This post has instructions on how we’ll begin our work on Tuesday. As an example of what we’ll be calling “abstract stuff,” here is a newly revised version of the profiles, skills, and traits we use every day:
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Copies will be made for you, although the changes are mostly cosmetic. Pay attention to the category headings for the skills and traits. There is a colorized version of this, too, but the embedded PDF above will behave better with the printers in our building.
Creative Clutter, Continued
Before we get to Tuesday’s plans, the expectation, as always, is that you’ve read every recent instructional posts. If you haven’t, do that immediately:
I promise that most of your confusion or frustration will disappear as soon you read those instructional texts. You have to read them, though — not just load them in a browser window or print a copy that sits in your backpack. As always, these are the instructions you need, and they are written so that engaging with them forces you to slow down, practice close reading and critical thinking, and develop the organization skills you need to make sense of complicated ideas.
One of those posts introduces a focus on the physical classroom, which we will begin to clutter creatively on Tuesday. We want to think differently about how we populate our space, starting with a shift away from “decorate” as the verb. That word comes from the same root that gives us decor and decorum, which is mostly about how we expect to find things. Our room is about breaking expectations in an innovative way.
This is prompted on my end by how you are using technology. Educational tech, including the device you’re using right now, can’t compromise our embrace of face-to-face discussion and more kinetic or kinesthetic 1 work.
To put it more directly: Yes, you need to put down the screens and talk to each other more. That’s true out in the real world, and it’s true in here. The computer or smartphone is an essential bit of technology — even curmudgeons have to accept that — but there must be a balance. That’s one of our two focuses this week2.
That brings us to a teacher-led, asynchronous, offline activity for Tuesday:
Those are the two rolling whiteboards in Room 210. You are going to work together across class periods to fill those boards with ideas, which will be photographed and flipped back to you at the end of the day on Wednesday. Any other notes you keep are up to you. Below is a quick overview of what to expect.
Concrete Stuff
These categories aren’t really about what you can touch versus what you can’t, although that’s pretty close. Instead, you should think of it as tools and technology versus semiotics and inspiration. On the concrete side, you are thinking first about how to populate our bookshelves with transformative literature, collections of poetry that teach us about being a human being, autodidactic texts, etymological dictionaries, and so on. You’re going to take over these bookshelves, build new ones, and then organize it all to encourage us to read more often and more closely — without the usual Skinner-box threats of a classroom. The other concrete considerations are manipulable materials like Legos and fidget toys.
Furniture | Checked off because we already have what we need. As tempting as it is to talk about comfy chairs and rugs, that stuff isn’t a priority. We have modular furniture, whiteboards, rolling carts, etc.
Technology | Similarly, we’re set here. It would be nice to have a dedicated desktop for Pareto Projects — one for musical composition, video editing, and so on — but that’s not a priority, either. You have your Chromebooks, your smartphones, a classroom printer, and a Chromebit-enabled TV screen.
Books | There are now multiple empty bookcases in our classroom. Again, your job is to fill them with books of all kinds, but especially with books that help us create meaning for ourselves. That means poetry, literature, essay collections, graphic novels, and so on. Look at what we already have, and remember the point of reading in a Humanities makerspace. My examples are an epic poem and some underground hip-hop.
Destressors | This category is what it sounds like: the stuff that will help you mitigate your stress while you work in this space. My example is Legos, which are used by many companies to promote creativity and fight stress. You’ll also see board games like Scrabble in the room already. In high school, we’re focused on fighting stress as much as promoting creativity, so think about both sides of the equation.
You can ask questions below about these categories whenever you like. It’s up to you to figure out how best to talk to each other over the course of the next few days, just like it’s up to you to figure out how to work together to start bringing this stuff into the room.
Abstract Stuff
The abstract stuff is where most of our work is going to take place. We need actionable inspiration on the walls. We need symbols surrounding us. We need the space to encourage the sort of introspection and collaboration and innovation that lives at the heart of our system.
One way to think about these abstract concepts is to see each option in terms of how it improves the learning environment. Use the language in the grade abatement profiles to motivate you: This is a chance to contribute to the learning environment so that your peers are galvanized, encouraged, supported, etc. It’s easy to explain why you think a book of William Blake’s poetry might help us experience the Humanities; it’s harder to explain how a mechanical Sisyphus improves our learning.
Protocols + Procedures | Taken care of already through the posters and handouts we have. There will be more of this stuff on the walls as we move forward, and any new iterations of course materials — for instance, of our writing process, which we will delve into in Q2 — will be posted, too. The Pinterest boards posted here have plenty of non-course examples.
