CREATIVE SCHOOLS: GIVING AN
ANSWER TO STUDENTS NEEDS IN THE 21st CENTURY
1. Ideas
from the readings and the videos that we watched in class
In the 21st century kids
have a lot of needs in the school starting from the way that they are taught
and continuing with the way that the school is by itself.
The
traditional way of teaching the kids in school, the behaviourism way, don’t let
the kids realize by themselves how can they learn from the experience, and for
me that is one of the most important and efficiency way of learning. So, we
have to work with the kids in a constructivist way, were we are guides and the
kids learn by themselves but with us behind where we can help them when they
get lost. With this was of teaching, kids understand and get to know better the
knowledge that we are trying to transmit.
We
have to introduce in this constructivist way the cooperative learning, which is
a way of teaching were the kids learn by projects. The class will be divided
into 5 groups of 4 people, which will be a base team, and each trimester, all
the base teams will change so with this the kids work with different people and
get to know most of the kids in their class. With these teams, they are going
to work in different projects to learn the different units in all the subjects.
Also, whit this projects they will get more in deep in the knowledge while they
are working in the different sections of the projects.
In
this school is more important to educate values in the kid such as tolerance,
respect the others and the others opinion, the solidarity, the equality… than the
work that they do to know the different things in all the subjects and this
will be work every day in class and also outside the class in excursions.
It is important that they can work
in the way that they want, so if a kid has more develop the musical
intelligence and another one has the kinestesic intelligence, they have to know
that they can work in the way that the feel more comfortable. But to make this
possible, the class had to be divided into different areas where children can
work and move freely. These areas will
be the principal area with the group tables, the music area where the kids can
play the instruments and dance, the plastic area where the kids had blackboards
where they can draw and write whatever they want and finally the relax area
because it is also important that the kids can have a break with different
toys, chairs and cushions.
Other thing that in my opinion we
have to improve these days is the way that the parents get involve with their
kids and their studies. Most of the parents get home exhausted from work and
they try to help their children even though most of the time they don’t know a
lot about the topic. So, in my school the parents can enter to some classes to
see how we work on the things and then, at home, they can help the children in
a better way.
Another thing is the way that the
teacher understand the content, because the relationship between the concept,
the teacher and the kids has change. Now, the teacher has to know the content
that he/she is going to explain, then he has to know the moral and cognitive
development of the kid and finally he/she has to know the kids by themselves,
the teacher has to know how a kid is and when he or she is understanding the
concept and when not.
There also should be a student’s
council in every school where the kids get together to talk about the different
problems that they can find in the school, and by them they can try to solve
them by their own and sometimes with our help. It is important that every
school listen to the proposals of their kids in the way to improve the school
because most of the time they came with very good ideas that can be done
easily.
If we start talking about the
schedule, we realize that in Spain kids spend 3 hours in class without a break,
then a break of 30 minutes and again 2 hours in class. For me this is wrong, we
should give the kids time from one class to another, a little break where they
can eat something or just disconnect from studding and learning all the time,
so I will give them 10 or 15 minutes between every class and then after 2 class
a break of 25 minutes.
Another thing that we should include
in the changes of the schedule is the duration of the class. In most of the
schools they have classes of 1 hour, when it is demonstrated that the kids
start to lose the attention after 30-40 minutes. So the ideal time for a class
will be about 45 minutes more or less, not too short and not too long.
Now we start to talk about the
different equipment that the classes have. As I said before, we had a music
part where there are going to be different instrument, a stereo and a part with
a mirror where the kids can dance; then we have the art part, where there are a
lot of paintings and staff to paint; the relax part where there are going to be
toys and some cushions; after that every classroom will have a library with a
huge among of books that the kids are freely to take and read them and finally
we also have one wall that is completely a blackboard where the teacher and the
kids can use them anytime to explain something to the kids and to their
partners.
We also have to locate the buildings
somewhere, so I really liked an idea that a team partner have, that was to
locate the school in some place in the nature, not near to a city or to a
village, so with this the kids are in constant contact with the nature and they
learn how to take care of them and how to respect it.
And with this we star to talk about
the different buildings that our school will have. All our building will have
an entrance designed for disable people, and in all of the buildings there will
be an elevator for those who cannot go upstairs.
Apart from this, we will have 2 main
buildings, the principal one, with all the classes and the institutional part
of the school, and the sports one. In the normal one the different floors will
be located as in the 1st
floor we will have the institutional part of the school, in the 2nd
floor will be the classes of 1st, 2nd and 3rd
of Primary and in the 3rd floor we will have the classes for 4th,
5th and 6th of Primary. In the sports one we will find a
basketball, football and volleyball court, a swimming pool and an athletic
courts.
In the playground we will also find
a basketball, football and volleyball court, slides and wings and a lot of
space where the children can run and play whatever they want.
And the final part is the
assessment. In my ideal school kids won´t have a numerical mark and they won´t
have exams, the assessment will be made by the projects that they do and all
the things that they do in class, so they will have a A if they have work and
they have get to know everything that they have to propose to themselves and a
C if they have work less and they don’t have help their partners to do
everything where they cannot do it, so with this one they know that they can do
it better.
2. Ideas
from the videos of our partners
One idea that I really liked about
my partners was that the divided the class into different areas where the kids
can move freely and where they can use everything at the time that they want.
So, if a kid needs to draw something in the blackboard to explain it to another
partner, they are free to stand up and do it. When it comes about working in
groups, they can work in the way that they want and fell more comfortable.
Other idea that a team partner talk
about was the weight that little kids has to carry every day to class and back
home. This is a big problem because then the kids will have problems in the back.
So there will be great if the kids haven´t so much weight in their bags, and a
way of doing these is to let the books and the notebooks that they don´t need
at home in class. Every day, at the end of the evening I will give them 5
minutes where they can check if they are carrying home the books and the
notebooks that they need, and not anymore.
There was a group that talked about
doing a “Family day”, where kids, parents and teachers get together in order to
get a closer relationship between the parents and the teacher. I think that it
will be a great idea to do it once a trimester so with this parents will be
aware of how the kids are working in the school and how they are going through
all the subjects.
3. Conclusion
So with all these ideas we want to
have a school where all the kids are accepted no matter their colour skins or
if they have some type of disability, were bulling is something that doesn´t
exist and where teacher believed that the best knowledge is the one that the
kids are able to create on themselves. But there are something that do not let
us do this as we want, as it is the LOMCE, the new educational law, where we
find some barriers that we have to take into account, but I also think that
little by little, working, we can change the way traditional way of teaching
into this new one.
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