Taking The School Library From “Brick and Mortar” to “Click and Mortar”

Learning Commons

Did you know many schools are no longer calling the library a library? Nowadays it’s becoming more prevalent to call this multi-use space a “learning commons” or “media center” or “technology hub.”

"The more you know about the past, the better you are prepared for the future." - Theodore Roosevelt

All Eyes on Thee - Achieve and Maintain Your Students' Attention

Attention span and focus - how do we set up our classrooms for students to feel focused and engaged? This can particularly be a problem in hands-off style classes like History or Social Studies. How do we connect with each one of our students while fostering a sense of community? Here are a couple ideas to maximize time and space in the classroom while getting the most focus from each of your students.

Room for Fun! Designing your Classroom for Younger Children

"Play. It brings joy. It is within this context that learning can occur." - Kyle Snow, Ph.D.

Early childhood environments should foster both fun and safety; a place where we balance freedom of expression with fundamentals of good behavior. Here are some suggestions on how to give students room to play and room to focus:

"Science is a way of thinking, much more than it is a body of knowledge." - Carl Sagan

The Science Lab - Explore & Discover!

Teachers' Lounge - Take a Breath, Take a Break!

"Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning." - Robert John Meehan

The teachers' lounge has been a hot topic of debate for for a while. Are they worth having? Are they gossip pools? Has technology and high performance curriculums taken over the lounge? Studies show that teachers' lounges actually reinforce the spirit of community amongst educators as well as recharge tired minds. Lounges help teachers reengage in everyday topics with their peers, and also disconnect from the daily classroom routine. The key to a functional teachers' lounge? Make it feel like home! Here are some ideas on how to make the teachers' lounge an inviting and safe environment for teachers:

"If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn." - Ignacio Estrada

Makerspace: Hands-on Experiences Encourage Confidence

The Great Divide: Privacy Without Boundaries

Classroom design has undoubtedly changed in the last few decades. The days of static desks and rigid student chairs placed in repetitive rows are a thing of the past. Teachers and students want to engage in environments that stimulate learning and interaction, with spaces that are comfortable and inspiring. A large part of this new trend is a philosophy that we like to call “privacy without boundaries”: spaces that are accessible yet private at the same time. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at what inspired our design team to develop products around this philosophy and provide some specific examples of how this can be applied to your classroom to create a more engaging and dynamic learning environment.