SMART thinking!

Amelia Wagner sits on a WittFitt chair while working at her desk; photo credit: Amy Correnti www.rrstar.com

This from Cathy Bayer at the Rockford Register Star:

Students at Spectrum School have had their standard chairs replaced with WittFitt chairs – a chair like an exercise or stability ball with feet.

The chairs help to increase students’ attention level and improve posture.  Each chair is fit to a students’ size and the cost is comparable to the old chairs – about $30.  Schools can buy about five different sizes and students can change seats as they grow.  Balls can also be inflated or deflated for comfort.

Teachers observe less wiggling and leaning forward.  The balls help to exercise the stomach and back muscles because one needs to concentrate to stay upright.

SMARTthinking Spectrum School!!

From YouTube:  This video was created by Tom Woodward of Henrico County schools in Virginia. Tom used the work of Karl Fisch from Colorado who created a PPT using various quotes and statistics from “flat world” thinking.

Now check out the 4.0 Version of Shift Happens

This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://mediaconvergence.economist.com and http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com.

Just had the privilege of seeing Jonathan Kozol speak at the Mid-Year CEFPI Conference. If you haven’t ever read Savage Inequalities or Shame of a Nation, you need to.  Posting a link of his 2005 speech at CSU Sonoma. Kozol starts speaking at about 9:24 into the video.  It’s about an hour long speech, but MAN is it worth it…he makes a passionate and compassionate statement for underprivileged students in America.  And as a facility planner I have visited some of these environments he speaks of….we need more people to carry Kozol’s torch.  Enjoy.

“Pick battles big enough to matter;
small enough to win.”

From Online Universities.com:

“Whether you want to be a teacher, principal or even an educational policy-maker, learning all you can about the field and how to be a more powerful leader while you’re still in college is essential. These blogs will fill you in on the latest news, provide inspiration, and ensure that you are up-to-date with the latest educational technologies so you can be the best education leader you can be.”

Check out these blogs for the latest updates in education, subject specific blogs (language arts, math, science, etc.), new ideas in technology, policy, and much more.

One of my favorites is the Box of Tricks Blog.  SMART resource! Thanks Online Education…

From Huffington Post: Residents look on as rescue workers search for victims at the 'La Promesse' school after it collapsed in Petionville, Haiti, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008. The school, where roughly 500 students crowded into several floors, collapsed Friday during classes killing at least 75 people and injuring many more. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

The Council of Educational Facility Planners International and Schools for Children of the World are creating a task force to assess and eventually help repair Haiti Schools. The following is a description of volunteer services needed from the SCW website:

Initial Assessment:

o Structural engineers  with seismic expertise to assess the safety of remaining school facilities

o Volunteers to assist with the clean-up efforts

· Schools that can be repaired will need:

o Project Managers to manage project funds and provide project oversight

o Architects and Engineers to provide design solutions

o Contractors to make the needed repairs

o Fund raisers to identify and secure resources

· Facilities that cannot be repaired will need:

o Project Managers to manage the project funds and provide project oversight

o Contractors to help with the demolition and cleanup

o Educational Facility Planners, Architects, and Engineers with seismic experience to plan and design replacement facilities

o Fund raisers to identify and secure resources

Click here to find out how to donate or sign up to travel to Haiti and help out.

From District Administration:  “ARAMARK recently  launched Cool*Caf a new elementary school dining environment that incorporates the company’s newly designed wellness menus that exceed U.S. Department of Agriculture and state-level nutrition guidelines. Cool*Caf uses animation and student-inspired themes and messages on walls that promote good health.”

According to a USA Today article about Cool*Caf, the concepts include:

•Hefty selections. Fresh fruit and veggie “bars” are being installed with five or more fresh selections in each. Kids can take as many fruits and veggies as they want as part of their meal.

•Splashy décor. Cafeteria serving areas are being redecorated in bright colors with kid-friendly characters and signage.

•Shorter lines. Express lanes are being added so kids who bring lunch don’t wait in long lines for fruit, veggies or milk.

Another healthy trend in schools is the use of local farms and even school grown gardens.  According to District Administration,”many districts have also begun sourcing some of their produce from local farmers—a win-win for both parties. The national Farm to School programs connect schools with local farms to improve student nutrition, provide health and nutrition education opportunities, and support local small farmers.”  School districts such as LA Unified have encouraged schools to plant their own gardens and create a composting program. Very SMART thinking!

