by Lu Gerlach
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As we begin this new year, what will be your legacy that will be long remembered after your students have left your care?  Will it be that you were burnt out and a bit frazzled or will you be a pillar of self-care and cool under pressure?

​I won't fib and paint a picture of tranquility on my part.  I perpetually made an annual goal of being more balanced between work and home life.  I never quite got there, which greatly impacted my effectiveness during stressful moments.  Here's what I'd do differently now that I know better.

As a teacher entering 2022, I would tell myself to show self-care.  We are no good to anyone if we are low on fuel.  Self-care looks differently to everyone, but it's something that brings you back to center.  For me, this is reading a good book, having some alone time, chatting with mates, getting a massage, and doing my best to give myself a manicure (my poor nails suffer for it).   While others may take long walks through the mountains or strolls with their dog on the beach.  It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do it regularly to balance out the stressors caused by outside sources. ​
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Another thing I'd tell myself is to re-center my purpose and tap back into my passions.  We all began our educational journey full of hope and promise.  Somehow along the way, real school life swallowed us up whole.  Now is the time to re-center what it is you are most passionate about and take action towards it. 

This past week, I spent a lot of time re-defining what goal setting looks like in my guide Define your Inquiry.  It made me look back at who I am and what I want to become in the year ahead.  You are so worth it.  Won't you join me? 

My holiday was made merry and bright as I opened my Canva swag kit for participating in the Tiger #Canvadesign challenge.  How did I go from this...
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to this???  I simply love program, because it has made me more aware of my capabilities.  Now, I have cool gear to remind me of my awesomeness every day. What will you create, so you can get one too?
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​As I was getting ready to record this podcast episode, I accidentally clicked on Google Maps.  It had been so long since I used the app while in Google docs that it showed by location at Al Warqa 2 near Mirdif City Centre in Dubai.  I had to chuckle, because this was my location six and half years ago.  

What does this have to do with the learning environment and play?  If we don’t allow our learners to play with materials and ideas on a regular basis, they will make generalizations that are out of date and not relevant to their current situation.  Just think about that one for a minute.  

This past week during my library restructure in Connecticut, I came across a book that intrigued me that is well worth getting.  It’s called “Classroom Spaces that Work,” by Marlynn K. Clayton and Mary Beth Forton.  It was published back in 2001, which is very much ahead of the time and deals with a lot of the ideas I’ve shared already.  It’s as if this book knew I needed to meander through it to validate my thought processes about responsive classrooms and responsive educators.  

Take a look at this picture.  What do you see?  What is happening in this classroom?

​As I think of the relationship between the learning environment and play, it reminds of the chicken and the egg argument.  Which one came first?  Do we need a well thought out learning space design to bring about play?  Does play shape the way the learning space is designed?  Hmm…which way do you look at it? 

I think it’s a bit of both.  We can have a lovely learning space design where no play occurs.  Have you seen a classroom like this?  Learners are clustered together in desk sets of 4-6.  They work together to complete tasks.  When you take a deeper dive into the learning situation, you notice that not all learners are working together.  Learners are often engaged in lower level thinking by completing worksheets or tasks that were copied out of a reproducible book.  This is not play or proper collaboration. 

Someone recently shared with me that there is a major difference between cooperation and collaboration.  Cooperation is when people come together.  While collaboration is when a group of people come together with a shared goal to solve a problem or create new ideas.  This is vastly different yet many educators use them synonymously when designing their learning space. Do your learners cooperate or collaborate on a regular basis? 

​This is not the only type of learning space design.  There are classrooms where learners are working together to solve open-ended tasks, but the teacher plans the outcomes and processes.  On the surface, this may look learner driven, but the teacher is always one step ahead of the learners.  If a group comes to a different conclusion than the teacher, there is little or no room for the students to share their perspectives.  

To many, this may seem better than having learners cooperate on group projects.  I think it’s more frustrating for learners.  Imagine being told that you are working on an open-ended project with your team, but there are certain parameters on how it’s solved and how you share your learning.  It appears to the community that learners have a lot of freedom to play with ideas, but this is an illusion.  The teacher is still controlling the process, so learners have very little opportunity to play with ideas on their own.  What a missed opportunity for the learner to demonstrate some agency!

When I think of play, I focus on how to get my learners to collaborate effectively using the design thinking process.  This process shows learners how to value the ideas of each member, define the underlying issue, generate out of the box ideas, prototype, and evaluate the progress.  This is completely different from merely coming together to complete a task. 

​Design thinking requires us to take a leap of faith and believe in our student’s abilities to design their own process and product.  This is not easy my friend’s especially since we are the biggest control freaks!  You know it’s true.  

My optimal classroom learning space is fluid.  Learners are able to move about the classroom, use a wide variety of materials to test out ideas, and discuss ideas amongst all the groups and provide feedback. This is how the real world works.  How many times have you walked down the hallway to another teacher’s classroom and they asked for an idea on how to deliver a lesson?  You rattle off some ideas and they are sparked in a new direction.  This happens all the time, yet we don’t allow this to happen for our learners.  

