Classrooms that work: Teacher Robyn Lawson
Published: January 24, 2006
There is little opportunity for boredom in Robyn Lawson’s classroom, even if her students are 20 energetic, sometimes fidgety, first-graders.
Lawson has created what look like mini-classrooms within a classroom - sectioned-off areas where students can read, play math games, create art projects and work on computers when they’ve finished their required pencil-and-paper lessons.
It helps Lawson keep discipline in the classroom, and it gives students the opportunity to pursue some of their interests and at the same time engage in a learning activity.
“The expectations of first-grade students are so much greater than when I first started teaching,” Lawson said.”
“They are expected to sit much longer at a time and do so much more paper-and-pencil activities,” she said.
That means less time for other curricular areas such as science, social studies and art - areas Lawson feels are important for students of all ages.
That’s where her learning centers come in to play.
“(Students) need to be able to get up and explore,” Lawson said. “This gives them the opportunity to go to the centers and take out an activity.”
The centers are clearly labeled - math, writing, book, science and art.
On a recent morning, the book center with hundreds of books Lawson has collected in her 31 years of teaching attracts three students who’ve just finished their math work.
Two peruse the shelves of books, and another relaxes in a beanbag chair as she pulls several books from a shelf and tries to decide which to read.
The math center also attracts students. They’ve just finished they’re math paperwork, but the center offers them opportunities to practice math skills in not-so-obvious ways - with math games, math puzzles, plastic money, plastic geometric shapes and countless other objects.
As the students visit the different centers and find activities to engage in, Lawson is able to check on and work individually with students who might have difficulty with their math problems.
Lawson has no single teaching strategy to ensure students are learning.
“There are many different learning styles and levels in my classroom so I try to use a great variety of teaching strategies and materials in order to provide each child an environment they will learn in,” Lawson said.
“If one teaching strategy wasn’t too successful, I’ll try another and then another until I have succeeded with a student or class,” she said.
What her students said
Danielle Galvin, 6: “She collects frogs, and she’s really nice. She gives us a lot of reading books to help us read.”
Andrew Morris, 6: “She’s fun. She gives us time to play. I didn’t know stuff like math, and she helps me to learn what I need.”
Carlos Beltran, 6: “She’s a great teacher. She makes us learn stuff like math. She gives us work. I like to work.”
Breanna Warren, 7: “She helps us with our work. She teaches us letter sounds. She’s funny sometimes.”
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