Antonio Viva

I have spent some time recently thinking about how our schools look and feel very much like they did over a century ago. Our school began a major construction project last week intended to refurbish and renovate one of our major academic buildings. Kingsley Laboratories, built in 1897, is one of our oldest buildings and houses Math, Science and English classes. Dr. Daniel J. Abercrombie who was the Academy’s headmaster during the time that Kingsley Hall was built had been working in European schools where classical curriculum had given way to the study of the conceptual and applied sciences and mathematics. His vision at the turn of the 19th century was to create a facility on our campus where students would begin the study of chemistry, biology, anatomy and physics. The building was state of the art for its time and attracted many of the neighboring colleges and universities, eager to see how learning laboratories could be designed.

Over 100 years later, the work on Kingsley Labs has begun, part of the scope of this project is to redesign and update our science facilities that they may once again be state of the art. Our labs will include fully integrated technology resources, AV, LCD, SmartBoard and a fleet of portable laptops for data collection. Lab benches are designed to allow groups of five students to work together as well as independently. Yet, many other classes at our school as well as other remain unchanged. Rows of desks or tables, the focus of the classroom is often directed toward the front of the room, blackboards remain popular at our school as I am sure they do at many others, technology is not yet fully integrated but requires a process of signing out etc. I am pleased to report that we are beginning a 1 to 1 pilot program in our Middle School with the hopes of a school wide implementation in the fall of 2009.

Innovative companies like Google, Apple, 3M, Starbucks, Toyota, IBM and General Electric are recognized for their ability to foster innovation and creativity. So what do they have in common? These companies are known for creating environments that cultivate and foster creativity, innovation, collaboration, new designs, and 21st century problem solving. I recently had the opportunity to hear Sir Ken Robinson speak. He was fantastic. Many I am sure have seen his presentation on TED on “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” and his speech at the NAIS Annual Conference in New York touched upon many of the same themes. One idea that really struck me was the analogy he drew between farming and teaching. He said that farmers know that they don’t actually get things to grow. What they do is create the right conditions and environment to get their crops to do what they will naturally and inherently do on their own. Farmers understand that what they are responsible for is creating the optimal conditions. Schools could learn a thing or two from farmers. Schools need to recognize that students have enormous potential and are capable of amazing things and if given the right environment and the proper conditions will rise to the occasion. However, if we continue to subject students to a early 20th century industrial model we will continue to do nothing more than stifle all but those at the top 15% of the class. Preparing our students must begin by rethinking our teaching and learning environments. By looking to innovative companies such as Google, Apple and 3M, we can adopt their workspace philosophy to reshape the nature of how we work with students and how teachers collaborate with one another.

So how will our schools catapult innovative teaching and learning in the 21st century?

A few suggestions:

1. Design rooms that are properly equipped and can function as flexible spaces to support different teaching modalities. Rooms should not focus on one method of teaching versus any other. Create rooms that are designed to meet different purposes.
2. Rethink traditional scheduling practices – Rooms should be signed out and used as they are needed by a group of students and their teacher. Rather than continue to schedule classes as we currently do, consider creating teaching clusters where groups of teachers have access to these different rooms when they most need them.
3. Create comfortable, well equipped and contemporary faculty work rooms. A teacher who has their own classroom finds it very easy to become isolated and close their door and teach. Making spaces available to teacher groups/teams where faculty can collaborate, obtain resources and materials, make phone calls and get snacks and good coffee, cold beverages and talk with one another can encourage colleagues to design and create innovative curriculum and teaching strategies with one another.

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