receive monthly staff meeting notes that we read and sign for 1 CEU.
As a teacher, this is very disheartening. I have always worked in centers that changed their centers based on 1, 2, or 3 week themes. They would be changed based on the childrens' interests. We often had small tables, that denoted the math center which would have a counting, matching game, or puzzles based on the theme, a science table relating to the theme etc. At this school, the science area is just a large cabinet, not a table as well as all the other learning areas.
All of our " theme-based centers" are basically table top activities that are placed out on large tables in the room.
At other schools, our dramatic play center would change with each new theme. At this center, our dramatic play center is a mish-mash of a kitchen, plastic tool workbench, and plastic babies with a high chair and cribs. It has never been changed based on theme.
I would love to make changes to this and hope eventually to speak to the director on ways that the environment should be changed to encourage more excitement and interest in our learning centers.
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 05-21-2019 09:25 AM
From: Rebecca Clough
Subject: Teacher motivation - theme changes
Are the required theme changes imposed on teachers or are teachers part of the decision-making process? How much autonomy are teachers given to develop themes that resonate with them and the children in their classrooms? What reasons do the teachers' give for not implementing theme changes?
------------------------------
Rebecca Clough
Decatur GA
Original Message:
Sent: 05-17-2019 12:39 AM
From: Carlen Kossman
Subject: Teacher motivation - theme changes
Hi there!
Hope yall are doing well. If I could just pick your lovely minds for a moment.
The struggle I have had for two years now is the following: teachers do not change their shelves to the new monthly curriculum items or teacher made items. Which in turn results in myself and management team staying until 12-1 am to change the shelves to adhere to the monthly themes.
I have tried the following as incentives: best teacher made item wins a gift card (teachers vote for each other's items), best teacher shelves same gift card incentive, five training over shelving unit changes and examples of what/how to do it.
What do you do to get your teachers to change their classroom environment to match the current curriculum?
Thank you
------------------------------
Carlen Kossman
Director
The Children's Lighthouse Learning Center
Montgoemry TX
------------------------------