There seems to be a lot of interest out there around this topic with our facilities friends in schools so I thought I’d post another story from NPR about the Urinal Fly.   It seems that reducing “spillage” can be fun.  Click here to see the full story at NPR….

Photo from Architectural Record/ by Tim Griffith

This from Architectural Record:  Camino Nueva High School, a Camino Nueva Charter School,  (designed by Daly Genik Architects) is an urban high school designed on a site that is essentially a traffic island in a gritty section of Los Angeles called Filipinotown. The site is bounded by the 101 and four busy streets.

The architects fit over 30,000 SF in under an acre of land.  The building’s exterior is skinned in metal perforated panels to allow light in and block sound from the busy streets.  Interior courtyards are sheltered from noise and blowing wind.  Click here to see the whole story.

Okay this blog is all about SMART thinking…but Diesel has a point! Most brilliant ideas started out sounding stupid!  As visionaries, we need to go out on a limb sometimes.  So go out and think stupid folks….dreaming is what moves us forward.

Be Stupid

This from Huffington Post:

“Today’s schools are an anachronism. They resemble the assembly lines of the industrial era, when they were conceived. Groups of 25 to 30 children, beginning at age five, are moved through 13 years of schooling, attending 180 days each year, and taking five major subjects daily for lengths of time specified by the Carnegie Foundation in 1910. These schools are time-based — all children are expected to master the same studies at the same rate over the same period of time. They focus on teaching — how long students are exposed to instruction, not how much they have learned. They are rooted in the belief that one size fits all — all students can benefit equally from the same curriculum and methods of instruction.

We have learned much about education since today’s schools were created. We know now that what students learn and what they are taught are different, and that learning is what matters. We know that children learn different subjects at different rates, some slower and some faster. We know that children have different learning styles, which make different methods of instruction more or less effective for them. We also know that today’s new technologies offer the prospect of individualizing education for each child and gearing instruction to the student’s particular learning style and most effective means of instruction.” (Levine)

Through an innovative iniative led by the New York City Public Schools, the School of One will focus on the needs of learning versus those of teaching; turning traditional schools inside out by allowing students to focus on their individual learning and setting their own pace for doing so.

Photo Credit:  American Architectural Foundation/
Dull Olson Weekes Architects and Cuningham Group Architect

Focusing on the physical environment of a School of one, the New York City Department of Education’s School of One faculty and staff gathered with architects John Weekes, AIA, of Dull Olson Weekes Architects; John Pflueger, AIA, of Cuningham Group Architects; and educational planner Susan Wolff, director of Wolff Designs. The occasion was a charrette put on last May by the American Architecture Foundation and sponsored by Target.

If you have teenagers, you know that long and complicated conversations happen all day long through texting, facebook, and other forms of electronic communication. Frequently, I have been in planning sessions where people ask “why don’t we use these forms of communication to help us teach?”

Here’s an example, from the Free Technology for Teachers Blog about back-channeling.  Back-channeling is utilizing a “microblog” (or private blog site) to have an on-going conversation.  Mr. Byrne at www.free4teachers.com relates how he set up a back-channel during a movie, related questions during the movie via the microblog, and allowed discussion via the micro-blog.  He relates how it enhanced communication and attentiveness in class as well as giving less outspoken students a forum for discussion.

In his recent article, he recommends five platforms (free) for back-channeling: Chatzy, TodaysMeet, edmodo, present.ly, and the soon to be released Google wave.  Back-channeling: the future is now. Do it!!

This from Edutopia:  “Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA) is a student-achievement program that uses music, dance, and visual arts to teach skills used in reading, writing, math, science, and other subjects. The curriculum, based on brain-development research, is designed to engage specific skills targeted to each grade level. Independent research demonstrates that OMA has dramatically improved test scores and teacher effectiveness. Launched as a pilot program in 2000, OMA now thrives in more than 40 Tucson, Arizona, public elementary schools.”

thinkSMART planning has had the great pleasure of working to implement visual and performing arts facilities at TUSD and we can definitely say this is very SMART thinking!

This from PopTech – If this doesn’t encourage us to build STEM labs for youngsters, I don’t know what will…Dan Nocera’s video on personalized energy is very SMART thinking!

Dan Nocera: Personalized Energy from PopTech on Vimeo.

