The Physical Literary Environment

When I think back to the various literacy environments as I grew up, I feel like most of the environments that I remember or enjoyed were in my elementary years. They were places to sit while you read and they were fun spaces. As I progressed through school, I feel that there was less and less effort by the teachers to enjoy reading which I the began to loose interest. One of my favorite classroom settings is actually my son's first grade teacher he had last year, I will call he Mrs. N. When you entered Mrs. N's room, she had amazing flexible seating arrangements. When it was time to read, kids could sit on rocking chairs, sit on this top bunk like platform(you had to earn it), or on special days she would turn out all the lights and the kids would have flash lights and they would sit under their desks, wrapped in blankets. My son struggled in reading but after this class and how she incorporated different ways to read, he is excelling a year later. If you make situations fun, students will and want to learn.

One of the MAJOR stuggles educators face in creating a good space for literacy is funds. The state of Texas provides the bare minimum and you hear a lot of educators who are spending $100's-$1,000's of dollars of their personal funds, to create an environment that is a fun and educational. Also, the times that we are in and how people feel about different topics and cultrual bias. I had a teacher friend share this article:

 https://tinybeans.com/texas-teacher-book-bans/

In the article it states how the classroom library can be a dangrous place for children being introduced to inappropriate topics. I just found the article to be really disappointing and discouraging to teachers, parents, and students. One of the really exciting parts of why I want to become an educator is making a literacy space for my young students. I feel this is a huge obstacle in Texas and could affect our students learning, if books are taken out of elementry classrooms since reading and getting exposure from various books, is how we learn.

I'm still uncertain as to the grade I am wanting to teach, but I know that I want to teach younger students possibly kindergarten through second or third grade. I feel like the best way to express how I want to show aspects of who I am and what I want in my classroom is to share my Pinterest board. I have been adding to it for the last two years everything I want in my classroom. I feel the main attributes to my classroom would be flexible seat, vivid bright colors, and a big library. Below is my Pinterest board with classroom ideas which you may find interesting as well.

My Pinterest Board-Classroom Ideas