Edutopia - October/November 2008 - (Page 33)

which is like a courtyard off a main street—or a section of a mall. Walk through the centrum, and, instead of various products, you will see a tremendous variety of educational projects. G ra d u a t i n g t o t h e N e x t L ev e l BEYOND SCHOOL HOURS XII CONFERENCE THE WINTER INSTITUTE ® Rules of engagement Beyond the opportunities to shop till you drop, certain basic elements make malls physically and psychologically appealing: openness, light, ⇓ow, and choice. These elements have been known for centuries, expressed in the plazas, arcades, and atria of European shopping areas and the village greens of American towns. Malls have simply adapted these customer-pleasing aspects; they can work just as well when the consumers are students and the product is learning. Berkeley High School, in Berkeley, California, and Auburn High School, in Auburn, Washington, have such literally enlightened designs. In both schools, a soaring sense of possibility is symbolized by long sight lines and a liberating sense of space, plus ⇓exibility similar to that at SES. In the commercial environment, many shops are completely retro⇒tted every few years. In contrast, most schools are ⇒nished with expensive and changeresistant materials, such as painted concrete block or polished brick, meant to be durable for half a century. This apparent permanence seems a virtue to administrators, because school construction is ever more expensive, and funding for new schools is always hard to achieve. But it doesn’t take a large budget or a new building to create the kind of setting associated with a lively marketplace. Features such as moveable walls, easily repainted paneling, and temporary display spaces can make minor and consistent retro⇒tting inexpensive. Students can only be energized by such visual freshness. FEBRUARY 11–14, 2009 Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Burlingame, CA T THE MOS T POPULA R CONFER ENCE I IN AFTER SCHOOL EDUCATI ON! How To Do It We don’t need to wait for renovation or a new building to incorporate the secrets of the shopping mall into our schools: • Pilot programs that invite students to take greater charge of their learning (mimicking the mall’s aura of empowered decision making) can be created and tested quickly. Clearly, teachers and administrators can’t cede responsibility for major learning decisions, but the more students can buy into the curricula, the more motivated they’ll be. • The spaces required to support more student-directed projects and displays and more informal gathering can often be created through rapid, low-budget remodeling, sometimes by just a simple placement of furnishings. At school, less is not always more: Most schools contain dead space that can be rejuvenated with a little creative thinking, no matter how limited the budget. Placing an interactive display amid round tables with comfortable chairs and shading umbrellas (more for the encompassing effect than any practical purpose) and adding a juice machine can make a school seem more user friendly than the old institutional sparseness did. • In new construction or substantial renovation projects, placing power outlets near public tables, allowing students to do assignments free of the con⇒nes of classrooms or the library, can free up thinking and creativity. This is the indoor equivalent of the time-tested idea of taking classes outside to sit under a tree for a welcome change. In the end, schools are places for learning, not shopping and hanging out. But a little mall magic can make a big difference in making young minds more receptive. e Randall Fielding and Annalise Gehling are architects at Fielding Nair International, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They can be reached at randy@ﬁeldingnair.com and annalise@ﬁeldingnair.com. SPECIAL KEYNOTE SPEAKER Senior Scientist and d Chief Astronomer, Derrick Pitts of the e world famous Franklin Institute Science Museum The United States Department of Education, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and Foundations are providing the Beyond School Hours Winter Institute as a major professional development experience for all participants. The Winter Institute advances innovative and creative programs and activities that demonstrate a positive impact on student achievement. This year’s theme, Graduating to the Next Level, features presenters who have put current research into actiton, and who have been successful in narrowing the achievement gap, pre K–12. TO REGISTER: www.foundationsinc.org http://www.foundationsinc.org http://www.foundationsinc.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Edutopia - October/November 2008

Edutopia - October/November 2008 Contents UpFront Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of Class Cool Schools Design: Lessons from the Mall The Bucks Start Here Go Global: Virgil Rocks Big Ideas: Powerful Learning Mapping Their Futures Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Suze Orman

Edutopia - October/November 2008

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