Conan the Librarian!

On our trip we saw a so-called 'library' the rewrites what a library is. I'm very much continuing the theme of my recent blog posts on cliché and mental baggage that comes with definitions of learning spaces. Read on to see a series of photographs and simple comments about this radical reframing of librariness.

Cues on 'what we're on about here'

In my last post I asked about the atmosphere at your school. What's the 'vibe'? When you walk onto a school's grounds you get a very quick feel for it. Is it tense? Chaotic? Settled? Manic? Aggressive?



I think there are cues that communicate to students, staff and visitors alike 'what we're on about here.' At my school we've had teams of staff and student leaders standing at the entrances greeting students as they enter the school. You can't underestimate the impact of this on the atmosphere of the school. Every student begins the day with a greeting, a smile and eye contact from a team of peers. It is humanising.



We are also working toward redefining what school breaks are about. Are recess and lunch seen as a desperately needed refuges from the tedium of the day? Perhaps a chance to vent the frustration of the institutionalised school experience? Well, in the first place hopefully school is energising and inspiring students. So why not continue this atmosphere at lunch? (Another question is why even have defined break times? Could students not take a break when they get tired?)



So we're trying to continue the creativity during break times, establishing a plethora of activities for students - sports competitions and events, a music corner with instruments and a PA for jamming, a regular program of student-run entertainment events in the plaza, chess, and many other activities.



Yesterday I visited the Universeum in Sweden - http://www.universeum.se/index.php?lang=en a large maze-like building containing everything from a massive rainforest (populated with monkeys!) to water experiments, and countless experiments and experiential learning activities covering physics, mathematics, astronomy, psychology, linguistics and so on.

What if your school were populated with similar activities? The needn't be high-tech or expensive to set up. We noticed there were mathematical challenges around the Universeum consisting of mystery sets of symbols representing patterns that needed to be reverse engineered.



If 30 or 40 such activities were put together they could be rotated around the school. A proportion would be retired at any given time, and would drop in and out of circulation from year to year. A steady injection of new activities, displays and challenges could appear.



What we noticed at the Universeum, without surprise, is that all the young people were utterly immersed in the activities. They were in high energy states, utterly focused.



Peppered around a school grounds, such activities would act as powerful cues for orientating students and staff with a sense of 'what we're on about here.' These cues have a powerful affect over a long period of time. They act as a wind that blows the school culture in a direction, defining "Who are we and where are we going?"



I think they need constant renewal. The routine of school, like any organisation, tends toward low energy blandness. It is human nature. I am reflecting on ways to reinvigorate the school vibe - not a one-off project, but an ongoing drive.

Run away and join the circus.

What is the atmosphere, (or ambiance!) of your school? For many schools the quest is for order. Teachers come to value order and see it as a litmus test. Like in "Lord of the Flies", young people go feral without adults present to bring structure to their lives.

School is an institution. We have a uniform, rules, and a timetable. We have a very clear hierarchy. And, as I've discussed before, it is interesting to note who the privileged speakers are, both in class and also among the staff.

I am not criticizing school-as-institution. Hospitals are institutions, work places are institutions, and an ability to fall into disciplined line is crucial. Discipline, and pressure, and sharp leadership bring out great things in human nature.

I do not believe in Rousseau's noble savage.

But... what are we missing out on when this is our dominant model? Our measurement of success?

Can you do better than 'well-ordered'? Could we be more ambitious?

School is a community. Hospitals are communities, work places are communities. These operate best when people have a strong sense of belonging and identity, of what they have to offer, and a unifying sense of higher purpose. Whether we think of school as institution or not, they are communities.

What if the atmosphere of a school was 'festive' rather than 'ordered'?

I am thinking of school space as performance space rather than ordered space.

The circus metaphor comes to my mind. A circus is highly ordered, and disciplined, but our cliche image of the traveling circus is one of strong community, personal dedication to the community, a thirst to impress with one's best, a delight in adventure and a delight in constant change.

Think of all the baggage that comes with our image of the circus. Compare that to the baggage that comes with our image of what school is.

There is such a weight of expectation about school and the importance of order. It comes from all of us because we all went to school. Parents, teachers, politicians and children all buy into the BIG IDEA of school. It is portrayed in soap operas and Hollywood films. It is a giant social construction.

Ever want to run away and join the circus?

Research Trip to Europe: Learning Spaces

Over the next fortnight I am very fortunate to be travelling

around Europe investigating learning spaces, with the aim of bringing back

ideas for our own school.

 

We recently opened the SCIL building - http://scil.nsw.edu.au/scil-building/, 

a learning space with no walls, room for 100+ students, and no front.

 

This space will need reframing / refiguring / renewing over

the coming years. It needs to turn into something new, just

like we are constantly turning into someone new. If you stay

still, you stagnate. This is the challenge of schools. So much

baggage in our notions of what ‘schooling’ is.

 

We’re hoping to renew all our school buildings. We’re

getting rid of walls wherever we can.

 

Instead of classrooms, plazas.

 

What language or frameworks could we use to redefine our

learning spaces? I’ve already blogged at length about the classroom as a

stage.

 

Could school become a shopping centre? Students browsing for

lessons? A class as a market? A stock exchange, where the stock are ideas,

rising and falling in the student discourse while alternate perspectives are

considered? A battlefield of ideas?

 

A hospital for the disenfranchised? A playground? A museum?

A laboratory?

 

And by all means, a military academy, where the highest

possible expectations exert pressure on young people to find the best in

themselves. Don’t throw out old-school!

 

I would blabber for longer if I didn’t have to leave

in 10 minutes for the airport!

 

I’ll try to blog whenever I can get a wireless connection

and throw more thoughts together. The itinerary is intense. From Goteborg to

Nordborg, Copenhagen to Paris and London, I’ll post photos and

philosophies here, as we visit learning spaces that AREN’T schools. La

Cité des Sciences. The Creativity Centre. Orested Gymnasium. London

Science Museum...

 

Sorry I have to go now! Follow the adventure on www.twitter.com/steve_collis ,

and subscribe to my blog (see link on right hand side of the page) to receive

reflections, interviews, photos, and so on as we travel.

 

I’d love to hear your own thoughts in the comments

section, especially about the assumptions, images, and language we have about

what learning spaces even ARE!

Technology for Language Learning

My friend Andrew, (www.twitter.com/ajep) has organised a language teacher meetup that I can't attend, so I threw together a quick video message giving a very brief overview of how technology impacts the language learning happening in the High School section of our school. In the video, I show how we use the Moodle Learning Management System, blogging and wikis, and our 3D virtual world.