Guerilla Educators

Isidro Sanchez High School; Luquillo, Puerto Rico

As part of Fielding Nair International's 21st Century Schools initiative in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, FNI educators Chris Hazleton and John Sole were privileged to visit the Isidro Sanchez High School in the beautiful city of Luquillo.  The high school has undergone major renovations designed to enhance teaching and learning.  With Mr. Angel Gonzalez, Deputy Director of the Public Private Partnership Bank, we were hosted by Sanchez Principal, Ms MaryAnne Maldonado.  At the time of this post, the school is about 2 weeks from completed construction of all re-design work.  Take a look...

Click on the link to see a video of Rafael Cordero Elemental, another FNI designed 21st century school, in Catano, just outside of San Juan.

12 Questions for School Architects and Planners; Connecting School Design to Educators, Students, and Curriculum via Project Based Service Learning

In honor of the 4th anniversary of my Guerilla Educators blog, our first entry, posted below, was an interview conducted by   Christian Long who, at that time was the online editor of DesignShare.  His first question was,    

If you had to pick a single educational technique, learning style, or pedagogy to drive the future of school design, what would it be?

My response centered immediately on Project Based Service Learning and prompted me to ask a series of 12 rhetorical essential questions in return.  The questions also became the genesis of the Guerilla Educators blog and ultimately became an article on DesignShare, a premier educational facilities website.  The questions also formed the basis of a long term, in-depth video based study centered on the merits of Project Based Service Learning as one of the most powerful and effective teaching and learning methodologies for ALL students and why school architects should design educational spaces to accommodate this type of pedagogical focus.

These 12 rhetorical questions for Educational Facilities Planners is now also a foundation for a forthcoming book based on my 12 Hallmarks of Effective Teaching and Learning.  Nice symmetry, eh?

Here are the questions:

Question 1: Why is Service Learning the most effective way for students to achieve mastery of curriculum and state mandated standards?

Question 2: Why is the Service Learning process the most effective way to engender good citizenship skills in all students?

Question 3: Why should school architects design educational facilities that facilitate the Project Based Learning methodology?

Question 4: Why should the school design process be used as a real-world, project-based teaching and learning strategy?

Question 5: Why is student involvement in the design process a desirable strategy for educational facilities designers?

Question 6: How can the school itself be used as a 3 dimensional textbook?

Question 7: Why should school architects see the physical facility and the teaching and learning that take place inside as a seamless continuum?

Question 8: Why should High Performance, Sustainable school design be used as a teaching and learning tool?

Question 9: Why should school architects “give back” by coming into classrooms as Community Partners to use the design process to create hands-on projects?

Question 10: What is the role of teachers in the connection of design to curriculum and students via PBL/SL?

Question 11: Why should school architects design buildings that are fun places to attend?                     

Question 12: Why does school design that will accommodate Service Learning have a positive impact on the architect's bottom line?

Click on the Questions to see the responses.

 

Educon 2.2

Today, Guerilla Educators conducts a "conversation" around Educational Commissioning at Educon 2.2.  Our conversation description is as follows:

World-class teaching and learning can, and perhaps should, take place under a tree. With this in mind, our conversation will focus on the essential non-difference between the physical facility (the school) and the teaching and learning that takes place inside of those spaces (the School). We will explore and build on the idea that the educational facility can be used as a 5 dimensional (including time and cyberspace), hands-on teaching and learning tool to achieve academic and civic objectives.

Our Essential Question then, is:

In a wired world unfettered by the geography of place, how do we design teaching and learning spaces to accommodate the education that takes place outside of the physical walls of the "school"?

Follow up tomorrow...

Educon 2.2 List of Attendees

The Educon 2.2 list of attendees is quite impressive with 500 of the world's most innovative educators coming together in Philadelphia on January 29, 30, and 31 at the Science Leadership Academy High School.  There will be more than 50 conversations covering the  gamut of 21st century teaching and learning best practices.  John Sole, CEO of Guerilla Educators has the privilege of leading one of those conversations focused on Educational Commissioning and Project Based Learning and using the physical facility, the school itself, as a 5 dimensional (including time and cyberspace) teaching and learning tool.  Look for us on Saturday, January 30, Session 3 at 2:30-4:00 pm, in Room 209.

See you at Educon!

Educational Commissioning

In early August, one of the last emails I received from my dearly departed friend and colleague, Dr. Jeff Lackney was the continuation of an ongoing conversation we were having about the nature of "Educational Commissioning".  At that time, Jeff exhorted me to "focus like a third grader".  I suggested that educational spaces should be tested to support a variety of pedagogical and social goals.  Jeff came back and said that my thoughts were essentially 1/2 of the equation and that the task was then to describe the physical spaces that would support those education based objectives and then monitor effectiveness of the spaces, data-based on student achievement.  This, I think is the essence of Educational Commissioning.  Looking back over those communications, what emerges is that I was, in effect, developing a set of experiential best practices against which to both design teaching and learning spaces and then test the spaces for effectiveness against those criteria on relevant data pertaining to student achievement in those spaces.  Dr. Lackney's point to me was that the criteria were "only half of the whole" and that he then wanted me to describe specific space templates that would be catalysts for student achievement based on the criteria.  While I strongly agree that educational spaces should be flexible enough to accommodate a range of teaching and learning activities and even to evolve over time, I also think that this flexibility should have focused, consistent academic and civic goals; i.e. to prepare our students to have rich, rewarding and FUN scholastic careers in preparation for them to be literate, productive citizen/leaders.  So this design agility should always be tested against whether the teaching/learning spaces supports these goals.  The criteria I have established are based on my "11 Hallmarks of Effective Teaching and Learning".  In this regard then, the spaces should support:

• student academic and civic engagement
• student ownership in their educational processes
• student achievement in grade appropriate proficiency of curricular and standards based objectives
• student proficiency on nationally normed tests
• flexible technology applications
• Higher Order Thinking Skills
• Project Based Learning
• Community Partnerships
• Collaborative Teaching
• Cooperative Learning
• FUN

On his School Studio Blog Jeff came very close to the idea of seeing the educational facility (the school) and the academic and social development that takes place inside the physical structure (the School) as an organic whole but he still started with the physical design concepts as being the primary driver rather than exactly the other way around.  In Jeff's view, teachers should be Professionally Developed to learn how to use the teaching and learning spaces effectively.  My view is that educational facilities planners/designers/architects should have Professional Development about the mission and vision of the School and about the pedagogies specific to the needs of the school.  In this way, they can then more effectively design spaces that will be in synergy with the goals and objectives to achieve what I call the Essential Non-Difference between the physical facility and the teaching and learning going on within the walls.

As far as which space templates should be developed to accommodate the Hallmarks, my position is that world class teaching and learning can take place under a tree.  This statement does not discount the vital importance of creating physical spaces that support the Hallmarks.  It does take into account that rich, rigorous, and rewarding scholastic experiences can happen regardless of the spaces in which they take place.

School Design Patterns

This workshop session: "Design Patterns" is based on the the book, "The Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools", by Prakash Nair and Randall Fielding. The book is a seminal work because it defines a new graphic vocabulary that synthesizes learning research with best practice in school planning and design. But it is more than a book about ideas. It is also a practical tool and a must-have resource for all school stakeholders involved in planning, designing and constructing new and renovated schools and evaluating the educational adequacy of existing school facilities.
Visit the Fielding Nair website to see world class examples of their design projects from around the world.