By creating collaborative learning spaces, play truly comes alive.  Over the next few episodes, we will explore the features of play and how it makes you look within your classroom context.  It’s not perfect and it’s more than simply “playing” with manipulatives.  To me, it’s more about playing with ideas at a conceptual level, so learning transfers to new situations.  It’s definitely not easy, but it’s worth the effort.  

Come along the play journey with me my friends and let’s see what we discover along the way.

This week, I’m excited to report to you from New London, CT.  It’s a beautiful seaside town with a lot of history in its six square miles.  I’m here working with a PYP school to restructure their library according to the six transdisciplinary themes, as well as generifying their novels, creating a lower primary section, and a place for the learner profile and key concepts to come to life.  This has been such a fun project, because I’m creating a space where learners will become readers.  Isn’t this the best part of teaching?  

This process has sparked an internal debate that led to a singular question.  When thinking about learning space design, do we consider other spaces besides the homeroom class?  I would venture to say, most of us don’t, which is something I want to examine in this podcast episode. 

​Instead of examining each of the main learning spaces, let’s examine the considerations for each space through the various learners.  Think of these considerations when designing: 
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• School library
• Computer lab
• Music room
• Gymnasium and outdoor play area
• Science lab
• Art room
• Counseling Center

Other spaces to consider that students engage with on a regular basis

• Front office
• Nurses office

As I consider all of these spaces around the school, I have examined the needs of the different types of learners with exceptional learning needs.  Although the ideas were inspired by them, I think all the learning space designs can be used with all learners. ​

When I was thinking of the language learner and learning space design, some ideas that came to mind were picture/word labels and primary language representation.  This can benefit all learners, but they in particular help language learners to navigate throughout the day with visual cues.

• All learning spaces would benefit from being labeled with pictures and words.  For instance, I created a lower primary/elementary science lab and each drawer, and cabinet door was labeled with pictures and words.  This makes it easier to find materials, but it also allows learners to independently craft their own learning experiences.  

• As I go into the music room, how is the learner’s primary language represented?  Is there a space where all children see and experience their own language within the classroom design?  With music, it is so simple to incorporate music and songs from the cultures of learners within their classroom. For instance, a teacher had learners recite a simple song in English and asked them to have their parents translate it into their primary language.  This small act showcases the diversity of language, as well as, the celebration within the context of learning.  These small acts go a long way in building international mindedness too.

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• Are all classrooms curated with a similar process?  Are their items that we are looking for in a learning space design irrespective of the subject?  This is something to consider when establishing a school culture of learning space design.  Just because a teacher may be instructing in the gym, they can have similar elements of design, so language learners do not have to unlearn and relearn in every setting.  It will increase their confidence as they navigate throughout the day. 

When thinking of learners with physical, emotional, and/or mental disabilities, I naturally thought of access to resources and places to decompress.  All learners benefit from this, but how can we incorporate them into a wider variety of spaces?  

• Accessibility to resources is one of the greatest obstacles to learner independence.  When a teacher controls all of the materials behind closed shelves, they are sending a clear message to their learners.  These are my materials and my space.  Unfortunately, I must admit that I was this teacher at the beginning of my career, especially when I moved abroad.  Although we had a lot of resources, the schools didn’t have everything, so I would shop every time I returned to the U.S.  When items are precious, you conserve as much as you can, but at what cost?  This is a lesson I had to learn on my own.  When learners enter your space as a specialist or supporting teacher, do they feel comfortable engaging within it?  This requires trust on both parts. In particular with learners with disabilities, I consider if the materials being used are physically accessible to all. Have you thought about this with your learning space design? 

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• One of the best things I did as a teacher was to provide a place for learners to decompress.  We called this the Chill Out Zone.  Is there a chill out zone in every classroom or is this reserved only for the homeroom teacher?  This is a simple thing that can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of your lessons.  If children in PE have a chill out zone inside of a hoola hoop in the corner, they will be able to self-regulate their behavior before hurting themselves or others.  Think about it. 

When thinking of gifted/talented learners, I was inspired by a bookstore layout to a space.  The gifted learner likes the space to be purposeful and orderly, so they can manipulate materials to create.  All learners benefit from this type of learning design. 

• Is the learning design layout intuitive and bookstore style?  What do I mean by this?  Are the materials in the other learning spaces clearly organized and labeled?  Can learners find materials easily, so they can independently work on their own?  I think of a bookstore, where learners are able to browse different genre sections until they find what they are looking for.  For instance in the art room, are the materials organized intuitively based on the style of art?  Can learners discern the purpose of the materials without you? 

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• For those spaces that aren’t designed for creation, such as the school library and counseling center, are there some maker spaces to allow learners to create on their own?  Have you considered a lego wall with a bucket of lego pieces below?  This may seem like simple materials in a counseling center, but it can help all learners to decompress and innovate at the same time. 

​I know this episode has been all over the place, but learning space design influences how a child learners.  If we only consider it for the homeroom classroom, then we set an unsaid rule that the specialist and supporting classes are “different” and we don't have to act the same way.  Think about it.