LAB School for Creative Learning is located in central Fort Collins, Colorado, off of Orchard Place & Taft Hill Road in a young suburban neighborhood. Also home to Colorado State University, Fort Collins acquires an energetic ambiance. The building is essentially two schools within one building, the LAB School and Polaris Expeditionary Learning School (middle & high school.)
Together, the LAB school and Polaris target expeditionary learning, an educational design that accentuates learning by doing, which focuses on individual learning, character growth, teamwork, reflection and literacy. Students are engaged and challenged through hands on projects. The curriculum emphasizes that students take personal responsibility in their own learning. The schools’ main goals include:
Parents, along with their children, are active participants in their learning and involvement with the school. As bus transportation services are not available to students, the majority of students are dropped off by their parents or walk from their homes in the surrounding neighborhood, in the morning. There are also no active sports teams at the school, however, that does not stop students from being physically active in sports groups. Fort Collins allows many opportunities and communities for students to be active members in sports groups and other physical activities. Surrounding schools allow for LAB school students to participate in their sports programs.
C L A S S R O O M E N V I R O N M E N T
Tom’s 4th/5th grade classroom is a very organized space, where students can access many learning materials & resources, as well as engage in an open, distraction-free environment. The North wall of the room is dedicated to students’ personal materials, where students hang up their backpacks and store their personal belongings. On the wall just above this storage space, Tom includes posters of each student and their positive personality traits, which allows for each student to be individually recognized and influenced to continue their positive behaviors in the classroom. The designated backside of the classroom, West side, includes Tom’s desk area, computers, storage spaces for educational games/books and a corner library that has a window which overlooks the playground and mountains. This area is very organized and full of resources for referencing, alongside a relaxing, sunlit area for students to read and access extra materials in the small corner library. The students’ desks are arranged closest to this wall, allowing for floorspace along the front of the classroom. The South wall includes the entrance into the room, cabinets, sink and counter space, and a whiteboard where Tom and students write memos, daily learning targets, and classwork exercises. Finally, the East wall is the designated front of the room where there is a large white board for Tom and students to work on, and include the daily agenda for students to stay on target, as well as the Smart board.
An interesting and successful routine that Tom starts the day with, everyday, is “circle time,” as soon as all students have entered the room and class time is officially underway. Students collect in a circle on the floor space in the front of the room, and recite their “Energy” and “Enthusiasm” numbers for the day (on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest.) This is a great way for Tom and other students to get an idea of how a student is feeling that day prior to that day’s learning experiences.
THE STUDENTS:
(actual names not identified)
Together, the LAB school and Polaris target expeditionary learning, an educational design that accentuates learning by doing, which focuses on individual learning, character growth, teamwork, reflection and literacy. Students are engaged and challenged through hands on projects. The curriculum emphasizes that students take personal responsibility in their own learning. The schools’ main goals include:
- Achieve high academic standards as measured by standardized assessments;
- Enhance students’ character development and social responsibility;
- Engage families in the educational process;
- Connect schools and communities; and
- Challenge and support students’ inherent inquisitiveness.
Parents, along with their children, are active participants in their learning and involvement with the school. As bus transportation services are not available to students, the majority of students are dropped off by their parents or walk from their homes in the surrounding neighborhood, in the morning. There are also no active sports teams at the school, however, that does not stop students from being physically active in sports groups. Fort Collins allows many opportunities and communities for students to be active members in sports groups and other physical activities. Surrounding schools allow for LAB school students to participate in their sports programs.
C L A S S R O O M E N V I R O N M E N T
Tom’s 4th/5th grade classroom is a very organized space, where students can access many learning materials & resources, as well as engage in an open, distraction-free environment. The North wall of the room is dedicated to students’ personal materials, where students hang up their backpacks and store their personal belongings. On the wall just above this storage space, Tom includes posters of each student and their positive personality traits, which allows for each student to be individually recognized and influenced to continue their positive behaviors in the classroom. The designated backside of the classroom, West side, includes Tom’s desk area, computers, storage spaces for educational games/books and a corner library that has a window which overlooks the playground and mountains. This area is very organized and full of resources for referencing, alongside a relaxing, sunlit area for students to read and access extra materials in the small corner library. The students’ desks are arranged closest to this wall, allowing for floorspace along the front of the classroom. The South wall includes the entrance into the room, cabinets, sink and counter space, and a whiteboard where Tom and students write memos, daily learning targets, and classwork exercises. Finally, the East wall is the designated front of the room where there is a large white board for Tom and students to work on, and include the daily agenda for students to stay on target, as well as the Smart board.
