Second chance: if at first you do not succeed, set up a plan and try, try again

Sherpa Romeo green journal. Open access licensed under a Creative Commons Attibution-Non Commercial 4.0 International LicenseStudent teachers make errors in their practicum. Then they learn and fix those errors. This is the standard arc within a successful practicum. Some students make errors that they do not fix and then make more errors that again remain unfixed. This downward spiral increases in pace until the classroom becomes chaos. These students at the University of Lethbridge require a focused and planned second attempt at student teaching. This paper will examine the reasons why the “second chance” students were not successful in their first attempt, and then it will outline an initiative that has increased the chances of success. The program has four sections, each of which seems to be important in increasing the capabilities of the student teacher. The four components are as follows: (1) reflection; (2) identification of problem areas; (3) creation of a plan with timeline; and (4) mentorYe

Improvisation and Planning: Engaging With Unforeseen Encounters in Urban Public Space

Despite the significant emphasis in Scandinavian cities on vital urban spaces and creative unfolding in urban development, there is a tendency towards designing for “finished” urban spaces with a pre-defined conclusion. The result is often standardised design and staged play, ignoring the diversity of lived experiences taking place in the here and now. How can urban spaces be generated to accommodate unforeseen encounters fostering moments of intensity, affect, and disorder? In this article, we explore the potential of improvisation in urban spaces by examining how urban public spaces facilitate improvisation in interactions between places, senses, materials, and participants. Improvisation is understood as a productive force in urban development that gives space to what occurs in urban encounters. The article draws on Richard Sennett’s concept of “disorder” and Jennifer Mason’s concept of “affinity.” By using design experiments and sensory and visual methods inspired by ethnographic methodology the article analyses two improvisational practices occurring in public spaces in Norway and Denmark, which emphasise the performative, affective, and sensory elements of urban life. The analysis brings forth a discussion of how improvisation unfolds in multimodal urban encounters, between order and disorder, and sensory and emotional connections. The authors argue for a more place-sensitive form of city-making and more improvisatorial urban designs that stimulate varied, spontaneous, and changeable use