We hosted a school-wide contest to name our beautiful new facility and the winner is…

The Learning Hub

According to the handy Oxford English dictionary on my Mac, a hub is:

• the central part of a wheel, rotating on or with the axle, and from which the spokes radiate.
• a place or thing that forms the effective center of an activity, region, or network : the kitchen was the hub of family life.

We love this term on so many levels:

The Learning Hub will clearly be the effective center of learning at our school, hosting a wide variety of exciting activities to engage our students, with classes rotating in and out throughout the school day, connecting groups of teachers and students into new and dynamic networks of learners, where new ideas and insights radiate out to each and every area of our elementary school.

The metaphor of a wheel also has links to the cultural traditions of our host country, Thailand. The Buddhist wheel of dharma is one of the most common images in Thai symbology. It’s seen everywhere from temple flags, to logos on school supplies, to the doors of local taxis.

I can’t wait to see what exciting new learning comes from this perfectly named space!

Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41017140@N00/1234558648