Thinking about Design: What if our Senior classes looked like a Kindergarten room?

I have been on a journey to improve my teaching practice and it started with a passion regarding classroom design. The setup, design, and structure of my classroom has always felt important to me. I have scoured the internet for resources and ideas on how to make a high-school classroom look “better”. Nothing. Elementary classrooms are carefully designed with choice in mind. They are usually designed around centres; everything is done with intention and the student is the driving energy in the room. Fast forward to high school classrooms and rooms are just empty spaces where subjects are taught; it has very little to do with the students and subjects that are in the room and everything to do with scheduling (which is understandably very complicated). Often multiple teachers use the same room, multiple subjects are taught out of the same space and I think we can do better. 

One element that I think is an easy fix for each room, regardless of how and where the classes are located, is introducing an element of choice into the room. Why do students in Kindergarten have more choice than our grade 12 students about their day and about their learning? My children are in Kindergarten and they get to make many choices in their day; they have options to study math, science, have a snack, work on a computer, read a book, colour, build, paint, learn with friends or learn alone.  Imagine what that would look like for our older students.

I think it is a really important to help them develop the ability to know when and how they learn certain topics best; get them to ask themselves on any given day if they are able to work with others or do they need to work alone? I try to build some of that into my classroom by designing the room so the boys have some choice with regards to their seating, allowing them to decide where to sit on a given day, based on what they need on that particular day to feel successful.

What was very interesting to me in the process of trying to improve the design of my classroom was that through the process of design thinking I determined that what I am actually trying to improve is the level of engagement in the classroom.

 

I asked my grade 8 boys to tell me about their level of engagement in math class. I asked them to create 4 cards and rate them 1 – 4. On the cards that were rated 1 they were to write down what they are doing and what I am doing when they are engaged at a 1/4 level, then to do the same exercise for 2/4, 3/4 AND 4/4. Here is a summary of what they wrote:  Engagement feedback from kids

I have also created a board in the hallway asking for feedback from parents, teacher, and students for thoughts on what I can do to improve engagement. I will attach a picture when this board has been populated.

 

The article that is attached was one written by Harvard Ed Magazine. It outlines engagement as the antithesis to boredom. If students are not engaged they are not going to learn the material. The article speaks about the design of current classroom creating barriers for student achievement because they falsely cater to the average learner. In order to avoid this, as mentioned above, we need to create choice in the classroom and individualize the experience of the student. The goal of school should be to take students down a path that cultivates an experience that will nurture their abilities and potential. We need to create a curriculum that is relevant to students through project-based curricula, it needs to actually matter to the students and speak their teenage language.

 

Currently, our education system, allows students to just “come along for the ride”, we expect very little from them in terms of their own ideas – like an airplane “Sit down, strap in, don’t talk, look forward” – We have the opportunity to create a program that expects more from our students and will allow for them to find their own voice and explore their own ideas.

 

I want the students that I teach to develop into adults that are inspired to make the world a better place, to love where they work and find meaning in the work that they do.  How can we start that now? If we instill that in their day now, perhaps it will feel natural for them continue to live with those principles. Let us ask our students not what they want to be when they grow up, but what problems they want to solve.

 

 

I look forward to continuing on my journey to understand engagement and improving my practice as a result. Feedback is always welcome!