Common Core - Where School Boards need help..(Habits of Mind connection, for OST providers)

What Are School Boards Asking About Common Core?

By Learning Forward on January 28, 2013 1:10 PM

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at my local school board meeting about Common Core implementation and, in particular, the role of instructional coaches in supporting teachers to make the transition in classroom practice. Jefferson County Public Schools (Colo.) was the site of a 2010 evaluation of instructional coaching that prompted my co-authors and me to write Coaching Matters.

A full hour of the meeting had been set aside to help board members know what the Common Core standards meant for the curriculum in the district and state, as well as what steps the district was taking to implement the standards. Without a doubt, Jefferson County central office leaders have taken substantive and aggressive steps to prepare for and initiate implementation of the new standards by establishing a rich online resource of materials for teachers; engaging teachers in training; and supporting principals in leading change efforts.

Board members' questions were insightful and revealed what school board members across the 46 states adopting Common Core both worry about and take responsibility for as leaders and advocates for effective learning for educators and students.

• What is the relationship among the Common Core standards, the new assessments, and our new educator effectiveness system?
• How are principals being prepared to support teachers implement the standards?
• How are we preparing students and teachers to use technology to meet the requirements proposed in the new assessments?
• How will we make the changes we need to make in the limited time before the assessments are fully implemented? How will we accomplish so much in so little time?
• What is the role of professional learning and particularly of our instructional coaches in the implementation of Common Core?
• How do we prevent the changes from overwhelming the entire system?
• How can I be an advocate within the community? What is my role in supporting the Common Core?
• Do we have sufficient resources to support what is needed to achieve success?

What is evident in these questions is strong support for increasing standards for student learning, and commitment to ensuring that both educators and students succeed. The questions also reveal the sense of overwhelming responsibility school boards feel to exhibit sufficient leadership and take concrete steps to support teachers and principals as they implementation the Common Core standards.

District and state leaders, professional associations, and others can provide guidance and support to members of school boards in their role as leaders and advocates. School board members will need to establish clear priorities and goals for full implementation of Common Core standards in every classroom and school. They will want to monitor progress toward implementation and impact on student achievement, and to understand how the Common Core is altering classroom instruction and student learning experiences.

As ambassadors within the community, school board members will benefit from resources that will help them explain and leverage support among parents and community and business leaders. Working hand-in-hand as partners with district and school leaders, school board members are key contributors to the success of Common Core implementation.

Joellen Killion
Senior Adviser, Learning Forward

Connected Learning, Out-of-School - Experiences & Networks (MacArthur Foundation)

Research: Education Could Use More 'Connected Learning'

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/17/13

The possibilities inherent in digital learning won't in and of themselves flatten the global playing field for students, according to new research, unless we first give attention to the idea of creating "connected learning environments." These are learning environments in which everyone can participate, learning happens by doing, cultivation of interests is paramount, and everything is interconnected. What gets in the way is a down economy with a struggling labor market, a growing gap in access to educational opportunities based on how much a family is able to spend on its children for "out-of-school enrichment activities," and the impact that a rapidly evolving and highly commercialized media separated from academic purpose is having on young people.

A group of American and British researchers have put together a reportthat advocates for a design for learning that is "peer supported," "interest-powered," and "academically oriented." The point is to help young people link personal interests, often pursued online, to academic and career endeavors and civic engagement with the help of friends and "caring" adults.

"Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design," published by the Connected Learning Research Network, is designed to give educators, policy makers, parents, and others a framework for rethinking how education might be molded to connect individual interests with academic and work achievement in order to help young people overcome adversity and attain the kind of recognition that can make a difference in their lives.

Among the recommendations offered by the report's authors: "Close the gap between the no-frills learning that too often happens in-school and the interactive, hands-on learning that usually takes place out of school. Take advantage of the Internet's ability to help youth develop knowledge, expertise, skills and important new literacies. [And] use digital technology to combat the increasing reality of the haves and have-nots in education."

The stakes are high, suggested Mimi Ito, chair of the Research Network and a professor in residence at the University of California, Irvine. "Without a proactive educational reform agenda that begins with questions of equity, leverages both in-school and out-of-school learning, and embraces the opportunities new media offers for learning, we risk a growth in educational alienation among our most vulnerable populations."

