Beautiful Classrooms

At Educon I attended a fabulous session, Where are the Beautiful Learning Spaces?, by Andrew Campbell and Jennifer Chan. Within minutes they had me thinking about what a school believes in and how (or whether) a school presents that. I was struck that much of what we do in our schools, at least in my district, goes against what we want. We want families and students to feel welcome in our buildings. But we lock all the doors, have signs up about trespassing, and lots of steps to pass to get beyond the front office. I understand why all those things are there, but I wonder what we lose as a result.

Anyway, we talked some about classrooms. I talked quite a bit with Christina Jenkins and we lamented how rarely we get to see other people's classrooms. There is so much to be learned just from a peek into another classroom, so many new ideas, things you've never considered.

From Stacy's 2nd grade classroom

Thanks to inspiration from Andrew and Jenn, we decided a tumblr would be a great way to try and make this happen. If you or someone you know has a classroom, or even just a part of a classroom, that you think is really welcoming or innovative or comfortable or special in any way, please share it! Christina (thank goodness for folks who know more than I do!) added a submit button at the top so that people can add their pictures on their own. Or you can email me if you prefer.

From my classroom

Please pass this on. I truly believe it could be an interesting resource for teachers, especially for new teachers, if it gets built up with plenty of examples.