Princeton Community Middle School
LOTH creates innovative, active-learning environments
At Princeton Community Middle School, a new building is breathing new life into instruction thanks to a dedicated 6-12 research team. Superintendent Dr. Gary Pack’s urging for “classrooms that look and operate differently” resulted in “lots of national research” and a true collaboration with LOTH and Steelcase.
A team member remarked, “We thought we were going to be sold some furniture, instead we were really schooled on the research and design process – the specifics and function and purpose of furniture.”
Challenge:
- culture: analyze district culture – determine how to reset the culture being created in classroom settings
- adaptability: the ability to rearrange furniture in the middle of a lesson without major disruption
- collaborate: make the sharing of information easier between instructors and students and students with other students
- understand and provide: new ways to engage; student-centered spaces
- the importance of space: enable lecture mode, group set-ups, individual work – from one class to the next or even during the same class period
Solution:
- discovery: the 6-12 team traveled to Grand Rapids, MI for a site tour at Steelcase where they were given “an experience, not a sales pitch – teaching us how we could create that much more in our new facility…”
- experience: more people work in groups than work alone – “Steelcase was a prime example, we saw their teams collaborating and joined in…”
- try it out!: provide a pilot classroom using Node tablet chairs
Result:
- core academic spaces: technology in education is changing teaching methods – this requires transforming the spaces where this process is carried out
- access: Node chairs provide flexibility and a 360° swivel for open sightlines to instructor, media, or other students in collaboration
- mobility: ease of moving tables and/or chairs means freedom for multiple activities and multiple purposes from initial classroom footprint
- collaborative benefits: magnetic, double-sided markerboards, part of the Verb classroom tables, work in a collaborative manner, can be passed around the room or used as dividers for individualized testing (a big component of Ohio’s instructional model)
candid comments:
– “I know it’s just furniture, but it’s not just furniture.”
– “Kids were excited, energized with the Node chairs. They came to class excited – it just worked.”
– “I was inspired by the possibilities of the furniture in any classroom.”
– “It rejuvenated the staff.”
– “The learning environment can make a difference.”
“We can pay it back on a bigger scale. A lot of the work we did, a lot of other schools SHOULD be looking at. I was proud to be a part of this.”
Princeton Community Middle School Principal William Sprankles
Princeton is the largest installation of Node chairs in the United States.