The other day I found myself walking through a parking garage stairwell in Iowa City, and I realized they were using the same scent design as the local mall in Bratislava where we used to live. Half-shocked, half-amused, I climbed the cement stairs as I remembered riding the escalator through the same subtle scent cloud two years ago. The memory was visceral.
Though we don’t always think about it, our sensory experiences have a strong impact on how we feel and how we work. I do my best work in a situation where I feel comfortable. In fact, I generally prefer not to work at home because step one, for me, to working at home is often to clean the entire house, put music on, light a candle, pick flowers, make tea, etc. and so I spent an hour prepping to work before I do anything.
I bet you’ve already put considerable time and effort into making your classroom a space where you feel comfortable and where students feel welcome. Today isn’t about changing any of that, it’s just about finding small places where you might be able to tune your sensory dashboard in class to make it work even better for you and your kiddos. By thinking specifically about the five senses – just like we have students do in their writing – you can find easy wins to make the workspace more welcoming, energizing, and comfortable for everyone inside.
Ooh, one more thing before we start. Throughout this podcast, and this series, I’m showcasing graphics and displays from the #evolvingEDdesign Toolkit, a vast free resource I made for you. You can grab it here. Please share your classroom design stories, questions, photos and ideas with the #evolvingEDdesign hashtag across platforms so we can continue the conversation off the pod!
The Sensory Dashboard
So, let’s start by thinking about your classroom’s sensory dashboard. If you think in terms of the categories of sight, touch, smell, taste, and sound, what would the dial be like for each?
In my experience, we all tend to focus on sight, and it’s definitely a doozy. Considering your light sources, keeping your colors in tune with each other, incorporating nature any way you can, and showcasing diverse identities in your posters and displays are all ways you can help sight work for you in your classroom.
But sight is really just the glitter on the disco ball. There’s more to be found on the classroom sensory dashboard.
Let’s talk touch next. While the research on fidgets is mixed, providing some quiet options to students who truly benefit from them can help curtail other distractions (read more here). You can incorporate scaffolds hanging on a line display or as a deck sitting on a shelf which students can grab and use as they work. You can provide makerspace elements students can manipulate as they process their ideas, consider hexagonal thinking as an option for discussion (providing a way to physically move ideas around), and make any elements of furniture that you can mobile so students can move it around to suit different scenarios. Gamification and escape rooms can be great ways to add sensory elements to your clasrsoom as well, though they relate more to day to day lessons than your overall classroom design.
Then there’s smell, an easy-to-miss element on the dash. Opening a window to let in a fresh breeze is a simple tweak, as is burning a lightly scented candle during a planning period (if you’re allowed to do so) or bringing in a bouquet from your yard. All of these small actions can make a big difference to how you feel in the space, and how your students feel too.
Ooh, we’ve reached taste. While accessing the taste sense generally requires donations or budget, it can be a powerful lever in classroom design. Having emergency snacks for kids who need them, candy prizes for games, and tea or hot chocolate for book tastings or special events can all be helpful elements in the design of your learning environment.
Finally, let’s talk about sound, an easy part of the dash to take advantage of once you start to tune into it. You can curate playlists for different types of classroom scenarios, being careful to avoid distracting lyrics. Nature sounds are another great option on the sound panel – try playing the sound of a river or a snowstorm as students work. On the other end of the spectrum, you might consider building in an area of your room with sound-canceling headphones where students can go to get focused work done during workshop if they work better with silence, or if they want to play some classical music to tune out the conversations around them.
The key, as you consider your sensory dashboard, is to create an inviting, flexible space that helps students feel comfortable and ready to work. Sometimes that means dialing DOWN a sensory element on your dash so the space doesn’t feel overwhelming, and sometimes it means dialing up an element to add something helpful to a day’s plan. Remember to avoid overwhelm. A limited color palette, music without lyrics, succulents in the windowsills, a tea drawer, fidget options for limited situations that do NOT snap, crackle, and pop – these things can add to the sensory experience without becoming too much to manage or take in.
Elements of Surprise
As you consider the sensory experience of your classroom, one fun thing to keep in mind is how you might bring in some of your own personality to create an element of surprise in your room. In their book make space, Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft suggest “special touches create a sense of belong” (90). In my explorations of various work and learning spaces online (check some of them out for yourself through the links in the Ed Design toolkit), I saw many of these special touches.
What kind of special touch might be meaningful in your space?
My husband had a very popular Jelly Belly machine in his office for a long time, usually with a few Bertie Botts Beans mixed in so students knew there was a bit of humorous risk in grabbing a handful.
The photos C.J. Reynolds shared of his classroom when he came on the pod a few years ago (scroll through this post to see them) are full of these special touches – like the hanging books and driftwood tree.
Maybe you love basketball and you want to incorporate a full sized hoop in one corner that you can use for different funny learning games.
Maybe you’re an artist on the side and you want to create a mural of bookspines across one wall.
Maybe you love succulents and the light is right on one wall to create a hanging display of 23 of them that you cut from your plants at home.
Maybe…
Let Students be Part of your Sensory Design
As you think about the kinds of small tweaks you might make across the senses in your room, let students share their ideas. The sensory survey featured below is part of your free design toolkit, but you could also create your own if you prefer. What kind of learning spaces do students enjoy? What music (without lyrics) do they like to listen to when they work? What are their favorite snacks? Do they like to work collaboratively or independently? Do they appreciate a quiet fidget when the classroom is loud or distracting? A beanbag to read on? A stool where they can perch for group work?
The Quickest Sensory Wins
One of the quickest ways to add a sensory win in your classroom is with your projector. Putting a nature video, ambient video, or fun timer up on your board takes only a moment and adds a layer to the learning that day. You’ll find lots of links in your design kit, but here are a few examples.
Project a Cozy Fire as Students Work on a Windy Gray Day (I’m looking at you, November)
Play Nasa Footage with Peaceful Music while Students Write
Add a Funny Timer from the Stanford d.School’s Many Options while Students complete a Brief Task
You’ll find these links and many more inside your toolkit!
Coming Next
Ok, my friend, today we focused on sensory design, and I’m sure you’ve got many more ideas than what we’ve covered in this episode! Next week on the pod, we’ll be back to talk about flexible classroom resources you can set up to empower independent learning and creativity practices. Don’t forget to grab your copy of the #evolvingEDdesign toolkit for everything we’ve talked about, and everything we’re going to talk about, and to share your takeaways, ideas, expertise, and experiments online under the same hashtag.
If you’re looking for more inspiration today, check out the “30 Second Wins” page of your toolkit, which will give you fun digital additions for your classroom space that literally just take the amount of time it takes you to press play. We discussed three of these today, but there are many more waiting.
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