Blueprint for tomorrow : redesigning schools for student-centered learning / Prakash Nair.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : The $2 trillion mistake : how traditional school design fails our kids -- "Reading" school buildings : a visual literacy primer -- A welcoming message : entries and common areas -- Capturing more space for learning : reconfiguring classrooms and hallways -- Integrated learning areas : labs, studios, and do-it-yourself spaces -- Making room for collaboration : professional space for teachers -- Putting people and ideas together : the changing role of the school library -- Beyond the classroom window : bringing learning outdoors -- From cafeterias to cafés : celebrating community -- Conclusion : Putting theory into practice : where should schools begin?.

The United States has about $10.5 trillion tied up in aging school facilities. School districts throughout the country spend about $30 billion every year keeping this infrastructure going. Yet almost all of the new money we pour into school facilities reinforces an existing--and obsolete--model of schooling. In Blueprint for Tomorrow, Prakash Nair--one of the world's leading school designers--explores the hidden messages that our school facilities and classrooms convey and advocates for the "alignment" of the design of places in which we teach and learn with twenty-first-century learning goals. Blueprint for Tomorrow provides simple, affordable, and versatile ideas for adapting or redesigning school spaces to support student-centered learning. In particular, the author focuses on ways to use current spending to modify existing spaces, and explains which kinds of adaptations offer the biggest return in terms of student learning. The book is organized by area--from classrooms to cafeterias--and is richly illustrated throughout, including "before and after" features, "smart idea" sidebars, and "do now" suggestions for practical first steps. It outlines key principles for designing spaces that support today's learning needs and includes tools to help educators evaluate the educational effectiveness of their own spaces. Blueprint for Tomorrow will open educators' eyes to the ways that architecture and learning are entwined and will challenge them to rethink the ways they teach and work together.