Questions to Ponder

1. What are the verbs you want to experience in the space? (Dr. Dillon)
2. What do you want your students to do in the space?

Big Picture

1. What can we do to make the space flexible for what happens after STEM?
2. Is the space open ended enough for the next vision from the next leader?

Equity

1. How do we establish spaces for all kids?
   1. Is it possible to have kindergarten and 8th graders working in a shared space?
   2. Do we need a storage and flexible solution to allow for quick turnaround and rotation of projects?

Space Layout

1. Flexibility of storage - wheels, seats, tables
2. Storage room in middle with learning spaces on perimeter
3. Shared space of materials
4. Power and electricity
   • Enough for power tools
   • Adequate outlets
5. Doors - simple flow to go inside and outside
6. Rooms
   • Individual space
   • Small group space
   • Large space
7. Flooring: Soft and hard space
   • Carpet to roll up when not in use
   • Paint floors
   • Area rugs
8. Walls
   • Space to document
   • Images of students working
   • Signage
   • Whiteboards

Key Ideas

1. You will need to prototype your way into establishing a space that allows for student exploration and expansion. It will be a constantly evolving iteration of the previous build as new ideas, tools, concepts, merging of fields remix into new learning for both the adults and the students using the space.
2. If you want people to embrace pushing the envelope, thinking outside the box, celebrating failure, then what will you include in the space to allow this to happen?
3. If you goal is to move away from the traditional learning of sit and get, lecture, sitting in meetings, etc., then does your space allow for this to happen? Maybe even more important, does your space not allow these situations to occur in the first place?
4. Do your spaces eliminate the “front of the room” environment?
5. If you start adding everything to the space, then you will be left with nothing. Make sure everything has a purpose and connection to other elements.

Design Elements

1. Home base
2. Gathering Spaces
3. Transition spaces
4. Drop-In - think laptop or coffee bar

• How will your learning space support the philosophy of the school?
• How will your learning space support the student well being?
• What type of instructional methods will be used in the space?
• Who is working with whom? How? When?
• How does learning happen in those spaces for students? Teachers?

• Did you buy furntiture and decoration becuase it looks nice and because everyone is talking about it or did you purchase/build with an intention and goal behind it? Otherwise it is just addition of furniture and functions and not a shift in learning
• Take a picture/video of your space and ask yourself: Does this learning space design support the change you want to see in the learning in your space?
• Can you identify how all items in your learning space connect to the mission, vision, and how learning happens? Learning space is never about space or design.

As teachers create new spaces, norm them, and make shifts naturally when you move away from desks and rows because your instructional practices will naturally nudge to use the new spaces.

Over on Facebook I experimented with a 30 day declutter learning challenge where educators from around the world worked to hold each other accountable to enhance their learning space. In order to make it better we had to start at ground zero which meant getting rid of the old.

I tried to document as much of the journey as this site for others to do at their own pace. This is currently in beta as I work to further refine and make the flow much better.