Happy New Year! As we enter into a New Year, it is important to take a step back and examine the perspectives we have in our daily lives. Dewitt Jones, who I have mentioned earlier has a great video on Creativity. As a photographer he talks about looking at daily life through different lens and that most things have more than one right answer.
So what about the learning spaces in our schools? As we look at school reform for today's learners, are there things that we should look at changing to enhance the opportunities we create for the best learning situation for students? We want our spaces to be active, collaborative, places to create and challenge our students to maximize their learning potential.
We were discussing this as a group this week and reflected on learning spaces of 20-25 years ago with open space classrooms. Some people in the conversation had taught in these classrooms, some had been students in these classrooms, but the general consensus was the same - traditional classroom teaching styles had still been in place without walls. This was the only difference.
As we worked through an activity this week, creating the ideal learning spaces for our students, there were many common themes - more space, many spaces for multiple intelligences to be developed, natural light, places to collaborate, and technology. Realistically, we know we cannot do all that we would like to create these learning spaces, but how about one or two things? The key to this is to also reflect on our pedagogy through a different lens and reach today's learners.
What innovative ideas have you implemented or thought about to create learning spaces for today's learners?
