While I was working through this module, thinking about organized space, I was making connections in my mind to educationally organized space. One of the most important and critical aspect of teaching, aside from the actual teaching, is the classroom in which we teach! A question that often reoccurs in job interviews is, "What does your classroom look like?" A classroom, enables learning to take place, so the way this environment is designed is crucial. Some things to consider:
How are the desks going to be arranged? Will the students sit in groups or at individual desks? What will the classroom library look like? How will the furniture be arranged so there is space for "traffic to move" safely and conveniently? Where will the teacher's desk be placed? How does technology play a role in the arrangement? Is there enough storage space? How will students access materials?
Because I do not have my own classroom yet to base this off of, I think about my past experiences in classrooms, most fresh is my student teaching internship. I really appreciated Susanka's point about "light to walk towards." In the classroom I interned in, we had a large wall of windows, which I liked to open the blinds and let the sunshine in. After the students came back from lunch (this was 2nd grade), I would close the blinds and turn one set of lights off during silent reading time, to calm the students down after a rowdy lunch recess. I also think about Susanka's point with "shelter around activity." This reminds me of our reading area. It was located in the corner of the classroom, with the bookshelves used as mini walls to separate the reading corner from the rest of the classroom. There were beanbags in the reading corner for students to use to get comfy as they curled up with their books. Every part of a classroom is designed for a particular learning experience. I guess you could add architect to the many hats a teacher wears!!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Architecture: What qualities of your experience are influenced by what qualities of the designed environment?
In this week's module, we were asked to visit two retail spaces, both which were in the same niche, and evaluate their interior design. In my evaluation I focused on the product which was being sold, in relation to the architectural design of the store which sells it. Because I have such a sweet tooth, I decided to evaluate an ice cream shop and frozen yogurt store. Here is my evaluation:
Coldstone Creamery-
As soon as I walk into the Coldstone Creamery, the scent of freshly baked waffle cones hits my nose, and I notice the elaborate signs taking up most of the wall space, listing millions of choices to fit my heart’s desire. Coldstone offers a unique “ice cream experience” in that the ice cream and toppings are hand-folded together on a giant cold slab of stone. The slab of stone is at the center of your ordering experience. The huge signs on the wall have endless descriptions specifically written with adjectives such as, “gooey caramel,” or “fresh-baked brownie,” to make your mouth water. The Coldstone Creamery logo is seen everywhere from the employee hats and shirts, the ice cream cups, and the signs located all over the store, including a large sign above the ice cream making station. The creamery is set up so that you order and walk down the line as you watch your special ice cream prepared on the cold slab of stone. At the end of the counter is a large freezer showcasing even more elaborate ice cream cakes than the one in your hand. Overall the interior design of the creamery, is inviting and rich from the deep red color of the brand, to the intricate and detailed signs- all fitting to the product. The tables and chairs are arranged in groups of 2 to 4, and look as if they invite customers to indulge in a “dining experience,” because a trip to Coldstone is not going to be “fat-free” or “low-calorie,” it is going to be a special occasion of pure sugar pleasure.
Yogaberry-
The bright lime green and fluorescent purple sign of “Yogaberry” drew me in to this cute frozen yogurt shop on my first visit. I repeatedly go back because Yogaberry is not just any frozen yogurt, it’s organic and always fat-free, which equals guilt-free. The first thing I notice when I walk in are the little green round stools at each white table, which reminded me of sitting atop large “berries” like in the store’s name. When I walk up to the counter my eyes immediately admire the toppings station filled with lots of fresh cut fruit, and I mean FRESH. Then I notice the simple design of the menu signs hanging on the wall. There are six flavors, one of which changes weekly. They all say “fat-free” underneath them to remind you that this stuff isn’t bad for the waistline. These signs are simple and to the point emphasizing “organic.” I also notice a poster listing reasons “Why Yogurt is Good for You.” The space is designed to be bright, open, and simple. The Yogaberry logo is seen all sorts of places such as the employee tee-shirts, on the glass window, and on the display with Yogaberry tees and sweatshirts for sale. The seating area has a large bench seat stretching along the wall, and little green stools on the opposite side. The stools are fun and unique. The seating area seems like a short-term place to enjoy your yogurt for about 15 minutes and be on your way. The architectural design of the store reflects this guilt-free simplistic design of the product of which it’s selling. Overall, I feel this space was designed with minimalism in mind, reflecting the organic simple yogurt.