Arizona State University and Scottsdale Unified School District are leading the way for other schools in the field of energy sustainability.  Bonny Bentzin, Director of University Sustainability Practice at the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability and Dr. David Peterson, Asst. Superintendent for Facilities at SUSD are taking advantage of some new Solar Initiatives that are adding up to big savings and a lower carbon footprint for the schools.

The ASU projects are the largest solar installation at a US University and the power generated is the equivalent of that needed to power 275 homes or taking 420 cars off the road! The project cost NO UPFRONT $$ for the University through a Photovoltaic System Services Management Agreement between ASU and Sun Devil Solar, LLC. The systems were supplied by SolEquity under a lease purchase agreement.

At SUSD, Dr. Peterson worked hard to change legislation in AZ to allow school districts to enter into long-term lease purchase agreements in order to fund the installation of solar panels on K-12 Campuses.  With the passage of ARS 15-213.01, “a school district may contract for the procurement of a guaranteed energy cost savings contract with a qualified provider through a competitive sealed proposal process as provided by the procurement practices adopted by the state board of education.”  By making use of third party owner-operator agreements, the schools are able to take advantage of up to 70% savings on the initial equipment installation through local and federal grant programs, thereby lowering payback time dramatically .

Thanks to Neil Gaimon for this lovely tweet , and Christian Long for bringing it to our attention at think:lab.  Lovely…

The polyurethane skin of this utility bldg is described as "a public square wrapped around a box"

This project spotted on the Playscapes Blog…. The new city Leidsche Rijn in the Netherlands built this utility bldg to house machinery that will recapture previously discarded waste heat in the form of hot water. The heat transfer station is a zero emmission building and is intended to supply all new buildings with heat and warm water.

The city challenged the architects  (NL Architects) to design a skin for the building: the architects took them seriously.  The skin is molded to follow the interal machinery, higher on one side than another…giving the building an attractive sculptural quality.

Climbing grips incorporated into the building skin

Then the architects proceeded to add playful features to encourage youth interaction with the building instead of vandalism:  climbing grips inserted into the polyurethene skin, a “doorscope” which is a backward peephole inserted into the door allowing a view into the inner workings of the building rather than the traditional view outward…allowing the curious a view of the machinery,

…a sloped “hole” through the skin of the building and other strategically placed holes that create a playful water cistern and downspout action in the wet climate as well as allowing roosts for bats and other birds.  Very SMART thinking!!

Great recommendation from the Ed-Tech Blog by Fred Sharpsteen:  “The purpose of this course is to provide ”Just in Time” training through an online interface for K-12 educators based on the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). These standards are the basic technology skills every educator should possess. In the process, educators will develop their own skills and discover what students need in order to meet the NETS for Students, as well as the new MMC Online Experience requirement. ”

This awesome website has 21 skills educators can learn in a just-in-time fashion such as blogging, collaboration tools, assessment tools, online surveys, content area tools, digital citizenship, digital images, podcasting, etc. etc.  Each link has FREE resources online for you to use and a quick exercise to do. SMART thinking ! Check it out.

This submitted from Amy Yurko, SCW’s Board Secretary – “Schools for Children of the World is dedicated to developing school facilities for children who otherwise have little or no access to education. We establish partnerships with the communities in which we build schools. Our goal is to help local community members design and build a school, empowering them to use the experience to make further improvements to their community and the surrounding region. The community generally provides the land, volunteer labor, local materials, etc. We provide planning and design assistance, as well as materials and financial support to employ an experienced contractor to lead the project so that the resulting school facilities are well-built and safe for current and future generations of students.”

Tax-deductable donatations can be made at https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=30067, or the organization sponsors volunteer trips several times per year.  Check out www.schoolsforchildren.org for more information.  This is a truly worthy organization!

Thanks to the folks at Adolfson & Peterson Construction for this information: This free K-12 toolkit for schools that want to go green. The Green Existing Schools Toolkit and accompanying training resources will help schools and school districts green their existing portfolio of facilities and achieve LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance certification.  Included in the toolkit are a Green Existing Schools Project Management Guide (PDF) and a Green Existing Schools Implementation Workbook (PDF). These resources provide guidance, best practices, policy, and planning templates to assist school officials in seeking LEED for Existing Buildings: O&M certification, and are designed to be used in concert with additional resources contained in the Green Existing Schools Toolkit.

