How Do You Set Up a Modern Classroom? 5 Best Tips

Designing your classroom entails a plan that encapsulates a unique learning environment where student engagement is emphasized. Evidently, the integration of technology helps create a modern classroom. It’s my meaningful hint! Hence, I ask, how do you set up a modern classroom?

identifying key elements of the modern classroom

As a teacher for a decade now, I have seen the importance of classroom management and technology integration in setting up the classroom to meet the varied learning needs of students.

It requires hard work and enthusiasm on our part.

A modern classroom highly safeguards students’ interests and promotes individualized instruction where immediate feedback is made. It’s a student-centered learning environment that signifies quality student learning.

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In order to show clearly what a modern classroom is, I have gathered smart tips from research and I have included my own best practices to set up a modern classroom. I hope you’ll find this post helpful too. So, let’s get started.

How do you set up a modern classroom?

1. Implement a seating arrangement that promotes interactive learning

The modern touch on education gives importance to collaborative learning. Therefore, you should plan for the overall layout of your classroom while implementing a seating arrangement that allows students to interact with one another.

Moreover, for great discussion, the seating arrangement should encourage communication and immediate feedback.

When students are seated in rows facing the front, they find it difficult to share their views with one another and collaborate. To maximize instruction, tap your creative and stylistic preferences to configure a collaborative seating arrangement.

A horseshoe seating arrangement, for example, is commonly used when students are to present and perform in front of their classmates. Another impressive physical arrangement is the Pair Pods where students are seated in groups or in pairs.

Since the modern classroom heightens the effective implementation of collaborative learning, you should take time to look for seating arrangements that increase student motivation and engagement.

2. Make technology visible

Integrate technology. A modern classroom should amplify a sound balance of pedagogy and technology. Hence, you should make a plan proactively to implement the use of technology in the classroom effectively and efficiently.

The learning environment becomes more accommodating of the students’ needs if it’s equipped with technology that enhances teaching and learning. Also, you can get the desired impact if you are trained in using technology in the classroom.

Hence, most teachers express their best intentions to attend pedagogical training that includes technology integration.

Furthermore, the frequent use of technology in teaching helps you become an expert in technology integration such as the following:

Fingers, Handprint, Hands, Human, CircleMake appropriate use of gadgets 

Most likely, to give students modern instruction, they should be allowed to use gadgets such as tablets, laptops, or Chromebooks for learning purposes.

It’s just a matter of rethinking your teaching pedagogy to give space for technology integration. Essentially, this should be included in your lesson plan.

In other words, the use of gadgets in the classroom should be monitored and should be relevant to pedagogical activities. Hence, you make a plan.

Fingers, Handprint, Hands, Human, CircleMake use of educational videos 

Educational videos facilitate instruction and keep students excited about learning. Proper utilization of these teaching tools helps students understand the content and visualize how the learned skills can be applied.

You can use educational videos as your motivation or as the best support for the cascading of concepts and content. Moreover, digital presentations make students remember the lesson and process important details effectively.

3. Enhance your teaching strategies

Using the most appropriate and up-to-date teaching strategies is a manifestation of a modern classroom setting. Hence, teachers need to attend pedagogical training and seminars to further hone their teaching skills.

You need it. Practically, we need it!

To improve student learning, you should likewise improve your teaching strategies. The thoughtful preparation of your lesson plans correspondingly promotes active and collaborative learning as well.

students are interacting with one another

Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash

Include the following teaching methods in your repertoire of best teaching practices to exemplify the modern classroom:

Collaborative learning.  Among the best modern teaching methods that increase student interaction and engagement is collaborative instruction.

When students are actively working in groups they are more likely to display confidence in presenting their thoughts and sharing ideas. Such is a great way to help them hone their communicative competence and establish good relationships as well.

Equally, the active sharing of ideas allows the students to support one another’s skills and viewpoints. Hence, they take part in vigorous face-to-face discussions or virtual activities. They evaluate and supervise their own tasks. Thus, making them more responsible and independent.

Gamification. Ultimately, students get excited when they play games in the classroom. Gamification of content is another teaching strategy that is present in the modern classroom.

The fun in learning is an effective way to get students’ attention and interest. That’s why more and more educators are using educational games to create meaningful learning experiences in the classroom.

Moreover, the appropriate use of games in learning whether in the physical classroom or online learning boosts students’ capacity for understanding content so they can best apply the skills in real-life situations.

Flipped classroom. Undoubtedly, the flipped classroom has something to do with demonstrating a modern classroom.  This is among the prevailing fashions in education today.

The flipped classroom is a well-known blended instruction where students are doing independent exploration and study of content using technology so they can participate in classroom discussions.

Using this teaching method affords students to essentially make meaning of content comprehensively.

As students study in advance recorded videos at home, they gain a preliminary understanding of the content that gives them background knowledge which enables them to actively participate in the classroom learning activities.

Project-based learning. Another attractive characteristic of modern education is the use of project-based learning. This makes more sense for students’ performance and capabilities.

In this teaching method, students are encouraged to learn by doing so they can typically apply the skills they learned during the completion of their tasks. Likewise, it’s a student-centered strategy that develops students’  creative, collaborative, and communicative skills.

Mainly, project-based learning extends student motivation as they work on their projects while enhancing their assessment skills at the same time.

Into the bargain, students are making and executing their own plan of action which also brings about autonomous learning.

Inquiry-based instructions. Another worthwhile teaching pedagogy that is exhibited in the modern classroom is inquiry-based teaching where students are practically trained to delve into and analyze questions.

Quite parallel to problem-based instruction, the inquiry learning approach allows students to work on certain tasks to find solutions to problems while doing in-depth research.

As students investigate problems and questions just like in case studies and group research, they reinforce their creative thinking skills and reasoning expertise to investigate solutions.

4. Keep yourself updated on developments in technology.

If you’d like to adopt a modern classroom, you should not only be making technology visible in your learning space. You need to keep yourself updated on modern online platforms and learning resources to maintain progress in teaching and learning.

The integration of technology requires knowledge and expertise. Hence, you should keep updated on the big idea of innovation and modernization of the teaching process.  Learn to play with it. In the words of Jordan Peterson, “To master a technology, you have to play with it.”

If you are to begin your class with a review or brief recall, instead of doing it through pencil and paper quizzes, you can take advantage of interactive online teaching and learning tools such as Kahoot, Pear Deck, Jamboard, and many others.

You can check them here.

5. Implement the most wanted change!

A unique representation of the modern classroom is the significant change from the traditional classroom and your willingness to accept and manage the incredible transformation in the educational system.

Such is the most significant spark that enables students to become empowered learners of the 21st century.

Managing the huge change in the classroom requires your great commitment and dedication as the captain on board. It’s something that needs your conscientious effort for the successful implementation of the big change in the learning environment.

Given your best inputs through authentic experience and research, you feel empowered to superintend meaningful metamorphosis.

<<<To gain insights into recreating your classroom, watch the video below!

Conclusion

Much research has been done to go beyond the realm of the traditional classroom and to embrace the advantages of the modern classroom.

With the countless benefits of student learning, the modern classroom, by and large, should be an end goal of teachers in the 21st century. It empowers teachers to develop their practical teaching skills to dish out, likewise, their 21st-century skills effectively.

Personally, I’ve witnessed how the modern classroom works across all levels in education.  It certainly offers pathways for students to learn at their best and improve their performance.

The mentally stimulating modern classroom increases student engagement which develops their persistence in their studies.

Given the above-mentioned tips to set up a modern classroom, how do you get your students to become enthusiastic about learning? Drop your thoughts below.