From Classroom to Co-Working Space

What do you need in order to work?  How are you most productive?  What kind of space inspires you?  What makes it impossible for you to get things done?  Before beginning the pilot year of the Flex Program at Assets High School, I needed to let go of my own history and definition of "teacher" in order to create a learning environment that was not about me but about each student.  With no million dollar grant for building a whole new school or even a room, all of these requirements needed to fit into my beautiful but old traditional classroom. In order to individualize learning, how would I create 10-15 personal learning spaces?

When tasked with determining individual workspace needs, students wasted no time filling post-its with their ideas.  Sharing and categorizing, using Hoshin methodology, allowed the collective groups to meld their needs with others' and to identify priorities of space.  The next step, collective drawing of a space, took place silently and in smaller groups.  How can you illustrate the identified needs in one space?  Finally, it was moving day.   Because the Flex Program rolled from 4th to 6th period each day, and with the collective drawings of all students hanging up around the room, we started in 4th by moving the room around to best suit what they thought they needed. Content after a few tries, they settled in just before the end of class.  Then the 5th-period group came.  They evaluated and moved the room around again (more than a few times) just before the bell.  6th-period arrived and, with the largest number of students, decided to take everything out and move it all back in with careful planning.  

Imagine the feelings of those in 4th period when they arrived the next day to find "their space" wildly different.  Even with a couple of students overlapping in all three hours, they had to compromise every time to arrive at the space, plus, they had to defend the final outcome to their peers.  I, too, had to let go of my own needs, though they did allow me a desk since I was in the room all day and am old (to them!) so probably set in my ways, but I found it easy to do so knowing that they were already achieving one emerging goal on the quest for ownership of learning.  

The room itself remains dynamic, evolving with the needs of each day and individual student's needs as they change.  There are a few private work "desk" areas for when students need to tuck in or have separation.  The couch is popular, but most often used for students working with peers or needing proximity to me, since it's next to my area.  Several students utilize the rugs and pillows on the floor, though which student changes each day and hour.  Some students move around based on their moods each day, some gravitate to the same spot, while others even spend time working outside.  What is true is that we all exist and work together each day, as co-workers rather than teacher and pupil. Setting up the space created the dynamic of partnerships in learning; we are on the journey together.