If you haven’t already, take a look at the calendar uploaded and photocopied earlier this week:
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This is a static, PDF version. The updated Google Doc file is here and in the menu to the right of this page.
The calendar gives details on how we’ll spend the rest of the first semester, breaking it up by three-week GAP period. We’re in the middle of a gestalt unit, and the calendar itself teaches you a bit about what that means. On October 16, we’ll shift to an umwelt unit, which is also explained in a bit of teaching done by the calendar itself.
This post is about the umwelt panel of your Q1 triptych. More specifically, it is about the classroom proper — the physical space of Room 210.
Crowd-Sourced Creative Clutter
Here is a photo of a makerspace in Ann Arbor, Michigan:
Click for an article about the space and the spaces it has inspired.
We’re looking for that kind of creative clutter. That’s the phrase we are going to lean on, because it invokes the image of a STEM makerspace. We need the Humanities equivalent of a bin of robot parts, a deconstructed computer tower, a shelf of power tools, and so on.
First, we have to establish that this isn’t the same thing as a typical English classroom. There, you’ll find student work on the walls, posters about reading, bookshelves filled with literature, inspirational quotations, and so on. Which is all great! We should have some of those elements in our makerspace, too. But it’s much less about showcasing student work, which will be part of long-term projects that have an audience bigger than just us and the classroom. And it’s a little less about celebrating literature, because we want to embrace the full scope and sequence of the Humanities.
Instead, it’s about the creative tools and modular components of the Humanities that we can use to transform ourselves and the world around us. It’s about hacking personal and interpersonal system. It’s definitely about hacking the way we learn and how we assess that learning.
That’s why we started with full-sized posters of all the Sisyphean High materials. They aren’t just posters; they have bins beneath them filled with actionable handouts that help us navigate the space. They are visual checkpoints for staying on task and being productive:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2HpaCWOlleySDNEZUlCWi0zQVE
We also have a bookshelf or two stacked with paper copies of the most important instructional posts, guides, and systems; a pair of whiteboards, which can be rolled around the room; moveable chairs and tables; and a Chromebit-enabled TV screen. It’s a good start.
What we need next are two categories of creative clutter:
- Actionable stuff that helps us make meaning in here
- Aesthetic stuff that helps us energize the environment
So we might order a copy of Ken Robinson’s TED Talk for the wall, and we might pull some Sisyphus-inspired symbolism from this video. I think an adaptation of Chad Fowler’s guide to empathy, which we’ll study in a few weeks, would make sense. We’ll certainly get the latest version of our writing system, bishop composition, on posters by the start of Q2.
Here are other possibilities:
We need to talk about how to use Pinterest for our learning, too. Consider making an account and talking to me about how to use it.
This push for creative clutter will be a formal-ish assignment soon, but you can start thinking about it now. What can we do with the space we have? What actionable stuff fits a makerspace as intended in here? Head back to the syllabus for some of the philosophy, and think about how the year has already been different for you. Then ask questions here, suggest ideas in the room, and find some time to brainstorm together about how to fill our space with creative clutter.
A Note on Motivation
Explicit in the language of the upper tier profile is the need to improve the learning environment. That includes, of course, all the collaborative work you do and the investment you make in the online and interstitial elements prepared for you. What this creative clutter concept offers is a way to improve the physical environment. The more you contribute to shaping that environment, the more evidence you have of improving that environment, which pushes you toward those top scores.
As always, I want to emphasize that there is nothing inherently wrong with motivating yourself extrinsically. You can do this because you want a higher grade. If that’s all that motivates you, it’s probably unsustainable; I think that we all need a balance, however, between doing things because they are inherently valuable and doing things because we will be rewarded. There is no ethical issue there.
In this case, for example, you will have evidence necessary for a higher profile if you contribute creative clutter to the classroom. That can motivate you just as much as the desire to make the classroom more galvanizing and comfortable for you and your peers. It can motivate you just as much as the desire to build something meaningful and unique.