Education Week - April 15, 2015 - Special Report - S20

S20 |
EDUCATION WEEK n
April 15, 2015
Blended Learning: Breaking Down Barriers > www.edweek.org/go/blended-barriers
Classroom
Landscape
On the Intrinsic Schools'
Chicago campus, each grade
has two interconnected
classrooms, or "pods," with
their own functions.
Big Board/Little Board
The most traditional of all the pod areas. A teacher leads small-group
discussions or lessons, using an overhead projector with students seated
in "Node chairs." Having both boards in each pod allows one teacher
to conduct a lesson at the Big Board while another teacher leads a
small-group session at the Little Board, such as a meeting for students
needing extra help, or those moving at an advanced pace.
A Charter School Designed for Ed Tech
By Bryan Toporek
Chicago
O
n the first permanent campus of the Intrinsic
Schools, the physical design of the building is meant
to play an integral part in blended learning.
Visitors to the charter school operator's
60,000-square-foot space, a former lumberyard
that was gutted and reopened this school year as
an educational center on the city's northwest side,
see students and teachers working in different, interconnected classrooms,
known as "pods," divided up by function and subject area.
In one section of the pod, teachers lead groups of students through
lessons. In another area, students work independently on Google
Chromebooks using a mix of software programs. A few paces away, students
collaborate on lessons or read independently, depending on the
day. Another space can be reorganized to accommodate college-lecture
type lessons, individualized instruction, and everything in between.
Education leaders and architects have for years touted the benefits
of designing schools to mesh with their academic missions-and to
create healthy environments for students. The new Intrinsic campus,
located in the working class Belmont-Cragin neighborhood, reflects
that same philosophy, and one school's interest in using blended learning
and technology to support teaching and learning.
Since planning for the school began two years ago, Intrinsic officials
have cleared numerous obstacles, including finding a location
for its first permanent campus and overcoming clashes between its
theoretical design and practical use. In addition, the original model for
Intrinsic needed to be fine-tuned so that each space would play a role
in helping the school-in which students rotate through classrooms
holding up to 65 students-achieve its instructional goals. The experimentation,
and revision continues today.
School officials around the country looking for lessons from the
Chicago school or from similar educational models need to create
plans that meet the priorities of their students, teachers, and communities-not
to attempt to satisfy some abstract ideal, those who
know school design say.
"The most important thing to keep in mind is not to design for the
next hot trend," said Greg H. Monberg, the director of design research
for Fanning Howey, a national architecture/engineering firm in South
Bend, Ind., specializing in K-12 schools. "It's not about chasing an idea
and saying, 'Oh, they did a blended classroom over here. We need to
replicate that at our place.' "
The overriding goal should be to "design for real flexibility," he
said, so that educators and students can "do things educationally
they couldn't before."
Intrinsic was launched with the help of a planning grant from the
Charter School Growth Fund, a nonprofit that invests in the independent,
public schools. That money allowed its founders to visit schools
around the country and refine their model.
Tech Landscape
Leaders of the school say one of their main goals is to give students
greater ownership over their learning, through technology
and other means. Students spend roughly 50 percent of their time
working on Chromebooks, using programs designed by providers
such as Khan Academy, Thinkcerca, and NoRedInk. Some
instruction is teacher-led, while other lessons are collaborative
or based on small-group discussions.
The school spent its first academic
year, in 2013-14, on the sixth floor of a
renovated office building in Chicago's
"Loop" neighborhood. Planning for the
permanent campus, including the purchase
of the Belmont property, took place
around that same time.
Construction of the new school cost
just over $19 million, which Intrinsic
covered largely through an independent
loan. The Next Generation
Learning Challenges, a competitive
A former lumberyard
houses the Intrinsic
Schools' campus
program that seeks to support education innovation through
technology, also contributed $450,000 to Intrinsic, although that
money did not go toward site acquisition or construction. The
learning challenges are funded through the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, among other sources. (The foundation also helps
support Education Week's coverage of college- and career-ready
standards.)
During the school's first year in the Loop location, teachers had broad
flexibility in how they used classroom space, furniture, and technology.
But they discovered that a lack of anchors, or fixed spaces devoted to
certain kinds of learning, undermined students' ability to focus.
Teachers relayed those concerns to the school's chief architect, Larry
P. Kearns, which allowed him to alter plans for the Belmont campus.
Having that incubation year was "a huge, huge benefit," said Mr.
Kearns, a principal of Wheeler Kearns Architects, based in Chicago.
"It disproved some of the theories that were developed speculatively,
MULTIMEDIA
View a panoramic,
interactive photo display
of Intrinsic's building.
www.edweek.org/go/
panorama
Chicago
http://www.edweek.org/go/blended-barriers http://www.edweek.org/go/panorama
Education Week - April 15, 2015 - Special Report

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