A classroom that promotes desired student behavior and facilitates instruction is arranged to encourage communication and interaction. For example, the large tables that seat up to five children promote maximum peer interactions during cooperative learning activities. Each table is arranged at an angle toward the teacher desk, located on the long wall of the room. The arrangement enables each student to have a clear view of the teacher without obstructions and also allows the teacher to effectively manage student behavior and progress with classroom activities. The non-linear arrangement of the tables also allows the teacher to move freely about the room to offer students individualized attention or supervise their activities. Students are also less likely to feel trapped into confining seating arrangements and are offered a large space with which to work. Tables are spaced far apart to minimize horseplay between groups, but close enough together to create a community-like classroom environment.
             The Classroom Map reveals that furniture and other large object are arranged as flexibly as possible to permit ready changes to the environment. Different lesson plans demand different seating arrangements to shift student attention or to encourage or discourage peer interactions. During lessons in which student interaction should be discouraged, chairs can be shifted to face fully forward toward the teacher's desk. The teacher's desk faces the door of the classroom in addition to the students, and therefore the teacher can easily field any possible interruptions to the classroom. With a bird's eye view of the room, the teacher practices effective classroom management without creating an authoritarian learning environment. When lessons involve cooperative learning, students can arrange the tables into small groups or the tables can also be arranged in a large circle with the teacher or a student leader sitting at the head or ev...