When I first read our assigned article relating to the
creative spirit of design my thoughts went directly to a very bad design that
we are currently experiencing. This past
summer our cafeteria was remodeled. We went
from having one service line to having two.
This was going to be a big improvement for our school having two serving
lines. IT is a disaster!! Most days when I go and get my lunch, I just
shake my head thinking about the design.
It is the most problematic for our kindergarteners and first graders –
very short little children who cannot reach the poor lunch worker trying to
hand them their tray and the glass so far down that you cannot really maneuver
the tongs to take out a piece of fruit or get some salad. Each day I struggle, and I cannot understand
why this design has make it so hard for our students to get their lunch. One more than one occasion I have been “stuck’
helping these young students get their food.
This is brand new and I just do
not understand why this was not thought about before putting it in our
school. I guess someone must have thought
it was ok but I would like that person or team to please come during kindergarten
lunch and really see how the design it working.
OK, that was my design vent.
I believe the creative spirit of design is having the flexibility to
continue improving. From our article one
of my take a ways was the statement “designers with the creative spirit are
often tinkering with tangible works-in-progress pushing the boundaries of what
they know, making better sense of their
ideas, and, importantly, testing how well emerging designs accomplish the goals
they originally set out to achieve”. (p.55). So, having goals really is a big part but getting
to those goals is not set in stone – it may be achieved in many different
ways. The article also mentioned
perspective – which is something I have to really think about. We have discussed this in class of really
thinking of how the student is seeing this lesson or concept and improving our
lesson from the student’s view. Having a
creative spirit of design is a willingness to continue to improve, be reflective,
make changes and to take risks.
The people who create designs for schools are probably not teachers. It seems like your admin could call them back in to your school during lunch to see the lines operate first hand. Never a dull moment!
ReplyDeleteI agree with being flexible when designing lessons, what works for one group of students may not work with the next group. My goal is to get some of the teachers on my team to become more flexible and not so rigid in their thinking. McDonald(2011),suggests being flexible is very important for designers who aim for high levels of instructional quality. There is always a new opportunity to change the course of a project.
On Friday afternoons if my students have a full marble jar then they get extra time to build with legos, play a game or choose to draw at their desk. It is amazing to see their creative lego designs. A couple of the students tried to build some of the symbols they learned about in class. They designed their own lesson with the legos.
So ladies, I think when we retire we should start a consulting firm for school architects! Don't all teachers feel like the building we work in wasn't designed efficiently! Our school is on the bond issue to be renovated in 2025 or something...I would SO LOVE to be on a committee that develops ideas that make sense for our new school.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of designing new...I've been battling with in my mind recently about a project that I've done for year. I have my students design museum displays for the Native American museum based on culture groups. This year I've really debated about trying to change it up and wondering if what I have them do is "good". It's very creation-oriented in that students have to decide what they want to actually make with their own 2 hands that represents an aspect of culture but also incorporates a natural, capital, or human resource. I turned to my colleagues and asked their opinion. To my surprise, the manual creation is what they LOVE about the project. They like it's NOT digitally made and that kids have to get their "hands dirty". An affordance of what I have them do is working with their hands, which I feel like is a lost art. Yes I could have them do digital projects, but I fear that also looses some of the share-ability that the physical projects allow when sitting out on tables. Other grade levels visit the museum and stroll through learning. That would be harder to do with digital projects. So I'm proud of myself for continuing to think about other ways to design the project, but I think I'm keeping things the way they are for now.
Design is such a wonderful thing, and something I have such a hard time seeing myself doing! I recently bought a home, and I have all the joy and happiness of being a hoemowner, but I am terrified about the prospect of designing the apartment, as I second-guess my every move, and this is just what happens in my teaching practice, I have a hard time seeing myself as a designer and question my every move. But I hope to let my new apartment "talk to me" and tell me exactly what it needs to make it more my shelter for my spirit, just like I would/should do with my teaching practice, trust it, and let it tell me what it needs so I can make it work better for my students.
ReplyDeleteOh the salad bar design...fail. It is okay to fail as long as the design is ever-changing with the ability to be modified. I think many of us still struggle to see ourselves as designers in our classroom, which then makes it hard to see opportunities where are students are being designers. I know that I need to let go of the reigns and let creativity flow and guide us.
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