Wk 4 - Response

2. Coast, Kimberly says:

   May 23, 2010 at 12:29 pm

   Steve! What can I say but WOW! THAT SOUNDS AWESOME! I can tell you have really put some thought into what you would want in your environment! I hope you make it happen.

   My ideal environment to teach students would be a classroom made from an old planetarium. I watched the movie Meet the Robinsons with my children in the theater when it first came out and that home really impressed me. I think having my own school in a planetarium would rock! All the ancillary rooms would function as workshop rooms (classrooms) and the main planetarium observatory would be the main classroom. Each seat would be set up with connections for the students to plug in their laptops and school would be held as a great instantaneous collaboration. Students would have the collective meeting at the beginning and end of the day in the observatory and during the middle part they would go to the ancillary workshop rooms specialized in each of the academic disciplines. The morning collective group time would be for presentation of the problems of the day and the end of the school day would be for presentations of results.
   Each of the classrooms would be set up with wifi, camera presentation presenters, ceiling mounted LCD projectors, long tables with stools in the central work area for collaboration, desks along the walls for quiet individual working time, audio system ceiling embedded, and smartboards for each classroom. I also think that a holographic table like in Ironman would rock! When are they going to make THAT reality!?! Several of the rooms would be converted into weight training, spin, and dance classes. Two large auditoriums would be necessary for music instruction, as well as adjacent practice rooms. The outer grounds would also have wifi and students could work in more of a natural environment with beautiful Japanese gardens, Italian pergolas and sitting areas, and wide walkways where students could walk and stay healthy while completing school work. There would also have to be a large outdoor amphitheater for music performances. I don’t want school to be confined to the four walls of a classroom alone. I think that this school would have to be private and I want to be the principal in charge of curriculum and instruction.

   Reply
3. Steve Mohler says:

   May 23, 2010 at 5:44 pm

   Kimberly,
   I could function in your vision just as well. Maybe we could find a way to incorporate them together.Your vision appears to more campus oriented, and I think I could “struggle” to function within the confines. I think that the combining of these two visions could be nothing short of fabulous and effective for all learning.