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Students in Wetzel’s Four-Five-Six Learning Lab take the first steps in the Department of Defense Education Activity’s new 21st Century Teaching and Learning concept. Four classrooms have been combined into one large learning lab for fourth, fifth and sixth grade students.
Wetzel Elementary School has taken its first step into a new teaching and learning concept by creating a learning lab consisting of 60 students from grades four, five and six. The students have come together into a large learning environment known as a neighborhood.
This revolutionary Department of Defense Education Activity concept, known as 21st Century Teaching and Learning, reshapes not only the traditional classroom but also the learning process. Wetzel has modeled its Four-Five-Six Learning Lab after the DODEA-wide initiative.
The most visible difference is the learning environment. What once were four classrooms is now one large learning lab for the 60 Wetzel students.
“It was originally four classrooms, but we had the ability to move the walls in all four of those classrooms so it’s now one large community area. The kids and the teachers have broken it into four pods, so there’s instruction going on in each of the four pods at any given time,” said Angie Lamonski, Wetzel Elementary School principal.
Within each of the four pods, the teachers are differentiating the instruction to meet the needs of each student.
“They’re in the pods based on what their need is on that particular unit of study or whatever’s going on at that point in time,” Lamonski said.
Like all things new, there was some apprehension about this learning program, particularly from parents. After all, bringing 60 students into one large learning environment with four teachers and no walls does not exactly sound like a recipe for success, but Lamonski said the environment is amazing and surprisingly quiet most of the time. When the noise does go up a few decibels it’s because there is a lot of learning going on.
“There are times when it gets a little bit loud, but when you go in there you see that the kids are engaged in what they’re doing and they’re talking about what they’re learning, so they’re very focused,” Lamonski said, adding that “what’s been very interesting about this environment is that the teachers, the lessons and the kids are very focused. The lessons are meeting the needs of that learner, so it’s not something that’s above their head, or it’s not something that’s too low for them.
“It’s all about collaboration and individual students working to their best potential and learning all that they can,” she continued. “It’s different than the traditional classroom — one teacher, 25 kids — in that everybody is sharing in the collaboration, the planning and the learning. This includes the teachers and the students, the administration, the district and parents.”