Research: Education Could Use More 'Connected Learning'

• 01/17/13

Although new media offers "tremendous potential" for advancing learning, she added, "Right now, it's only the most activated and well-supported learners who are using connected learning to boost their learning and opportunity."

What does connected learning look like? As an example, the report offers the story of "Clarissa," a 17-year-old who grew up in a "working class" suburb of San Francisco. Along with a couple of friends, she was heavily involved in an online role playing Web site, Faraway Lands, where she spent a lot of time developing lengthy written descriptions of characters, including their history and location. "It's something I can do in my spare time, be creative and write and not have to be graded," because, "you know how in school you're creative, but you're doing it for a grade so it doesn't really count?" Clarissa told her researcher. Encouraged by peers on the site, the teenager converted some of the results of her writing into a screenplay for a school assignment and then used samples from her work as part of college applications. She ended up being accepted to two private colleges, one in Boston and the other in Orange, CA.

Other examples profile:

• A self-employed Web comics artist who found his passion online and taught himself how to create his own comics through a variety of online tutorials, reporting that he learned "few of his current skills in the formal educational context";
• A Manhattan public school that dedicates two weeks at the end of each trimester to putting student teams in charge of learning activities, which may include building Rube Goldberg machines, writing and performing short plays, putting on outdoor games, and building sculptures from recycled materials; and
• A sixth grade fan of online video game Minecraft, who was encouraged by teachers to help set up a school Minecraft club and do creative writing in class about it.

In most of the profiles, the young people have cobbled together a learning environment that combines their online interests with peer feedback and academic activities.

The report's authors state that the design of connected learning environments follows three principles: They're production-centered with access to digital tools for producing and creating content in a myriad of ways; they have a "shared purpose," that brings together people of all ages and cultures around "common goals and interests"; and they're "openly networked," using online platforms and digital tools to make learning resources available to everybody.

"Connected learning is about progress and it's about something everyone in education agrees is urgent and important--the unprecedented opportunity we're seeing to rethink an approach to education where all young people can realize their learning potential and their right to thrive," said Connie Yowell, director of education at the MacArthur Foundation, which supports the Research Network. "In today's networked world that is so rich in social connection, we have been handed the ability to suddenly be able to make hands-on, real-world, inquiry-based learning far more accessible. It's not a question of how we can achieve this--we have that in our sights now--it's a question of will."

Partnership with Community Design Center - Involving Students in Community Design - Field Trip!

http://www.communitydc.org/

On STEM, Parent/Community Involvement & the Maker Movement

Q&A with Generation YES President Sylvia Martinez on STEM and ways for parents to be involved

Posted: 14 Jan 2013 07:46 AM PST

Check this out! I’m interviewed in the current issue of Washington Exec. Here’s the interview.

Sylvia Martinez is President of Generation YES. Prior to joining this non-profit, she was VP of Development at Encore Software, a publisher of game and educational software on PC, Internet, and console platforms. For seven years, she was also the executive producer at Davidson & Associates/Knowledge Adventure, an educational software developer.

Martinez has an M.A. in Educational Technology from Pepperdine University, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

WashingtonExec got the chance to speak with Martinez about her role at Generation Yes, how to get involved, the future STEM holds, and more.

WashingtonExec: What is your background and how did you get involved in STEM?

Sylvia Martinez: I have an electrical engineering degree and worked in aerospace on the GPS satellite navigation system development right out of college. After I had children, I became interested in using computers in education. I got a masters in education, then worked as an executive producer for Davidson & Associates, of MathBlaster software fame and other software and console game publishers.

WashingtonExec: Please describe your day to day responsibilities at Generation Yes.

Sylvia Martinez: Generation YES is a non-profit with a mission to empower young people to make a difference by using technology in education. We have curriculum and online tools that help teachers and students collaborate to use technology in the classroom. As president, I speak, write, and evangelize about our mission. It encompasses product development, PR, marketing, development, grant writing, and working with educators all across the US.

WashingtonExec: The U.S. is not turning out the engineering students that we need to in order to compete as an innovative country. Why is this issue so important to you?

Sylvia Martinez: For me personally, becoming an engineer was the intellectual turning point in my life. I was always good at math and science in school, but learning to solve real problems that could make the world a better place meant that I could make a difference. I want everyone to have that feeling.


