What the coordinator needs to look at on the walls of a classroom

To make a quality observation, the first step is to define what will be the focus of your visit. Be it the space, a specific application of planning, the interaction between the teacher and the children or between the students, the introduction of classes, in short.

The important thing is to list an item that is a priority at the moment and, during the observations, not to lose focus.
In the first semester of this year, the gaze is focused on the classroom space. I usually start visiting classes after a month or so of classes. At each beginning of the term, the rooms are left with empty walls, without posters, calendar, alphabet or list of student names.

As soon as the contents start to be worked on, the environment starts to come alive and be inhabited by the materials.

I like to see this change happening.

Since I'm always communicating with the teachers, they tell me when a teaching project is going to start, and I organize my schedule based on that. Before, the professors only filled the walls when they were going to receive a guest, and not on a daily basis, as it should be.

After I started visiting more regularly and talking to them about the use of the space, I noticed a better occupation of the walls.
The classroom should reflect what children are studying and what they are producing in the subjects. Discoveries, reflections, doubts and curiosities can have space on these walls.

As coordinator, I consider some important aspects when composing my observation agenda. Are they:
– Do the walls have evidence of what children are studying in each subject? Is there space for all of them, and teacher registration to assist students, as content reminders?
– Do the walls indicate which projects are being carried out?
– Are there posters with data such as which were and when the readings performed by the class took place, calendar and list of children's names?
– Are there texts, art activities and other student productions?
– Is there space for information such as reminders of learned content and examples of problem solving?
– Are the posters at a suitable height in relation to the children's size? Can they read your information easily?
– Is there any space left for the dissemination of new and interesting things?

Of course, classroom walls don't always hold so many things at once, but the items listed are important, and should circulate flexibly and with some frequency during the period of work. For this reason, another item comes into the planning of observations here: periodicity.

I never do space observation once a year. This frequency of visits, which must be agreed between the coordinator and his team, is important just to have more time to verify that all items were covered by at least one turn. In my case, I focus my gaze on the walls at least three times during the semester.

The most important thing in this process is that the classroom is organized in a way that can make a difference and help children. Thus, that environment becomes welcoming and conducive to the development of activities and skills of the class.