Classroom Set-up

Classroom Set-up:

The Civil War Simulation takes about 4-5 days to complete.  One day for the students to choose their roles and hear a brief explanation of the rules, and 3-4 days to actually play the simulation.  This blog will be discussing how the teacher sets-up the classroom prior to the students arriving on the first day, and on each subsequent day.


Before the students come to class, the teacher should re-arrange the classroom (space depending).  The actual arrangement is part of the simulation and designed to reflect reality as much as possible.  First, the teacher should split the room in half, Southerners on one side of the Smartboard and Northerners on the other.  Next, the teacher should line up 4 desks in a straight line facing the Smartboard (where the battles will take place), but as far away from the Smartboard as possible.  These four desks are where the politicians (will be discussed later) will sit.  They are the furthest away from the Smartboard because, in real life, the politicians will be as far from the battle as possible.  Next, the teacher should place a single desk, for each side, facing each other.  These should be a bit closer to the board than the politicians but still far enough away to be "off the battlefield".  Sitting here will be the 5-Star General who, like in real life, will be close enough to see the action but also out of harms way.  Finally, the rest of the seats on each side should be clustered as close to the Smartboard as possible.  These will be where the "field commanders" will sit and they need to be close to the board because they are the ones actually fighting the battles.

There also needs to be two additional seats for the "umpires" to sit, who will also play additional roles.  One umpire will also play Great Britain in the simulation.  Despite British neutrality, their seat should be somewhere on the Southern side due to Britain's dependence on Southern cotton (at least during the first two years of the war).  The other umpire will be playing a Cherokee Chief and also acting as recorder.  Place them somewhere where they can see the board clearly.

It should look something like this:

Here is a shot that doesn't show the politicians but shows the other seats:

You can see the field commanders closest to the smartboard, the student in the light blue shirt is a 5-star General and is sitting across from the desk of the other 5-star General.  The Cherokee Chief is sitting immediately in front of the camera and the politicians would be to the immediate left and right of the photographer. Britain would be somewhere on the Southern side, close enough to the politicians to speak with them.