High School Creative Learning Environment

Mr. Rodal decided that over Christmas break he was going to remove 19 desks.  Not all the desks, just some of them.  Group, collaborative work happens every day in his classroom.  The desks were taking up a great deal of space and required constant arranging and rearranging.

He fixed this.

He removed 19 desks from his classroom.

We are documenting his classroom experiences with candid responses from both students and teachers.  Let's hear from the teacher, first!

Video Link


Impact On Students:
Creativity:  Students are able to create their own learning spaces.  They are not confined to a desk.  They must also decide how to utilize the large white boards that are now in the room.
Collaboration: Removing INDIVIDUAL desks has eliminated INDIVIDUAL borders.  Gathering in learning groups is efficient.

More to follow...

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Chromebook First Day With Students Set Up

Mrs. Schmidt is in her second year of implementing Chromebooks on a "as needed basis".  That means, she has Chromebooks present in her classroom whenever she needs them.  More importantly, whenever the students need them.

View how she efficiently guided her students to log in for the first time and set up their web browsing experience.

Seamless!

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Classroom Spaces Mr. Mihalski

Yesterday, I helped Mr. Mihaski, high school mathematics teacher, created a slightly different classroom space.  He is allowing students to be the resource for discussion of problems in his class.  To facilitate this, he created a "station" in the classroom that has a document camera.  Students will be asked to explain their work while students add constructive conversation to the class. Mr. Mihalski will focus on questioning of the student as to why they completed a step in a math problem.  This will also place the emphasis on explanation by the student which will help with Common Core skills.

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