Children need to have those powerful experiences at all ages, to prove to themselves that their ideas are valuable and can turn into positive action. Those experiences are key to innovation.

WashingtonExec: What’s your view to get more parents involved in STEM?

Sylvia Martinez: I think schools need to be more open to the whole community, not only parents. We need children and parents to see that science is around them everyday. STEM isn’t worksheet problems or vocabulary words.

WashingtonExec: What are some simple ways to get their kids more involved in STEM at an early age?

Sylvia Martinez: Parents can seek out experiences where their kids get to make and do things. The Maker movement has exploded recently. Get a copy of Geek Dad or Geek Mom and make something with your kids–anything from cooking and sewing to building a fort. Sometimes moms do not realize that the crafts they do have terrific STEM connections. The act of making something reinforces learning, and also teaches habits of persistence, willingness to “have a go”, and mindfulness. Parents should not accept schools where science and math only happen on paper and are only measured with multiple-choice tests.

WashingtonExec: What’s the best STEM success case study/project that you have been personally involved in?

Sylvia Martinez: For the past 5 years I’ve been on the faculty of Constructing Modern Knowledge, a summer institute for teachers. Every year we bring amazing resources like Legos, robotics, wearable computers, and more for teachers to play with and learn to use. Many teachers are a bit unsure of themselves as scientists and it’s crucial that they have experiences just like ones that are good for kids. Every year, teachers amaze themselves with the projects they do in a few short days. Our graduates report this changes the way they teach and that to me is a huge success.

WashingtonExec: What’s the future of STEM? How can other like-minded people get involved?

Sylvia Martinez: I am hopeful that students will get more hands on, experiential learning, with modern materials and more engaging projects. I also hope that we can empower younger students to experiment with the digital world. So much is possible these days with very inexpensive microcomputers, 3D printing, robots, and other fascinating technology.

However, I worry that the US is too focused on test scores and simple standardized assessment. The future will be about who can be creative and innovative, not who gets the best test scores.


People need to speak out about what’s important for education. We need all kids to have access to engaging, experiential learning opportunities, not just test prep.

WashingtonExec: What blogs/resources are useful to check out?

Sylvia Martinez: I post a lot of resources on our Generation YES blog http://blog.genyes.org and there is more information about the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute athttp://www.constructingmodernknowledge.com. Our website http://www.genyes.org has many free resources such as how to start a student-run “Genius Bar” at your school. We hope that people take these ideas and work with students to make them happen. It’s only by working collaboratively with young people that education will improve and move forward.

Linking Community Organizations to Schools (Ready by 21)

Gallup Poll Takes Schools Beyond Academics

Northern Kentucky – Like a lot of school superintendents, Kathy Burkhardt knows that despite her district’s efforts to help struggling students, “We have been treating the symptoms, such as test scores and grade point averages, but not the causes – such as feeling hopeless about the future, not feeling engaged or not having a strong support system in place to help them reach their goals.”

INFORMATION UPDATE

January 10, 2013

 

Today, the Erlanger-Elsmere Independent School District treats causes by using data to better understand the challenges and opportunities among its students. That data includes findings from a special version of the Gallup Student Poll, provided to 83 schools across Northern Kentucky as part of Ready by 21.

The Ready by 21 National Partnership and Gallup selected Northern Kentucky as the pilot site for an enhanced Gallup Student Poll, which asks students about their hope, engagement and well-being. While the standard student poll provides school districts with aggregated data reports by school and grade, this enhanced poll connects a composite “Ready for the Future” index to individual student identifiers.  

“The Gallup Student Poll data allows us to know more than just the academic pieces in a student’s life,” Burkhardt says.

Over the past two years, 83 Northern Kentucky schools have administered the poll to more than 25,000 students in grades five through 12. Schools combined the Ready for the Future scores with academic and other data to identify the need for individual student interventions and school-wide initiatives. The Northern Kentucky Education Council served as the lead agency for coordination and administration of the two-year pilot, with support from the United Way of Greater Cincinnati and Vision 2015.

