Over on Brent G. Wilson's website there is a wonderful powerpoint about the varieties of classroom you can create*. He poses one particularly good question:
" If we wanted to design a learning environment, without ever having seen one, what would we come up with?" -- and he credits this to 'Tom Carroll at PT3 Grants'
It's a brilliant question. As I begin preparing for next year I find myself falling into habits. It will be my fourth year of teaching and gradually I've figured out what works for me and, hopefully, my students. I also find myself guilty of occasional groupthink or being swayed by a 'majority' view of education. This question has got me thinking about what I really believe learning should be about and what this means for my classroom layout and planning.
Today's Tip? Ponder this questio for a little while. Ask some colleagues what they think. And see if you can plan next year's classroom to be a little bit closer to the environment you would want.
* The powerpoint is called Learning Communities: Laboritories of Innovation for Teaching and Learning,
1 year ago