Western Pennsylvania teachers get creative with classrooms in learning

Jessica Pilyih rarely sits at her desk.

And her students don’t sit at theirs, either.

“I am not a desk person,” Pilyih said as she sat at one of the semi-circular round tables inside her fifth-grade classroom at Holiday Park Intermediate School in the Plum Borough School District. “I have never liked sitting behind I desk. I like being out in the classroom with the students.”

For nearly two decades, she’s been teaching in the district, and half of those years, she hasn’t had a traditional desk seat.

In her classroom, there are couches, milk crates with memory foam cushions and half circular tables with multiple chairs. It’s a newer way to teach by using creativity within the framework of a classroom.

Many educators in the area are adding personality to the rooms where they spend most of the school year. They add fun colors and wallpaper, mobile chairs and table setups, comfortable couches with pillows and décor based on works by students.

Anything that’s outside the traditional look of chairs and desks facing the front of the room might be considered.

“This design gives them freedom to figure out where they learn best,” Pilyih said.

She said this configuration definitely works for her students who are in this school for the first time. It helps with the transition to a new building and new teachers and new spaces.

Pilyih and her husband J.R. Pilyih, who teaches at O’Block Elementary School, have been creating cool classrooms for the past 10 years.

Creation Nation

Shayle Prorok, who teaches middle school to high school art at Leechburg Area School District, calls her completely renovated classroom Creation Nation.

There are high-top tables and low-top options, all of which are movable. The pieces of art on display were made by students.

Prorok said learning this way gives students real-world experiences. It also teaches them that with freedom comes responsibility.

Part of the space is being utilized for candle making and other products.

Students learn how to make 100% soy wax, hand-poured candles, but also about profit margins, how to meet deadlines and budgeting. They sell the candles for $10 and $15, and the business is self-supporting.

“It is more fun to learn this way,” said Prorok, who has been teaching for 24 years. “The students love coming up to this area. It’s a cool environment.”

Students also design and make the labels.

“There are definitely formulas involved and measuring,” said Leechburg senior Madison Gamble. “It’s a real-life marketing class.”

“For years, classrooms were rows of desks and that environment is not as engaging and powerful as creative spaces for learning,” said Bart Rocco of Cecil, executive director of Tri-State School Study, University of Pittsburgh. “Education is the great equalizer in this country.”

‘Environment impacts and changes behavior’

Rocco said he uses the words of his mentor Bill Stickland, former president, CEO and executive chairman of Manchester Bidwell Corp., that “environment impacts and changes behavior.”

“Teaching is about building relationships with students and creating classrooms with couches and lounge areas and colorful and cool spaces is about changing the mindset and making learning joyful and fun for kids,” Rocco said.

When he was superintendent for the Elizabeth Forward School District, he said there was a project that looked at why students might be disinterested in school.

“We looked at how environment could change behavior,” Rocco said.

He said creating cool classrooms works if everyone is all in, from teachers to administrators to school boards and parents.

“These spaces give students the opportunity to grow,” Rocco said. “If kids feel comfortable in a space, they will be more relaxed and that creates a wonderful learning environment. Kids also need downtime, just like adults. When you have a way to configure the room, the kids can help with that and they take ownership.”

Teachers said some of the décor they purchase out of their own pocket. Schools’ parent-teacher organizations also help and there are some state grants available.

Resources

Pilyih said some items have been donated from former students and she acquired some things through DonorsChoose, a website where teachers can post requests for classroom resources. According to the DonorsChoose website, teachers spend an average of $500 out of pocket on their classrooms each year.

When you enter Janelle Price’s classroom at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School, it’s a burst of color — she has more than 1,000 cranes dangling from the ceiling. The AP World History teacher said the students made them as a peace installation in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.

Cranes are often symbols of peace and in Japanese culture, folding 1,000 origami cranes is believed to grant a wish for peace.

Price’s décor also includes several bright dragon kites that the Allderdice alum finds on her travels (the dragon is the Allderdice mascot).

“We’ve created a space where you can see the world on the walls in this classroom,” Price said.

Displaying pre-K students’ work is part of the décor in Melissa Thoma’s classroom at West Hempfield Elementary.

“It is important to do things such as display students’ artwork to create a classroom the students will embrace,” Thoma said. “This is their space and we want them to be proud of what they are doing. We want to support and show their creativity.”

Thoma’s room has an area for doing puzzles, space for science and technology, where students can work on Chromebooks and iPads.

“All of this supplements the curriculum,” said Thoma, who was part of a pilot program for having pre-K in the district five years ago.

As the years have progressed, she has added more and more décor.

“I believe in learning through the play skills we teach. I see a huge benefit to our students having familiar surroundings,” Thoma said.

Kindergarten teacher Jacki Nestor, who has been with Hempfield Area School District for two decades, said each year she redesigns and decorates her classroom with a new theme to match the building theme for the year.

“It helps to keep my classroom new and fresh for each new group of kindergarten students that walks through my door,” said Nestor, who teaches at Maxwell Elementary. “Each year, I try to make my classroom open, bright, colorful and inviting for my students. While in my room, I want my students to find comfort and calmness in the classroom.”

Hands-on learning

The walls in one classroom at Hempfield Area High School have robots that students have made as decorations.

Technology education teacher Craig Siniawski, who teaches design, software and wood shop, said that’s a way for the students to see the work other students have done for the class called BotsIQ, where they build robots and enter competitions.

He said with the new school, he has been involved in the planning of how to make classrooms more student-friendly.

That means more flexibility and space for change, he said.

“I can teach the content, but they learn when they do it themselves,” Siniawski said. “Hands-on learning teaches them if there is a problem, what they need to do to figure out the solution.”

Hempfield High School senior Sean Aston said this style of learning gives students freedom and that he learns more easily when he makes something.”

“I prefer being in a workshop versus a typical classroom,” said Hempfield High School senior Ella Griffen. “I am a hands-on learner. It makes me think more.”