Big Question #2

In my last post Inspiration, I talked about the ways in which the design of a room reflect the personalities of the owner.  Celebrity interior designer, Nate Berkus, in his book The Things That Matter shares the stories of home owners told by their homes.  One of the recurring themes is one of encouragement to his reader: find out what makes you unique and design your house to make that evident.  Which leads me to my next big question:

Big Question #2
What kind of story does your classroom/school tell?

If we look at the metaphor of a "story", it's extremely fitting.  A story has a beginning, middle and end.  It is written with an audience in mind.  The story is an interaction between reader and author and shares a piece of the author.  A story has themes, a main idea, a cast of characters, etc.  It would almost be insulting to identify all obvious parallels between a story and a classroom.  But that's why I like his book so much.  It seems so obvious that rooms/homes tell a story but I never thought of it that way.  

If I, as a teacher and main designer of a room (caveat: I do think the kids play an important designer role in the shaping of the story of the classroom) look at my classroom as telling a story, I would certainly be more intentional in how I design and maintain the space.  In order to be intentional, I need to answer Mr. Berkus's question: what makes me/my teaching unique.  How can a visitor who pops in and out quickly get an immediate answer to that question when they walk into the room?  And how can my students, participate in and learn from the story? 

To extend the idea just a bit further, a classroom doesn't act independently.  A school is a collection of rooms that must be shaped by its administrators to tell its own story.  

"As I've said over and over again, our homes should tell the stories of who we are. Not who our decorator is. Not who our friends sometimes think we should be, not who our family occasionally wishes we would be,and not who any number of style magazines tell us we must be." - The Things That Matter, Berkus.

I don't think Mr. Berkus would object to interchanging the word "homes" for "classrooms" in that quote.  

What story does YOUR classroom tell? Does it tell the story you want it to?