SodySpokes

As a new teacher, embarking on my mission to change the world one classroom at a time, I realized that the change that needs to sweep across the nation’s school starts long before childrens’ footprints enliven the dusty halls of each noble establishment. As a teacher walks into an empty room with four walls and a few desks, she is given the power to change this stark environment into a lively, welcoming atmosphere where learning can take place. Unfortunately, for years teachers have taken this noble, even sacred, responsibility of creating a learning environment far too lightly. They have rushed into teacher stores a few days before school starts, grabbing anything and everything that has at least 12 loud, bright primary colors strewn across its surface. They have tacked and glued and posted just about everything from badly drawn elephants to year old calendar pictures on their walls and bulletin boards. They have posted so many moving, talking, colorful things on their websites that a person can’t even see after being bombarded by the brightness and tactlessness of their cartoons. How can a person be expected to learn anything when the valuable space inside their brain is crammed with an overflow of useless pictures and colors that seem to attack them because they are so “engaging” and “lively”? The mind becomes like a cluttered desk space that crowds out any possibility for exploratory thinking or flashes of insight. Oh the evils of tackiness! The vileness of tastelessness. This is a call for a new order of thinking…a classroom with class.

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