Most students spend an average of 14,000 hours in the classroom during their K-12 years. As a result, the learning environment is powerful in impacting relationships among students and with their teachers. Until recently, most of us were using an age-old model, with teaching’s emphasis on standardization designed to support that model.
To break out of this mold, our district decided to pilot the Inspired Classroom project during the fall of 2016. Using an infusion of technology, high-impact classroom furniture, and teachers’ creativity, this initiative helps districts create learning spaces that look, feel, and operate differently than traditional models and instead support our current Google age!
Ready, set, go!
With a donation from the Franklin I Fickett Foundation, we kicked off the initiative by meeting with pilot participants to share ideas and lesson plans that would effectively leverage the new furniture and technology. The furniture was installed in October 2016, and from November through February 2017, we held two more meetings to share ideas, needs, and experiences. Technology training took place during December.
Next page: How the district moved away from sit-and-get learning
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