January 2019 Message from the Superintendent

Classroom Furnishings for the Future

When picturing a school classroom, most of us still think of a room with orderly rows of desks. And for traditional methods of instruction—lectures, exams, silent reading—rows of desks work very well.

However, when we design instruction for the entrepreneurs and employees of the future, straight rows of student desks might not always be the best option.

Today’s classroom furnishings also need to accommodate collaboration, communication, brainstorming, and group projects. One group of students might be the experts on crocodiles, while another is studying tortoises. Pairs of students might be interviewing each other about poems they are reading on their chromebooks. The team in the back might be preparing for a debate. Or a student might be demonstrating a chemistry experiment for the students who missed the lab. And others might be out in the quad testing pendulums. Flexible student furniture can help make this classroom collaboration possible.

English teacher Marisa Thompson was an early believer in adaptable furniture, so she began several years ago to search for non-traditional classroom furnishings. Her principal scoured the campus for unused tables and folding chairs. The woodshop donated some Adirondack chairs. She found some tables and bar stools on Craigslist, and received some donations. Now she has configured the classroom that she envisioned. And her students are doing lots of creating and collaborating.

“A more conversational arrangement of furniture has allowed me to change to the way I teach,” said Ms. Thompson. “Now my class is almost completely discussion-based. Discussing ideas first makes students more comfortable with writing, designing, revising. When we are more comfortable with each other we become more comfortable sharing and building on ideas. We become a team. And they are excelling at the skills they need to learn.”

A few years ago, Aviara Oaks Middle School teacher Penni Barachkov was similarly inspired to change the furniture in her classroom to encourage student interaction and involvement. She began with a budget from her principal, established a DonorsChoose.org account, and her own money. She shopped for barstools, bought erasable white board tables where students can jot down their notes right on the tabletop, and purchased some stand-up desks and some chairs with wheels. Today she feels she has a classroom that supports her engaging instructional program.

Carlsbad Unified believes that, like textbooks and technology, classroom furniture is there to support a dynamic instructional program. To that end, the district has undertaken a pilot program to place additional flexible furniture in selected classrooms to see how it might advance classroom innovation.

Jeff Brandmeyer, who runs the Film Academy at Carlsbad High School, is part of the pilot program. This summer Mr. Brandmeyer’s classroom was outfitted with individual desks that can easily be arranged in a way that encourages conversation and interaction; high cafe tables are comfortable and popular with students; a few “wobbly chairs” (stools that allow students to move around on their seats and that seem to work well for fidgety students); and a couple of erasable white board desks.

“The new furniture is working well,” said Mr. Brandmeyer. “I see students facing one another to do group work, being more productive, and interacting more effectively.”

The goal is to create an environment for inspiring instruction. As the teachers at Carlsbad Unified continue to design the classrooms of the future, we are learning how these flexible learning spaces can support the education of our students.

November 2018 Message from the Superintendent

Teachers Tech It to the Next Level
Ed Tech Methods Course


They began with the story of Snow White. A group of fourth graders at Kelly Elementary used the beloved story to learn about character traits, vocabulary words, and dictionary skills; then they used Google Drawings, hyperlinking, and Google Images to demonstrate what they learned and share it with their classmates. Their project shows illustrations of the evil queen, contains links to Webster’s Dictionary for definitions of words such as “arrogant,” and quotes the text (e.g., “‘…whenever she looked at Snow White her heart turned over in her body, so great was her hatred for the girl.’ (paragraph 16)”) to support their conclusions.

The students’ teacher, Amy Adams, is using the skills she learned in her Ed Tech Methods course, taught by CUSD’s Joseph Hartman (Director of Assessment and Technology) and Robert Allen (TOSA-Technology Teacher on Special Assignment) to involve her students in a new way. The Ed Tech Methods course is designed to support teachers possessing advanced technology skills — the “high flyers”—who are ready to take the next step in classroom innovations.

It is a priority for the District to offer all its teachers professional development in the latest instructional technologies reflecting the skills required of 21st century professionals. One of the challenges is that each teacher has different needs and different levels of technological expertise. So, besides offering training sessions for teachers several times a year on topics such as assessments and Google applications, CUSD also offers, through Alludolearning.com, self-paced online courses that allow teachers to learn at their own pace, at school or at home. In addition, some teachers attend technology-related conferences, taking in the state-of-the-art and then communicating it to their fellow teachers.

This new Ed Tech Methods course is intended to be a “trainer of trainers” forum. The thirteen K-12 teachers taking the course are both proficient and motivated to collaborate with their colleagues and to share what they have learned. They are developing powerful uses of multimedia tools in the classroom — such as Soundtrap (an online, collaborative music-making program) and WeVideo (a cloud-based online video editing software similar to iMovie) — for project-based learning. And they are demonstrating how students can create podcasts, interactive websites, or videos that can help share their knowledge with fellow students.

The Ed Tech teachers are also using more multimedia, research, and assessment tools for inquiry-based assignments that call for diving more deeply into conceptual questions. Rather than simply ask “What are the rules of grammar?” students might ask “Why do we have rules of grammar? What are grammar’s functions? What if we didn’t have grammar?” As students work to find answers and present their findings, they learn important soft skills, such as researching, creative and critical thinking, and effective communication.

CUSD’s technology instruction is based on standards adopted by the International Society for Technology in Education. It aims to train teachers to integrate advanced technologies and digital and media literacy into their instruction to enhance student learning. This group of power users looks to expand their knowledge of technology tools and explore ways to use these tools to intensify student learning.

Technology TOSA Allen says, "We are excited to continue working with Carlsbad staff, students, and community members to develop methods for supporting innovative teaching and learning with Ed Tech via multifaceted-approaches to professional development."