Coldstone Creamery-
As soon as I walk into the Coldstone Creamery, the scent of freshly baked waffle cones hits my nose, and I notice the elaborate signs taking up most of the wall space, listing millions of choices to fit my heart’s desire. Coldstone offers a unique “ice cream experience” in that the ice cream and toppings are hand-folded together on a giant cold slab of stone. The slab of stone is at the center of your ordering experience. The huge signs on the wall have endless descriptions specifically written with adjectives such as, “gooey caramel,” or “fresh-baked brownie,” to make your mouth water. The Coldstone Creamery logo is seen everywhere from the employee hats and shirts, the ice cream cups, and the signs located all over the store, including a large sign above the ice cream making station. The creamery is set up so that you order and walk down the line as you watch your special ice cream prepared on the cold slab of stone. At the end of the counter is a large freezer showcasing even more elaborate ice cream cakes than the one in your hand. Overall the interior design of the creamery, is inviting and rich from the deep red color of the brand, to the intricate and detailed signs- all fitting to the product. The tables and chairs are arranged in groups of 2 to 4, and look as if they invite customers to indulge in a “dining experience,” because a trip to Coldstone is not going to be “fat-free” or “low-calorie,” it is going to be a special occasion of pure sugar pleasure.
Yogaberry-
The bright lime green and fluorescent purple sign of “Yogaberry” drew me in to this cute frozen yogurt shop on my first visit. I repeatedly go back because Yogaberry is not just any frozen yogurt, it’s organic and always fat-free, which equals guilt-free. The first thing I notice when I walk in are the little green round stools at each white table, which reminded me of sitting atop large “berries” like in the store’s name. When I walk up to the counter my eyes immediately admire the toppings station filled with lots of fresh cut fruit, and I mean FRESH. Then I notice the simple design of the menu signs hanging on the wall. There are six flavors, one of which changes weekly. They all say “fat-free” underneath them to remind you that this stuff isn’t bad for the waistline. These signs are simple and to the point emphasizing “organic.” I also notice a poster listing reasons “Why Yogurt is Good for You.” The space is designed to be bright, open, and simple. The Yogaberry logo is seen all sorts of places such as the employee tee-shirts, on the glass window, and on the display with Yogaberry tees and sweatshirts for sale. The seating area has a large bench seat stretching along the wall, and little green stools on the opposite side. The stools are fun and unique. The seating area seems like a short-term place to enjoy your yogurt for about 15 minutes and be on your way. The architectural design of the store reflects this guilt-free simplistic design of the product of which it’s selling. Overall, I feel this space was designed with minimalism in mind, reflecting the organic simple yogurt.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Designing my own compelling experience.... Video Module 2
Module 2: Create a video of something meaningful, which conveys an essence of something. A very creative project. Here is what I came up with and my critiques. I will include my director's commentary first.
Humitz Director's Commentary
When I first started thinking about where to begin with this project… I was at a loss. I love creative projects, but struggle with such an open theme. I could go anywhere and do anything with this. So I started my brainstorming during a recent trip to Savannah, GA, thinking I might go with a “long ago” theme, since I was taking so many pictures of the historical town. That led nowhere, and I decided that if I was going to make this compelling and meaningful, I had to get personal.
Humitz Director's Commentary
When I first started thinking about where to begin with this project… I was at a loss. I love creative projects, but struggle with such an open theme. I could go anywhere and do anything with this. So I started my brainstorming during a recent trip to Savannah, GA, thinking I might go with a “long ago” theme, since I was taking so many pictures of the historical town. That led nowhere, and I decided that if I was going to make this compelling and meaningful, I had to get personal.
I had written in my blog about my experience of moving away to Florida from Michigan, with a couple friends, one of whom I don’t speak to anymore. It is something I have been struggling with for a while, along with being homesick and so far away from everyone I love. I knew this is where I needed to go in my video, because it is so prominent in my life right now.
The story begins with the excitement of moving somewhere new and different. You can hear our excitement when crossing the state line. I left this part unedited because I wanted the audience to feel the raw emotion coming through, and anticipation of what we were embarking upon. I decided to convey my story through a letter written to someone back home. I wanted to leave the “someone,” left unknown and open to interpretation. But you can gather it is someone I love and care a lot about. The letters start out cheerful and with no regret. I chose the song, “White Houses,” by Vanessa Carlton, because it is one of my favorite songs and felt really connected to the story in my song. Following the first letter are images of my new life and enjoying my new home. I left these images flipping pretty swiftly and without a fade out, as a way to lead up to the climax of the story. Every story has a problem and we are just on the brink of it. After the video of us dancing in the bathroom I let the following pictures stand a bit longer. I did this to create a dragging sense, and notion that the problem is coming. I aligned this with the lyrics of the song, and wanted to “choreograph” the images with the music. When the song hits the word “mistake,” I wanted to time my written “mistake” at the same moment to create more drama leading up to the betrayal. This is also when I started fading one picture into the next, because it was getting more emotional. My favorite part of the video is when the beat of the music speeds up with the quick rewind of all the photos that led up to the climax. This is a detail that I really put a lot of work in, although I realize that to the only slightly attentive viewer could easily go unnoticed. I chose to rewind the pictures, like I was thinking backwards of everything that had happened leading me up to this point. Like a spiral out of control. When the music slows down I stand on the images longer again for sentimental value. I wanted to end the video with a sense that I wasn’t a victim to this betrayal, but instead rose above it. I ended with the waves in silence, because I felt it left a sense of wonder… like where will I go next. I also wanted it to convey peace and that despite the drama and disloyalty- I’m going to be okay.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Finding your story...
