Sunny greeted me with a big smile today. She pulled her chair up to mine and said, “The administration loved your ideas and they want to thank you for helping with the decision.”
“No problem at all!” I told her. “What name did they end up choosing?”
“They loved the title English Hub. It reminded them of the central Internet router for the school, so in a way, it’s like the heart of English for the school,” she said.
“They didn’t like English Command Center?” I asked with a laugh.
She smiled and said, “They loved all of your ideas, but we only had a small space. English Hub fit perfectly over the door.”
She reached over and pulled out a huge catalogue from beside her computer. We have some big decisions to make today.
“We?” I asked.
“Yes,” she responded, “the administration needs to order in the furniture by the end of the day.”
So we got right to work, and browsed through the catalogue.
First, we picked out our desks (we selected matching wood desks that are slightly darker in colour from the light paneling of the walls). I told her about the layout of the English room at my other school, and she agreed that the layout would work really well in this one as well.
Next, we searched for the perfect desks for our students. We opted for desks that seated multiple students and could be placed together to form small groups, or detached for individual work. As for the colour of the desks, we both agreed on a colour scheme matching the popular “Cosmos” flower that grows all over Korea. We ordered two white desks, two light violet desks, and two mauve desks.
The chairs were an easy decision. Everyone at my other school loves the chairs we have in my English room, so we ordered a matching set (sturdy metal legs, comfortable plastic seats, and a flexible plastic back support).
Since the English Hub took over the old music room, the administration also decided to cut costs by combining the two (rather than building another room for music classes). In the back of the classroom, we will have all of the instruments from the old music room, and a set of equipment that we could use for both music and English classes. I think it’s the perfect compromise…
We couldn’t order any fancy bookshelves or high tech toys (we have a much smaller budget than my other school), but I’m still really excited to see what it’s all going to look like. I’ll post up a video once it’s all done!
- Ken
That's exciting that they include you in the decision-making process! The kids will always know that Ken teacher helped to choose their nice chairs/colours/layout in their new "English Hub" - I do like the name.
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