I Was Wrong OR Proof that he doesn't know what he's doing (Volume One)

My class room is an experiment. Personally, I don't think it's a particularly innovative one but I suppose, in today's educational climate, it is a little bit out there. All I've tried to do is compress as many modern ideas as possible into a single philosophy.


Not sure that's what everyone wanted me to do with their ideas!


So here's what we've got: it's one huge room, at least twice as big as the average, divided into five 'zones'. Each zone represents a different style of learning/teaching but there are no 'written in stone' sections. There's a traditional style* section with group tables and a projector that can swivel between a screen and a whiteboard (no, we couldn't afford the IWB so we went old school). There's an open area with ottomen (nobody could tell me if that was the plural for an ottoman - I'd prefer ottomani because Latin rules), no tables, a huge TV and a kinect ready xBox. There's a group learning area with three huge, shield shaped, adaptable tables - and not much else - certainly no whiteboard or desk for a teacher to hide behind or near. There's a staging area where kids come in and learn their roles for the day, pick up equipment and stow away bags. And finally, there's an individual learning area with bean bags and lounge chairs and lap tables and iPads and... well, it's pretty cool the kids tell me. And each section is colour coded in some sort of deBono's hats kinda way for when we get really clever later on.


Did I say finally? There's also the Project Based Learning room attached to the side of the main class space -  it's currently a gigantic storeroom but I'm working on it! Did I mention I have no official training in this area? Time to hit the books! Can't wait to get this bit running.


Anyway, the whole space fits 50 middle school kids (51 already - yay, late enrolments) and two teachers team teaching their little socks off. I'm teaching them (the kids) four subjects** while experts come in and out to back me up. We'll be doing the cross curriculum thing as soon as humanly possible too.


We teach in waves; 15-20 minutes in each zone before rotating to the next section and resetting. So far, the kids love it but the time might be a little restrictive. Still it forces teachers to shut up and teach - and it really makes you think about your plan. I think we've cut back on teacher talk and wastage.  The problem now seems to be that the kids are getting through far more work than we can keep up with!


We use edmodo to help track some of it and to give the kids their own voice, class dojo to help with motivation and management and I'm working feverishly on a fun online test thingy that should assess where the kids are constantly - none of this two year malarkey manifested by the test that must not be named. I'll be writing about how that goes soon.


So, why was I wrong? Simple really, I got the order of the areas wrong and had the team teachers way too close to each other. Teachers love to project their oh so important voices, so we needed a bit more space to stop them from getting in front of each other. And because this room is all able making mistakes and learning from them, we've already solved the first problem. We've started talking softer and we moved the zones around to create even more space.


Now, about the other 37 problems we've created... muwahahaha (insert evil, "take that traditional teaching" laugh in your mind now, please)


Next week: The wheels fall off OR How to work with the DEC- now with pictures!***


* Kind of traditional but I cheated and made the maximum group size just 16.
** English, Maths, PDHPE and HSIE.
*** I will post room photos ASAP!