The BackPack Concept

The BackPack Program concept was developed at the Arkansas Rice Depot, after a school nurse asked for help because hungry students were coming to her with stomachaches and dizziness. The local food bank began to provide the school children with groceries in non-descript backpacks to carry home.

About the BackPack Program

• Backpacks filled with food that children take home on weekends
• Food is child-friendly, nonperishable and easily consumed.
• Backpacks are discreetly distributed to children on the last day before the weekend or holiday vacation

You can help kids who are hungry during off school vacations and weekends by contributing to Feed America directly on their website. What a great way to help a  child in these tough economic times.   This is truly  SMART thinking!

Tree Pod School in the UK

From the website Inhabitat.com….”Recently the Elleray Preparatory School in the UK unveiled an incredible set of tree-top classrooms. Situated in the Lake District National Park, the three green-built class pods stand on stilts connected by a center platform made from recycled materials. Built to have a low impact on the environment while accommodating the school’s expanding student body, the Treehouse School is sure to inspire all the children the walk through its doors.”

The project is designed by Kita Design Company

Boardwalk and Viewing platform over the tidal marsh at Tabor Marine Science Center by NCA Architects

This link spotted by Christopher Grimes, Director of Facilities Development at Roseville Joint Union High School District.  The Tabor Marine Center for Marine and Nautical Sciences is a 7,500 square foot facility that provides Tabor students direct access to the study of marine life in the Sippican Harbor for 9-12 students. The project is designed by NCA architects. Students have hands on access to marine life which is studied in the large wet lab and then returned to the sea.

Thanks to Schooldesigner.com for providing information on their 2nd Annual Collabetition Winners!

Elementary Students at Deer Hill study science, technology, engineering and mathematics in an interactive, hands-on setting

STEM allows students to learn about the scientific method and science phenomenon in a hands-on setting.  Where better to introduce the love of these than elementary school?  Students at this Massachusetts school have the opportunity to study complex systems through exploration and experience.  The lab, created through a $35,000 grant,  serves students in grade three though five (about 350 students) at Deer Hill and covers the areas of earth science, life science, technology/engineering, data gathering and analysis.  STEM has been promoted by the White House as a model that American schools should follow; starting in elementary school is SMART thinking!

Active Voting devices have been gaining popularity as interactive teaching tools in the classroom.  The instructor uses the devices to get immediate student participation and feedback.  The software allows for quick quizzes and polling and gives a real-time response to students.  The software can record each student’s responses to let the teacher assess how well the material is being absorbed; allowing her to adjust the lesson plan accordingly.

I recently had the opportunity to utilize student response devices in a presentation at the Council of Educational Facility Planners Intl Annual Conference  in Washinton DC.  The devices (generously loaned by  Classroom Performance System ) added a whole new level of interactivity and discussion to the presentation.

The next generation of classroom response devices will allow students (or anyone) to utilize PDAs, cellphones, laptops or any web enabled device through a web-based system called SoftClick.  – Molly Smith

TEC emphasizes rigor, relationships and relevance through collaboration

The Truman Education Complex is just one of multiple small school solutions highlighted in the Architects of Achievement article 12 Strategies for “Going Small.” Among the 12 strategies are building new, building within an existing facility, within a campus of schools, and others.  The article highlights the fact that small school experiences work, and one solution doesn’t fit all.  Each strategy highlights real-world examples which are great for sharing with planning groups and faculty.  Thanks A of A!

Library Seating Can Be Fun and Comfortable

The Robinhood Foundation targets poverty in New York City by investing in great projects and programs. One program is the L!brary Initiative which is “a partnership of the Robin Hood Foundation and the New York City Department of Education, with support from the Mayor, corporate donors, and a team of architects, seeks to reverse these patterns of low literacy skills and underachievement by working with community school districts and public elementary schools to design, build, equip, and staff new elementary school libraries.”   The foundation works with local architects to renovate and rejuvenate places of learning for kids of poverty.

Instead of creating spaces that are overly ornate or intimidating, the project centers on creating exciting, kid-oriented learning spaces through unique design, interior colors, lighting and furnishings.

Kudos to all involved!

Welcome to SMART thinking! a blog is designed to provide a forum for sharing the BEST ideas in schools.  Please join us and post your ideas, some suggested topics are listed under “About”