Adaptable spaces

Kristin Fontichiaro, <http://blog.schoollibrarymedia.com/> the library media specialist at Beverly School in Birmingham, Michigan and author of the books Active Learning through Drama, Podcasting, and Puppetry and Podcasting at School left this thoughtful comment to last Friday's blog post:

Hi, Doug -- I'm curious to know if your new buildings will have classrooms that are larger than in the past. With so much focus on collaborative work, it would be fabulous if classrooms had a bit more physical space than they did 50 years ago to permit lots of flexible groupings. More space, plus chairs that stack and tables or desks that roll into various configurations can help create learning spaces that can adapt as learning trends and best practices change.   

I'd also recommend lots of room for teacher storage. There is often so little room in traditional classrooms for teachers to store the myriads of STUFF, from the Kleenex families bring in on the first day of school to the digestive system model. Wouldn't it be great if classrooms could have lots of storage so those items are kept discreetly out of the way? This could be in the classroom or an extra storage space outside of the room. (Or build an extra classroom that can be used now for storage and for teaching later if the population grows.) If we could minimize the physical clutter in our students' learning spaces, would we also minimize the mental clutter?

What about bathroom space? Is there money for a bathroom or two in each room? Teachers tend to feel that in-class bathrooms minimize interruptions and that hallway bathrooms encourage more chaos. At the same time, fewer bathrooms = fewer custodial hours!)

What kinds of large group instruction spaces are available? Are there other "specialty" rooms where one set of equipment could be purchased and used by multiple classes? (e.g., a single room dedicated to science instead of giving each classrooms a little bit of stuff)? A theatrical space for live performances or video work? A quiet space for podcasting or audio recordings? An outdoor classroom both for instruction and for those students who love to read, write, and draw during recess? A large area set aside for recycling bins in the cafeteria and/or hallways? A few extra classrooms to allow for further growth in the future (or maybe two classrooms without a wall in-between that can be used for large group instruction, kinesthetic learning, or drama activities now and converted to two classrooms in the future)? What about lobby space for parent conversations in the morning? Art walls instead of cork strips for "professional" displaying of student art? Soundproofed offices next to large gathering spots?

Gosh, it's fun to think about the possibilities.

It is indeed interesting to think about the possibilities.

Quite frankly, the classrooms themselves that I saw on our recent tour looked no bigger or much different that any typical classroom from the past 100 years - 900 square feet, square or nearly so.  The kindergarten rooms at 1200 square feet, some with their own bathrooms (and itty bitty toilets) resembled what you are describing above.

It seems there are three things most teachers want their wall space to be used for in elementary classrooms - storage cabinets, windows and white board/bulletin board space. However, no matter how the classroom was designed and wall uses apportioned, none of the teachers were happy! Or so it seemed.

While the classrooms exhibited little of the flexibility you describe, Kristin, a common design was to have elementary rooms as a "cluster" with each grouping of 3-5 classrooms sharing a larger common area that served larger groups, had multiple uses, usually had some special education space, and sometimes included a special purpose room like a science classroom.

A popular feature of the common area shared by these clusters was a space for several computers that formed a mini-lab. I have mixed feelings about this. By moving the computers outside the classroom walls, aren't we continuing to send the message that learning happens in the classroom and computer use is something different? (Our middle school has a counter under the windows in each of its classrooms to accommodate up to a dozen classroom computers, and that was the model I had been thinking of suggesting.)

Computer "counter" at Dakota Meadows Middle School, Mankato MN. Note wiring and raceway under counter.
Old picture - yes, we do have newer computers than this.

But then we also saw a lot of laptops being used - both in the classroom and in the clusters' common spaces. And I expect this will be the most common model of computer deployment in schools that can't afford or or unwilling to implement a 1:1 initiative. I can certainly see every cluster in our new school having a COW (Computers on Wheels) full of ASUS Eees or new small, -$500  HP or Dell laptops. An easy transition to a 1:1 program?

How does the design of the classroom influence the design of the media center?

Why do we still belive cubes are the best shape for classrooms? Haven't educators heard the term "think outside the box?"

How do I keep our district from building a brand new 1950s school? 

Why manufacturing jobs are going away

From David Brook's column "The Cognitive Age,"  New York Times, May 2, 2008

The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change (hastened by competition with other companies in Canada, Germany or down the street). Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades. Employers now require fewer but more highly skilled workers. Technological change affects China just as it does the America. William Overholt of the RAND Corporation has noted that between 1994 and 2004 the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs, 10 times more than the U.S.

The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked.

Hmmmm, sounds like what I heard on Minnesota Public Radio not that long ago. Maybe if David Brooks says it, people will listen. Or not.

Bird noises and building design

Here is my story about why I became interested in facility design (from "Building Digital Libraries for Analog People: 10 Common Design Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them" KQ, May/June 2000):

I once caught a glimpse of what purgatory must be like for school librarians. While student teaching in the mid-70’s in a small Iowa town, I watched the most hapless librarian I have ever met trying to do her job – which at that time was mostly keeping study hall students quiet and busy.

Her media center was, as are too still many yet today, two classrooms pushed together with perimeter shelving and a high circulation desk at the front of the long room near the door. The floor held just two tables near the circulation desk. The main seating was provided in rows of tall-sided study carrels running in long aisles down the length of the room. (See figure one)

The librarian spent most of the time I observed her running up and down those aisles of carrels trying to detect which students were making the little bird noises they knew drove her crazy. I believe this happened every hour of every school day. At least it was going on each time I visited the library. (That school building has since burned down. I like to think it was the act of a merciful God.)

A few years later when I was a school library media specialist myself, I overheard my principal say that he thought tall-sided carrels would be just the ticket for helping students work quietly in the new media center we were planning. My ears pricked up quicker than a dog’s. I decided it might not be a bad idea to be a bit more involved in the library design process.

Ah, it's good to be able to find oneself amusing. But it's my story and I am sticking to it.

Anyway, a short list of articles and columns I've written on facility design...

Next up: How does where we place computers in our buildings reflect our philosophy toward technology?