It is fascinating how feng shui room set up is so similar to neurodevelopmental OT assessments for classroom set up. I've noticed before how intuitive it is to me at least in your other videos but this really highlighted it for me.
i have cptsd and following Cliff's explanations of feng shui positioning is really helping minimize sources of anxiety and stress in my home and work space. i wish more feng shui practitioners explain it like this. where i'm at, it's more to sell piyaos and other knick knacks.
Feng shui seems to come from people just feeling whats comfortable and designing the rooms accordingly. And neuroscience is, well, science. Both end up in very similar places because they are based on the same thing
Because it just universally makes sense, psychologically, imo. But it is cool, that different groups of people in different time periods and countries kinda endet up with the same conclusions. No matter what you wanna call it, all of these schools of thought are pretty much correct
Not Just Bikes is a channel which shows a lot of how cities can be well-designed. They talk about multiple entrance points and enclosing spaces purposefully in on of the recent videos.
@@t-o-m-malso highly recommend! Being a Canadian myself I can relate to everything he talks about cause he brings up Canada and the US's bad choices of design quite frequently haha
Great video, gave me lots of thoughts! Kindergarten classrooms are even more complicated because children need to have areas to both play and work. And they are usually not big enough in my country unfortunately. Last school year, I always felt off with the arrangement, then I understood that I just didn't need the teacher's desk, it took a very comanding space but I was never sitting down anyway. Unfortunately, my colleague didn't want to rearrange.
I teach five year olds, so I am always trying to focus and calm their energy, but they move to many different areas of the classroom for different purposes! I’d love to send you a photo/video and get your thoughts.
Do they not have places to play in older classrooms? In New Zealand we had spaces to play in our classrooms for all 8 years of primary school. The teacher also does most of the teaching with the students sitting on the mat and then once the teacher is finished talking they go to their desks so you don’t have the desks facing the teaching area. Usually the desks face eachother in small groups. Each teacher does it differently but some teachers let kids move the desks and put them wherever they want.
@@rachelcookie321 in australia by age 10ish (when I was going to primary school in the 00s) you stop sitting on the floor for teaching time. after the year or two of school you spend more teaching time at your desk than on the floor. only some of the classrooms were big enough to have desks, "sit on the floor with teacher" space, and play/chill/hang out space, and so those classrooms usually went to the youngest grades because young kids need more variety in their space/day as their attention spans are shorter and their ability to regulate their behaviour less developed. but we didn't usually have rows of desks facing the whiteboard (no individual desks like in this video, they all sat 2 or 3 kids along one side) until high school, in primary school they pushed two desks together to make a square where the two rows of kids faced each other. I can't imagine sitting 11yos on the floor to teach them a maths concept, then moving them to their desks to do some equations, then moving them back to the floor to teach the next concept. it seems very disruptive!
@@isthatrubble that’s exactly what we would do when I was 11 lol. The teacher would usually explain everything at once though and then send you to do a worksheet. Sometimes the teacher would just stand up and talk while we sat at our desks but that was only if they had something really quick to say and didn’t want us to have to all move. Usually the teacher preferred us to come sit down on the mat because they could make sure we were all listening and they wouldn’t have to talk too loudly. In year 8 I went to a new school that was open plan so the classrooms were really big and meant for multiple classes in one space. The school was new though so only one shared class for year 7 and 8. So it was even more important for us to all come sit on the mat because the classroom was way too big to talk across. But at that school we also had some tables surrounding the mat that you could sit at so you wouldn’t need to move if you sat there.
I would love to see feng shui advice for remote learners, like learning area at home to study and even the set up of the websites for remote learners for best practices. thank you. I love your content.
He is a interior designer or consultant thats all, nothing to do with fengshui at all. How i know? its because i am a fengshui master for past 20 over years
Teacher here. What you are saying is on point. In my classroom there is an extra energy source: the mobile phone hotel. For those who don't know what it is: that's where the students leave their phone when they enter the classroom. So I am lucky to have the 01:00 set up, where the students enter from the back of the classroom on the side. This is ideal because usually the phone hotel is next to the door. And, believe me, even when the mobiles are not in the students' pockets, they still drag away their attention. Having the phone hotel behind them, where they cannot see it, is great. I don't get to choose what my setup is, but I like this one. I put a lot of nice posters to make the room cosy and I feel in command (command position hey!). Because the classroom has windows on both sides (real ones and window to the corridor) the students don't feel trapped (I think?).
@@hecc7906 Illegal I don't know, depends where you live I guess. I live in the Netherlands. Also we don't take them, the children have to put them there themselves. Do you have kids? Have you ever taught a class? Seems like you haven't. You are entitled to your opinion I guess. However, childcare specialists globally are worried about the impact of mobile phones on the development of children. We see more and more kids with issues related to unregulated phone use (cognitive and social underdevelopment, emotional issues...). If you want my two cents, smart phones should be illegal before the age of 15. But hey that's my opinion as a professional educator.
@@hecc7906have you ever tried to teach a classroom of people who don't want to get off their phone? Do you have any idea of the amount of cyber bullying that happens during school? How distracting a phone can be during slow parts of the lesson, or when you get a text? The phone hotel isn't locked, you can get your phone any time if there's an emergency. It's not a big deal and makes it way easier to focus.
@@hecc7906Seriously? It's not taking it away. It's just placed somewhere else in the same room. If kids didn't spend their time on their phones during classes this wouldn't be necessary. This rule had to be enforced because kid's didn't respect the rules and were on their phones getting distracted and even cheating.
My brother was a high school teacher who taught in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Glasgow and gauging from his stories it turns the windows can absolutely be used by as a means to "go out".
I've never had that much control over the classroom - the whiteboard is usually on a particular wall already, and we have to fit so many desks in that theres not really an option. It'd be wild to me to teach at a school with space!
this is so cool! my spanish teacher had a (somewhat impractical) yet very good way with seating arrangement. Everytime we had class we would walk into the classsroom, everyone would grab a desk and make a 'U' shape (or a horseshoe). this way the teacher would be able to give everyone equal attantion, and make sure that everyone was participating, since it is a very participation heavy subject. it made the class more engaged and it also made for a bit of contrast during the day!
