eMINTS equipment

Teacher workstation placement considerations for eMINTS classroom. Location Considerations for placement

Teacher workstation

Location

The location of the teacher workstation should be a teacher's decision. The classroom teacher is the member of your school staff who will be responsible for creating and maintaining an effective learning and instructional environment. Their input into the creation of this environment is crucial. The classroom teacher needs to have their workstation located in an area that provides them with a comfortable working relationship to their students. The location of this workstation should be based on the preference of the teacher, not based on the technical constraints of the classroom.

In the eMINTS classrooms, teacher workstations have been installed in one of two places, in the front of the room near the SMART Board or in the rear of the room.

Considerations for placement of teacher's workstation

• Installing the teacher workstation in the front of the room places the teacher in full view of the students.
• However, installing the teacher workstation in the front of the room prevents teachers from viewing student monitors from the teacher's workstation.
• Installing the teacher workstation in the back of the room allows the teacher to use the Smart Board from their workstation while being able to see all of the student monitors. When the students are working on their projects this allows the teacher to sit and work one on one at her desk and at the same time easily monitor the classroom.
• However, having the teacher workstation at the back of the room requires the teacher to move between the teacher workstation and the smart board during the lesson. For example, in some situations using the online keyboard provided by the smart board is not an efficient option. In these cases, teachers must leave the front of the room in order to access the workstation keyboard. This can be disruptive to the flow of a lesson.
• Planning for the printer and the scanner to be near the teacher desk area is helpful. If the teacher workstation is near the printer then the teacher does not need to cross the whole room every time they print something and it is easier to monitor problems with the printer.

Reviewed May 20, 2003.