“[I]magine how your students feel when they walk into your learning space. Are there comfortable seating options available? Is there a good variety to support both groups and individuals? Or are all the chairs uncomfortable and crammed tightly together?” In my post for AASL Knowledge Quest, I share the stories of two different airport experiences. … Read more
I’ve been studying library space design a lot the last few months. I’m currently working on a book for ISTE, tentatively titled Reimagining Library Spaces, that will be out sometime in the fall. As I’ve been going through research, I thought it would be great to share some of my favorite learning space design books … Read more
(Post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using them, I get a small commission that helps support running this blog) How to Create a Floorplan in Excel Confession time: I’m a slight spreadsheet nerd. My dad worked for IBM and I remember seeing him working on spreadsheets on our home computer at a … Read more
The Sketchnote Handbook: The Illustrated Guide to Visual Note-taking On the flight to ISTE a few weeks ago, I brought along The Sketchnote Handbook. This book hooked me within a few pages. As I took sketchnotes throughout the conference (see them in my post) I could immediately see my skills improving. I’m relatively new to sketchnoting … Read more
The Story of the STEMgirls Club My school is a STEM magnet school and unfortunately, that leads to a disproportionate number of male students. This year the ratio was 65% male, 35% female, which led to many of my female students feeling disenfranchised. I wanted to do something to help create a safe environment for … Read more
The Language of School Design The Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools, is a fantastic, well-designed book that takes a broad look at what makes a 21st Century School a modern learning space. They break these ideas down into 29 well-researched Design Patterns. Included with each of the patterns are examples … Read more
Library Design Inspiration: How to Find it When rethinking and redesigning our library spaces, many of us tend to focus on looking at other school libraries for ideas and inspiration. However, there’s quite a few other learning environments and resources we should consider when planning our spaces. Some are more traditional than others, but all … Read more
Stewart Middle Magnet is a STEM magnet school. Part of the curriculum comes from Project Lead the Way, including classes in engineering, robotics and aerospace. The Design Process is an important part of that curriculum. It also ties in beautifully with what we do in our makerspace. So it made sense for me to partner … Read more
While on the flight to AASL in Columbus, OH, I read Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative in its entirety. Like Show Your Work, which I read over the summer, Steal Like an Artist offers fantastic advice on being creative, promoting your work, sharing with others and following your … Read more
Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success I got my copy of Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success at ISTE 2015 this summer in Philadelphia. I love reading about and studying learning space design theory. I truly feel that innovative learning environments can transform how our students learn. This book is an … Read more