Yeah, I feel like this layout makes sense for lecture-heavy classes, but it's not great for student participation. Far too easy to just zone out in the back rows. Table groups were always my favorite but the U also works well to keep students engaged
Thank you! Sadly in Poland we don't have the option to rearrange so much, the teacher's desks are attached in place with cables and the overhead projector, but I'm sure I'll use some of these! Fun that some of our classrooms are arranged just like this! ^_^
I've tried using what I've learned from your other videos to help me set up my new classrooms at my new school, and this video confirms that I got pretty close!
Just in time for the school year, thank you for the information. I'm a homeschool mom using my living room and dining room space as put learning area. I'm going to try and translate what you mentioned into my space. Thank you!
1:49 is the classical way a classroom is constructed - at least from my experience (maybe I have just been lucky so far). Unfortunately, you are usually very stuck/inflexible about how to design your own classroom, because most fixtures (i.e. board, shelves, walls) are immovable and you have to adapt to what's there. If you have the room for it, a fun or silent corner are always a great idea and if you have the space even do both (silent corner against over-stimulation, fun corner for breaks). Also, from my experience the teacher's desk is mostly used to store stuff so it should be accessable from the board. Most teachers will either stand in front of the board to talk or walk around between students' desks during silent work phases.
This is very helpful! I’m a music teacher, so we have to include the arrangement of instruments, and the sound. I’m always curious about energy flow in a room in regard to sound. 😊
In my school 99% of the classrooms were arranged in this way 1:31. I spent 11 years circling through classrooms with this layout and unfortunately it felt far from ideal. Here's just a couple of my observations: 1. if a student is late, they're going to enter through the front of the class where everyone can see and it can be very distracting, especially if a test is taking place. The distraction increases if the tardy student has to ask permission to enter (which was mandatory in my school). This layout is also great if a teacher decides to berate the student for being late - the shaming is now very public and no one needs to turn their head to witness it, you're in full view of the class even if you haven't entered yet. When I went to uni most classrooms had entrance in the back, this way you could quietly join the class without disturbing a teacher and other students mid-lecture. 2. If a student needs to go to the bathroom there will be no discreet way to leave the class, especially if they need to ask permission to go to the bathroom (which was mandatory in my school as well 🙄). This turns into a walk of shame for the girls who had period accidents.
THIS!! This is everything about why I hate this layout and why it triggers so much anxiety! High school kids are mean. If a girl has a leak on her period, they can see it and she risks being bullied for it for the next several years. Let's not go into why I know that. Let's just say it's traumatic af.
I'm not so sure about this, cause I've had layouts where the door was in the back and everyone would turn to see who comes in 😅 it could go both ways! Sucks that the teacher shamed students for arriving late.
Simple 1. Be on time. 2. Go to the bathroom before class starts. As a teacher of over 20 years I always have my room organised this way and I place those students who would most prefer to be at the back in the front row. If you arrive late in my classroom you are dressed down in public. Few make that mistake again. My students soon realise that we are there for a purpose - to learn - not to socialise, and my students benefit accordingly. As for the windows and distractions, lowered blinds remedy that.
@@baronburch6702"go before class"??? Don't be ridiculous. People will need to go to the bathroom during class time. It might be because their breaktime drink has reached their bladder, or they need to change a period product, or a whole host of reasons. Bodily functions can't be controlled by school rules.
@@baronburch6702You are not the gift from god that you think you are. It is not a blessing to be in your classroom. Nobody needs to be grateful to be there. Your job is to teach the students that are there. Under no circumstances do you have any right to berate or demean anyone. Whether it be from outside circumstances or just because they slept in, their attendance is their responsibility, not yours. It’s not your job to ensure they show up and if it was, bullying them and publicly shaming them is not the way to do it. Just teach the class and drop the ego. Shameful.
When I've had to design classrooms with some pre-k teachers we always had to factor in kids that run too much and how to essentially stop that energy from happening while also having a sitting rug for circle time. So yeah... in the end it was tables surrounding the rug and different stations around the room essentially surrounding the tables. Sounds chaotic but it really stopped the kids from attempting to run in the classroom.
I’m surprised you didn’t join the desks together in a ‘U’ shape, so everyone is facing each other as well as the teacher (and no one has their backs to each other). This was one of my favourites in school/university, although we usually had 10-25 people in a class not 5 like in the video.
one of my favorite classes in high school had the "U" layout, I loved it. works especially well if you have a teacher that walks around during their lectures
I think having the resources in 2 cabinets that can be in an L shape, with a corner shelf featuring “soft” immersive things like a fish tank, plants or nature photos, creating a little nook, would solve some of the “cold” feeling. Don’t forget that there has to be enough space between things so that students with mobility devices aren’t constrained in their movement around the classroom.
My high school had a bunch of really cool teachers who all laid out their classrooms like really big living rooms, with big couches facing a short table, and that had a really comfy energy without distracting us too much
Fun video, but unfortunately, most classrooms have very little options for how to arrange things (I come from a large family full of teachers). I've taught at 3 different high schools myself and I've never had a window. My teacher desk had to be anchored to a specific spot because of where all the connections were. Also, my teaching wall was fixed as well because we had a projector and/or smartboard and it couldn't be changed/moved.
It seems like almost all high-density schools have most classrooms without windows, they just run out of perimeter space. It's not too bad as a student since you're always moving around but that must be stifling as a teacher
@@SirBloxy I've had classrooms without windows in elementary and highschool, as well as portable classrooms (with windows) separate from the main school building. I much prefer the windowless classrooms in the main school building than being on the outdoor portable classroom especially during winter. Also my highschool biology and chemistry lab classrooms had no windows but it did have a fume hood to vent out all the smoke from chemistry experiments.
