Microsoft Educator Network

Physical Learning Environments Inspiration for Learning Appropriately named, Anne Frank Inspire Academy of San Antonio, Texas, is a whole new kind of charter school whose vision is best described by founding Superintendent Bruce Rockstroh. In his own words, “I am more committed than ever to build and design the exemplary 21st century school that will become a model for learning around the world.” Paul Goldberger recently affirmed that ‘the place where people meet to seek the highest is holy ground’ and the Anne Frank Inspire Academy will become that...

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Physical Learning Environments Can Flexible Learning Buildings be Beautiful? When surveying teachers and educational leaders about their most important aspirations for new school buildings, flexibility always rises to the top. We know that we cannot accurately predict the future. One thing that we can count on is that curriculum will change. How do we prepare for change while constructing facilities that may last for 30, 50 or even 100 years? The ultimate flexible design is a box with a regular grid of columns, allowing the users to rearrange walls with minimal ...

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Physical Learning Environments How Furnishings Affect Learning How do you remember your grade school furniture? Is it a fond memory, or do you recall small, unyielding chairs and uniform desks in rows? For me, just adjusting to sitting in one place for a long time was a huge task, and even now, we expect the “squirmiest” members of our society to sit still and listen to learn. Maybe 45% of them are able to learn well that way, but kinesthetic learners, or those who need more quiet space to learn are out of luck in a traditional classroom. At this FNI ...

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Physical Learning Environments Designing Safe, Sustainable Schools Safety in schools is an on-going dialogue as we try to balance our gut responses with solutions that are not just practical and sustainable, but also enhance the learning experience. School campus design impacts safety, and changes that range from simple to complex can improve school safety and educational opportunities at the same time. This image is from an FNI school project outside of Seattle. By eliminating hallways and using transparency, passive adult supervision covers the entire school....

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Physical Learning Environments Video: "People Say It Looks Magical" Here’s a link to a short video produced by P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School: They’re located on the campus of the University of Florida, and are an actual department of the College of Education there. The K-12 school’s purpose is to provide a place to develop innovative learning programs for the school districts of Florida. My firm worked with P.K. Yonge to plan and design their new elementary school that recently opened, and this video shows some of the ways these new spaces ...

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