SWC #13: Reset the Space 2.0

​After my learners reset their tables, we had an earnest conversation about the rest of the furniture.  They felt that the rest of the bookshelves were too cluttered and they could not find the materials that they needed.  This was one of those moments that you realize that your learners are not feeling independent in their learning space.  

These pictures are from my last post and as you can see, there is a small eight cube stand next to larger sixteen cube stand.  To the quiet observer, the classroom would look organized and quite user friendly.  This was not the feeling of my learners. 

The big cabinet in the back was behind a group of desks, which posed an issue for learners trying to get to their materials.  The entire class would flock to the back of the classroom at once, which would cause a major traffic jam.    

We had an eight cube stand in the front of the class and the learners came up with this plan.   

We put everyone in ABC order and put half of the class into these cubbies.  Each learner has their own labeled space.  Above it, we dediced to put our snacks in the basket, devices in the plastic tub, tissues and wet wipes for emergencies.  Brilliant!

The remainder of the class decided to put their materials on bottom two rows (except one) of the big shelf.  This allowed us to put shared art materials, after-school club yarn, and other craft materials in the blue bins.  

This minor switch of moving cupboards made a huge difference in the flow of our systems, accessing materials, and making it a more independent learning space.  

We are not done yet!  I can't wait to share what my learners wanted to do after that in my next post.