If I built it a School, It Would Be Like.......

Such dreams, such introspection, but most of all, such a wonderful fantasy. I am sure every educator or future educator daydreams about how they would change the "system" they know. However, the biggest fantasy would be the creation of a school where you had all the input into every possible scenario. So, since it is a fantasy, I figure I have the opportunity to go all out with my thoughts. I may go beyond say a Venosdale and Mitra, two people of varying backgrounds, but both having visions of a place where children learn far beyond what we see in an educational institution of today. So, where do I go......

Of course!!!!! Where no one has gone before......(play Star Trek music in your head please) OK, now that just seems to far ahead. Yes, I believe a Klingon would just be a distraction at first. Let's just go where no one right now has gone before.

So, there are simple questions that one must ask when creating such a project...

1) What ages will be in my school? Answer, ages 6-18, so basically, Kindergarten thru Senoir year high school. One building for all. A respect needs to be created up and down the age spectrim. After all, everyone is here to learn first and foremost.


2)What methodology will be used to teach? Encouragement!!!!

It just makes a more conducive environment to learn. As Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, England, Sugata Mitra is a wonderful mind that brings to us that we need to pay attention to the fact that we have a part of our brains, known as the reptilian brain, that can shut down from forced learning. So, we need to give love, understanding and positive reinforcement more than anything. After all, just looking at this image to the right makes us feels better, so imagine a teacher saying the same thing.


3)What do I want my students to know? Reading will be very important from the start. Reading stirs the imagination and no matter how far in the future we look, it is hard to see us understand life without the power of reading. No matter what job a person has later in life, reading is invaluable. Shakespeare can only be felt through reading. Chaucer can only be as funny as the mind makes the "Canturbury Tales". History will also be a vital part from the start. Understanding that everything we do as a person and as a society influences our future every second of the day. Math, Science, P.E., and Music will be important too.


4)What do I want my students to be able to do? I want them to be able to think for themselves. We need individuals; not sheep. We need problem solvers; not problems. Simple.


5)What tools will I use in the classroom? Well, computers will be the most interactive tool. It is the present and future after all. There needs to be a comfort in using them in a classroom. A comfort that makes the laptop just an extension of what a book was 300 years ago.


6)How will the kids be a part of the learning process? They are the learning process. For example, a history teacher starts the class with the question, What were Hitler's reason for world dominance and how would the world be different if he succeeded? This gets the mind thinking beyond just the facts and creates an explorer of life. Who, what, when, where and the most important, why, can take on whole new meanings. From day one, learning to talk and intellectually explain one's ideas would be a major part in the learning and growing process.


This is but a brief step into my fantasy of a school. On a later blog, I will go into other features that will make this THE school for creating the best adult that THEY can be!!! Oh, I might as well end with...

Second Test Post

Hope this works!

My Test Post Title

First Blog and I clicked the HTML button which I will always do for this class!!!!!