I find one of the most interesting things to observe about a teacher is how they choose to create their learing environment with aesthetics in their classroom. As a student myself, the classrooms and teachers I remember the most are the teachers who had the most intriguing and aestheic classroom environments. I have a photographic and visual personality, so aesthetics play a huge role in my teaching and learning style. Being that I will be a language arts teacher a.k.a. a English teacher, I will not only cover language arts, but also other types of art. Every era of writing is accompanied by an era of art. Art and literature have always played very well together and I plan on touching base on a lot of artists that play a huge role in history with the writers we will be studying in my classroom. I have already started collecting posters of classical, modern, renaissance, and contemporary artists. I want my room to say something through all creative influences, whether that be art, quotes, lyrics, poetry or even my wall for student graffiti. High school students can have trouble getting into reading and writing, but if I can find a way to bring the classic into the present, hopefully I can intrigue the modern day high school student to find interest in where our present lyrics, literature and art has come from.
Another huge part of my teaching style is discussion and debate. Literature and writing is always up for debate and translation, and my students will practice and use the theory of reader-response daily. In order to create this learning enviornment with my classroom layout; I will have to set my desks up in an arrangement to influence this type of learning. My plans for this are, if possible, to create a circle of desks or have two sections face one another. For example, if I cannot have circlular seating than I will have one half of the room faceing the other half and vice-a-versa. There will be a aisle for me to walk down between the two sections as well, this aisle will be available so that I can walk up and down it during discussion and observation. My goal is to have the students see one another and learn from not only me, but their classmates.
