Guerilla Educators

LBJ NetZero Middle School

On November, 11-12, a select group of educational facilities planners from CEFPI had the opportunity to visit and participate in a NetZero Symposium at the Lady Bird Johnson Middle School, located in Irving, Texas.  In this video, tech expert Glenn Meeks and I were given a tour of the school by Alejandro, a student there.  The school is virtually paperless and produces more energy than it uses which is then sold back to the local utility company.  Under the awesome direction of Principal Angie Gaylord, every aspect of the facility is used as a Project Based teaching and learning tool.  Take a look... Special thanks for Scott Layne, Assitant Superintendent for the Irving School District and all of the wonderful students and staff who made this a very special event.

To view the video in full screen visit our YouTube page.

 

Chris Lehmann at CEFPI Philly

Just found this video in the Guerilla Educators archives.   Chris Lehman was the keynote speaker at the CEFPI Northeast Region Conference in the Spring of 2010.  I shot Chris' talk in its entirety with an iPod about the size of a stick of gum, hence the narrow format.  Amazing!  As usual, Chris hit it out of the park like a Ryan Howard home run.  Take a look...

CEFPI Southeast Region 2011 Conference

Arrived in beautiful downtown Savannah for the 2011 CEFPI Southeast Region Conference.  Presenting Monday morning on the topic, "Connecting Students, Teachers, and Curriculum Via Project Based Learning". This year 5 themes will guide the event:

Collaborate

Educate

Facilitate

Participate

Invigorate

Here is how the themes will be related to my topic:

*Collaborate - Educational Facilities Planners/Designers/Architects can demonstrate that their design processes, when used in collaboration with educators and students will have powerful circular ramifications on more effective school design and more effective teaching and learning.

*Educate - The session will educate the participants about what we believe to be a vastly under-utilized asset, i.e. how physical teaching and learning spaces are powerful resources for effective teaching and learning.

*Facilitate - Understanding the participatory and Community Based power of Project Based Learning will facilitate more effective design.

*Participate - There is a tremendous feeling of satisfaction for Educational Facilities Planners that comes with knowing that they are participating in the whole education of the students who are their end clients. This process encourages school architects to establish real-world, in-class Community Partnerships with their clients and see the positive effects their participation engenders.

*Invigorate - Imagine students coming into teaching and learning spaces excited about being there because of active hands-on Projects in which they are about to participate. Imagine educators and educational facilities planners being active participants in those Projects. Imagine more effective educational facilities design as a result of the school architect as teacher/learner. This is what the session will address.

See you in Savannah!

Guerilla Educators at the CEFPI Southeast Region Conference

On Monday, March 28, Guerilla Educators has the privilege to be a Featured Presenter at the 2011 CEFPI SouthEast Region Conference. in Savannah, Ga.Our topic will be:

Connecting School Design to Students, Teachers and Curriculum Via Project Based Learning

Our Course Description is as follows:

Just as Project Based Learning is the gold standard of effective teaching and learning, school design is one of the gold standards of PBL. This session will explore how Educational Facilities Design processes can be used as a powerful resource in the educator's pedagogical toolkit. Through the prism of our Hallmarks of Effective Teaching and Learning, we will learn how Educational Facilities Planners can become real world Community Partners for curriculum-based Projects that use the physical facility as a 5 dimensional (including Real-Time and Cyber-Space) teaching and learning tool.  Once we understand the premise that the educational facility can be a catalyst for the development of academic and social proficiencies, regardless of demographics and  even independent of whether the spaces have been designed effectively, then Educational Facilities Planners can begin to see the positive effects of these “inside out” understandings on the bottom line. In the session, we will use authentic short videos of real students conducting real projects in and out of real classrooms with real school architects, to demonstrate these processes and to show how they may be incorporated into your Planning.  Plenty of time will be built in for discussion so Planners, Designers, and Architects can walk away with a deeper understanding of what takes place inside the physical teaching and learning spaces they create.

See you in Savannah!

Thomas Friedman at CEFPI 2010 World Conference

Thomas Friedman was the Keynote Speaker at the 88th annual CEFPI World Conference which was held in San Jose on September 24-27,2010. Mr. Friedman's presentation was based on his best selling book, "The World Is Flat" and was, by turns, poignant, controversial, funny, thought provoking, and always entertaining. His main premise is that technology has changed the world and offers keen insights into how we can live optimally in a wired world.  Here is Tom Friedman's talk presented in its entirety:
Watch Tom Friedman at CEFPI World Conference in Educational & How-To  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Target at CEFPI

At the risk of sounding like a corporate shill, I was impressed by the many ways that Target, Sponsor of the 88th Annual CEFPI World Conference in San Jose, made the experience there comfortable and first rate.  From the food to the gift of Keynote Speaker Thomas L. Friedman's book, The World is Flat, to all the behind the scenes support, Target was an invaluable, yet discrete resource.  Rich Varda, Target's lead architect and the face of that company at the CEFPI World Conference was an ideal spokesman.  While Target As Sponsor was of course sensitive to the positive public relations that accrues from such sponsorship, the focus of their support was to highlight CEFPI and my impression was that Mr. Varda's low key was responsible for that.  I don;t have a horse in this race and have never publicly offered such praise on behalf of a corporate sponsor, but looking back over the outstanding weekend in San Jose, it feels right to do so.       

CEFPI San Jose Postscript

Just back from the CEFPI conference in San Jose.  Well, it's official.  The Young Lions in CEFPI have now taken the reins from the Old Guard of Educational Facilities Planners.  San Jose was an exponential leap for CEFPI.  More educators, more International attendees, certainly more focus on technology, and a genuine desire to learn and listen to the needs of those on the front lines, in and out of classrooms.  This year, more than at any time in CEFPI's 85+ year history there is now more focus on actually learning about educational trends from educators and others from outside the school architect community.  In terms of technology applications, we saw what is truly exhilarating about living in this golden information age and the entrepreneurial leveraging of the web.  We also experienced at first hand some of the real challenges of living in a wired world.

2010 CEFPI World Conference in San Jose

To all CEFPI friends and colleagues; see you in San Jose!  The CEFPI World Conference will be held in San Jose, California from September 25-27.  There are great seminars and quite an impressive group of Keynote Speakers scheduled at this year's Event, headed up by the New York Times Foreign Affairs columnist, Mr. Thomas Friedman.  Instead of being a presenter, as has been the case in past years at Regional and National Conferences, it will be good to just attend, mingle, and network with old friends.

Educon 2.2 Student Voices

Much has already been deservedly written about the amazing, brilliant, innovative, education-based conference, Educon 2.2, at the Science Leadership Academy in the School District of Philadelphia that took place on January 29, 30, and 31, 2010. IMHO, Educon truly could not have had the degree of success it did without authentic, hands on SLA student involvement in virtually every aspect of the program. This video is a compilation of some of those student voices and their take on why Educon is important to them, their school, and to the world of education. They are truly a tribute to the tremendous work of Mr. Chris Lehman, Principal at SLA.  Take a look...

Good article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer about Educon, here.

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...