Tuesday 17 January 2012

The Third Teacher (on less than a shoestring)


I dropped by school this afternoon, and our classroom is 'ready' to start being transformed into the studio of a student driven visual culture hipster publication. As you can see, there's going to be a bit of work required to take it from where it is to a space that rivals Google's office environments.

However, as innovators, and not ones to be disheartened by the lack of a personal architect and a building team, we'll be transforming the space over the next three weeks into an environment that is at the very least conducive of a range of collaborative and individual learning opportunities. Our main ideas are based on flexible and interchangeable spaces for talking and working in various sized groups, spaces to socialize and recharge (couches and kai) and spaces for making work.

We'll be taking inspiration from The Third Teacher (a project I first met via the book, which my principal promptly stole off me when I showed it to her!). We're pretty excited about having Christian Long (from Cannon Design, home of The Third Teacher) speaking at the Learning@School conference right here in Hamilton later this month.


4 comments:

  1. Incredibly humbled / excited by this post, Sam...and really eager to meet up in person this coming week down in Hamilton during my visit. As an ex-classroom teacher who constantly 'hacked' / 're-designed' my classroom(s) on a shoestring budget, I love what you're doing here. And really humbled that our book had some influence on your thinking. Make sure you find me at Learning@School. Really want to hear more about what you're doing in person. And I'm @ChristianLong via Twitter if you're in that mix. Plus, you can follow "The Third Teacher" via FB or @TheThirdTeacher via Twitter as well. We just posted a link to your post / project there as well.

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  2. So good to read your comment Christian. Great to connect with another educator who understands some of the challenges we're facing and is at the same time excited about the potential of what we're trying! I'll definitely track you down at Learning@School. Most of the team involved in the project will be at L@S too so you could be up for quite a conversation about our plans (for this year, and the really big ones we have for the longer term)!

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  3. Anita from HillcrestJanuary 29, 2012 5:04 pm

    Saw you at learning@school but too busy to talk and connect. You are anispiration Sam new year manic days ahead but good to know you are out there in the ether of Hanilton.

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  4. Thanks Anita. You're right about manic days ahead, but I'm really looking forward to it. We must make sure we keep getting the Hamilton art teachers together from time to time even though Tracy's no longer in the facilitation role. All the best for your year.

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