Holistic Element 1: How's the Classroom Chi?

When considering the elements of the environment one should think about the placement of objects and movement of the room and how that effects concentration for a child. Teachers already struggle with using their space in the most effective manner, but applying some of the concepts of Feng Shui could help by maximizing the effects that special arrangement has on the demeanor of its occupants. Traditional Feng Shui could be practiced if you’re a purist, but there are ways to pull some of the main concepts without knowing very much about the traditional practice. There is as much value in the idea as the practice. The idea I am focused on has to do with appealing to the senses and creating ease of movement within a room. One of the first thing a student, parent, administrator or another teacher experiences upon entering your classroom is likely to be visual. I like to imagine standing at the threshold of a classroom and seeing it as a whole, much like viewing a painting, we first look at the collectiveness and then allow the eye to be drawn to certain specific elements. In designing a room, we should consider what it looks like as a whole and where the eye is naturally drawn. Is it a pleasing experience, or does it feel forced or disturbing in some way? Do I sense obstacles, imbalance or obstruction or does my eye flow naturally from one location to the next with ease? This is a small detail that can have a giant impact.
It is well acknowledged by most that a clean and orderly space allows for mental clarity as well. I personally can not think clearly or function smoothly when my own home is in shambles, but when it is clean and organized I am able to carry out other tasks with ease. Cleaning and organizing can be somewhat of a spiritual experience. Students also need a clean and organized environment in order to focus on the task at hand.
Creating a compositionally balanced space, it helps to think in terms of that space, regardless of shape, as a circle; because that is how you want the visual elements and the energy of the room to move. Take it a step further and you could arrange your activities of the day to follow that same circular pattern, giving students a sense of “coming full circle” by the end of the day. As with all circular patterns, the circle has a center point off which everything else is based. What would you want the center point of your classroom community to be? In my own classroom (someday) I would want the center point (inner circle) of my community to be its people- myself and the students, the medial ring to be our individual work areas, arranged according to when and how they will be used, and the outer ring being the culmination of all our work (bulletin boards and decorations). I would probably organize my displays so that the work displayed behind a work area is representative of what was accomplished in that area, and the most important general community information located in the front, behind the central point. My hypothetical room might be arranged something like this:



Depending on how much time and interest you have in creating an energetically appropriate space, you could include some of the traditional elements, including having certain relics in the room, placed strategically, having certain areas face in specific directions, hanging mirrors to create openness. A book on this topic might be good summer break reading! The point is, by setting up the environment with these unseen forces in mind, whether you believe in them or not, could help set a calm and peaceful atmosphere in the classroom that has an unexplainable effect on the students. It’s worth trying!