Today David Jakes Designs LLC is three years old!
That went quick.
Over the past three years, I've had the great honor of working with so many talented people as well as a great number of schools and school districts that are interested in significant change.
I've had the opportunity to do learning spaces pilots, partner with architecture firms on the design of new schools, help start a new maker school, redesign libraries, classrooms and makerspaces, do a lot of professional development and speaking - all in the service of helping schools with their organizational change efforts. As you might expect, its been a terrific expedition, literally working across the world to help others improve the work they do in their schools and with their kids.
I've gotten over my skis on a number of occasions but have always landed upright. That's important and I'm in a completely different place today than I was when I left The Third Teacher+ over three years ago with what I can do as an educator-designer. It's not always been fun, but I'm proud of what I have accomplished and with the quality of the work that I have done.
So what's next? A lot of the same but with some new projects on the horizon that are pretty exciting. I'll be working with two close colleagues on the start of a new Design Institute that will serve schools in Mexico, Central America, and Columbia and Bolivia. Additionally, expect a new book on learning spaces that will provide schools with a roadmap for designing learning spaces in the right way. That has been a fun project and I'm really proud of what has been written so far. I've also got a new Learning Spaces Method Card deck (currently at 86 cards!) that will be a companion to the book that will provide an interesting way to gamify learning spaces design. And finally, today launches the Learning Spaces Design newsletter that will contain short articles on learning spaces design that reflect my insights as an educator-designer, imagery of learning spaces, provocations about the design of spaces, featured resources, featured furniture, and information associated with innovation, creativity, and the design process. Please considering signing up here.
Thank you to all of my clients for the work and I look forward to continuing our relationship in new and creative ways. And to those of you, too numerous to mention here, that have provided the support necessary to accomplish what I have, my heartfelt thanks.
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David