I was wondering if any other of you guys were familiar with this school building setup.
For those who aren’t; in lieu of the classic individual classroom setup in a school building that is still being used today, there is a large room that houses four to six classes, with simple dividers made of shelves or cubbies. In most cases, there are no doors you have to enter (only for going in or out of the pod), no walls to divide the rooms, and the classroom may not be near windows. I have yet to see a high school set up like this; this is usually only used for elementary and middle schools.
This was an experiment that began some time in the 1960s. Three elementary schools built in Brockton in the early 1970s were set up this way; I went to two of them. The one I went to for grades 1-6 (built in 1971) was originally built as a grade 1-6 school, with six pods containing four classrooms each, and a somewhat open area in the center for pod activites (starting in the later 1990s, computer labs began to be installed in those pod activity areas.) Four of the six pods (the ones that were meant for graded 3 to 6) also had one enclosed/walled classroom separate from the three. There were also six individual classrooms built; four on the ground floor near the art classroom (for a while one was used for health class until 1998, and the others mostly for special ed. classes), and three near the main entrance. After my brother and I stopped going to this school, they added kindergarten, but initially had their kindergarten classes in the modular. A couple years ago when sixth grade was dropped (moved to the middle schools), the old second grade pod became the new kindergarten pod, and the sixth grade pod became the new second grade pod.
The other one I went to (built in 1974) originally started out as a K-6 school, with seven pods containing four to six classrooms each. Each pod also had at least one classroom that was “enclosed” instead of open-area, along with teachers’ offices and direct exits to outside for emergency use. When the school was built, Pod 1 was designed a little differently from the others and meant for kindergarten, while the other pods would house a single grade. Pod 1 even had its own restrooms built in, and the two enclosed classrooms in that pod also had their own restrooms! But as time went on, pods began to house mixed grades (I recall in 2000, Pod 1 then housed two kindergarten classes, three first-grade classes and one second-grade class.) In 2006, it became a K-8 school. Pod 1 was then for the sixth, seventh and eighth grades after that, and the modular building added in 1996 housed additional middle school-level classes.
This is the classroom I had kindergarten in, located in Pod 1.
Lockers were also installed in the center of Pod 1 after it became a K-8 school:
As you can see, for some reason they were keen on putting in only one or two hard-wired clocks and intercom speaker/phones in each pod. Talk about inconvenience! (Many classrooms would often have their own battery-operated clocks installed.) At the previous school, every classroom in the pod had its own clock and intercom.
These pods were marked by painting a large number next to the pod doors:
The reason why I started this thread was because currently this school is doing away with the open-pod setup.
Several of the pods now have these walls built up. Doors will also be installed, and you can see where electrical outlets will be placed, too. Above the walls there is still a bit of open area, presumably so the classrooms could still hear any intercom announcements, the school bell and the fire alarm easily (the pods have one to two bells and alarms installed inside them.)
All the pods have at least one of these, too. I wonder what they were meant for, judging by the “Teacher Preparation” sign on the door.
Of course, the school was also initially built with six individual classrooms, marked by letter (this was classroom “D,” and was located near the little theater/storytelling area in the media center. Back in 1974, these were meant for special education, but are now basically used as “regular” classrooms to accommodate the larger amount of students they’ve had over the years.
To be honest, I do prefer the classic “individual classroom” style better, even if I didn’t start experiencing it myself until middle school. While the open pod setup was an interesting idea, I am kinda glad this school is switching to individual classrooms. This way they can also easily be numbered in the “regular” classroom numbering style for when they are written on students’ schedules!
Any comments?