Confession: I know nothing about feng shui. However, I have been teaching in the US for a l o n g time (university), so I've seen a lot of students. In my experience, there are stidents who come late (ikr? perhaps it's just my school...). If the classroom door is immediately to the teacher's right or left - like at 6:21 or lots of other places on the video - it can be a problem, depending on how many ss and how many desks. Why? The folks who arrive early or on time tend to seat themselves closest to the door (it's easier and those packs can be heavy). Ss arriving later have to walk in front of the lecturing teacher to get to an empty desk. I teach international ss, some of whom come from cultures that require the student to greet everyone when they enter. Consequently, the lecture is interrupted, and interrupted, and interrupted again as ss enter & walk between the other ss & me, greeting as they go.... 🙄 Of course, we discuss cultural differences in classroom behaviors, but old habits die hard. So now you know! (
We've been doing some schooling at home for my three kids. You've given me a lot to think about for making our home areas work with our educational goals. And you've helped me realize that maybe, just maybe, the furniture arrangement or where I set up our work station for the day may have more to do with their feeling of engagement than I'd ever thought
This video doesn't apply to me, but I found it really interesting! And it's a nice change of pace from the usual home/interior design stuff you do. The models really prove your point before you even have the chance to make it. :) Any chance you could do something similar for an office space? I work in a small office with 5 coworkers, with all our cubicles along the walls and a large conference table in the middle. (We sometimes have meetings with 15 people in our room.) I don't *hate* it -- it can even be fun to turn around and chat with everyone. But I always wonder if we can make better use of the space, and it would be great to have some tips to ground that with.
This was fascinating! No wonder Japanese students have great test scores vs other countries, since their classrooms are all set up exactly as you described as ideal…!
Could you do a day support or adult day care setting? Where i work, we have pretty decent energy but OH MY another location feels like chaos, even when it is empty. I would love to see your ideas.
Thanks for this video. I was the one who suggested this topic in an other video comments. Not sure it’s in response of my suggestion, but I’m glad you explain those points. I will surely use this new knowledge when I set up my classroom at the end of august. Thanks!
Thanks for that! I do most of it correctly on instict I realised but I will remember to make the back of my classroom come to life some more when I go back tomorrow :)
most offices I've worked in have had meeting rooms with chairs and tables you can move around - could you do one on how to set up a meeting room? maybe for different types of meetings (like if you want people to listen to you, or on the flip side if you want people to brainstorm together).
I live in Texas, where we DO have to worry about shooters coming to schools to kill us! 😢 This is terrific info and I’m sharing now with all of my teacher friends
This ^ had the same thought. It’s every parents’ worst nightmare - they have active shooter drills along with fire drills in US schools. I was in the classroom doing an art project in my kid’s class and they had one of these drills, it broke my heart. Teacher locked the door and the kids hid under the desks and were supposed to be silent. My dad had come too and said it reminded him of the atomic bomb drills at his school in the 50’s.
Also wanted to say I love the way you explained the ideas behind the flow of energy in the classroom - wanted to leave a positive comment too I really enjoy your videos!
I my primary school the students had their own class room and the teachers would come to us, unlike high schools/universities, where teachers had their own class rooms, and students would change rooms multiple times a day... In primary school our main teacher would often change the layout, and include us in the decision making.. we would sit in rows, horseshoe, groups of tables or many other ways too, depending on what we wanted, which i liked :)
I love this! I watch your videos because you explain everything so well and in an engaging manner. This one is especially good for me since I will be teaching one year from now.
I will not place the chairs by the door. I will not place the chairs by the door. I will not place the chairs by the door. I will not place the chairs by the door.
Awesome video and makes sense of why i always hated teaching in the classroom with the door at the back last year. Will definitely make use of these tips come september!
Now I understand why one of my old classroom felt like a tomb. The room was long and narrow, tall walls, next to no decoration. The window was in the back on a short wall. The learning was on the short wall right by the door. Same with the teachers table. If you sat in the back there would be some windows into the classroom right beside it. I sat there and got to see into the other classrooms while having the window to freedom right behind me. Very distracting. The classroom window was also in the shadow of a big industrial building. No nature to see or hear. So it was dark and depressing most of the time. Feng shui is so important.
Great info. Man I'd love to have you in my classroom to arrange it. It's difficult when there are elements, like cabinets or technology, that cannot be moved. Or when you have an overcrowded classroom with too many kids in a small space.
Oh gosh. I just wanna sent my whole house to you for you to make it make sense to me. I homeschool and have too many hobbies. And some of what Im working with is just.... horrifying. Like a giant glass pane in the bathroom door. Right in front of a toilet. 😅 As a teacher, I would put my desk between both sections.
Heavens above, Dear Modern, when you mentioned that traditional Feng shui references protecting the occupants of a room from enemy attack, I suddenly realised that that is very real for US schoolchildren and teachers, who are literally being shot at by intruders in the classroom, at the average rate of several shootings PER DAY. It's heartbreaking for me to think that minimising an enemy attack must necessarily be top priority when planning the layout of a US classroom. Teaching in the US must be like those doctors working for Medecins Sans Frontieres, who do their job in a war zone. I cant help comparing the US situation to where I live (Australia) where our last gun massacre occurred 27 years ago. An Australian classroom where kids would need to do gunfire drills is unimaginable.
Thank you for this! I would love to see how to manage the energy for a classroom that has two doors on the same wall. I suppose you could leave one door closed, but health and safety rules in my district mandate having both doors open.
Would be interesting to see an office space version of this... basically the adult classroom with abunch of desks... is it open concept or cubical divided? where the boss/manager sits printer/ office shelves
How about having all the table (which is more than 4 off course) in a circle? One of the schools I went to had that, and it's been my best ever experience (was also cause of the different teaching methods, which made me want to learn suddenly), no one from my class was a bully. World of difference compared to other schools..
It’s so weird, when I was in school, unless the door was in the middle of the wall for whatever reason or there were 2 doors in on opposite sides of the room, all my teachers desks and boards were always just inside, on the same side of the classroom as the door. I never even thought of how it might affect us if it was the other way around. The elementary school my oldest went to though always had the boards where the front of the room was mostly opposite the wall the door was closest to and now I can see why she might have had just that littlest bit more trouble in school with those particular classrooms.
Here’s a weird setup for you that I’d love to hear your ideas on: the windows are sort of like transom along the same wall as the door. They give a partial view to the interior corridor (just low enough to see a standing adult’s head). No windows that look outside. The school used to be open concept, then added walls once they realized that was a horrible, noisy, distracting idea. Most of the classrooms have this weird set up.
This is such an interesting video :) do you have any suggestions on how to lay out music studios? Usually they're built as one big space that has all the big instruments such as piano's and drum kits stuck to the wall (and sometimes even needs to keep some space for spectators) but seeing your videos makes me reconsider wether or not that's the most efficient way to let the creative energy flow. Do you (or anybody that reads this) have any recommendations?
