Earlier this week I was fortunate to be a participant in the
2014 Google Geo Teacher Institute. It is
basically two intense days of geeking out on Google geo tools and thinking up
ways of to use them in education. It is an opportunity I highly suggest for any
educator.
One of the fringe benefits of this particular institute
(they also have one in 2014 in Pittsburg) was the location – Googleheadquarters in Mountain View, California.
The Mothership. The
Googleplex. Geekapoloza.
This was actually my second time attending a Google
sponsored workshop at the Googleplex. I attended the Google Teacher Academy here in 2012. Prior to my first visit I was
afraid that all of the hype I had read about the Googleplex was destined to set
me up for disappointment. How could all
of the descriptions of colorful offices and abundant creativity really
exist? But alas, it was true. I left my first visit blown away by the
prevalent culture of collaboration. I
could go on about the food (amazing) and the perks (things such as being able to bring your dog to work and climbing walls in offices) but I want to focus on
one thing in this blog post – collaboration.
The Google campus is abuzz.
It is tangible as you walk around.
As non-Googlers we weren’t allowed in certain places (and we weren't allowed to take pictures inside buildings on campus) but when we did
walk past an office space on the way to a session you could see people working
in close proximity. I didn’t see long hallways with doors that open to
individual offices. Instead I saw work spaces where 3 or 4 people worked next
to each other in a relatively small space (and quite a few standing desks from
what I could see).
There are many areas where small groups – 4 or 6 people –
can get together to work. Some of these
areas are collaboration rooms with a door. Inside is a table where about 4
people can sit with a large screen on the wall for Hangouts. I did notice a lot of Hangouts taking
place. I should also mention these
places to collaborate and not your standard room with white walls. They are all astronomically cool with themes
and colors.
The place on campus where I could really see the
collaboration was the cafeteria (again I wasn’t allowed to go many places
within the office spaces). The food that Google provides for it’s employees –
breakfast, lunch and dinner – is legendary.
It is provided free as a perk to employees and it is delicious, think
five star restaurant. In a nutshell it
is part of Google’s original DNA : give your employees amazing free food on
campus and they won’t want to leave campus to eat elsewhere. Thus, they eat together, socialize together
and talk about what they are doing at work – collaborating.
Walking through a Google cafeteria you notice the sound of
many people talking. It is busy and the
ones I walked through were full of people socializing with co-workers. I’m not naïve enough to believe all of these
conversations taking place are meetings working on a way to improve your
ability to share a Doc on Google Drive, but it sure seemed like along with the
socializing there was a lot of “work” type conversations happening with the
numerous laptops and body language.
During our lunch on the second day of the institute many of
us teachers had gone outside in the courtyard/plaza area on a beautiful
Northern California day to eat our lunch.
There were people everywhere. In addition to the three cafeterias within
a 200 yard radius that all served amazing food, Google had brought in three
food trucks to serve BBQ and ice cream right in the middle of the courtyard and
flower garden. (I swear I am not making
any of this up.)
Click here to view a 360 degree photosphere of the Google campus right before the lunch rush. You can see the food trucks!
Click here to view a 360 degree photosphere of the Google campus right before the lunch rush. You can see the food trucks!
While eating our lunch several of us discussed how cool it
would be if our schools could have the same type of environment for lunch –
time to eat, a relaxed atmosphere and time to talk to a collegue about a lesson
plan or an activity. There are millions, if not billions, of reasons why this
would never work in a public school setting to the degree it does at Google
(time, money, supervision, money, money) but hey you can dream right?
I was thinking about it the next day and then it hit
me. I should focus on the things I can
control instead of worrying about the ones I can’t control. I am the CEO of my classroom. I know all teachers have varying degrees of
control of the manner in which they set up their classroom and some of the
design elements but I bet there are things you can do in your own room that can
really change the way your students learn in your space.
All of the collaborative spaces at Google that I mentioned
did not just organically appear out of nowhere.
They are there by design. Those
spaces and environments were designed with the intent to help nurture
collaboration. There is a lot that I can
do to attempt to create a similar vibe in my own classroom because I am the CEO
of my space.
When I want to work on my dissertation I often go to coffee
shops or places that have free wifi and lack the distraction of other things I
could be working on instead. Last fall while working at a newly remodeled Mc Donald’s – chairs and tables which could be moved in different arrangements, tables where small groups of people could comfortably sit, etc. – I began to wonder why a fast food restaurant had abetter nicer place to collaborate than my classroom. My classroom had 33 individual student
desks. I had arranged them in different
ways so they weren’t all in a line all the time but there are only so many ways
you can arrange 33 desks. They also
don’t encourage collaboration or group work in any way.
I asked if I could trade in my individual student desks for
tables. Fortunately the district at that
time had some tables in storage and I traded in my 33 student desks for 6
tables that had 33 chairs. It is probably the most impactful physical change I
have made in my 20 year teaching career. Students were able to talk to each
other (of course some had to be reminded on appropriate times to collaborate)
and doing any type of group activity or lesson was much easier. There was more space in the room for me to
walk around and talk to students. I
don’t think I could ever go back to desks after having tables in my classroom.
Designing with intent, result = increased collaboration.
There were other simple things at Google this week that I
want to incorporate into my classroom. In the halls there are glass walls on
which people write messages, notes and quotes with dry erase markers. I have several nice white boards in my
classroom that I have traditionally underutilized in the past 10 years. This year I want students to take ownership
of those boards. What will they use them
for? I don’t know. I want to ask them
how they want to use them.
This year our classrooms at Discovery Middle School with be
1:1 for the first time. I want to
encourage more group work and collaboration on projects with students. I need to reprogram myself to allow groups to
work on a project in the hallway or the commons without my shadowing them the
entire time. I need to give them more
ownership over their spaces. It truly is
their space, not MY classroom.
I can’t recreate the Google campus in my classroom and I
certainly can’t feed them gourmet style food for lunch (although I do sometimes
have hot chocolate available for them on cold winter days) but I can start to
increase the collaboration with intentional choices in design.
I am the CEO of my classroom, but I want my students to run
the company.
