When you think of a learning space in a school, do you
automatically think of desks, blackboards and textbooks? As the world changes and the way we deliver
and receive content changes, why do so many of our schools continue to look the
same?
My classroom is a collaborative environment, where problem
solving, questioning and feedback is encouraged. Gone are the days where you could hear a pin
drop in a classroom. My classroom is
noisy, full of energy and always changing.
My students choose where they want to sit, choose who they want to work
with and what tools they want to use. I
needed my learning space to reflect that.
Last year I spoke to my teaching partner about changing our
classroom. She was all for it, so the
first thing we changed were the desks.
We were able to swap out our desks for tables. We used furniture that wasn’t being used in
other buildings in our district and traded them for our desks.
The second thing I wanted to change was our meeting
area. We had a large carpet for the
students to gather on. (We have 40 students.)
I made a few milk crate stools, my mom donated a large ottoman and we
had two high bar stools that sat at our observation window to view our bird
feeders.
The students chose the non traditional seating over their
tables every time. They loved working
together seated on the ottoman or around it.
They loved reading and collaborating on the high stools. I don’t think the furniture increases
learning directly. However, I believe
your mood does. When you are comfortable
and happy it contributes to your productivity.
As a result of this, last August I tweeted to our local
furniture companies asking them to donate furniture to my classroom. A couple of the companies responded asking me
to email them. I did and one local
company was eager to hear my story.
A meeting was set with Noah Tepperman. He is the Director of Social Media and a Partner of Tepperman’s Furniture store.
When we met, I told him about our space and that my students
did most of their learning on an iPad. I explained that we were looking for a more
comfortable space for not only my students but their parents as well. On Tuesdays and Thursdays for the first half
hour of the day the families of my students are invited to come in and read
with them. This has evolved since we
received the iPads. Students now read or
show their families work they have done on the iPads. Our guests always had to go into our library
because we didn’t have enough seating to accommodate our families.
After meeting with Noah, he came and visited my learning
space and spoke to my students. We then
met one last time to look at furniture for the space.
This past June, 2 large sectionals, an ottoman and a 50 inch
flat screen were donated to our learning space.
The new learning area provided by Mr. Tepperman can accommodate around 20 children
comfortably and we can now use our Apple TV to share the students’ work on our
new TV.
The students love our new space, reading time is a lot
quieter, work time is a lot more comfortable and parents feel welcome to join
our classroom.
Why can’t our classrooms look closer to our homes? I know that when I’m reading a book or doing
something on my iPad, I don’t sit at my kitchen table. I sit on my couch in my living room.
When you start getting ready to go back to school next
month, think about your learning space.
Do you have different areas in your room that are meant for different
tasks? Do you have quiet areas to get
away with a book or to do something independently? Do you have other areas where seating can
easily be rearranged to meet the need for collaboration? Do you have any non-traditional seating, if
not, can you get some?
Hopefully you can find someone as generous and genuine as
Noah Tepperman to make that a reality.
Thank you Noah for the amazing donation and for taking time out of your
busy schedule to visit my class, and to comment on their blogs. My students and I couldn’t be more happy with
our learning space!
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| A student's blog post and the response from Mr. Tepperman |
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