We had one class that made me feel quite uncomfortable. we faced a wall that had a blackboard, the door out was on the right and was touching the wall with the blackboard, so we were directed heavily to look in that direction. But the teacher's desk was at the very back of the class behind all of us, so we were constantly looking over our shoulder since there was this constant feeling of being watched and someone looming over us.
What do you think of open plan classrooms? Does a lack of walls affect feng shui? What about having versatile spaces with lots of different types of chairs and tables and couches all facing different directions? I went to an open plan high school and as a student it did not feel like a good environment for learning.
The teachers that scored the highest on ability to connect with students had the better type of set up in their classroom with the learning towards the door like that.
Can you please do one with a bed room That's rectangular and has a big window in the back a closet door and the door to the hallway I'm having a really hard time how to lay out my room I have a full size bed and there's only two places I can put my bed in my room 1 it's where my bed side is up against part of the window and the other is in a corner and my bed would be right above my light switch but with no windows behind it and the closet door to the right of it
In the UK its very common for teachers to have requirements for the students to enter/exit the room (uniform, equipment out, etc) and I always hate when a classroom is set up so that the Teachinn Zone is far away from the door. So often this is determined for you cos of where all the whiteboards are drilled in.
I graduated a few yeats ago at this point but I think some of my teachers looked into feng shui because the most memorable classrooms were the ones that followed it's principles to a T or were horrendous...
I would love to see you do a video(s) about the Feng Shui episode of Penn & Teller's Bullsh!t. React to their points, respond to the experts featured on the episode, and/or agree/disagree with the expert opinions and show how you'd redesign the rooms they showed.
In my schools, the teacher’s desk was always where they could escape out the door quickly. The blackboard was behind her. One teacher moved her desk in front of the windows, and we stared out the windows all day. New schools have two tiny, tall windows at two corners of the room, and they can’t be opened.
My classroom is very similar to you final set up, and now I understand why the fared courier from the door always has some graffiti on the rables and rubbish on the floor after some lessons. 😊
Kinda hate the fact that at the back row of table is always the bully (basically nothing behind, not even resources), but you somehow predicted and explained it, guess I should know about this when I'm in secondary school (which I'm out already) 😅
Is it american layout? As someone that has gone through the school system in sweden, including university, I have always had my classrooms designed with the white/black board by the wall with the door and the window opposite to the wall with the door like in minute two of the video.. In uni it was also popular to have the desks in a square along the walls in the room, so everyone is sitting with their backs to a wall and no one is in the way of anyone else and the teacher can see everyone. Although only in classrooms with no windows. However.. if it is a room with chemistry in it it, the teachers desk would be like at minute 2.33 and the window opposite BUT.. the tables for the students would be longer ones and tall ones with barstools, so when you do the experiments you can stand comfortably and do them and when you listen you can sit. And the tables are turned 90 degrees so the window would be to your side when you do the work.. and thus behind you when listening to the teacher. Since most of it was practical work it felt fine? And the sinks were by the window as well. One per long table and I think there was. .three or four long tables.
What if a classroom has two doors? Mine has two doors (it's really two smaller classrooms with a dividing wall removed). If I used your example from your video, you would add a door along the same bottom edge where you have the door but in the bottom left corner as well as the bottom right corner. I'm having real issues figuring out feng shui with this setup.
Most classrooms I learned in had two doors - an internal door and an external door. How would this affect the preferred layout? Also, very few of my classrooms were set up with all the students in isolated desks facing the board. Are there other desk arrangements that work better (such as desks in inward-facing groups of 6, or a horseshoe or double-horseshoe arrangement)?
It is fascinating how feng shui room set up is so similar to neurodevelopmental OT assessments for classroom set up.
I've noticed before how intuitive it is to me at least in your other videos but this really highlighted it for me.
i have cptsd and following Cliff's explanations of feng shui positioning is really helping minimize sources of anxiety and stress in my home and work space. i wish more feng shui practitioners explain it like this. where i'm at, it's more to sell piyaos and other knick knacks.
Feng shui seems to come from people just feeling whats comfortable and designing the rooms accordingly. And neuroscience is, well, science. Both end up in very similar places because they are based on the same thing
I prefer rows & columns tbh. All these tables & different seating arrangements is TOO much...NO, I don't have a couch, I want you in & out! 😅
Because it just universally makes sense, psychologically, imo.
But it is cool, that different groups of people in different time periods and countries kinda endet up with the same conclusions.
No matter what you wanna call it, all of these schools of thought are pretty much correct
I’m an audhd teacher, meaning I’m a teacher with audhd and I naturally set my classroom up this way. I love it! It just makes sense.
Can you explain how feng shui would affect a city design? Like how would you design a street?
Very interesting! :)
Not Just Bikes is a channel which shows a lot of how cities can be well-designed. They talk about multiple entrance points and enclosing spaces purposefully in on of the recent videos.
yes pls
@@t-o-m-malso highly recommend! Being a Canadian myself I can relate to everything he talks about cause he brings up Canada and the US's bad choices of design quite frequently haha
he said "widen the scope for us".
I love how Taoist philosophy applies at all levels of scope.
Great video, gave me lots of thoughts! Kindergarten classrooms are even more complicated because children need to have areas to both play and work. And they are usually not big enough in my country unfortunately. Last school year, I always felt off with the arrangement, then I understood that I just didn't need the teacher's desk, it took a very comanding space but I was never sitting down anyway. Unfortunately, my colleague didn't want to rearrange.
very good point! the teachers desk is not really where the teacher spends time, but where they plonk their stuff:)
I teach five year olds, so I am always trying to focus and calm their energy, but they move to many different areas of the classroom for different purposes! I’d love to send you a photo/video and get your thoughts.
Do they not have places to play in older classrooms? In New Zealand we had spaces to play in our classrooms for all 8 years of primary school. The teacher also does most of the teaching with the students sitting on the mat and then once the teacher is finished talking they go to their desks so you don’t have the desks facing the teaching area. Usually the desks face eachother in small groups. Each teacher does it differently but some teachers let kids move the desks and put them wherever they want.
