Classroom Layouts

Good Day Readers!

Welcome to 2018! I don’t know about you; but for me Winter Break is a time to relax, reflect, rejuvenate, and re-evaluate how I am doing as a teacher, parent, and person. During this last week of break I begin to think of how to make my classroom better for the coming semester. Part of this is to create a new seating chart (which we can all agree can be difficult). While my district has a great program for it, I tend to turn this into rearranging the WHOLE classroom. With this in mind I began looking for tools to help me.

I know most of use either free hand the design, but me being The Glitchy Teacher, I am looking for an online program or app to help me. Through my searching and testing I have found some which are horrible and some not-so-bad. Let’s face it there is not one really good program out there. They all have flaws and difficulties. With that being said I have made a list of programs which should help you. Please bear in mind I will be rating them on difficulty/ease of use (1-being easy and 5-super difficult). List order is based on where they popped in a Google search, so please look for the rating.

• Classroom Architect- Difficulty 3. This program features all the different items available for most teachers from desks to TV Stands and rugs. You are able to change the dimensions of the room, however, if you have an odd shaped room you are out of luck for it only has square and rectangle. You are able to create your own shapes in this program and adjust the design but really this is all the program has going for it. You are able to save and print your layout when done (which is a plus). The main downside would be you can’t change the size of the pre-loaded items; thus the teacher’s desk is the same size for a 25 X 17 room as a 20 X 10 room which can affect your layout. Second, trying to delete something takes a minute to figure out. You have to drag the item you want to get rid of to the trash button instead of clicking the item and hitting trash. If you are a teacher looking for something easy this is your best shot. 
• Scholastic- Difficulty 4. This program offers 3 different classroom layouts for you; however, still is restricted to the square or rectangle. However, this does have more features to place in the room than others such as: windows, bulletin boards, black boards, etc. It still has the different desks like teacher’s, student, horseshoe, but again the sizes are locked. This works for this program because you are NOT able to change the size of the layout, just the design. The program does state “approximate” to the user. Perhaps the best feature of this is the ability to put your student’s names into the program to place them at desks. Essentially you are able to change up your room and seating chart all in one! If you are not into that then this program is a 3, but if you do use it the difficulty goes to a 4.
• School Seating Charts- Difficulty 4/5. This tool is perhaps the best, but does come with difficulty. This program allows you to only place student desks so full layout is out of the question. However, this program does offer so fringe benefits which might make you use it. After you choose your layout, it starts with a default and you can change from there, you input your roster. This is where it gets good. You can then label your talkers and workers. If this would transfer to the seating chart it would be great. After this you can randomize students or place as you want. Again this is a great seating chart program, but not for full layouts. (This is a paid program, free if you only do 1 layout and roster.)
• Perhaps the 2 WORSE programs would be The Library Store and FloorPlanner.com from Kaplan. These programs are super difficult to use. 
• The Library store really should not market this to teachers because it really is for libraries. There is very little in this program for teachers (literally, just desks). 
• Floor Planner is basic and comes with a layout already. The problem with this layout is it is for lower elementary only (focus on the dramatic play area) and is ridiculously hard to use. In order to even begin you have to delete almost everything (titles of areas do not delete or move) then search through their catalog to find the items you need. It is basically a catalog show with no way to change dimensions. 

After this I went to the apps to see if there was something. Let’s just say unless you are a carpenter they will not work for you. Overall, I would say Classroom Architect is going to be your best bet. While it is not exact, it does offer ease of use, more options, dimensional changes, and the ability to print and save for free.

Please comment below on your opinions or other programs you like to use! Don’t forget if there is something you want me to review or check out comment below! Enjoy!