Student interventions include goal-setting, mentoring, counseling and service-learning opportunities. At the school level, administrators are using the Gallup data to align school and community-based programs such as tutoring, mentoring, truancy diversion, service-learning and afterschool programs to address the needs of their students.

For example: The Erlanger-Elsmere district saw that it needed to nurture and engage middle schoolers after school. “The time they spend outside of school is just as important to their development as the time spent during school," Burkhardt says.

The district worked with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati to launch an afterschool program that offers health and fitness activities, art, service-learning projects, games, computer classes and academic help. It also worked with the nonprofit Brighton Center to set up an After-School Youth Leadership Development program, which provides structured opportunities for youth to build-decision making skills, life skills and leadership skills.

“You really have to know your students to know the obstacles they are facing,” Burkhardt says. “We have to give them the support and strength they need to climb over these obstacles. It takes more time, but it’s worth it.”

---

Enhanced data from the Gallup Student Poll is now part of the Forum’s Ready Youth catalyst package, which provides tools and technical assistance to collect and analyze data about youth. Leaders use the findings to carry out community conversations that drive solutions. Find out more here.

Digital Learning Day (Afterschool/Community Program Examples & a TOOLKIT!)

Students Engage Beyond the School Day in Afterschool and Expanded Learning Programs Before-school, afterschool, and summer programs are a natural fit with digital learning and often use digital media and technology in ways that complement the school day. For at-risk students in particular, these informal environments provide important opportunities to extend learning, increase access to technology, and foster digital literacy skills. Not only does digital learning have the power to expand learning beyond the traditional school day, it also increases equity and access; improves effectiveness and productivity of teachers and administrators; provides student-centered learning to ensure college and career readiness; and recognizes teachers as education designers. Check out the Expanded Learning Toolkit to learn more. Examples of Expanded Learning Programs Youth Speak Out About Community Concerns Through Video Wide Angle Youth Media’s Baltimore Speaks Out! (BSO) program in Maryland serves communities faced with high rates of juvenile arrests, teen births, and chronic absences among middle school students. Funding has been severely cut for neighborhood recreation centers, leaving many youth without productive alternatives for out-of-school time. BSO, in partnership with the Enoch Pratt Free Library, provides youth ages ten to fifteen with media education in their own communities. The afterschool program focuses on video production, critical thinking, public speaking, teambuilding, and youth development skills. Young people create their own videos about youth and community concerns. BSO promotes twenty-first-century learning, actively engages young people in issues impacting their communities, and builds media literacy skills. Students engage in critical discussions, conduct research, interview community members or relevant stakeholders, and participate in reflective writing exercises. Past projects focused on school bullying, gang activity, pollution, and police surveillance. Students report that they feel safe at BSO and that they have an opportunity to engage in open discussions with their peers and adults that they may not normally have access to. Empowerment through Video Journalism Latinitas hosts thirty afterschool enrichment programs for middle school girls throughout Texas and New Mexico, including media enrichment programs where girls learn how to build confidence as they develop multimedia skills through lessons on writing, photography, filmmaking, audio production, graphic design, desktop publishing, and web design. Youth enrolled in the Latinitas program publish LatinitasMagazine.org, a digital youth empowerment magazine by and for girls. By introducing middle school–aged Latinas to all facets of journalism and digital multimedia program, Latinitasmagazine’s outreach programs promote new voices in media, as well as cultural pride and the relevancy of young Latinas’ opinions and experiences. Results from studies conducted by the program show increases in self-esteem, attachment to school, and self-efficacy, as well as decreases in self-harming behaviors among participating students.

For More Information, visit our website at digitallearningday.org or our social media sites               ©Copyright 2012. Alliance for Excellent Education

Race to the Top - Implementation Efforts FOCUS on Personalized Learning (Submitted by Jim Ross for MI STEM Partnership)

Published Online: January 4, 2013

District Race to Top Winners Turn to Implementation

By Michele McNeil

The first federal Race to the Top competition that reaches down to the local level leaves most large, urban districts out of the winners’ circle in favor of charter schools, midsize systems, and two large consortia of school districts—all of which must now turn to implementing proposals that collectively have won them $400 million.

The 16 winners, announced last month by the U.S. Department of Education, beat out more than 350 other applicants and include three charter school organizations, traditional districts such as Carson City, Nev., and Guilford County, N.C., and a group of 22 rural districts from Kentucky.