@@rachelcookie321 in australia by age 10ish (when I was going to primary school in the 00s) you stop sitting on the floor for teaching time. after the year or two of school you spend more teaching time at your desk than on the floor. only some of the classrooms were big enough to have desks, "sit on the floor with teacher" space, and play/chill/hang out space, and so those classrooms usually went to the youngest grades because young kids need more variety in their space/day as their attention spans are shorter and their ability to regulate their behaviour less developed. but we didn't usually have rows of desks facing the whiteboard (no individual desks like in this video, they all sat 2 or 3 kids along one side) until high school, in primary school they pushed two desks together to make a square where the two rows of kids faced each other.
I can't imagine sitting 11yos on the floor to teach them a maths concept, then moving them to their desks to do some equations, then moving them back to the floor to teach the next concept. it seems very disruptive!
@@isthatrubble that’s exactly what we would do when I was 11 lol. The teacher would usually explain everything at once though and then send you to do a worksheet. Sometimes the teacher would just stand up and talk while we sat at our desks but that was only if they had something really quick to say and didn’t want us to have to all move. Usually the teacher preferred us to come sit down on the mat because they could make sure we were all listening and they wouldn’t have to talk too loudly. In year 8 I went to a new school that was open plan so the classrooms were really big and meant for multiple classes in one space. The school was new though so only one shared class for year 7 and 8. So it was even more important for us to all come sit on the mat because the classroom was way too big to talk across. But at that school we also had some tables surrounding the mat that you could sit at so you wouldn’t need to move if you sat there.
I would love to see feng shui advice for remote learners, like learning area at home to study and even the set up of the websites for remote learners for best practices. thank you. I love your content.
He has a video about where to place a desk about three videos before this one. I would check that one out and see if it helps! :)
He is a interior designer or consultant thats all, nothing to do with fengshui at all. How i know? its because i am a fengshui master for past 20 over years
Teacher here. What you are saying is on point. In my classroom there is an extra energy source: the mobile phone hotel. For those who don't know what it is: that's where the students leave their phone when they enter the classroom.
So I am lucky to have the 01:00 set up, where the students enter from the back of the classroom on the side. This is ideal because usually the phone hotel is next to the door. And, believe me, even when the mobiles are not in the students' pockets, they still drag away their attention. Having the phone hotel behind them, where they cannot see it, is great.
I don't get to choose what my setup is, but I like this one. I put a lot of nice posters to make the room cosy and I feel in command (command position hey!). Because the classroom has windows on both sides (real ones and window to the corridor) the students don't feel trapped (I think?).
anything involving taking a kid's phone away is bullshit, sounds borderline illegal too
@@hecc7906 Illegal I don't know, depends where you live I guess. I live in the Netherlands. Also we don't take them, the children have to put them there themselves.
Do you have kids? Have you ever taught a class? Seems like you haven't. You are entitled to your opinion I guess. However, childcare specialists globally are worried about the impact of mobile phones on the development of children. We see more and more kids with issues related to unregulated phone use (cognitive and social underdevelopment, emotional issues...). If you want my two cents, smart phones should be illegal before the age of 15. But hey that's my opinion as a professional educator.
@@hecc7906have you ever tried to teach a classroom of people who don't want to get off their phone? Do you have any idea of the amount of cyber bullying that happens during school? How distracting a phone can be during slow parts of the lesson, or when you get a text?
The phone hotel isn't locked, you can get your phone any time if there's an emergency. It's not a big deal and makes it way easier to focus.
@@hecc7906Seriously? It's not taking it away. It's just placed somewhere else in the same room. If kids didn't spend their time on their phones during classes this wouldn't be necessary. This rule had to be enforced because kid's didn't respect the rules and were on their phones getting distracted and even cheating.
@@katanyajason3316 I saw teachers doing the same thing all the time, maybe we should take their's away too
My brother was a high school teacher who taught in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Glasgow and gauging from his stories it turns the windows can absolutely be used by as a means to "go out".
I've never had that much control over the classroom - the whiteboard is usually on a particular wall already, and we have to fit so many desks in that theres not really an option. It'd be wild to me to teach at a school with space!
I’m often shoved in a literal closet. Speech Therapists… Forever Alone😢
this is so cool! my spanish teacher had a (somewhat impractical) yet very good way with seating arrangement. Everytime we had class we would walk into the classsroom, everyone would grab a desk and make a 'U' shape (or a horseshoe). this way the teacher would be able to give everyone equal attantion, and make sure that everyone was participating, since it is a very participation heavy subject. it made the class more engaged and it also made for a bit of contrast during the day!
Yeah, I feel like this layout makes sense for lecture-heavy classes, but it's not great for student participation. Far too easy to just zone out in the back rows. Table groups were always my favorite but the U also works well to keep students engaged
This was my geography teacher's layout in one of my highschool classes 😂
Thank you! Sadly in Poland we don't have the option to rearrange so much, the teacher's desks are attached in place with cables and the overhead projector, but I'm sure I'll use some of these! Fun that some of our classrooms are arranged just like this! ^_^
In Singapore too! but more and more schools are becoming more flexible with these things especially the very young or more mature levels.
I've tried using what I've learned from your other videos to help me set up my new classrooms at my new school, and this video confirms that I got pretty close!
Just in time for the school year, thank you for the information. I'm a homeschool mom using my living room and dining room space as put learning area. I'm going to try and translate what you mentioned into my space.
Thank you!
1:49 is the classical way a classroom is constructed - at least from my experience (maybe I have just been lucky so far). Unfortunately, you are usually very stuck/inflexible about how to design your own classroom, because most fixtures (i.e. board, shelves, walls) are immovable and you have to adapt to what's there. If you have the room for it, a fun or silent corner are always a great idea and if you have the space even do both (silent corner against over-stimulation, fun corner for breaks). Also, from my experience the teacher's desk is mostly used to store stuff so it should be accessable from the board. Most teachers will either stand in front of the board to talk or walk around between students' desks during silent work phases.
This is very helpful! I’m a music teacher, so we have to include the arrangement of instruments, and the sound. I’m always curious about energy flow in a room in regard to sound. 😊
I used to work in practice designing schools and this is really interesting, never thought about the feng shui theory in this way
In my school 99% of the classrooms were arranged in this way 1:31. I spent 11 years circling through classrooms with this layout and unfortunately it felt far from ideal. Here's just a couple of my observations:
1. if a student is late, they're going to enter through the front of the class where everyone can see and it can be very distracting, especially if a test is taking place.
