John B. Dey Guest Reader Day

These last two weeks at John B. Dey Elementary School guest readers have come in from the community to read to the students to celebrate Reading and Literacy Month. I was so excited to sign up to read to a class of 2nd graders at John B. Dey Elementary School.

When I got to the class and introduced myself, their teacher asked them a few questions about what they knew about architecture, and from that, what they thought an architect might do? Several of the students knew that architects draw buildings, and were so excited to hear that as an architect, you got to design the building to look how you want it to as well!

I read the book “Iggy Peck, Architect” by Andrea Beaty to the class, which told the story of a motivated young boy named Ignacious, who wanted to be an architect and constructed buildings out of anything he could find. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but let’s just say his class got into quite the predicament and he had to save the day.

After reading the book, we talked a little more about architecture, what their new school would look like, and what it takes to become an architect. But possibly my favorite question of the day, was when one student asked me “Did you ever play with legos?”. I told him that when I was his age, Legos were one of my absolute favorite toys, and one of the reasons that I wanted to be an architect when I grew up. Immediately half of the class lit up and I heard exclaims of “Legos are my favorite!”, “I love building with Legos” and my favorite “Maybe that means I can be an architect when I grow up”.

Here at HBA in the Community Studio we are fortunate to spend most of our days designing for situations just like these, where students might be able to discover through project-based learning what really excites them, and what they’d like to spend their life pursuing. But it certainly is an even more special feeling to see that learning play out in front of you.

Thanks for having me, John B. Dey, and keep building!