An ideal classroom is a place which addresses both students´ and teachers’ interests.

Students want to feel comfortable in the classroom. Consequently, they should have furniture which they can sit on comfortably and not exhaustingly, as this may affect their concentration. The furniture should provide enough space for them to sit and work individually. Enough space for their bags and jackets is also desirable. Shelves for equipment that they might need on an everyday basis but not for homework should be provided. For personal materials, they should have a locker each.

Teachers have various requirements: they may need a quiet atmosphere for work but also may want their students to work together in pairs and groups. As a result, tables that may be moved easily and flexibly in order to enable individual as well as group work is ideal. Also, the teacher should be able to access all necessary materials easily; a PC on their desk is thus appropriate, as well as a locker for personal belongings that they regularly use in class. This PC is ideally linked to a video projector or a Smartboard which is used to document learning results or show information from the Internet.

The classroom is the place that students spend most time in – it is often their “home” at school. Most learning processes take place here, so consequently for all persons involved it is one of the most important places in school. However, if the place is in a bad state, students will be more and more reluctant to come there and be ready to take part in the learning processes, as studies have shown. Motivation suffers in an environment that students feel unwell in. Consequently, also for teachers it becomes harder to teach their lessons. 

• Find out in your class how the students imagine their ideal classroom
• Ask the teachers who work with you in the room what they would like their classroom to be like
• Make an action plan in which you describe what has to be done in order to install the new equipment, furniture etc.
• Calculate how much new equipment, furniture etc. costs and make a list of the necessary expenses
• Prepare a presentation of the new classroom for the school management:
  • Describe / explain why you want changes in the classroom / what problems the current classroom involves / causes
  • Present Students’ and teachers’ wishes for a new classroom, and a list of costs

• If your proposal is approved (and the school management charges you with the execution of the plan): plan the necessary steps, e. g. buying the desired equipment, installing it, placing the new furniture etc. Remember to divide the work among the people who have planned this project with you.