Inspirations | These will primarily be posters or decals on the walls, but I would include certain kinds of artwork, too. It’s about drawing creative inspiration for your work. My example is a prominently displayed decal of a Latin expression: Verba volant, scripta manent. That is the philosophy of the course, so its inspirational efficacy is different from, e.g., a poster like this.
Symbols | Clutter in our classroom needs to have purpose behind it. We’re using metaphors and symbols to push back against traditional learning, which is why my examples are a statue of our favorite rhinoceros and this Lego Sisyphus. You need to think critically about the semiotics of our space.
Again, you can ask questions below about these categories whenever you like. It’s up to you to figure out how best to collaborate, and we’ll need that collaboration to procure or print or otherwise produce what we need.
Kinetic refers to motion itself, while kinesthetic refers to your perception of that motion. It’s another example of the meta- level to our work. ↩
The other is a gestalt suite of self-assessments that will be posted later. That’s one reason we need this focus on the kinetic/kinesthetic stuff: You’re going to be doing a lot of reading and answering questions online this week, and you need to balance that. ↩
While reading through this post I thought of an idea and I would like to hear any feedback anyone has on it. As we start to develop our Pareto projects, I know many of us are starting to create physical parts of the project. Also, I know many of us have google communities or other means of sharing our progress but I was wondering if you would like to find a space in our classroom to hang up or place updates of our projects for people to look at. These updates could include almost anything such as a printed copy of an instagram or tumblr account or a picture of the song you just learned on the instrument you are beginning to play. I think this would add inspiration to our creatively cluttered classroom and allow everyone to see ideas from other classes and from their own class.
I like this idea, I think a board filled with basically anything Pareto Project related would be a good idea for those who seek feedback or just want to share what they’ve accomplished.
I think this board could be very beneficial and it’s worth developing what the possibilities for it could be. A board like this could certainly have multiple functions. We could use it as a source of inspiration or, like Sasha said, I think it would be possible for students to get feedback about their projects. If someone had some sort of critique or praise for one of the projects on the board, how could they express that: face-to-face, posting on the board itself, on a Google Community…?
Maybe whoever originally posts something could mention at the end how they’d like to receive feedback. (It’s really a personal preference). So they could say “if you have any suggestions send me an email at..”, or “come see me if you have any ideas.” etc.
I think that that would be a cool aspect to add to the physical makeup of the classroom. Maybe if each person wrote a weekly summary of the work they have and the work that they did this week, we could follow projects of others. If someone in another class is makin or researching something that is of interest to you, then you’ll have a chance to catch up on what they’ve done over the past week. It would also be a good way for each person to log their progress and their progression through the project. We could possibly have a box of little paper slips that have our project, what we’ve accomplished and the things we are planning to do in the future weeks to come. Overall, I think that is a great idea and thing is is beneficial to everyone.
A popular poetry book is Milk and Honey so I think it would be really cool to have that in the classroom!
I agree, I like this book and books of this type. Quote books rather than stories.
I also agree, poetry and books of that kind that aren’t the typical just story book are very inspirational. They are also much more popular in our age group and it would be nice to have them available to look and read in class.
I also think it would be nice to add Christmas lights. I have them in my room and when I want to relax, I will turn off my normal lights and put my Christmas lights on. It feels really relaxing and I think that feeling would happen in the classroom among students as well
Christmas lights is a good idea to have in the classroom i feel it would be relaxing and would be really nice to have something different than the light we normally have.
I think this is a great idea and that we should explore what the applications of this might be…
Since lots of students are often working on different things over the course of a class period, it might be annoying to one group’s work if another group wants the lights to be brighter/dimmer so they can focus on something else. Or is that just me being a control freak over my learning environment?
I think that the lights could also serve as a reminder of what mindset we need to be in. Maybe we can turn the christmas lights on when we are doing something creative or relaxing but turn them off when we are having a group discussion. This is just an example but my point is that we could use the lights as a reminder of what we are working on and the corresponding mindset. Alternatively, if we find that most students are stressed, say, in the middle of the week, we could turn them on every Wednesday to give everyone a chance to relax.
I love the idea of having christmas lights in the classroom Erin. I have them in my room and they really do calm me down when I need to relax. However, in a class like this, we need to be very conscious of the way we are relaxing. We must calm ourselves down in order to maximize efficiency and if the lights cause us to drift into a distracted mindset, then again, we would have to be aware of that. That level of flexibility is necessary and why I feel that what Jane has said would be imperative for the lights adding to our efficiency. As long as we are consciously making decisions about when we use them, I feel that they could be very valuable to the learning environment.
