Design an adaptive learning ecosystem | District Administration Magazine. Years ago, educators at Fremont Middle School in Illinois provided students with engaging projects. Students sat on floors and gathered in hallways, vestibules and staircases, says Joan Shanahan, Fremont School District’s technology integration specialist. But not until the 2015-16 school year did teachers have designated areas where students could work on assignments comfortably or have access to digital technology. With the help of the state Capital Development Board, maintenance staff and a planning committee made up of school officials, Fremont Middle School transformed part of its building into 11 spaces so students could work in a variety of environments. The space was honored as a District Administration District of Distinction in 2016. Named after the school mascot, the Wildcat DEN (Designing, Exploring and Networking) is a bookstore-like setting filled with art on walls, couches, “mushroom chairs” and tables with benches.
The genesis The build A good problem to have Looking forward. Inside ‘Room 21C’: This Iowa Classroom’s Redesign Inspired Seven Other Districts. Put on your student glasses: the “shift” around the nation to personalized learning has begun. But that’s easier said than done. Luckily, in Iowa, there is a saying (popularized from the film, Field of Dreams): “If you build it, they will come.” And nearly four years ago, the Great Prairie Area Education Agency took that saying to heart. As an educational service agency serving 33 public school districts in southeast Iowa, our role is to support students, teachers and administrators to bring about the best possible learning success for students’ education.
But there’s a problem: while teachers would generally be excited about the new resources available, they would return to the same old classroom they left. So, we asked, “How can we change this in our in new and emerging 1-1 schools in southeast Iowa?” That led to a crucial idea. Designing a New Sort of Classroom: Research and Development The Look and Feel With a goal and research in tow, our team was ready to start the design. Dr. Creating STEM learning spaces | SmartBrief. Redesigning the classroom to make learning a more interactive endeavor is something many districts are contemplating and some have started.
We started this process in 2013 when the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council challenged schools across the state to rethink the design of classrooms. Hoover High School, one of Des Moines Public Schools’ 10 high schools, applied for, and won, a $50,000 grant from the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council to redesign learning environments and reinvigorate the district’s STEM Academy. The district matched the grant, giving us $100,000 to create learning spaces that would be similar to the environments our students may encounter in college or in their future career. We overhauled three rooms -- a “redesigned learning environment” or RLE, our Project Lead the Way classroom, and a math classroom. Although the three rooms serve different purposes, they all reinforce the use of collaboration and technology. Like this article?
10+ Tips for Using Brain Based Methods to Redesign Your Classroom. “It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.” - Ann Landers As adults, we make choices daily. We choose where we eat, where we sit at the table, what we order, how much we eat, what we watch or don’t watch on television, what time we go to bed, and more.
As teachers, we want our students to be decisive—but how much choice do we truly allow students to make? Consider the classroom space, for example. By creating an environment that is brain-friendly for students, you also touch on many more of the brain-body compatible elements such as allowing for a safe space for reflective thinking, movement around the room, choice by students, and ease of collaboration. Therefore, it is imperative never to overlook the impact of your learning space—nor to overlook how students should be involved in that process.
Creating a Brain-Friendly Enriched Classroom Environment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. The Results. Smarter school spaces. Alexandria Public Schools leaders re-envisioned classrooms a few years ago when planning a new high school at their central Minnesota district. The educators were driven, in part, by students who refused to enroll in industry skills courses taught typically in classrooms tucked away in dark basements. District leaders also hoped to change the stereotype that students who work with their hands are not college bound, says Julie Critz, Alexandria’s superintendent. “A lot of quality learning goes on in shop class,” Critz says. Now, the room—branded the “Design Build Lab”—has become a hallmark of the $73 million Alexandria Area High School, which was funded through grants, community donations and a $65 million bond. The lab, located next to the cafeteria behind a glass wall, also instills some pride in the small town that has a strong manufacturing sector.
The way schools across the country use space has changed. Inspired by cafes and toy stores Get ready to redesign Class in the beanbag lounge. Perrysburg demonstrates new classroom concepts - Sentinel-Tribune: News. Posted: Monday, January 11, 2016 9:28 am Perrysburg demonstrates new classroom concepts By ALEX ASPACHER, Sentinel County Editor Sentinel-Tribune PERRYSBURG - A model classroom installed in the junior high library will allow teachers and students to experience new classroom concepts more than a year before they'll be incorporated into the district's new intermediate elementary school. With students gone for winter break, custodial and maintenance staff spent a few days adding white walls decked out in dry erase boards, technology that makes it easier to collaborate, and furniture which can be easily moved around. Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. Please click the button below to manage your account.
Traditional classrooms look mostly the same - rows of pupil desks facing the same direction, with a board and the teacher's space at the front of the room, as well as a large desk of their own. "They'll have a desk, just not inside that classroom," Hosler said. Standing Desks Keep Kids Better Tuned In -- THE Journal. Classroom Design Standing Desks Keep Kids Better Tuned In By Dian Schaffhauser04/27/15 Children who stand at their desks instead of sitting stay on task better, according to a new research project by a team at Texas A&M University. The preliminary results suggest that students improve their ability to stay on task by 12 percent. Standing desks are taller than the standard ones; in this research project the students had stools nearby so that they could choose to sit or stand at their discretion.
The research looked at the results of an experiment in which 282 participants in grades 2-4 were observed in the fall and spring during one school year. Engagement of the "treatment" classrooms was compared with the engagement of "control" classrooms. One of the team members, Mark Benden, is a Texas A&M associate professor in the Health Science Center School of Public Health, an ergonomic engineer, and co-founder of a start-up, Stand2Learn, which sells various sizes of stand-up desks and stools.
Edutopia. Most educators have little choice about the (usually) over-crowded, (often) unappealing rooms they teach in -- but they intuitively know that the spaces children spend their time in can have an effect on how they learn. I've gathered a collection of videos to explore the questions: How important is environment to learning? And what small changes can you make in seating, organization, lighting, and decor to build your own space into a better place to teach and learn? Video Playlist: Innovative Learning Spaces Watch the player below to see the whole playlist, or view it on YouTube. Flexible Learning Environments (04:02) Students and teachers at Eanes Independent School District in Austin, Texas, talk about the district's experiment with creating classrooms of the future to foster 21st-century skills at all grade levels.
More Resources on Learning Spaces Ready to roll up your sleeves and re-think your classroom space before the school year starts? Standing Desks Keep Kids Better Tuned In -- THE Journal.