Well good golly....

It's been TWO MONTHS since my last post! For SHAME. I really have been filling up a desktop folder full of items that I've labeled "blog-worthy", but there's been so much going on....bad excuse.
Speaking of so much going on, we had our first Critical Thinking meeting today in about 2 months (maybe more). This is the third year we've worked together, and I even have a co-chair now, but this is the first year that we've had to put off meetings for a couple of months because of scheduling conflicts. I'm worried that we're losing steam, maybe. Maybe I am. I think next year the PLC will have to be updated or changed somehow. I should put a survey together for people who've been involved so I can see anonymous feedback. Everyone's so nice that I think they'd be hesitant with criticism when we ask for feedback during meetings. I've also been thinking about how CT will fit into the late start PLC time next year. My feeling right now is that it won't fit. I think that time is going to be consacrated to subject area work. That's okay, I guess. We can keep meeting after school.
Well, enough of the technical details: we met about how to create the best possible physical environment for learning. That's something that isn't directly related to critical thinking, but I feel strongly that in order for the best kind of thinking to take place, certain criteria - or even standards - need to be in place (Boy am I tired of that word "standards".) It's like Maslow's hierarchy of needs: if a kid doesn't have food, clothing, or shelter, learning is certainly not a top priority. I know I refer to Maslow's a lot, but it's really apt; if the learning space is really physically uncomfortable, horribly sterile, or even overly distracting, you can't expect the best sort of thinking to take place.
The meeting in general went well, I think, despite the weary looks on people's faces - it's been a long semester. However, some of the weariness made itself more evident that just by people's faces. Yeah, we don't have the most ideal learning spaces right now at AHS, but will complaining about it ad nauseum change anything? Really, there wasn't a ton of venting, and I did address the fact that we're venting probably just because it's post spring break, we're tired, and this is just the complainy time of year. BUT I reminded the group to keep two things in mind: what can we do with the current space we have to make it conducive to our students to learn, and learn how to use, what we find the most valuable in our subject areas; and what kinds of immediate, relatively low-cost/ low-effort changes can we make that will begin AHS's evolution to a 21st century physical learning space?
The kids-in-rows pattern seen in most classrooms is over a century old. I still CHOOSE to set up my classrooms in rows. Why? Well: 1) It enables me to move up and down rows easily to check homework while they're working on their warm ups; 2) it seems - to me - the best way to discourage cheating during quizzez; 3) when there are 35+ students in a room, finding other configurations that still allow the students and me to move around the room with relative ease is REALLY challenging (Oh, and I've really tried.); and 4) when each classroom is used by at least 2 other teachers, I have to consider what the other teachers would like their rooms to look like.
These are lame reasons. I think I could find my ways around nearly all of these obstacles. What do I want my students to be able to do with the language? Use it in personally meaningful ways, and to be able to speak intelligibly enough - albeit in an elementary way - to be able to use the language skills outside the classroom if they needed to (or even to seek out reasons to use the language, which always makes me EXTREMELY happy!)
I don' t know that I need to have the classroom set up this way in order to have this happen. I think I could arrange pre-arranged "pods" or something that they could move together themselves out of the original rows when they're not receiving direct instruction or taking a quiz. Really, they already do this in an informal way, but I could polish it up a bit. Just simply having them in these "pods" drastically alters the atmosphere in the room; no longer will it seem like individuals who just happen to be sharing the same learning space, the arrangement will show them that they are intended to share ideas, talk, and help one another. I don't think any teacher could argue that we don't want those kinds of interactions taking place on our watch.