In this article, the author describes an activity that involves classroom seating arrangements and allows students to talk about some of the implications of classroom furniture arrangements. The purpose of the activity is to provide students with an opportunity to think about ordinary things in their lives and push them to find connections between…

At one of the first preschools the author taught at after graduating from college, every classroom environment stayed the same from year to year. Whatever furniture was in the classroom when a new teacher moved in stayed there, and the furniture never moved around the classroom. The classroom materials rarely changed. Change was not valued.…

Good teachers know that the physical environment of the classroom can either enhance or hinder learning. Appropriate room preparation and arrangement of materials reserves class time for learning, while inadequate planning interferes with instruction by causing interruptions and delays. Before the year begins, effective classroom managers…

In the past eight years, the design standards of classrooms have improved significantly. This movement was instigated by the introduction of the classroom acoustics standard in 2002 from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), in collaboration with the Acoustical Society of America. The standard, formally known as ANSI S12.60, has become…

The Seaford School District, Seaford, Delaware, determined that a component of their "reinvention" of Seaford High School would be the creation of a New Tech Academy, affiliated with the New Tech Network and housed in an addition to that building. The New Tech Network, headquartered in Napa, California, is a rapidly growing association…

The paper explores important issues in today's education, not by analyses and statistics, but by projecting readers into the future and then asking them to look back on today's schools and to act like archaeologists--to surmise from all sorts of things they can observe, what was really important to us, what we really valued, how we treated kids,…

How teaching and learning takes place in classrooms can be easily seen by the way classrooms are set up: Students' desks and chairs are arranged in rolls while teachers' desks are up front. Yet, why must teachers be the ones who lecture, why can't it be students? Would it be better or worse when teachers are the receivers and the students are the…

Schools are rapidly becoming a kaleidoscope of ethnicities and cultures represented by demographic changes in America's schools. As educators in this era of change, a unique opportunity exists to ensure quality physical education for all students. Culturally responsive practices in the classroom can assist in minimizing students' alienation as…

Too many schools are still being built today as warehouses with windows; they get the job done on some minimal level, but beyond that, they simply do not excite the children who spend a great deal of their lives within their walls. Creating an environmentally friendly building is important, but that's only part of the equation. The author and his…

As a society, we need to have the right environmental decisions become ingrained in the mindset of our children in order to be successful at maintaining the long-term health of our planet. We can achieve that best at home and through our schools. For schools to become good teachers of environmental health, those who determine how schools get built…

This section will reflect on two different classroom designs from my own teaching experience: one that required students to bring laptops and one that required only paper and pen. Because traditional classrooms were likely designed without taking technology into consideration, teachers should be aware of what the design of the classroom says about…

In an increasingly global world, where events in one corner of the world simultaneously affect other remote areas of the planet, global competition is becoming a continuously evolving phenomenon. Competition is also increasingly becoming an individual endeavor. Individual's own knowledge and skills will be the differentiators in a global economy.…

Des Moines is an urban community located in the heart of Iowa. Des Moines Public Schools serves 32,000 students in a system with 62 buildings, including Central Campus--a Regional Academy. Central Campus is housed in four buildings, including the main campus at 1800 Grand located on the western edge of downtown Des Moines. As a regional academy,…

Change in education is not going away; instead, it seems to be increasing exponentially. Technology has been the catalyst, and the changes with the greatest impact on education are the location and size of the classroom. The challenges associated with these changes involve working with students from potentially an unlimited number of countries and…

A new pedagogy is emerging, placing students at the centre of the learning process and encouraging teachers to draw from a larger repertoire of strategies and skills to lead interdisciplinary and project-based work. The best learning is authentic--engaging students in their own learning in practical and real-life contexts that demonstrate the…