I have always believed that some sort of change in the classroom can reactivate the mind to refocus. Without some sort of change students become accustomed their surrounding and they might become oblivious to aspects of schooling. Changing the seating or the physical environment are two ways to keep students focused.

When I first came into my internship class, there were 23 students. After the school got a new kindergarten unit, we decreased our class size to 18. My CT decided to adjust the seating arrangement so that the table groups will be heterogeneous groups. Additionally, when teaching throughout the day, she varies between sitting on the carpet and sitting in their seats. Although the students are still in the same physical environment-the classroom-my CT still u see changes in the students visual stimuli and body arrangement. Moving from the carpet in between each lesson is one aspect that interests me in her classroom transitions.

In one of my lessons, I changed the physical environment in which the students were in. As an individual that values nature, I decided to change the environment to outside. One of Howard Gardener’s multiple intelligences is naturalistic. In this intelligence type, an individual learns best when surrounded by natural elements in some way, whether that’s by being in nature or incorporating natural elements within a lesson. This lesson involved physically being in nature. The students were to do a shape hunt in which they find objects in nature that are shaped like a rentable, square, triangle, and circle. This not only is beneficial for students that are naturalistic intelligence, but also it applies to real world applications. While being outside the students were extremely well behaved, they were focused and had very good discussions within their groups. In some regard, I do believe that this positive experience was to due to the change in physical environment. at this age, students are naturally curious about the world, so allowing them to explore in the world captures this curiosity and harnesses it.

Since I am a strong advocate for Howard Gardener’s Theory of Multiple Intelligent and nature in learning, I will be incorporating that into my own classroom as much as possible. The lesson that I did, reinforces my advocacy. Having students learn outside satisfies that necessity to change environments. Additionally, I think that changing the seating arrangement can positively affect learning as well. Modifying the layout to match the learning style of the lesson can increase the type of learning desired. For example, if you are having a discussion in class, arranging the desks in a circle can increase collaboration and discussion. Understating how changing the seating arrangement/physical environment can benefit learning is the first step in increasing achievement in your class.