Setting up an Authentic Learning Environment

School starts in a week and I have been busy rearranging my room to accomodate a 1:1 digital learning environment. After meeting with our division's learning consultants and doing some online research, it becomes apparent that desks in rows will not work since working with technology is all about collaboration. After extensive internet searches, I did not happen upon a site that showed me the perfect 1:1 classroom set up. I realize that the perfect classroom does not exist; however, I was hoping to see a few models from elementary school classrooms from which I could glean ideas. Alas, I could not find that model. What I did find were computer classrooms (mainly at the college level) that were designed for collaboration. There were no desks in sight, only tables arranged in pods. The TEAL studio model became the model I followed. For more info., see Kirk Kezema's blog entitled "Out of Snooping Around comes TEALs Classroom Set Up Approach." (June 29, 2010) Thus, began my hunt for tables that would be conducive for learning pods. This was no easy task in a school where trapezoid tables and kidney tables are at a premium. I did manage to finagle the tables that I needed and arranged them in pods. Because one of my main goals this year is to teach using Gardner's multiple intelligences, I also wanted a table for each of the intelligences. In that way, students are free to move to different tables based on the subject and the intelligence that he or she wants to use. Flexibility and choice for students being key ingredients.