One of our biggest realizations from Year 1 was that the environment played a critical role in our design. Never was it more apparent to us that the “closed” door perspective used in many classrooms would not work for us. Behaving more like a fishbowl, or an aquarium, we realized in the first year everyone needed to flow between different spaces. By offering a change of scenery where all learners could feel comfortable and safe, yet together. A new sense of ownership came over each student and adult working together this year. Collectively redesigning our learning spaces with clear intention for their use brought everyone together while expanding our space at the same time. Students of Year 2 were a part of labeling and naming the spaces they learned in each day, which exist to this day: The Zen Den, The Mathlenium Falcon, The Living Room and The Design Lab. These are all connected through a common “lobby” space that was redesigned to accommodate small group learning, whole group instruction and community meetings. The students dubbed this space “The Great Hall”.
Zen Den
The Zen Den was born out of a Maker Day project some students engaged in the year before that empathized with “the student of today”. It became obvious to them a calm space was what they craved, so a calm space is what they designed and prototyped. This really made an impact on the kids and made us realize they were on to something. Knowing that we had numerous students learning on the spectrum, a zone that was guaranteed to be quiet and calm quickly became a priority. We began to realize that certain kids would do very well in a flexible environment and be in situ within the community rather than being separated from their peers. In later years, conversations with students who learned with us in Year 2 often recounted how much they loved the ZenDen and that every learning space should have something like that.
Design Lab
The Design Lab was born out one of Clint Maltais’ (a co-teacher in this year) passion for ADST and Design Thinking. Through grant applications (Southern Interior Construction Association) and a partnership with Women in Trades we were able to fill this room with a variety of construction materials and design thinking visuals.
Mathlenium Falcon
One of our kiddos, let’s call him Luke, who was quite witty wanted to combine the theme of one room that was designed with a math focus while emphasizing many people’s common interest in Star Wars, birthing the “Mathlenium Falcon” which has generally become “The Falcon” for short. Math featured displays and math manipulatives live in this room for quick access and reference during math lessons.
Living Room
The Living Room has always been a place where “family” gatherings and connection circles just seem to feel most comfortable due to its lighting, windows, valley views, and welcoming feng shui. In our first year of group collaboration, the students overwhelmingly labeled this room as the “Living Room” which we thought was quite telling. We have really tried to leverage the energy of the Living Room to coincide with a comfortable space where readers and writers can get cozy on bean bag chairs, tap into creativity and explore ideas together in author shares.
Outdoor Classroom
Additionally this year brought the creation of our Peter Greer Outdoor Classroom, growth of our school community garden, and increased use of the Clearwater Greenspace behind the school. We also dove into the use of forest baths and place based learning principles (Wild Schools BC) to amp up the natural environment dial. Much of this was led by co-collaborator Clint Maltais. An Okanagan Sylix Land acknowledgement has become second nature for the students once they arrive at the outdoor learning space. Students often ask to visit these spaces and truly seem to connect to the land. We acknowledge how fortunate we have been to utilize such a naturally preserved landscape adjacent to our school building.