Florida’s Miami-Dade County school system is the biggest urban district on the list. It won the coveted Broad Prize last year.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the winners’ circle includes “a really good mix” of districts that are already education reform leaders and districts that have not received as much attention.

“We know that school districts have been hungry to drive reform at the local level,” Mr. Duncan said in a Dec. 11 call with reporters.

More than 300 outside peer reviewers helped score the applications. A single point was all that separated the applicant that ranked 16th—the Lindsay Unified School District, in California—and the two that tied for 17th place and were not funded, which were the Mapleton public schools in Colorado and the Jefferson City schools in Missouri. Large districts such as New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia scored far outside the winners’ circle.

SPREADING THE CASH

This latest version of the well-known Race to the Top brand, which has become the Obama administration’s main lever for education change, is meant to spark improvements at the district level, particularly in the area of personalized learning. The contest was also meant to spread Race to the Top money around in states that had not won before—and among districts in rural America.

Indeed, 11 of the 16 districts or groups of districts are in states that did not win the original 12 Race to the Top grants for states in 2010.

Few of the winners, however, serve mostly rural students, with the largest concentration in the Kentucky cooperative that won.

“I think the big story is that the usual suspects didn’t win,” said Andy Smarick, a partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit consulting firm in Washington. “It just shows the education reform community is probably myopically focused on a small number of districts and less cognizant of big, important things happening elsewhere.”

Still, he said, smaller districts—which may have smaller central office staffs and may not be as accustomed to managing large, federal, high-profile grants—may struggle more with implementation, he said.

“I think this is going to be the biggest issue,” he said. “It’s not only about hiring enough people but the right people.”

IMPLEMENTATION NEXT

With award letters in hand, the districts now turn to implementation.

Within the next two months, districts must draft “scopes of work,” which serve as a contract of sorts between the department and each winner and which establish timelines, key deliverables, and detailed budgets for the four-year grant period. The scopes of work are critically important, as they are how the department will hold districts accountable for grant implementation.

For the KIPP program in the District of Columbia, one of the charter school winners, a $10 million grant will expand its Capital Teacher Residency program by training 415 new teachers over the next four years.

At 350,000 students, the largest district to win was Miami-Dade, which will focus its $30 million on expanding a math initiative designed to change how the subject is taught in middle schools. The money will pay for, among other things, two teachers in every middle school math classroom.

In Carson City, Nev., the $10 million award comes as the district is facing a $5.5 million cut for its fiscal 2014 budget—and at a time when it’s seeing success with a “learner-centered model” that it has started with a federal School Improvement Grant at one low-performing middle school. The grant will support two high schools and two middle schools with a combined enrollment of about 4,200 students.

“We would like to see more opportunities for our secondary schools to experience change,” said Richard Stokes, the superintendent of the 7,000-student district. “This is a huge blessing for us. We believe this grant will allow us to continue making academic progress.”

The gist of Carson City’s learner-centered model is this: Rather than presenting a one-size-fits-all academic curriculum, teachers will seek to tailor lessons to the needs of students by using assessments along the way to gauge students’ mastery, and their problem spots.

The district will use its grant to continue to build its data system, hire highly skilled veteran teachers as “implementation specialists” in the participating schools, support family engagement programs so parents are involved in the work, and provide continued coaching to administrators.

LARGE RURAL WINNER

The largest rural winner in the competition is the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative, a group of 22 districts from across rural Kentucky that educate 59,000 students.

The group’s winning application, worth $40 million, has four key components: making students more responsible for their own educational success, helping teachers gear their instruction to competency-based learning, creating more personalized learning, and working with preschools to improve kindergarten readiness.

RELATED BLOG

Visit this blog.

“These grant dollars allow us to have a laser-like focus on college and career readiness through competency-based learning,” said George Wilson, the executive director of the Green River co-op, in Bowling Green, Ky. “There have certainly been pieces that we’ve tried, and very successfully. This lets us do some new things.”

In practice, that means spending the winnings on a number of efforts. They include career counselors in each of the 23 participating high schools, and training and materials for preschool and day care teachers.

There also will be intensive professional development for educators so they teach not based on seat time or grade level, but based on what students have already mastered and what they’re ready to learn next.

