An Inviting Principal's Office for the Dean

Photo by Uriel Soberanes on Unsplash

To this day I remember being called to the principal's office in high school. I couldn't tell you what was said. I can tell you that I was in trouble for something that I didn't do. I can tell you how I felt and the layout of the office. It was arranged with a small seat facing a huge unfriendly and empty desk where my principal sat opposite of me in an oversized chair facing a computer screen. The walls were covered with degrees, awards, and certificates that my principal had earned. At first I felt small and alone. However, while I waited for him to speak, I built courage and decided this guy thinks he's all that and a bag of chips. He thinks he can break me. Even though I was guilty of nothing, I decided I would give him nothing. I decided he couldn't win and ended up happily sitting through in school suspension for something I didn't do. All because of how he made me feel when I first entered his space.

Photo by Chad Riffle

Fifteen years later here I preparing for my new role as Dean of Students for West Shore ESD's CTE and ASM Tech programs. My first order of business is moving into my new office. I know that putting a student into a state of fight, flight, or freeze before even meeting with them will not be helpful, so I want to be intentional about the design of my office. I walk down to see the space. Check out the image to the right. Does this look familiar?

Thankfully in about one week I will be able to make this space mine and the first thing I'm going to do is redesign the layout to be more inviting to the students and staff I serve. I'm going to intentionally lay out the space to be inviting and equip it to encourage and support collaborative learning opportunities. Check out the design below to see my redesign.

Spaces Designed by Chad Riffle on Roomstyler.com

I started by trading the large L shaped desk for two smaller desks and moved each to the far walls. This ensures that the desk does not become a barrier between me and the staff or student that I am working with. I added window blinds to the windows facing a classroom to provide privacy as needed. I also plan to have a digital photo frame in plain sight rotating photos of proud moments with students and staff that I capture on walkthroughs throughout the year. The entire goal of the layout is to promote a feeling of safety and belonging so my visitors feel welcome and a part of the team before I even greet them.

The second goal is that the space is flexible and functional. Most of the furniture including one of the desks is mobile to allow rearrangement into a creatively designed workspace that meets as many needs as possible. Murphy and Gardner found success encouraging more active, constructionist learning by doing away with the traditional front of the room classroom design (2019). My hope is that doing the same with my office space will help do the same, especially when dealing with discipline which at it's very core is a form of learning.

Finally, the mobile desk has a whiteboard top with markers for sketching ideas and notes for creative problem solving. The chairs have wheels and rock to respect the needs of kinesthetic individuals. The color scheme is neutral and the wall décor is carefully chosen to respect the research of Barrett et al. who showed that too much wall décor can overstimulate and detract from learning (2013).

Image by Chad Riffle using Roomstyler.com

This layout should provide a safe, inviting, and flexible multifunctional workspace to support my needs as well as the needs of the individuals I serve. Now to go out and find the resources to make it happen.

References:

Barrett, P., Zhang, Y., Moffat, J., & Kobbacy, K. (2013). A holistic, multi-level analysis identifying the impact of classroom design on on pupils' learning. Building and Environment, 59, 678-689.

Murphy, D., & Gardner, G. (2019, January 05). Function Follows Form: How Two Colleges Redesigned the Classroom for Active Learning - EdSurge News. Retrieved August 07, 2020, fromhttps://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-01-05-function-follows-form-how-two-colleges-redesigned-the-classroom-for-active-learning?utm_source=EdSurgeEdsChoice

Here are some specific questions to consider. Feel free to pick a few to focus on. Please do not answer all of them in a list. If you have other things you want to focus on or explain, feel free to do that!

• Does your space always look like this?

• What messages does your this space send to its users?

• What lighting, colors, and furniture are used? Why?

• Is it collaborative or individualistic? What tells you that?

• Does it connect to didactic or constructivist and constructionist perspectives?

• How do technologies shape the experiences that learners have in this space?

• How are learning spaces designed to enable powerful experiences that align with the theories of learning you have explored during the course and in other courses?

Please make sure that your blog post:

• Includes descriptions of several specific elements of your (re)design and why you chose what you did.

• Contains relevant media - before and after pictures, resources etc.

• Deeply connects the research - learning theories, maker education research, online design standards - with your design decisions.

• Deeply connects with experience design. You explain how you intend users to experience this space.