Essentials Magazine Essentials Spring 2018 | Page 31

Optimizing classroom design has
primarily been the role for architects and
designers on the larger scale and class-
room teachers in their individual spaces.
Both groups have done some amazing
things to meet the modern learning
needs of students, but these efforts have
been limited in their scale and long-term
impact because they haven’t focused
on having building and district leaders
central to the design process.
Leaders that are playing a central role
in these conversations are seeing how ex-
cellent space design from the outside of
the building, all the way to the classroom,
leads to amazing benefits. These benefits
include: showcasing the vision of the
school in a nonverbal way, uniting teach-
ers, students, and leaders, telling the
story of the change and innovation taking
place in the building, caring in new ways
for the whole child, shifting teaching and
learning, and finally, building leadership
capacity throughout the organization.
The Non-Verbal Vision
Walls talk and every image speaks a
thousand words about a school. Leaders
are always looking for their vision of
success to be understood and embraced
in deeper ways by more students, teach-
ers, and parents. Space design is the
non-verbal vision of a school, and inten-
tional design can help to get everyone
pursuing the same purpose.
Moving to Commitment
A redesign process elevates more
voices into the learning space. It de-
mocratizes the decisions about entry-
ways, hallways, classrooms, and librar-
ies. These shared projects help to move
an organization from compliance to
commitment. Having a role in designing
the school from pedagogical design to
designing the use of digital tools to the
rethinking of the space brings a fresh
level of commitment to the work hap-
pening throughout the school.
Showcasing Innovation
Schools are changing. Leaders are
supporting this change, yet too much
of it is trapped in individual classrooms
with a small audience of individuals that
both know and understand the changes
that are happening. Leaders in the habit
of intentional space design are able to
showcase the growth and innovation
at their school based solely on how the
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