Lego Robotics and School Design

After our many explorations and discussions of robotics, Class 71 had the opportunity today for hands on learning with Lego Robotics. Fun!  They spent the morning in Mr. Bell's room, while I took Mr. Bell's grade 5 students for movie making with the iPads.   Both classes were fully engaged in their learning which made me wonder why we structure school the way we do.  What if school was organized on a workshop model where students spent several weeks focused on 1 in-depth project? What if they rotated through teachers over the course of a school year, each time experiencing the richness of that particular teacher's specialty.  Imagine what a middle school science teacher could do with learners if she had 1 class everyday for three weeks?  Imagine how relieved students would be to know that their learning blocks were temporary and that if they ended up in a classroom or project that they did not find particularly compelling, they would not be there for the full year.  It is good to remember that nothing is set in stone. Experimentation with scheduling is perhaps one of the innovations we need to push forward if we are to create more engaging learning environments.