Modern Students

CREATIVE SCHOOLS: GIVING AN ANSWER TO STUDENT NEEDS IN THE 21^ST CENTURY

It isn’t something new to say that our educational system is not all good, teachers don’t use the right ways to learn. This is changing little by little. The government wants us ignorants, and don’t treat education as it should.

Ways of learning, such as the traditional method, aren’t correct because children hardly learn, everything it’s mechanized, all is memorized, and you arrive at a point that you realize about the waste of time, that you don’t grow as a person, and that makes a lack of motivation in education.

Our teacher Yolanda, in our class of Organizacion de instituciones educativas, show us some videos, talking about education, and thing that are important in it.

In the first video, Ken Robinson talks us about creativity and values, two important things that have to be learn and develop. Also, he talked about the importance of make mistakes, of be wrong. Teacher have to teach children to make mistakes, and learn about them. Humans are not perfect, and we make mistakes, a lot, and we must learn to deal with them. Teachers have to develop children skills too.

In the second video, Takaharu Tezuka talks us about freedom and enjoy. You have to let children enjoy childhood, playing, having fun, let it’s space , with other children with him, for learn more. As in the first video says, children should learn through mistakes, fall and rise. In the video we can see a school, where children have a lot of space to learn and have fun. The school structure is circular, so children can run and it develop his physical condition.

 

Our group has dedicated so many time to this work about Our Ideal School, and I think that the result was pretty good, as the rest of the groups.

When I want to talk about my ideal school, there are so many ideas in my mind, and it’s hard to order it, but i’m gonna try it.

The structure about my ideal school would be a big space in the nature, with a big building and a big part of garden. It must be lightness, but natural light. It’s needed classroom of music, art, laboratories, sports hall, assembly hall, basketball courts, soccer field, library.. to develop a practical way the intelligence of the student. The school must be adapted for children with problems. A class for parent it’s necessary, to make reunions, and a teachers room too. The school also have a canteen for children, because sometimes parents work.

The school should be based on projects, not tests. And cooperative it’s not only a children thing, teachers have to be cooperative between them too. It have to be a inclusive school, that means that all students attend and are welcomed by their neighbourhood school in age-appropiate, regular clases and are supported to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of the school life.

Paternal part is very important, they may attend classes to help their children see how you learn. For this it is important to have a student council, to solve problems, such as bullying.

Having animals in class helps children to learn to care, responsibilities, ...

About the timetable, each class have to last 45 minutes, and more breaks, like one between every class.

Constructivism it’s the methodology we should use, with cooperative learning, feedback, brainstorming… Everything have to be more practice, less exams and homeworks. The use of technologies have to be moderated. Children have to learn values, as tolerance, respect, equality, solidarity...

The school have to create a confidence, but it’s not thing by one, in it’s a thing by everyone, teachers, children and parents. For that, the relation between them have to be good.

More or less, all the groups have been agree with all the ideas that we have show in every video, and some of them have coincide between them. These are some of the main ideas that group has provide:

-The methodology should be constructivism, and teachers have to adapt to it, because if it change, and teachers don’t perform, it doesn’t work.

-The organitation of the class it’s so important, depending of what they are gonna do, the class have to have a different orientation of the furnitures.

-Cooperative learning is a common idea in all the videos.

- Space school with natural lights, with pool, sport center, classrooms of music, art, an assembly hall, big library, relax spaces, study spaces…

- Less homework, more breaks.

-Solve children problems, like buying.

-Schools adapted for disabled people.

-A group talk about be all teacher bilingual or natives, to teach properly in English.

-Parents in school, to see how school works, how their children learn,… a group created a ‘Family day’, that is the day parent can be in school.

-Exams for teacher to see if they still being good teachers.

-Animals in class for develop responsibility.

-A group propose activities like carpentry, mechanics,… asignatures that children don’t have to use a book.

-Technologies in classroom, but in a moderate way.

-Green spaces, for children to play, in freedonn learning about nature.

-A delegate in every class, first he talk with his class, and later all the delegate together to talk about the problems and solve them.

-Values, like multiculturality, respect,..

To conclude, in the school of the future should take more seriously the teaching and learning of children. We can’t get stuck in traditional methodologies, in the past. We must go further, and as we can see in the work we have done, it’s possible the change. Education it’s not something immovable, is moldable and depend of the child, it must change in one way or another. Although all children are equal, and should be treated the same, they are very diferent too.