When speaking of an Active Learning environment, one of the ideas that come to mind would be the design and layout of the classroom, where students have spaces for small or big group collaboration, whole group discussion, individual work, easy transition from one learning style to another, brainstorming, and many more. There had been discussions of changing the traditional classroom (sitting in neat and organized rows that are mostly facing the teacher and/or the front of a board) into flexible learning spaces that would encourage students to share, work in teams, and develop better communication and collaboration skills. However, the challenge lies on how today's schools can make this change without creating burdens in their budget and current building structures.

The infographic below showcases the different ways of designing and creating an Active Learning classroom. It is quite obvious that the infographic includes modern style seats that can be easily rolled or moved, specially-designed desks and mobile storage cabinets, to name a few. After reading the infographic below, here are some questions that I would like you to think about:

• How can today's schools, especially those buildings that have been standing for so many years, transform their current learning spaces into Active Learning classrooms? 
• ​What are some ideas that can help transform traditional classrooms into flexible learning spaces, especially if you have a limited budget?

This presentation is made possible by Ashley Callahan, Hawaii Department of Education, HI and Stephanie Catania, Chaminade University, HI. In their presentation, both presenters aim to share what BAM is and how BAM supports teaching best practices, particularly in the area of differentiation. BAM stands for Benchmark Assessment Map and it focuses on increasing student engagement through providing choices in student learning. Here are some highlights of their presentation:

• The importance of giving student choice is key to engaging students and creating a deeper impact in their learning.
• Changing the taste of learning among students, who have a bad taste in Reading and Writing due to the rudimentary procedures involved in traditional way of learning.
• Examples: board games, students performing a dance, conducting an experiment, students having a choice in their assignments (frees up teacher time to have conversations with students), seismic waves using a slinky, students producing/creating, PowerPoint slides, creating a newscast, to name a few.​

More of my notes below. ​

This presentation was made possible by Jill Ackers and Dayna Laur, Project ARC, during the TCEA 2018 Conference. It was refreshing to listen to two presenters who spoke about the importance of unpacking instructional design in order for students to learn, and reflecting as to what our schools would look like in 2030.

The presentation began with challenging the audience to portray different scenarios, a surprise free scenario, an optimistic scenario, a pessimistic scenario, a disaster scenario and a transformation scenario as to our take regarding the impact and relevance of technology integration in student success, student learning, and teacher growth and development. It was interesting to listen to what each other have to say, based on the given scenarios, and what made it more interesting is the evidences that each participant/audience has provided with his/her statement. This is one activity that I would like to try during one of my meetings! 

As an ever-progressing race, we humans are always looking for something new, different, innovative, or better to support and serve our continuous desire for growth and development, meaningful insights, and purposeful contributions to society. As educators, it is in our nature to strive for something better, more improved, and if not, to change something that may not be working anymore.

Many of us are also aware that our current education system is challenged with staying relevant with the fast-paced and constantly-changing demands of society, particularly in ensuring students to be prepared and ready to serve the human race. For example, the technology realm is one of the common areas where change is happening too quickly and progressively, which have either been received positively or negatively by people. In doing so, the evolution of the web brings about great anticipation as to what students need to learn and how educators can best prepare them for the future. 

With this in mind, I will ask you the same question that was asked during this presentation. That is, "When you enter into a new or not so new learning experience, how will you rewire your way of thinking that will lead to the transformation of teaching and student learning?" More of my notes on this presentation are shown below.