I agree with Erin that having Christmas lights would be a great addition to our ever changing classroom! They don’t necessarily have to be multi-colored if it seems to be distracting to people, but we should definitely get white lights that could be hung around the room. We could then shut off the normal lights in the class but the white lights would still allow us to work (we could still see our work). This would mimic the environment of many peoples’ rooms/houses which are very relaxed and comfortable. The lights will this maximize efficiency because students will feel at home and more creative.
It seems like our period (period 2) really likes the idea of Christmas lights. The great thing about them is that they are not permanent. If your period (period 9) does not agree with our idea then that’s fine because we can still use them, but your class could just turn them off if you don’t like them.
I agree completely with Erin. I love poetry and this book portrays hundreds of different poems and styles of poetry that can really inspire and spark ideas in peoples minds. These poems are the kind that make you think and that is exactly the kind of thing that we need in our classroom.
I also really like this idea, Christie. I think it would really benefit all of the students in the class if they could see where everybody else is on their projects. They could see whether they are behind other people and need to work harder, or if they even need to slow down because they are too far ahead. It will help us to manage our time and complete our personal goals for the project.
The feedback from other people would also help students to either change something they are doing to make the project better, or continue something they are doing well. I really think it would help to boost everyone’s confidence and give us a reason to want to do even better and go above and beyond on our projects.
I agree. Having Christmas lights would make us feel more comfortable, and more relaxed.
i think that if some people brought in some artwork for the walls it would make the room look really nice and help people to feel inspired, comfortable because plan wall can make people feel taped as if they where in a jail or a box. so if there was artwork on the wall it would make people feel like that a in a room that is welcoming and the artwork can give them inspiration/ an idea for something that could right about or a project they are working on.
I agree! I also think that seeing some sort of symbolic art or poster can get us in the creative mindset that we need to be in to find inspiration. For example, if I enter the room and see a picture of the rhinoceros, I am instantly focused on diving into the class period to create evidence.
I also agree, artwork and maybe pictures hung on the walls would make it feel more of a familiar environment. It also makes the classroom feel less of a place we hate, and more comfortable as well as somewhere we look forward to going.
I think this is a really good idea! I agree with the fact that sometimes classrooms can feel a bit like a box, and I definitely agree that ” a box” is not an ideal learning environment. Although, I do think inspiration can present itself in many different forms for each student, such as how a quote can inspire one person, but someone else gets inspiration from a picture. Therefore, I feel students should be able to bring in whatever inspires them, as long as it is appropriate and is within the limits of the school.
Maybe a venting/drawing whiteboard?
You could write or draw anything (within school appropriate limits, of course) and it’ll stay there until someone erases it so they could have room to write or draw something as well.
It could be helpful to share ideas/concepts/designs that aren’t even related to the class.
I like this idea, but maybe instead of a whiteboard we could just use the whiteboard table we already have, plus since it’s in the back of the room, it’s nice because people wont see you writing if you want to keep things anonymous.
Yes, that would be a great way to incorporate that table. It’s a unique piece of furniture and should be utilized to its full advantage. (Great concrete object to use to our advantage.)
I think the idea of writing the ideas on the board is good, as some people might not know what to do, and this gives them a few ideas. This solution also shows the different ideas everyone has!
I think our Keurig is a great example for a concrete thing. It fits perfectly under the destressor category. This item in our classroom has greatly benefited me. I think adding on to things like this will benefit the class. Especially 9th period, where we all have gone throughout the whole day of classes and are close to settling down for the day. These destressors are good to keep us motivated and going.
I love having the keurig in the class and it makes me look forward to coming to this class so I can make coffee. Coffee gives me energy and makes me more inclined to work in the classroom and gets my brain flowing. This is a great example of something that contributes to our classroom and makes it a better working space for everyone. Contrary to Haile, having the class 2nd period is great because I can make coffee that will give me energy for the whole day and keep me awake.
I believe that both Erin and Christie have good ideas to benefit our classroom that we should definitely look deeper into. I also love how there are now empty book shelves in the classroom to fill with inspiring and relevant books. I think it would be nice if each student brought in a piece of literature that inspires them. Something that they’ve read multiple times because it creates the same feeling as if they were reading it for the first time. I believe this will be something nice to look into more once students have caught up with all their work.
