Sometimes the BIG moments in life start with a simple musing…
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- Will you marry me?
- Should we build a house?
As a youngster Lindy Hawkins loved to draw houses. Nothing too unusual in that, except that Lindy’s drawings were not just simple rectangles with windows, chimney and roof. No, Lindy’s drawings had floor plans and multiple perspectives.
At aged 27 I asked Lindy Hawkins the “Will you marry me?” question and (thankfully, without too much hesitation) the answer was an affirmative.
Over the next 27 years we lived in many different places and it took many purchases of already built houses before we decided to design and build our own house. A place made just for us.
Design Artists
At Education Conferences I’ve often said to groups of teachers:
- That they are design artists
- That good design (lesson plans)
- complemented with the art, craft and science of good teaching skill, create Learning Experiences that excite and nurture students
- That through great design and delivery, students grow as learners of a subject (theme, curricula) and as learners/ thinkers for a lifetime journey of learning and thinking
So, there are lessons to be learned from designing and building a house that may also assist the ‘building of classroom experiences’:
Imagination
As you design, imagine the experience from all different angles and situations. What would this look like? How might this pan out?
Especially, walk it through from the participants’ point of view. In a house, step it out and imagine walking through the rooms. In a classroom experience, see if from where the students ‘sit’ and from a variety of learning style perspectives.
Foundations
Spend time on choosing your foundations and aspect. Make them strong and safe.
Consistent themes
When choosing your tiles, joinery, renders… keep a consistency.
When designing a lesson, continue to layer the main messages through repetition. Memory is part of learning.
Add the Variety
When you have solid foundations and consistent themes, use the soft furnishings to add flair and colour.
In a lesson, once all students have their solid foundation, they can then add their own uniqueness. Creating unique meaning is a part of learning.
Variety is the magic key,
The magic key is variety.
The Best Made Plans
Designing and building a house is a complex thing. There are many folk involved and sequences that need an order to them.
Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. A storm in Queensland means that certain bricks can’t be delivered on time.
The best made Lesson Plans for ‘us and them’ don’t sometimes pan out. Good lessons have contingencies and good teaching requires some ‘thinking on the feet’.
Design tight (with detail),
Present loose (with flexibility).
Primacy and Recency
Two of the important factors of memory are what we experience first (Primacy) and what we experience last (Recency). These factors remain important whether you are designing/building a house or designing/ delivering a learning lesson.
How you start – working out your ethos, preparing, planning, laying solid foundations – is vital. In the late Stephen Covey’s bestseller 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the 7 habits is ‘Begin with the end in mind’.
Start with legacy
What will this house look like, feel like and be like in broad strokes and in finer detail. What will be left when the builders leave?
Likewise in a Lesson Plan. What will stay with the learner when the lesson is done?
Often a builder is rushing to the finish line for a variety of reasons:
- Contract penalties
- Other projects are ready to start
- The clients are nagging
- Everyone is fed up!
However, the final weeks of a build are vital, not only for ensuring that the finishing touches are spot on, but also for ensuring the on-going good will and relationship between builder and client.
In a classroom, in a school, in a corporate training session, in a Keynote Conference speech… likewise, the final piece is vital. What we do at the end helps instil the main messages of the lesson and, at its best, leaves the learner with a feeling of ‘can’t wait ‘til the next class’.
If there is a key message for builders and teachers, it is ‘don’t rush the final minutes/ days/weeks’. Work backwards. Make sure you leave yourself enough time at the end of a build/lesson/day to incorporate the time for the closure:
- Re-focus on key learning
- Reflect on take home value
- Re-establish the relationship (in a build/ lesson/school day some aspects of relationship may have got a little rocky along the way!)
- Create a sense of excitement for the next steps – the next learning layers
Awards
In a sense, every sport is a team game. Even solo marathon runners and Iron Man athletes have a support team involved.
Building a house is also a team game.
Teaching and learning are team games too.
Our builders nominated our house design and build for awards with the Master Builders Association and with the Housing Industry Awards. We were fortunate to win a series of awards including Best Design/ Build in all categories and all price ranges for South West Victoria, Australia.
Our place now goes into State Wide and National awards.
We didn’t build a place to win trophies and certificates. We built a place for the opportunity to create something unique for us; we built a place for lifestyle.
Likewise, you may not create lesson plans and devise Learning Experiences for the applause. However, when you do really think through a design and deliver experiences of deep and exciting learning, the applause ripples back for years. When students say, “I remember you. I remember what you taught me. I remember how you taught me. You changed my life.” Then that is a ‘magic’ beyond the certificates.
You truly are a Master Builder & Design Artist.