Jarrod Martin's Blog – March 2008 Archive (2)

I read The Starbucks Experience last year, and I was amazed at the principles this company uses to connect with their customers. They want to become the "third place" in a person's life, right after home and work. They aren't selling coffee -- they're selling an experience. Yes, the coffee is good, but there's great music, comfortable seating, environmentally-conscious cups, and trained baristas, as they're called.



Which makes me wonder -- What place is school? Are we… Continue

Has anyone experimented with the physical classroom environment to increase student learning and interest in the content? If school was more like Starbucks, would students learn more? If I could create a comfortable, inviting space, would the students be more likely to learn or goof off? Everything I've looked at is mostly for elementary-age students and doesn't even consider the fact that we are dealing with real human beings who may not enjoy sitting in a cold, hard chair for a 90-minute… Continue