“This is not going to happen with the flip of a switch,” Mr. Wilson said. “This is a fundamental change in the way we approach K-12 learning.”

(Goal #3: Improve Teacher Preparation and Expand Professional Development (Submitted by Jim Ross for MI STEM Partnership)

Alliance for Excellent Education (Video: Perspectives on the Future of Teacher Preparation in the Digital Age)
http://media.all4ed.org/webinar-dec-11-2012

"Standing Together for Strong Community Schools" - Newly formed Parent Group in TN (Diane Ravitch)

New Tennessee Parent Group Stands Up for Public Schools

by dianerav

A group of parents in Tennessee has formed to support public education and local control. Most of them are public school moms. Their group is “Standing Together for Strong Community Schools.” They oppose vouchers, and they oppose the governor’s plan to create a commission to impose charters on local communities, whether the locals want them or not.

Their inspiration is Amy Frogge, a Nashville parent who was elected to the Metro Nashville school board despite being outspent 5-1. Amy Frogge is a member of our honor roll because she has started a parent movement to defend public education against privatization and profiteers. Amy took a strong stand against the Great Hearts Academy of Arizona, which wants to open a charter school in a mostly white and affluent neighborhood of Nashville. Remember how charters were supposed to “save minority children from failing schools” and “close the achievement gap.” That is not Great Hearts’ plan, and the Metro Nashville board voted to deny the charter. It voted not once, but four times to deny the charter. To punish the school board, State Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman withheld $3.4 million in state funding that the state owed to the children of Nashville.

And here is the odd part of the Nashville story. Commissioner Huffman told the Metro Nashville school board that the $3.4 million was to be withheld only from public schools, not from charter schools. Remember a few days ago, we discussed here the question of whether charter schools are public schools? Well, apparently, Commissioner Huffman thinks that charter schools are NOT public schools. Only the children who attend public schools in Nashville will be penalized by his decision, not those in charter schools.

So that question is settled. In the eyes of Commissioner Huffman (who previously served as public relations director of Teach for America), charter schools are not public schools. Only the children in public schools are to be affected–punished—by his decision.

And now you know why the parents in Tennessee have created a parent group to fight for public education. Because Commissioner Huffman and Governor Haslam and the far-right members of the Legislature want to privatize public education in Tennessee. The parents want to support their community schools. They want one Nashville.

Groups like “Strong Community Schools” in Tennessee are springing up in states, cities and school districts across the nation. In Texas, there is a moms’ group known as “Moms Against Drunk Testing,” but its real name is Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment. In Ohio, there is a new group called “Strong Schools, Strong Communities.” A civic group in Indiana called Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Educationgot started last year and was key in the campaign to beat corporate reform state superintendent Tony Bennett.
None of these groups is funded by the big foundations or the big corporations that support ALEC or the Wall Street hedge fund managers that support Democrats for Education Reform or Stand for Children.

They are grassroots citizens who care about their public schools. There will be many more such groups as the public awakens to the privatization juggernaut that is aimed at our public schools.

Student-Centered Design Example - In Practice

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Towards the Second Build: Consultation and conversations

http://openlearningspaces.blogspot.com/2012/12/towards-second-build-consultation-and.html?showComment=1357224420764#c5305788718051364437

Our consultation process and living our norm of ‘Value the Voices’ has continued with our year 2, 3 and 4 students. A team of teachers in Learning Hub Two worked alongside children in a number of different ways. Some students focused on existing spaces and how they felt about them, others on potential new spaces and what they would like to see. Data was gathered using drawings, photographs, models and conversations.

How do you sincerely listen to a large group of students and for it not to become token consultation? Working with a group of close to seventy students produces a staggering mass of data- some great learning for us around student voice and how to get the most from it, and personally as well, just about to launch into a research project.

The important thing seemed to us to extract key themes that were raised by a number of children, whilst still hanging onto the individuality and creativity that individuals brought along. So a number of students were interviewed afterwards either individually or in small groups. In general these interviews were carried out with children who contributed elements that in essence added something new, without being unrealistic (more about this soon!).