Life is all about stories.... telling stories, listening to stories, remembering stories, living stories... As a child our favorite times were spent at story time, and as teachers we love sharing stories with our students....
As I am working on my video module for this week's class, I am sorting through what story it is that I want to tell. I really connected to last weeks readings, especially, "Storytelling: The Film-maker as Story-teller." I found myself making a lot of connections between the article and education, all of which are helping to guide my planning with my video project. These connections are referred to as imaginative bridges, in that they are my own cognitive link between the design and experience of art, and the design and experience of education.
The article explained that a film needs to have a purpose, an answer to the question of "so what?", and a reason for the audience to even watch it. This is the purpose of the film. I found a strong link between the need for the film to have a purpose, much as a teacher needs a rationale for teaching a lesson. Kids ask all the time, "why do we need to learn this?" and a good teacher will always have an answer to that question. There must always be a reason for every task, lesson, assignment, or activity. If not, participation and motivation are completely lost, just as attention is lost in a movie with no real purpose.
I quote the article, "This is the most important element in a good story, whether it's a film, or it's told orally, or written in a book, whether it's a happy emotion, or a violent emotion-- or whether it's sad or funny, it has to have an emotional punch-line." I really liked this quote, and found an important imaginative bridge here, because it backs up my strong philosophy of relating lessons to students' own lives and constantly making connections between the lesson and the real world. This makes learning meaningful and keeps students engaged. When I think about my favorite films, I can relate them to my own life someway, and when I think about the things I learned best in school, was when I could relate to it.
In planning for my video module, I am strongly taking in the advice that, a story does not always need to start and flow in chronological order. In fact, many great stories, start somewhere in the middle, and keep our engagement trying to figure out what happened in the beginning to create this event. The story should begin where it will spark the interest and hook the audience. We tell student's this all the time when they are writing stories, to find an attention grabber. As teachers when teaching a lesson, we could also keep this idea in mind, to begin a lesson where it is most likely to grab interest, and go from there.
To wrap this up, I want to end with this objective taken from the article:
To have a person really experience something- the sooner the audience experiences the story and REALLY feels something, the better the story is.
I end there because this is my written goal for my video module. I also end with it because I can again relate it back to education, if you replace the word "story" with "LEARNING", and that is my goal as a teacher.
As I am working on my video module for this week's class, I am sorting through what story it is that I want to tell. I really connected to last weeks readings, especially, "Storytelling: The Film-maker as Story-teller." I found myself making a lot of connections between the article and education, all of which are helping to guide my planning with my video project. These connections are referred to as imaginative bridges, in that they are my own cognitive link between the design and experience of art, and the design and experience of education.
The article explained that a film needs to have a purpose, an answer to the question of "so what?", and a reason for the audience to even watch it. This is the purpose of the film. I found a strong link between the need for the film to have a purpose, much as a teacher needs a rationale for teaching a lesson. Kids ask all the time, "why do we need to learn this?" and a good teacher will always have an answer to that question. There must always be a reason for every task, lesson, assignment, or activity. If not, participation and motivation are completely lost, just as attention is lost in a movie with no real purpose.
I quote the article, "This is the most important element in a good story, whether it's a film, or it's told orally, or written in a book, whether it's a happy emotion, or a violent emotion-- or whether it's sad or funny, it has to have an emotional punch-line." I really liked this quote, and found an important imaginative bridge here, because it backs up my strong philosophy of relating lessons to students' own lives and constantly making connections between the lesson and the real world. This makes learning meaningful and keeps students engaged. When I think about my favorite films, I can relate them to my own life someway, and when I think about the things I learned best in school, was when I could relate to it.
In planning for my video module, I am strongly taking in the advice that, a story does not always need to start and flow in chronological order. In fact, many great stories, start somewhere in the middle, and keep our engagement trying to figure out what happened in the beginning to create this event. The story should begin where it will spark the interest and hook the audience. We tell student's this all the time when they are writing stories, to find an attention grabber. As teachers when teaching a lesson, we could also keep this idea in mind, to begin a lesson where it is most likely to grab interest, and go from there.
To wrap this up, I want to end with this objective taken from the article:
To have a person really experience something- the sooner the audience experiences the story and REALLY feels something, the better the story is.
I end there because this is my written goal for my video module. I also end with it because I can again relate it back to education, if you replace the word "story" with "LEARNING", and that is my goal as a teacher.
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