Flexible Classrooms: Providing the Learning Environment That Kids Need (Transcript)

Pam: The transformation of space has completely elevated student engagement.

How do we provide the environments that kids need? Sometimes to be in their caves and be private. Sometimes to be at the watering hole, and working in small collaborative groups. And sometimes in a cross-pollination where they’re able to really share their work and work with each other.

Katie: My kids love to be under things, behind things, around things. We have five-gallon buckets in my room that we sit on. We sit on crate seating that I made in my backyard out of a crate and some plywood and some foam. And I also just threw a lot of pillows on the floor.

Offspring is like a baby, like a baby squirrel. Is that something that might be important to your research? It might be important.

From Day 1, I’ve said, “You may sit anywhere you like as long as you’re safe in our classroom.”

Teacher: That’s working out really well. Keep on going.

Becky: We’re really looking at how do we support kids working collaboratively? And we can’t do it if we’re isolated in rows, and every kid’s an island.

Lisa: The first thing that has to happen is the teacher has to have a vision for their room, and a willingness to say, “I’m going to throw out some of this stuff. I don’t need this traditional schooling equipment.”

Becky: When you walk into a room that we have done, you’ll see tables. You don’t see individual student workspaces. In some classrooms, you’ll see at least three kinds of seating. You’ll see flexible bookshelves that are mobile that can be moved, so that the room can be totally opened up, or little nooks and crannies can be created.

Teacher: What do you know about soil, Lilly?

Becky: So that everybody can see everybody, and we can participate as a community.

Student: It helps plants grow.

Teacher: Good!

Becky: How can you do it on a dime? What we found is teachers are really hitting the streets the week that college kids leave town, and seeing what they can buy for their classroom.

Cheryl: This is what I’d like you to accomplish today.

The beginning of the year is a good time to ask, “If any of you have a couch or a chair that you have just sitting around, the kids would like to read on it, and it could be a Reading Corner.” And that’s how I started. And then it grew and grew, because it was so successful.

Student: Different nooks.

Teacher: And you’re good at finding facts and she’s good at typing.

Student: Yeah.

Cheryl: When the students walk in the room, I’ll say, “Sit where you work the best.

Justin: When I like get down into a couch and more comfortable, it’s almost like it’s a bit distracting, like it’s not exactly the environment I want to be working in. But for the other people, clearly they have their optimum working environments.

Krishan: Well, Miss Harris lets us like choose. And also since she lets us choose, we ultimately choose what’s best for us. We work better together and individually.

Katie: I’ve seen the kids not only be a lot more engaged, but they seem happier, they seem more likely to engage in conversation.

Cheryl: Because the space in this room has evolved throughout the year, the students work has improved immensely. Their grades have improved. Just the conversations that they have with each other are so invigorating to hear.

Schools That Work

Albemarle County Public Schools