The distraction increases if the tardy student has to ask permission to enter (which was mandatory in my school).
This layout is also great if a teacher decides to berate the student for being late - the shaming is now very public and no one needs to turn their head to witness it, you're in full view of the class even if you haven't entered yet.
When I went to uni most classrooms had entrance in the back, this way you could quietly join the class without disturbing a teacher and other students mid-lecture.
2. If a student needs to go to the bathroom there will be no discreet way to leave the class, especially if they need to ask permission to go to the bathroom (which was mandatory in my school as well 🙄). This turns into a walk of shame for the girls who had period accidents.
THIS!! This is everything about why I hate this layout and why it triggers so much anxiety!
High school kids are mean. If a girl has a leak on her period, they can see it and she risks being bullied for it for the next several years.
Let's not go into why I know that. Let's just say it's traumatic af.
I'm not so sure about this, cause I've had layouts where the door was in the back and everyone would turn to see who comes in 😅 it could go both ways! Sucks that the teacher shamed students for arriving late.
Simple 1. Be on time. 2. Go to the bathroom before class starts. As a teacher of over 20 years I always have my room organised this way and I place those students who would most prefer to be at the back in the front row. If you arrive late in my classroom you are dressed down in public. Few make that mistake again. My students soon realise that we are there for a purpose - to learn - not to socialise, and my students benefit accordingly. As for the windows and distractions, lowered blinds remedy that.
@@baronburch6702"go before class"??? Don't be ridiculous. People will need to go to the bathroom during class time. It might be because their breaktime drink has reached their bladder, or they need to change a period product, or a whole host of reasons. Bodily functions can't be controlled by school rules.
@@baronburch6702You are not the gift from god that you think you are. It is not a blessing to be in your classroom. Nobody needs to be grateful to be there. Your job is to teach the students that are there. Under no circumstances do you have any right to berate or demean anyone. Whether it be from outside circumstances or just because they slept in, their attendance is their responsibility, not yours. It’s not your job to ensure they show up and if it was, bullying them and publicly shaming them is not the way to do it. Just teach the class and drop the ego. Shameful.
When I've had to design classrooms with some pre-k teachers we always had to factor in kids that run too much and how to essentially stop that energy from happening while also having a sitting rug for circle time. So yeah... in the end it was tables surrounding the rug and different stations around the room essentially surrounding the tables. Sounds chaotic but it really stopped the kids from attempting to run in the classroom.
I’m surprised you didn’t join the desks together in a ‘U’ shape, so everyone is facing each other as well as the teacher (and no one has their backs to each other). This was one of my favourites in school/university, although we usually had 10-25 people in a class not 5 like in the video.
it sacrifices the command position so i assume thats why
This is a very US thing
Nobody likes the U
And table groups!! I miss those so much from grade school
one of my favorite classes in high school had the "U" layout, I loved it. works especially well if you have a teacher that walks around during their lectures
I think having the resources in 2 cabinets that can be in an L shape, with a corner shelf featuring “soft” immersive things like a fish tank, plants or nature photos, creating a little nook, would solve some of the “cold” feeling.
Don’t forget that there has to be enough space between things so that students with mobility devices aren’t constrained in their movement around the classroom.
We put you in the back of the classroom so it has very high and positive energy.
hahaha!
My high school had a bunch of really cool teachers who all laid out their classrooms like really big living rooms, with big couches facing a short table, and that had a really comfy energy without distracting us too much
Fun video, but unfortunately, most classrooms have very little options for how to arrange things (I come from a large family full of teachers). I've taught at 3 different high schools myself and I've never had a window. My teacher desk had to be anchored to a specific spot because of where all the connections were. Also, my teaching wall was fixed as well because we had a projector and/or smartboard and it couldn't be changed/moved.
Could you rotate your desk? Maybe perpendicular to the wall, so you had more or a private cubby space?
I'm so sorry you had no window, it's inhumane.... Education must be refunded, and heavily so!!!
a classroom without a window is pure cruelty, are they trying to make learning ineffective?
It seems like almost all high-density schools have most classrooms without windows, they just run out of perimeter space. It's not too bad as a student since you're always moving around but that must be stifling as a teacher
@@SirBloxy I've had classrooms without windows in elementary and highschool, as well as portable classrooms (with windows) separate from the main school building.
I much prefer the windowless classrooms in the main school building than being on the outdoor portable classroom especially during winter.
Also my highschool biology and chemistry lab classrooms had no windows but it did have a fume hood to vent out all the smoke from chemistry experiments.
Confession: I know nothing about feng shui. However, I have been teaching in the US for a l o n g time (university), so I've seen a lot of students.
In my experience, there are stidents who come late (ikr? perhaps it's just my school...). If the classroom door is immediately to the teacher's right or left - like at 6:21 or lots of other places on the video - it can be a problem, depending on how many ss and how many desks. Why? The folks who arrive early or on time tend to seat themselves closest to the door (it's easier and those packs can be heavy). Ss arriving later have to walk in front of the lecturing teacher to get to an empty desk.
I teach international ss, some of whom come from cultures that require the student to greet everyone when they enter. Consequently, the lecture is interrupted, and interrupted, and interrupted again as ss enter & walk between the other ss & me, greeting as they go.... 🙄 Of course, we discuss cultural differences in classroom behaviors, but old habits die hard.
So now you know! (
We've been doing some schooling at home for my three kids. You've given me a lot to think about for making our home areas work with our educational goals. And you've helped me realize that maybe, just maybe, the furniture arrangement or where I set up our work station for the day may have more to do with their feeling of engagement than I'd ever thought
This video doesn't apply to me, but I found it really interesting! And it's a nice change of pace from the usual home/interior design stuff you do. The models really prove your point before you even have the chance to make it. :)
Any chance you could do something similar for an office space? I work in a small office with 5 coworkers, with all our cubicles along the walls and a large conference table in the middle. (We sometimes have meetings with 15 people in our room.) I don't *hate* it -- it can even be fun to turn around and chat with everyone. But I always wonder if we can make better use of the space, and it would be great to have some tips to ground that with.
This was fascinating! No wonder Japanese students have great test scores vs other countries, since their classrooms are all set up exactly as you described as ideal…!
