“As classroom spaces begin to support multiple purposes, they begin to deconstruct the silos that often impede collaboration in schools.”
Similarly, societal and professional changes are also precipitating peda- gogical advances. Simply put, the skills students need to be successful world citi- zens are much different now than they were 20 years ago. For the better part of two decades, independent schools have been engaged in an ongoing discussion about the necessity of what are often called 21st-century skills. Typically, those conversations implicate skills like collabo- ration, critical thinking, communication and creativity, and these skills are diffi- cult to develop online. (Cathedral School, of course, would add “character” as an indispensable skill!) The best schools now recognize that skill development is as significant as content acquisition. Thus, good teachers now recognize the need to instruct, dare I say coach, in a variety of different styles, and schools are designing classrooms to support the multitude of approaches. If we are genuinely interested in developing strong collaborators, then the configuration of our classrooms should support the movement and groupings necessary for successful collaboration to occur. If we are committed to developing effective communicators, then we need classrooms that will support student communication through a variety of modalities. Classrooms, regardless of grade or subject, are beginning to look more like labs that can be rearranged
Potential back view of the School
and customized to support multiple approaches. Schools now resemble modern office spaces, like Uber or Google. As classroom spaces begin to support multiple purposes, they begin to deconstruct the silos that often impede collaboration in schools. Teachers and students interact more frequently and exchange ideas and approaches with greater frequency. Why spend a lot of money building a monolithic auditorium with fixed seating, when the same space can accommodate multiple uses—black box theater, jazz concert hall, student assembly and lecture hall, and art gallery. In other words, classroom flexibility and adaptability maximize educational effi- ciency and catalyze collaboration. We have a prototype at Cathedral already. A few years ago, the School designed a new maker space with these ideas in mind. All of the furniture rests on casters. The ceiling holds a system of pulleys and outlets that allow for a more dynamic learning environment. All of our teachers can use the classroom. At this point, we have used the maker space for admissions meetings, science classes, robotics club, and afterschool programs. It represents the model that we would like to replicate in all of the school’s classrooms. During the last academic year, we retained the services of a San Francisco- based architectural firm, Mark Cavagnero Associates, to help evaluate our campus and re-imagine our use of classroom space. This process generated new ideas for our campus and classrooms that include: ● The redesign and modernization of all classrooms on our Lower and Upper School hallways.
popular instructional style— a somewhat mechanical way to educate children. As you might imagine, however, our appreciation for what constitutes effective pedagogy has changed, and educators are beginning to understand how a classroom should be re-imagined to better support demands of modern educational practices and the students themselves. Technology represents one of the primary catalysts for change. Information, of course, is both ubiquitous and immediately accessible. This reality alters the historical model of the teacher serving as the purveyor of knowledge. Think about it like this: At any moment, any of us can access iTunes University or Khan Academy and take free classes from the best teachers and professors in the world. What this means, then, is that students can access information from multiple sources, and teachers have to be adept at guiding students to credible content. Correspondingly, students are now assembling this information from numerous sources into real-world prod- ucts, like documentaries, exhibits, and presentations. This requires classrooms that are technologically equipped to provide students with information and to allow them to create a multitude of products.
WHILE CATHEDRAL SCHOOL HAS ALWAYS RECOGNIZED THE IMPERA- TIVE OF GREAT TEACHERS —and attracting and retaining them remains our top priority—we also recognize that other factors can influence learning. Increasingly, classroom design is one such factor. This hasn’t always been the case in schools, however. Back when Conroy was teaching, and probably back when most of us were in elementary school, classroom configuration, regardless of subject or grade, was remarkably homo- geneous. Most classrooms consisted of individual desks arranged in rows and columns, with the teacher rather perma- nently rooted in front of the students. This almost universal configuration worked because the teacher, primarily, and textbooks, secondarily, served as the sources of information. Teachers imparted knowledge to students, who were then expected to demonstrate their learning through a combination of rather common assessments, like homework, quizzes, and tests. Innovation in exhibi- tions of learning often consisted of the shoebox diorama. Learning happened individually, with very little collaboration among students. (Thus, the individual desks.) The simplicity and regimen of the classroom arrangement supported the simplicity and regimen of this
Potential Sacramento Street view of the School
Potential classroom
Typical yesteryear classroom
● The development of a science wing to house three new state-of-the-art science labs. ● The expansion of the school onto the terrace (the space between the school and Grace Cathedral) to add classrooms for small group work in the Lower School and a learning commons in the Upper School. ● The expansion of our rooftop playground.
● The development of external “living walls” on Sacramento and Jones Streets. We continue to move ahead with the planning of these campus developments with the expectation that this modern learning environment will support the fantastic work that our teachers are doing already and anticipate doing in the future.
FALL 2018 • RED & GOLD | 27
26 | CATHEDRAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS
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