On any given day, if a stranger entered your classroom what would they think about the learning environment you create? What would it tell them about you as a teacher, or your relationship with your students?
I think I would describe my room as organized choas. People from the outside may see my teaching as disorganized but with time they would realize the purpose. What do children do when they are playing? Are they usually very organized? NO! They make a huge mess that takes up whole rooms and sometimes whole houses! They are essentially building their own make-believe world and making discoveries while doing it. They test the limit by seeing how high they can build a tower or how far they can twist the doll's head until it pops off. Children need time to test, manipulate, experiment, and discover for themselves.
For example, in my elementary music class:
Maybe I'll have a day where kids invent "abnormal" sounds on their instruments and write a piece using those sounds. This would cover some of the nine national standards for music education such as composition, performance, and improvising. This would also give students flexibility on their instruments as well as tools and techniques they could use later in their music careers.
Now a person might come in and see this as disorganized but really I am allowing students to use their wild imaginations to teach themselves skills that could be used time and time again. Even just the skill of "inventing" could be used in other classrooms and settings.