An interesting and successful routine that Tom starts the day with, everyday, is “circle time,” as soon as all students have entered the room and class time is officially underway. Students collect in a circle on the floor space in the front of the room, and recite their “Energy” and “Enthusiasm” numbers for the day (on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest.) This is a great way for Tom and other students to get an idea of how a student is feeling that day prior to that day’s learning experiences.
THE STUDENTS:
(actual names not identified)
- Student 1 is a very outgoing and energetic student. Although sometimes her energy can deter her from focusing, she is hard working and loves to hear about other students’ learning as well. She likes to be a model for any classroom activity.
- Student 2 is a very polite, excited, and hardworking girl. She always helps others in need of help and always provided great, constructive feedback to others. When given challenges, she takes them to heart and dives deeper and deeper everyday into her projects.
- Student 3 is a very creative and inspired student. He enjoys challenging himself to make his best work, as well as collaborate with other students, receiving and giving constructive advice and opinions. He enjoys participating in group conversation.
- Student 4 is a very polite and respectful student, always willing to participate, help and work hard. He enjoys working with his classmates and being an inspirational figure to them. His work has progressed very much, and he puts a lot of extra originality and creativity into his artwork.
- Student 5 is a very reserved but participatory student. She is reserved when it comes to interacting with others, but she displays a strong motivation to learn. She is always excited to talk about her process, and learns materials very quickly. She is a very hard-working student and wants to display her best work.
- Student 6 is a very energetic, talkative student. Oftentimes she is hard to challenge, she likes to work fast. During “circle time” she seems to recite low Energy and Enthusiasm numbers, but during classtime never actually seems to perform low or not inspired.
- Student 7 is a very sweet student, however, she is very distracted by her classmates and often disrupts other students with irrelevant discussion. Sometimes she gives her bare minimum in art-making, however, with a little push from teachers she is a hard working student, and will take advice to heart.
- Student 8 is extremely talkative, but a very hardworker. She enjoys working with students, and collaborating ideas to make assignments and activities more exciting and fun. She loves to make connections with things we learn in class to things in her life, but sometimes this can be distracting to others and cause for side conversation.
- Student 9 is very energetic and talkative. He is a semi-hard worker, sometimes he is distracted by his friends and creating work that’ll draw attention to him in negative ways. He is a very happy student and is willing to accept challenges that teachers face him with.
- Student 10 is a very energetic and outgoing. She enjoys participating and making her learning experience fun and exciting with her fellow classmates. She influences creativity and originality in other students because she is highly creative and original.
- Student 11 is reserved and very shy. However, one-on-one he is a very hardworking student, and with the teacher initiating questions and conversations, he explains his thought-process and reflects his learning very well and concise.
- Student 12 is a very polite and participatory student no matter what we are doing. He always shares his interests in others work, and knows how to discuss artwork and little details very well. His work is extremely unique and creative, however, when he discusses the meaning behind his work, sometimes it is not evident or communicated to its best extent for viewers.
- Student 13 is a very difficult student who likes to challenge the teacher and try to wiggle his way out of participating in assignments or class discussion. However, with strong differentiation techniques, he has the potential of creating really original and creative work. He has a very technical mind, artistic tasks are sometimes difficult to get through to him.
- Student 14 is shy with other classmates but mostly very happy and enjoys school. During one-on-one conversations and class discussions, she is thrilled to share her findings and hard work. She pushes herself and thinks about things deeper as she starts to get the hang of things.
- Student 15 is a very outgoing, intelligent boy. He is always willing to participate in group discussion and help out his fellow classmates. He loves to challenge himself in creativity and originality within his artwork.
- Student 16 is a hardworking student, who makes many discoveries along the way. He enjoys being a model student, he is very helpful and willing to collaborate with others.
- Student 17 is an extremely hard working student, and is always excited to share his findings with his fellow classmates and teachers. Oftentimes he is very needy, and asks for teachers to do work for him, although we know he is capable of doing the simple tasks himself. He is a strong planner and gets excited when things are headed in the right direction with projects.
- Student 18 is a very outgoing and hardworking student. She likes to have one-on-one conversations with teachers, and looks up to them as models in her learning. Sometimes other students seem to intimidate he and she seems to second guess herself during classroom discussion. Very creative and energetic to learn.