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Students use coordinates, Google Sheets, Google Docs for chatting, and Spheros to complete the Mars Challenge.
Classroom design has become a huge part of my work day. As teachers catch wind of flexible seating, I am getting booked left and right to consult on classroom set up. From layout suggestions to grant writing, teachers are excited to free up space in their room which allows for a better flow of learning. With or without devices in hand, we need to consider the needs of students. Should they sit at a desk? table? on a chair? stool? stand? What do the students need in their learning environment in order to learn best. Teachers want me to tell them, but it's best to put it back on the students and let the space dictate, to some degree, where they sit. An article came our recently about classrooms being like a Starbucks. I laughed a bit when I read it because 4 years ago I set up my own classroom to have the students sit against a window to achieve the coffee house feel of looking out at life while contemplating. 35 years ago, my own brother was a kindergartener who was put in the "timeout box" for day dreaming. How absurd. Day dreaming? How about brainstorming and letting ideas wind around in his head until they were ready to be released publicly. Create zones for students to feel like day dreaming is welcoming, or to work on a project with any size collaborative group, and to come together and listen to one person tell a story or sharing a new idea. This is what makes up the classrooms of today. In the flexible learning classroom not everyone needs a desk.. everyone simply needs a place to work. Take a look here for more ideas. So our team grew and our space shrank. Luckily our new office space was an open canvas, and our fearless leader and a few others can't sit still so they went to town putting together a Google-esque office (more on this in a later post).
To remedy the issue of more people than desks we decided to create an address-less zone and heads down zones. Now, as my team flits from school to office to another school we can rest momentarily at an adjustable height desk with power and a monitor. We use salvaged school lockers and second-hand filing cabinets to store our things. Thanks to inspiration from Intel, Nike, and Microsoft, to name a few, we can all fit into our office comfortably... 'cept for social gatherings were anything goes for a seat. About six months ago I wrote about the ease of using Google Docs for writers workshops. Since then, Google Classroom has come into play and is absorbing teachers every week as they learn about this great new tool. Now student's work will no longer fill up your inbox. Their assignments go straight into the Classroom. With Google Classroom you can:
Google Classroom really helps out with the workflow. However, it's not a full LMS. While you can export grades to a CSV file you cannot use Google Classroom for synchronous only learning. All you have are assignments and announcements and for some teachers, that's just right. Using Keynote and ScreenFlow you can create a video in 15 minutes that students can use to play with and investigate math. Isn't that better than memorizing a formula? Check out the Distance Formula lesson I created below. The lesson is structured around the Inquiry model to optimize student questioning and exploration. Wouldn't you rather be the Guide Beside than the Sage on the Stage? Student driven learning is a powerful thing in education and when iPads are in their hands this becomes all the more possible. After exploring the apps on our iPads and getting to know what nearly all of them do we created a chart so that students can quickly choose an app to use. I created the chart template and then we filled it in, as a class, during a discussion on what we know about the apps. Now when we are using our iPads after mini lessons, students have a more clear vision of choice for sharing their learning. Students who choose to use their iPad use the chart as a quick reference and choose the app that is most appropriate for the activity. This has allowed students to quickly get to work and show their strengths as learners in an individualized way. |
Kate White
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