Thank you! I am a teacher just about to go back, and I have to totally set up my room! This gave me some great ideas!❤
Putting the teacher's desk close to the door is important to catch runners. 😂
Could you do a day support or adult day care setting? Where i work, we have pretty decent energy but OH MY another location feels like chaos, even when it is empty. I would love to see your ideas.
Thanks for this video. I was the one who suggested this topic in an other video comments. Not sure it’s in response of my suggestion, but I’m glad you explain those points. I will surely use this new knowledge when I set up my classroom at the end of august. Thanks!
Thanks for that! I do most of it correctly on instict I realised but I will remember to make the back of my classroom come to life some more when I go back tomorrow :)
This is amazing. I love learning stuff from your videos, they tend to help me a lot, since I’m a college student studying architecture. Great video
most offices I've worked in have had meeting rooms with chairs and tables you can move around - could you do one on how to set up a meeting room? maybe for different types of meetings (like if you want people to listen to you, or on the flip side if you want people to brainstorm together).
I live in Texas, where we DO have to worry about shooters coming to schools to kill us! 😢
This is terrific info and I’m sharing now with all of my teacher friends
ohno! then you do want to note the command position where there is one less worry on your minds!
Yeah, when he said that I thought "You can really tell Dear Modern isn't American"
This ^ had the same thought. It’s every parents’ worst nightmare - they have active shooter drills along with fire drills in US schools. I was in the classroom doing an art project in my kid’s class and they had one of these drills, it broke my heart. Teacher locked the door and the kids hid under the desks and were supposed to be silent. My dad had come too and said it reminded him of the atomic bomb drills at his school in the 50’s.
Also wanted to say I love the way you explained the ideas behind the flow of energy in the classroom - wanted to leave a positive comment too I really enjoy your videos!
It would have been nice to have a "chill out" area in a classroom when I was a kid!
I would love to see these principals applied to a preschool classroom where you have a food zone, a learning/carpet zone, a calm zone, and play zones.
As a former teacher, I concur! Thank you for this information! I will use this now in our church classroom.
Wow, it seems that my school back in the day was super informed about Feng Shui! We had that exact perfect layout
I my primary school the students had their own class room and the teachers would come to us, unlike high schools/universities, where teachers had their own class rooms, and students would change rooms multiple times a day... In primary school our main teacher would often change the layout, and include us in the decision making.. we would sit in rows, horseshoe, groups of tables or many other ways too, depending on what we wanted, which i liked :)
Feeling so lucky and grateful for this video!! My classroom has exactly that door and window placement too 😄
I'm so glad I finally found a resource for teachers which isn't strictly for teachers who are trying to bang every student.
Your instruction is so validating and so thought provoking. Thank you for your insight. ❤
I love this! I watch your videos because you explain everything so well and in an engaging manner. This one is especially good for me since I will be teaching one year from now.
this is very interesting because all the usa classrooms i have been in obey your rules and suggestions!!
This is the simpson's classroom setup :D
…and now you know!
I will not place the chairs by the door. I will not place the chairs by the door. I will not place the chairs by the door. I will not place the chairs by the door.
Is that gum? Is that gum?
almost like it was based on a real life school
As a teacher, I thank you for the wisdom shared.
Awesome video and makes sense of why i always hated teaching in the classroom with the door at the back last year. Will definitely make use of these tips come september!
Now I understand why one of my old classroom felt like a tomb. The room was long and narrow, tall walls, next to no decoration. The window was in the back on a short wall. The learning was on the short wall right by the door. Same with the teachers table. If you sat in the back there would be some windows into the classroom right beside it. I sat there and got to see into the other classrooms while having the window to freedom right behind me. Very distracting. The classroom window was also in the shadow of a big industrial building. No nature to see or hear. So it was dark and depressing most of the time.
Feng shui is so important.
This is how all elementary and middle school classrooms are in my country!(the good way) Amazing!
Great info. Man I'd love to have you in my classroom to arrange it. It's difficult when there are elements, like cabinets or technology, that cannot be moved. Or when you have an overcrowded classroom with too many kids in a small space.
Oh gosh. I just wanna sent my whole house to you for you to make it make sense to me. I homeschool and have too many hobbies. And some of what Im working with is just.... horrifying. Like a giant glass pane in the bathroom door. Right in front of a toilet. 😅 As a teacher, I would put my desk between both sections.
Using this to help me design my study space for uni online from home. Thanns
I love the section about the bullies gathering in the back and ways to change that energy.
Heavens above, Dear Modern, when you mentioned that traditional Feng shui references protecting the occupants of a room from enemy attack, I suddenly realised that that is very real for US schoolchildren and teachers, who are literally being shot at by intruders in the classroom, at the average rate of several shootings PER DAY. It's heartbreaking for me to think that minimising an enemy attack must necessarily be top priority when planning the layout of a US classroom. Teaching in the US must be like those doctors working for Medecins Sans Frontieres, who do their job in a war zone. I cant help comparing the US situation to where I live (Australia) where our last gun massacre occurred 27 years ago. An Australian classroom where kids would need to do gunfire drills is unimaginable.
every classroom I have ever been in has adhered to these principles and I never noticed :o
Totally would use this in my classroom!
Also, how would you plan the tables to encourage collaboration? Thank you!
You’re a Class Act! Love your content. Thank you for making it!
Thanks for making this! Obviously I need a fun zone in my classroom now.
Ha ha hahaha ! ("Entrapment")
Edit: oh hey yeah, a four to one ratio is keen! ✔
Thank you for this! I would love to see how to manage the energy for a classroom that has two doors on the same wall. I suppose you could leave one door closed, but health and safety rules in my district mandate having both doors open.
Would be interesting to see an office space version of this... basically the adult classroom with abunch of desks... is it open concept or cubical divided? where the boss/manager sits printer/ office shelves
I'd love a part two about desk layout and how it effects atmosphere - single desks, row desks, pair desks, small and big group desks, etc
😄 makes sense fun stuff in the back work in the front.
I'll have to see if I can use this during the upcoming year if I do any long-term teaching, thanks!
How about having all the table (which is more than 4 off course) in a circle? One of the schools I went to had that, and it's been my best ever experience (was also cause of the different teaching methods, which made me want to learn suddenly), no one from my class was a bully. World of difference compared to other schools..