Existing spaces

Initial learning was done with Hub Two students gathering data about like and dislikes in the existing spaces. Armed with cameras, small groups of children took a series of photos of places they liked and disliked around our hub, glued these to a plan, added ‘Like’ or “Dislike’ symbols, and were then invited to comment and justify their decisions. In general students focused on the positive aspects of their spaces and were quite pragmatic about furniture, layout and facilities such as sinks, bathrooms and Comments often referred to elements within the space such as computers or furniture rather than the space itself.

One group commented that:

I like it because the table is mobile (picture of the back of the X4 teaching station).

I like this space because I can concentrate when I’m learning (picture of beanbags in the breakout room).

I like this space because it’s quiet most of the time (picture of the shield table at the end of the hub).

I like this space because it can shut its doors and it will be quiet (picture of breakout room).

I like this space because I can get supplies from here, that are organized in tote-trays (picture of tote-trays).

I don’t like this place because it is not tidy (book shelves)

Another group commented that:

I like this because it tells you what you are doing (picture of Literacy Tumble on the wall).

I like this because it tells you what stage you are in (picture of Reading progressions on the wall).

I like this because it tells the teacher who’s here (picture of guardian group roll).

I like seeing our pictures (picture of wall mounted TV).

I like this because it shows our clay and you can look at it (picture of clay artwork display on table).

Other common features that children commented on and liked were:

·      Coloured ‘welcome couch’

·      Large space where the entire hub could meet

·      That there was lots of space- easy to find somewhere to learn

·      Spaces behind furniture where children could sit

·      Wall mounted TV

·      Corners where they could sit and learn

·      Coloured glass

Possible Spaces

Students were invited to put together designs for possible hubs. These were completed either individually or collaboratively. Some chose to draw and others built possible spaces using construction materials. Both of these were used as a basis for conversation, much of which was captured on video. A number of students participated in collecting video data, where they explained in greater detail what was involved in their design. They were also able to respond to questions about why they had included certain elements and what their thinking was.

Interestingly the learning spaces that children drew were mainly rectangular and often with small rooms coming off the main area. Children have really adopted the concept of working alongside teachers in a more central space and then moving out to learn more independently. Children often drew multiple small rooms as components of the larger space, often with designated purposes. One students design for example includes a larger space and then a number of smaller spaces to be used for: science, private learning and music. Another’s included a designated maths room, a reading space and a teacher’s room. Did teachers need their own room we asked “they might need their own space but would have to keep it tidy!” came the response.

There was a strong sense of purposeful spaces resonating with this group of children, for example science or specific facilities for cooking. When asked if this space would be exclusively for the use by their learning hub children commented that it would be ok for another hub to use the space too, and for them to have an alternatively purposed shared area.

The pragmatism continues into bathrooms. A number of children drew what they described as ‘private toilets’ accessible only by students in that particular hub. When questioned further about these they described wanting the toilets close so that ‘if I got really into my learning and was busting to go to the toilet, I could get there quickly’. In general the point was that proximity not exclusivity was the key. The toilets would be ok outside, as long as they were close (It is possible that children considered that the new hubs would have to utilise existing toilets).

Children commented on the small breakout rooms being quiet places where they could concentrate. They were able to close the doors and work undisturbed. This raises the question of how many breakout spaces a hub might need and how many need to be closeable.

Sinks and wet space areas were a common theme in the drawings, frequently appearing in the corners or ends of the hub. It was felt that the wet space certainly needed to be larger than existing lino areas and positioned away from the main thoroughfare.

A number of children commented on the desirability for more that one level within the space, with either a drop down or a rise up. One commented on the ‘Staircase to nowhere’ idea of a set of stairs with a small landing on them, one on a mezzanine level, another on a sunken area.

Bag storage was initially an issue at school and was solved with the aid of a project involving a team of students and a design expert. Some children commented that it would be better to have the bags indoors, out of the wind and rain.

Emerging Themes: The main themes to emerge from Hub Two students were:

·      A space large enough for the entire hub to meet.

·      Toilets in close proximity

·      Internal bag storage

·      Sinks and wet spaces away from the centre of the room

·      Inclusion of ‘quiet spaces’

·      Purposeful spaces that could be shared with other hubs

·      More than one level

·      Corners and spaces behind furniture- idea of ‘secret spaces’

The consultation continues…