A Model for 21st-Century Teaching

At the Ormondale Elementary School in Portola Valley, Calif., the redesigned art room is a place where the seeds of ideas get planted and grow. Kids stand around tables working with materials such as LEGO blocks, foam pieces and toilet paper tubes. They draw designs on a blank canvas on the wall. They brainstorm. It's no surprise that students like working in the art room because, in there, anything goes.

At one point, it was only a cluttered storage for art supplies. Now the kids go into the room to prototype with their hands: First-graders build birdhouses for mock birds, and third-graders create designs for an egg-drop activity. This past spring, third-graders also brainstormed ideas on how to build a shed with reusable materials. They made diagrams on how to paint the structure and debated about whether the carrots painted on the walls should have faces.

"When they're in there, it's always with a purpose in mind," said Jennifer Warren, the school's principal. "It's a space that's allowed to be open and messy and fluid and in progress, where the emphasis is the process rather than the product."

The Ormondale School itself went through a similar prototyping phase. Three years ago, after much conversation about the changing needs of the students, the faculty was interested in how they could redesign learning experiences for the 21st century students who were entering their classrooms. So they contacted IDEO, a design and innovation consultancy based in Palo Alto, Calif.

"They were interested in thinking outside the box and approaching it from a different angle," Warren said. "That's why they went to IDEO because there were things they were allowed to imagine and think about that would not have been put on the table if they went to a traditional education company. They helped us start with students instead of starting with curriculum."

For two school years starting in 2006, a team from IDEO visited the school to observe classrooms, interview students and parents, and work with the principal. Also, in a three-day intensive workshop on IDEO grounds, educators were able to brainstorm ideas and come up with progressive ways to teach.

"It really immersed the teachers in the type of work that the kids would be doing," Warren said. "It allowed our teachers to consider the possible instead of working within the constraints of the education system. They said 'Pretend none of that exists. Now think about if you could do anything, what would you do?'"

By the end of the year, Ormondale published its findings and then launched an awareness campaign so parents could learn how the changes would impact their kids.