A couple of days ago we were visiting schools in Ontario, and a Principal took us to see a classroom that was embracing most of the elements of an Accentuated Learning Environment. The teacher had a big, soft couch, some collaborative seating/desks, a small focused area and a dynamic area in his class. I LOVED his version of the dynamic area...:) See the below photo of his "Stand-up" desk, and the 'chair' to go with it. If you study the desk legs, you'll notice that he cut up some 1½" ABS pipe, and slipped them over the legs which made the desk about 39" tall. While this was kind of wobbly, it did accomplish the standing height component.
And the CHAIR...? You can see that he adjusted one of his student desks down to its minimum setting, and it doubled as a chair/stool...!
Then, at a school just next door to this one, a teacher had taken some cardboard boxes that were about a foot high, taped them to the desktop around three sides (Front and the two sides), and that was her version of a stand-up desk...a regular desk with a cardboard box surface 'height extension'! What was even more cool was that when the student wanted to sit down and work, all he did was release the tape on the right and left sides of the desktop, flip the cardboard box forward, and it hinged over and hung down the front of the desk... Voila! He had suddenly 'adjusted' his desk down again to sitting height...
Teachers are indeed the most resourceful people out there...! Share with us how you are adapting your classroom to create a #FlexbileLearningEnvironment for your students.
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