- Narrator: Call to your mind a “typical” classroom.
What does it look like?
Are there rows of desks, all facing the same direction?
Is there a teacher in the front
with a large writing surface like a whiteboard?
When we talk about teaching, oftentimes the focus
is on what students need to learn and how they learn it,
but another important component that can support
positive learning outcomes is where students learn.
How are educators designing physical learning environments
for students today?
[clicking]
[jovial music]
- Jacalyn Mueller: Fresh out of college teaching,
I had no idea what my classroom was going to morph into.
I had this idea of the posters have to be only academic.
Don't tell too much about yourself to your students.
You're there to be their teacher, not their friend.
- This is Jacalyn Mueller, sixth grade math teacher
in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and she may have
one of the most unique math classrooms around.
- I have like, a family room sitting area in my classroom.
So couches and comfy chairs, I have tables
'cause some kids still like to sit at tables.
I have lamps all over my classroom.
I took some legs off of my tables
and I put them on the floor
and I talked my principal into getting me some beanbags.
- If that sounds really comfortable,
it isn't an accident.
Early in her teaching, Jacalyn recognized something
we're all familiar with: for some students, math is scary.
Math is uncomfortable.
- There's a lot of science and research behind students
with anxiety around math and I never asked the question,
“How many of you feel like you're really good at math?”
I asked the question, “How many of you are afraid of math?”
and a lot of hands go up.
And that's when I say, “Well, I promise you
"at the end of this school year, you might not like math.
"I'm not gonna promise that you like it
"because I don't even like it some days,
"but I'm gonna promise you
"that you're not gonna be afraid of it."
If I can make my classroom comfortable first,
so they aren't feeling uncomfortable physically,
then maybe I could sneak some math in there.
- Overcoming that fear of the subject matter
is only one part of Jacalyn's approach.
- I believe every student is a mathematician
when they walk into my classroom,
but as the world changes,
I also had to bring in social emotional learning.
And what do I do when that student who has always gotten it
has a complete meltdown in math?
Like, those are really huge feelings for a sixth grader.
So then I started learning about social emotional learning,
and trauma-informed teaching.
So students that walk in
not only feel physically comfortable,
but mentally and emotionally safe.
- And that emotional safety can be something different
for every student, which encouraged Jacalyn
to think about inclusivity and addressing basic needs.
- I put up a Pride flag and I put up a Black Lives Matter flag
and I put up my Seneca-Cayuga Iroquois Nation flag.
Mondays were mindfulness Mondays,
and we just started with breathing.
And then I realized students
coming back from lunch needed it.
There are so many students that walk into this building
and you don't have any idea what's going on
and where they come from.
I want their emotional and mental health
to come first before academics.
It's sixth grade math.
If we miss one lesson, it is not the end of the world,
but they're feeling safe
when really big things are going on in the world.
That's more important.
Usually, I start with how I'm feeling.
I bring my feelings into it,
just because I have years of coping
and I have like, those skills already built.
So I tell them my really big emotions and I say,
"It's okay to be angry at what's going on.
It's okay to be mad."
And then we talk about how we cope with that
and how do we deal with that.
- This openness and emotional exchange with her students
has created a level of trust between them,
and Jacalyn has seen that trust extend to the academics as well.
- Because again, they have so much choice in the classroom
and I've invested in that.
And when I say, “I need you to be quiet and listen,”
"Okay, I will."
They do it because I've given them so many choices elsewhere.
I can walk out of my classroom to deal with a student
or a meltdown or whatever,
and my classroom continues to run without me.
Nobody stops doing what they're supposed to be doing.
- Using her classroom space as the foundation
for building trusting and emotional relationships,
Jacalyn's personal teaching mantra is distilled
to a short, simple phrase: “First love, then teach.”
- My idea behind “First love, then teach”
is I need to create a classroom
where they can walk into a literal physical space
and I want them to feel the weight of the world
leave their shoulders, where they can be a sixth grade kid,
because so many of them don't get to be kids anymore.
They don't get to just live carefree anymore.
And even the ones that are coming from supportive homes,
they're dealing with social media and mean kids at school.
And it just, I needed to make my classroom a place where
they literally felt the weight of the world
leave their shoulders.
- What are some of the ways
you've changed your learning spaces?
[gentle music]