A look inside Patti's digital classroom...

My computer lab is very tiny, approximately 9 ft. by 14 ft. There are six student stations, one data station and one computer that I use for my e-mail and files. You can also see more pictures of my lab on my website:

Inside globalclassroom.org

I am a Title 1 Computer teacher and bring six students at a time to my lab for a 25 minute lesson in math, reading or writing. CompassLearning software is installed on my computers and I also have Internet access and software applications such as Kidspiration, Graph Club, Word and Excel… and more.

If I could change anything I would like more space. That's not going to happen because there is no more space to have. : Teachers are teaching in closet spaces at our school. The only parts of my environment that I have control over are the walls. I have been in my lab since 1991 and can list these advantages:

  1. I have wall space where I can put maps, flags from other countries and display the work of my students as well as pictures of our online friends.
  2. I have a small desk between the two large tables that hold three computers each. On that desk I put multi-cultural items such as books in other languages, a large piece of lava rock that I brought back from Iceland and money from other countries, etc.
  3. My room is tiny and cozy. I can see what everyone is doing and we can discuss issues in our small group setting.
  4. We are actually in a small room in the back corner of the Media Center so we have access to books as well.

On the bottom left of this picture you see my desk chair. My computer is on the wall opposite the student computers. You can see that there is only a narrow space for me to walk in the "middle" of this lab.

I have a lamp on the display table between the two sets of three computers. Sometimes I turn the florescent lights off and just use lamps. The room is very cozy then.

Patti's computer and desk. My desk is on the wall opposite the 6 student computers and is next to the door that leads to the Media Center. Just outside my door is another computer lab of 26 stations.

I always have a world map and flags from other countries in my lab. We have friends all over the world and put their pictures on the wall and/or map.

In this picture you can see how wide the room is. The door on the right leads to the Media Center. My lab was originally a conference room with one large table inside. The five cards that you see in the middle of the picture were given to us by the central office. These cards have content standards on them - math and reading. I have many more cards on my shelf. We display the cards for the standards we are teaching.

I print and post the work of the students on the walls. They love to see their printouts displayed.

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Patti Weeg
www.globalclassroom.org
March 21, 2004