Where there’s a will (to be wild), there’s a way.
I am Christina – new addition to #oosfi, and I’m very pleased to report that my first month here was a rollercoaster of meetings, planning and welcome lunches (with a few trips to the MU Starbucks here and there). One of the projects I was immediately tossed into is the work we are doing with Kyrene School District. Over the past few months, #oofsi has been working with a design team in Kyrene to reimagine a school of the future. The next step in this partnership was organizing a design charrette to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders committed to this challenge.
Well, what in the world is a “design charrette”? This phrase is used a lot around here, and I guess I was supposed to already know (oops). But no one ever defined it for me… so, I Googled it and came up with some working definitions. A charrette is a meeting or gathering period where a group of different people work together to figure out solutions for challenges or problems. A design charrette is an intense version of this planning meeting focused around, well… designing. And, that’s exactly what we did (plus snacks).
Shout out to these driven, innovative and collaborative human beings for being courageous enough to share out wild ideas about what they think the school of the future might look like, sound like, feel like, smell like and even taste like. Students, teachers, school and district leadership, ASU faculty and staff (oh my!) sat side-by-side in groups working together to figure it all out. From holding science class in outer space to a classroom full of treadmills (not in a gym class!) and even including 16 people in a classroom to teach, attendees reimagined what learning might look like in Kyrene.
I can’t tell you everything that happened because it’s still in the works. However, Kyrene’s got some things cookin’ in the kitchen, and I’m looking forward to seeing where they go with it all next… possibly to the moon.
“If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all.” ~ John Gree
