We ‘Are’ Where We Learn

I never knew how crucial a learning space was on a personal level until I moved form a house to a 3 bedroom apartment. I love how @whatedsaid describes learning spaces. Check out @StevenWishart2 too, he has some good stuff on learning spaces.

Now I like my new habitat. we are above a mall, top restos below. A gym. Pool. 20 minutes form school. Paradise really. But I havent established a ‘space’ to learn. Maybe my space doesn’t need to be at home I guess.. but traditionally it has been and thats where I feel comfortable. I had a time to learn as well while studying ..yes I teach and Im a student at the same time. So Ive had to be flexible as learners are I guess and study,read, think after my kids go to bed. The problem is that Im pretty tired by that time too so thats not optimal.

I got thinking more about my Grade 3’s learning spaces. I asked them one day, what helps you learn? Are there any spaces in the classroom – or outside the classroom you like to learn? This was a great question (I think) as it make them think. It ended up being a bit of an inquiry where we all went out and found a place that we could learn out best in. And it depended on what we wanted to learn. Do we need quiet, collaboration, movement, stability? We sort of thought the learning space needs to fit our needs and vice versa which was pretty cool because this whole idea was pretty much a think aloud about our learning space. A few weeks ago we talked about changing our learning space,….meh..and we did but het we still have 4 walls and thats the reality but we made it our 4 walls. We more or less personalised it, we didn’t change it so much.

But it got kids thinking, can we go outside to work? The library ? What about under the shady Pattimura tree at the heart of our campus? Being mindful of supervision I said yep (sometimes) if we can. However this ‘restriction’ doesn’t have to be. At lunch, snack go to your learning space where you feel comfortable, and kids do. I see kids in the library curled up with a good book. Hanging out in spaces they feel good with. We’ve got an awesome library and library staff. I love our library. Its a learning space I can relate to and obviously the learners can as well as its almost always full with kids. Im not a librarian but that must be some success criteria- that people love to come and hang out.

So Im looking for ideas. How do you determine your learning spaces? What works for you? Id love to know what you all think, experience.