I definitely agree that we should all bring in a book that inspires us, or maybe it can just be something that inspires us, not necessarily a book. It could be artwork, photos, or anything else that acts as an inspirational tool. Many people struggle with staying inspired to do work, especially in a classroom environment where our subconscious automatically views it as a cold space. Having that object to look at could bring our headspace back to focused. Also, it could help us get inspired by each other if two people are inspired by similar objects or books, which would spark up great conversations. Objects that inspire us could keep our learning environment lighthearted and creative!
I love the idea of adding more poetry into the classroom because that is my favorite type of literature. I also think having the boards is useful so you can see what other people’s ideas are and you can either give them feedback or collaborate with them to make it better. Any feedback that a student receives, positive or negative, will allow them to improve their work which is one of our mail goals in this class.
Christie mentioned both a board to put updates on our Pareto Project, and also a board to post song quotes, book quotes, and even movie quotes. I think both of these ideas are great. By posting your ideas and updates of your Pareto Pareto, people can stay updated and follow the process of your project, especially if they are interested in your project idea, the project itself, or the final product that the project produces. Even if you are not interested, you can use the other projects to create your own ideas, or help you move further and deeper into your own Pareto Project. On the other side, a board of song quotes, movie quotes, and book quotes can be very calming, and also could be very pretty if many students post on it. Not only could this be calming, but maybe can also spark more ideas for Pareto projects, and even become a project in itself in some way.
I agree that sharing Pareto Projects would be very valuable. Colleen and I were talking in period 9 about having a sort of mailbox system (The mailboxes themselves could be made out of shoeboxes or something like that). For instance, if you accomplish a lot on your Pareto Project and you wanted to share it, you could print out a photo or some kind of reflection or an important link and put it in the mailboxes of other students. Most likely, a decent portion of students would not respond to you or provide feedback (maybe they don’t know you very well, maybe they didn’t have time, maybe they don’t relate your project, etc.) and in the future, you would only share updates with those students who appeared interested the first time. One possibility that could arise is that maybe one of the students who responded would say “this is sounds a lot like my project, which is…..” and that would allow students with similar projects to collaborate at a higher level and share findings that would be meaningful to both individuals. Additionally, the mailbox system would allow students from all different class periods to share hard copies of their work instead of just digital links or something along those lines. I believe that facilitating that sort of inter-period exchange would be more meaningful because think about it: how arbitrary is our division into class segments? Why should we let that define who we work with and share ideas with? Using the mailboxes would inspire other students and provide a mechanism by which to collaborate with specific students even in other periods.
Have a poster that reminds us of our goals and keeps us inspired and in the moment.
That’s an interesting idea. A lot of what students have been contributing to these comments so far seems to be geared towards finding inspiration, not about solid, measureable progress like a poster about our goals would be. Do you think that having a board like this should be something done on an individual level, like someone writing down a specific goal and printing an inspirational quote or picture and putting it in their locker? Or should that be something that the whole class is aware of? Also, do you think there’s something to be gained from seeing another student’s inspiration? Maybe it could make you aware of something you have in common with someone you don’t know very well or inspire other students beyond whoever posted it there… or it could just be kind of out of context for other students and really just be valuable to one. That would be worth exploring too, I think.
Similar to Mr. Eure’s example of legos, I believe something hands on or that involves movement would be a great destressor like moon sand, playdough, and/or fidget cubes or spinners
Play-dough and objects like Moon Sand, are great objects for being creative. Ideas that take into the account of the time we have in the class may be a better alternative though. The play-dough can be a difficult thing to start and stop. And on top of that, the fact that work does need to get done is an important idea that needs to be incorporated into the object. Something “easier” like Legos would be best. It’s much easier to clean up and still has the same effect as the Moon Sand and Play-dough.
I agree with everybody’s ideas and comments, such as the Christmas lights. I think it will make the classroom more inviting and give off a fun and relaxing mood. I also believe the Keurig is a very nice advantage we get as students. This is the first time I have had one in a classroom and we are allowed to use it freely. Being able to make coffee or hot chocolate is something that can make me focus better, and look forward to this class. This is a good example of a concrete thing because it is a destressor and a source of technology.
I love the idea of having christmas lights, as that will give a very comfortable and relaxing vibe. In order to destress and be innovative at the same time we need to find what works best. I also love the idea of using the whiteboard table to express our ideas. Every Friday as a class we can reflect on how the week went as well as discuss what our focus is going to be for the next week (abstract)
I think a space heater would be a good addition to this room. That’s probably not allowed but it is so cold in here all the time I can never focus.