Sidewalk Chalk

I try to think of fun ways to get my students involved with the learning process. This is challenging because most of my students grew up learning in school by sitting in their desk and repeating what the teacher said or wrote on the board. My goal in teaching them is to pull them out of that mindset and teach them that in special education you have to think outside the box.
The lesson was on classroom set up. I quickly went though the things that should be in a classroom and how to set it up so that there was maximum learning space, less distraction and more teacher movement around the class. Then I drew 6’x6’ boxes on the floor, that’s right on the floor, they were shocked. Don’t worry the floors in the classrooms are cement. I then handed each of them an item that they were responsible for drawing in their classroom. I split them up in teams and gave them 30 min.
As I looked at my students discussing and drawing I saw from the window the president of the university enter the building. I was hoping that he would come into my class and see my students doing something so weird, but he didn’t. Bummer.
After time was up I made them give me a tour of their classrooms. They got to be the hostesses. I hammed it up to make it more fun.
Here are some pictures of them at “work”.