It’s so weird, when I was in school, unless the door was in the middle of the wall for whatever reason or there were 2 doors in on opposite sides of the room, all my teachers desks and boards were always just inside, on the same side of the classroom as the door. I never even thought of how it might affect us if it was the other way around. The elementary school my oldest went to though always had the boards where the front of the room was mostly opposite the wall the door was closest to and now I can see why she might have had just that littlest bit more trouble in school with those particular classrooms.
Here’s a weird setup for you that I’d love to hear your ideas on: the windows are sort of like transom along the same wall as the door. They give a partial view to the interior corridor (just low enough to see a standing adult’s head). No windows that look outside.
The school used to be open concept, then added walls once they realized that was a horrible, noisy, distracting idea. Most of the classrooms have this weird set up.
This is such an interesting video :) do you have any suggestions on how to lay out music studios? Usually they're built as one big space that has all the big instruments such as piano's and drum kits stuck to the wall (and sometimes even needs to keep some space for spectators) but seeing your videos makes me reconsider wether or not that's the most efficient way to let the creative energy flow. Do you (or anybody that reads this) have any recommendations?
Oh wow! My High School classrooms had really good feng shui!
Fortunately, this was always the layout of all of my classrooms! Door was always to the side of the teacher.
Wow my classroom has perfect feng shui and I never knew!
We had one class that made me feel quite uncomfortable. we faced a wall that had a blackboard, the door out was on the right and was touching the wall with the blackboard, so we were directed heavily to look in that direction. But the teacher's desk was at the very back of the class behind all of us, so we were constantly looking over our shoulder since there was this constant feeling of being watched and someone looming over us.
The better versions are every classroom I've ever been in. How bad are classrooms in the rest of the world?!
Thank you for making this helpful video.
What do you think of open plan classrooms? Does a lack of walls affect feng shui? What about having versatile spaces with lots of different types of chairs and tables and couches all facing different directions? I went to an open plan high school and as a student it did not feel like a good environment for learning.
0:39 "This one is about learning, about entrapment" Damn straight.
Also, 1:45 is the classroom setup in most schools in Japan, ironically XD
2:17 i had that layout and still felt trapped, hence why I focused on the window instead of the teacher. 😂
The teachers that scored the highest on ability to connect with students had the better type of set up in their classroom with the learning towards the door like that.
This is so great! But what if you have two doors? Most classroom I seen have two doors, both on the same walls or directly facing each other kind?
Appreciate your content. Could you do feng shui for restaurants? Im trying to find ways to help my grandfathers business
ooh awhile ago i commented on a video that this would be interesting to see, so glad that u made a video on it!!
I have probably one of the most awkward layouts for a living room space, I'd love your help!
Can you please do one with a bed room That's rectangular and has a big window in the back a closet door and the door to the hallway I'm having a really hard time how to lay out my room I have a full size bed and there's only two places I can put my bed in my room 1 it's where my bed side is up against part of the window and the other is in a corner and my bed would be right above my light switch but with no windows behind it and the closet door to the right of it
In the UK its very common for teachers to have requirements for the students to enter/exit the room (uniform, equipment out, etc) and I always hate when a classroom is set up so that the Teachinn Zone is far away from the door. So often this is determined for you cos of where all the whiteboards are drilled in.
I graduated a few yeats ago at this point but I think some of my teachers looked into feng shui because the most memorable classrooms were the ones that followed it's principles to a T or were horrendous...
“ bullying each other” on the fun side, lol.
I would love to see you do a video(s) about the Feng Shui episode of Penn & Teller's Bullsh!t. React to their points, respond to the experts featured on the episode, and/or agree/disagree with the expert opinions and show how you'd redesign the rooms they showed.
this clip helped me a lot, thank you.👏🏽
In my schools, the teacher’s desk was always where they could escape out the door quickly. The blackboard was behind her. One teacher moved her desk in front of the windows, and we stared out the windows all day. New schools have two tiny, tall windows at two corners of the room, and they can’t be opened.
A public space! Cool! I work for a little tabletop game shop - any advice for small retail shops?
My classroom is very similar to you final set up, and now I understand why the fared courier from the door always has some graffiti on the rables and rubbish on the floor after some lessons. 😊
I keep trying to use his advice on my animal crossing rooms but with the entrance always being in the middle of the wall always makes it so tough!
Good stuff, my brother. ❤
Kinda hate the fact that at the back row of table is always the bully (basically nothing behind, not even resources), but you somehow predicted and explained it, guess I should know about this when I'm in secondary school (which I'm out already) 😅
@Dear_Modern-On-TELE-GRAM ?
I love the long form content ❤
Wish this guy designed my college. None of the classrooms I've been in even have windows.
Bro you’re g status no doubt love the videos
Is it american layout? As someone that has gone through the school system in sweden, including university, I have always had my classrooms designed with the white/black board by the wall with the door and the window opposite to the wall with the door like in minute two of the video.. In uni it was also popular to have the desks in a square along the walls in the room, so everyone is sitting with their backs to a wall and no one is in the way of anyone else and the teacher can see everyone. Although only in classrooms with no windows. However.. if it is a room with chemistry in it it, the teachers desk would be like at minute 2.33 and the window opposite BUT.. the tables for the students would be longer ones and tall ones with barstools, so when you do the experiments you can stand comfortably and do them and when you listen you can sit. And the tables are turned 90 degrees so the window would be to your side when you do the work.. and thus behind you when listening to the teacher. Since most of it was practical work it felt fine? And the sinks were by the window as well. One per long table and I think there was. .three or four long tables.
What if a classroom has two doors? Mine has two doors (it's really two smaller classrooms with a dividing wall removed). If I used your example from your video, you would add a door along the same bottom edge where you have the door but in the bottom left corner as well as the bottom right corner. I'm having real issues figuring out feng shui with this setup.
Most classrooms I learned in had two doors - an internal door and an external door. How would this affect the preferred layout?
Also, very few of my classrooms were set up with all the students in isolated desks facing the board. Are there other desk arrangements that work better (such as desks in inward-facing groups of 6, or a horseshoe or double-horseshoe arrangement)?
How does the active shooter x factor into the fengshui? The door is freedom and also danger.