9 - Diego B: Classroom Illustrations

High classrooms can vary in their appearance based upon subject. A classroom which teaches one subject and another classroom which teaches another subject will obviously differ greatly from each other. Therefore, I believe that it is only fair to illustrate these classrooms separately from each other. First period has always been English since 6th grade with the exception of this year and 8th grade, so I will begin with an English classroom. English classrooms are fairly boring, but they are sometimes relaxing. There are always some quotes on the walls which are supposed to reflect the opinions of the teacher. There might be an illustration on the wall representing a certain novel, or speech, or play. Generally, the students are loud because they are too uninterested in understanding how to draft an essay about an article or how to identify logos, pathos, and ethos in a speech. There always seems to be some kind of motion in the classroom from the students, unless they are reading a book. The case of over-communication seems to persist even more in a history classroom. It was especially loud during freshman year, and although it was very quiet in APUSH for me, I have heard from my friends that it is very loud for them. Unlike English—at least for me—there were always groups in history, none of which actually seemed interested in the subject matter. If somebody was interested in the subject matter, they were working by themselves. A classroom regarding a scientific subject often feels the least expressive in terms of appearance. Because the school does not want a freshman to accidentally release a chemical on account of them doing something stupid in class, there are no decorations in class, unless you want to count the periodic table in chemistry or the astronomical posters in physics. Those aren’t reflections of the teacher per se, however, but reflections of the subject that they teach. I like to think of mathematics classes as the wildcard kind. You already know what to expect when entering an English class or a science class, but you cannot say the same for a mathematics class for some reason. The teacher could be relaxed and lenient, or they could be disciplinary and intimidating. The students could be obnoxious and disoriented, or they could be silent and diligent. The walls could be colorful and expressive, or they could be dull and artificial. My only other elective at Will C. Wood besides robotics was an art class which I was never in person with because it was my fifth period. We have two classrooms in robotics, one of which is not even a classroom. The actual classroom by the gymnasium is filled with technology like computers and there are always multiple groups entertaining themselves in class. The other “classroom”, or laboratory, is very loud but not for the other reasons which I mentioned. There is always some cutting or manufacturing going on in there, and the room smells bad too, often.