My teaching and learning space is in a classroom with young learners. My focus for the redesign is to bring more flexibility in the learning area and provide amble space for failure (as the catalyst to mastery) to occur. One of the methods I used to accomplish this was to reimagine the current space as an open room for learning to happen. Once I had this vision, I proceeded to incorporate the idea of comfort and flexibility into my choice for furniture. In the end, my young learners were given some control over how their learning space would serve their creative needs. This will encourage them to think like a maker and expect to embrace any iterations that become necessary for them to master their developing learning space as an assistant to their academics.

As I thought out the concepts to include in my redesign, I wanted to enable my young learners to experience this space in a more self-directed way. That is to say, I want to enable my young learners to decide how the learning space will help them when completing their assignments.

Being able to relax enough that they can focus on a new method of learning through VR headsets, was one goal of my redesign. I also intend for the learner to feel motivated to create their own small areas for learning from day to day. Currently, my young learners feel a need to rearrange their tables and chairs after recess. They want to connect the desks in one continuous line, and they want to have the ability to discuss what they are doing on their Chromebook with one another. I intend to encourage them to be makers of their own space and to release them from the feeling of being locked into a furniture arrangement that feels restrictive to them. In redesigning my teaching and learning space, I took into consideration the following questions,

  • Is this the typical arrangement for the learning space?
  • Is the learning process affected by the lighting, furniture, and colors?
  • Is there room for failure?

In this view, the new design puts technology in the hands of the learner by enabling the educator to use monitors, Chromebook, and other computer peripherals, to promote exploration and conversation on academic topics. Then allowing learners flexibility to discover areas of interest on the internet. I would monitor progress and send URL’s out to the students through my connections to their technology from my desk. This would remove the need to centralize attention on me and allow the learners to be more creative and interactive.

require an area that is unobstructed so that they can practice safe habits when working with technology and other learning materials. There isn’t a great deal of space in my classroom and there are many requirements for educators to display the current lesson and past lessons as well. With this, my teaching and learning space will always have a familiar set-up. However, I am working continuously to make the best use of the area we have. In the photo above, there are things to consider when determining how much space is needed for the various types of teaching and learning that will occur in my classroom. One thing to consider is if there will be enough space for work at the desk, work from the seated position on the carpet, and standing room for taking brain breaks. I wondered what effect this floor plan was having on the learners. I soon realized that they had challenges to overcome when the time came for individualized work or independent work-time. One way I thought to overcome this was by using the following redesign.

My young learners are kindergarteners, and they require room to move around. They also require an area that is unobstructed so that they can practice safe habits when working with technology and other learning materials. There isn’t a great deal of space in my classroom and there are many requirements for educators to display the current lesson and past lessons as well. With this, my teaching and learning space will always have a familiar set-up. However, I am working continuously to make the best use of the area we have.

There are only a few things that I have autonomy over when it comes to my room setup. The color selection is my choice and to a certain degree, the furniture. I have no control over the lighting that is a part of the construction of the room. Although, I could add some items that would promote ambient lighting if I wanted to create a different effect. A good example of this would be window treatments to amplify or diffuse the nature light. Some educators have even added LED lights for accents in certain areas of their room.

References

Anj. (2023, December 10). ReDesigning educational learning spaces [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/wRehnhZ6wpA?si=hJ0mh-vdKd0Vtr5b