Future-ready classroom – The HEF Learning Lab [Nov 1, 2017]

The ‘HEF Learning Lab’ transforms classroom dynamics.

Project title:
Creating Inspiring Learning Spaces for HHS Students

Sponsor educator:
Colleen Worrell

Grant amount:
$17,200

The birth of a grant

“Our students are not working in the ‘inspiring learning spaces’ that the Department of Education’s Future Ready Classrooms movement is advocating in order to ‘ignite, illuminate and inspire powerful ideas, boundless imagination, profound inquiry and deep understanding’.”

This was the message from Colleen Worrell, an educator and an ed-tech enthusiast who recognized the need for bringing technology into classrooms in order to create a more engaging and productive classroom environment. That was how the grant ‘
Learning Lab: Creating Inspiring Learning Spaces for HHS Students.’
was born and was entitled in 2015.

HHS Students reflect upon their new learning experience

“The tables and chairs made it really easy to move around the room and ask other people for help on a problem. It’s a good, chill learning environment and I don’t feel as stressed out about math as I usually would in a typical math room.”

“The classroom makes me excited to come to class and the aesthetic calms me and primes me to learn.”

“This semester, math is one of my favorite classes and I have done better since. The bright colors in the room keep me awake and alert, and I enjoy learning in this classroom.”

The transformation

Jaime Hall later took over this grant after Colleen Worrell left the district. The pilot began a few months into the school year in December 2015. The educators Jaime Hall and Lorelle Govoni immediately experienced the positive impact of this transformed space.

“It completely changed the ‘vibe’ of the classroom. I can no longer imagine teaching without this flexible, vibrant, space.”

– Jaime Hall

Jaime Hall describes how she had to rethink and evolve her teaching methods in order to create more collaboration and let her students run with their learning. The new learning space also motivated her to take more classes on how to better integrate technology with the learning space. She signed up to become a member of the first ed-tech teacher-leader cohort.

“In this new space, the student-teacher dynamics are transformed. Blended learning is more inviting and encourages students to interact more. Students work in groups where there is a great deal of math discourse.”

– Lorelle Govoni

Lorelle Govoni also expressed a similar sentiment about having to change the way she taught in class. She describes how traditional classrooms with rows of desks are limiting and do not lend themselves to free discourse. In a space like this, students are more actively engaged, very comfortable in their space and collaborate extremely well.

The students and the teacher are able to move around the room without barriers. Students are free to work at the white boards, roll over to a peer and work on problems together, or be comfortable on the couch learning with peers.

“There is no traditional front of the room. The model lends itself to the room being one learning space.”

– Lorelle Govoni

What’s beyond the incubation?

“We all know that technology can change the way students learn. Students are more responsible for their learning and are skilled at using a variety of learning approaches well.”

– Lorelle Govoni

Technology impacts the way children can learn. It is evident from feedback on the pilot program what kind of impact this kind of new classroom environment might have on the larger school community. The educators

seem convinced that the future of learning in classrooms should be student-driven. Their vision for future classrooms is that it helps transform students into self-driven and motivated individuals.