Is it possible to build our ideal school? That's the
question that I asked myself when Yolanda suggested this new project. All of us
through our videos proposed many good ideas, but with the subject of sociology
we discovered that all the ideas that we had commented were not so easy to
carry out as we thought.
Before starting with our work, we devoted one class to
see some videos which I would like to talk about them because all of this I
really attracted my attention.
In the first video, Ken Robinson talks about the
importance of creativity and the few value that many school give nowadays. Some
teachers think that to learn new knowledge is not necessary to use it. In
addition, some of the teachers don’t allow children to develop their own
skills, because the students should learn only the basic subjects (maths,
language...) and they don’t use creativity.
Also, he showed us that the children are afraid to
make mistakes and when they make it they can lose the rhythm of the class and
they can’t adapt later. The problem of that, if the student never does
something wrong, they can’t learn from their mistakes and they don’t know how
to fix real problems.
Finally, Robinson made us reflect on the great number
of skills and abilities that human have beings and the privilege to have all of
them. So through this first video, I could ask me why not take advantage of our
capabilities and develop when we are learning.
On the other hand, the second video that we saw, I
seemed the most interesting. Takaharu Tezuka presented us the idea to release
children. This means that children should have their space to play and learn
without barriers or limits, because in this way, children will make mistakes
and, through their own mistakes, they can learn more autonomously. To carry out
this methodology, they did so with a very different structure of the building
which I had previously seen. His school was circular shape and around it were
the classes, which were formed by big windows which allowed a great lighting.
After this, we started to work with the creation of
our video. In it we include our solutions and ideas to build our ideal school:
We begin with the structure of the school, which
should be a big building to fit the needs of each student. Our school included
creative areas (theatre, painting class...), sports zone (gym, pool, tennis...)
and, above all free spaces. The classes would be large and each one have a
maximum of 20 students, because the goal of creating an inclusive school to
know the difficulties of each and to help them at all times.
With the methodology that we would use, it would be
based on cooperative learning, doing practical activities and leaving aside the
theory part. We would also give a major role to new technologies and would
promote participation in class, so that all people could express themselves
freely. In addition, we consider very important to develop skills such as
critical thinking and problem solving.
Another big change we make is in the time table,
because we would like to add more break time between classes so that children
could keep the rhythm and in this way they don’t bored in class. Also, we would
add new subjects such as theatre, art, music... but we would still keeping the
main of it like maths, language, english…
One of the most important things in education is
motivation. But always we make a mistake because sometimes we say that is the
pupils the only people who are demotivated. But, many of the teachers are not
motivated when they teach, so as guides should show students their motivation
because, in this way, children will feel more animated.
In our school, we are all involved in learning,
including the family. Parents should be informed of the progress of their
children, so we will try to make a good relationship between parents and
teachers.
Finally, we must take in account the values that we
want to promote. Among them: eliminate bullying, accepting other cultures, and
trust, respect and help others.
Besides all these ideas that Virginia, Alfonso and I
shared, we could find many more things thanks to the work of our partners.
Modern Students team, they talked about an optional
way for not eliminate completely the exams and the theoretical part, because I
could keep the mini-test.
The next group was exposing was Amigos del Football,
which told us about new methods which were used in Turkey and in Germany.
The most thing that caught my attention of Wanderlust
group was the synthesized of ideas of the best educational systems (USA and
Finland) and the way that through them as they adapted to the building
structure.
Later, Crónicas Viajeras told us about his school.
They proposed something that the other groups don’t talk about it. This is the
bilingual method. Today, most bilingual schools, are formed by teachers with
low level of English or who don’t know how to apply it in class. They believe
that once or twice a week a native person should have conversations with
students so that they can improve their oral learning.
The team Team Perk I liked too. It seemed a good idea
to create tutorials with parents each a certain time, so that in this way the
family is involved. In addition, they created a student council where students
could meet to discuss and solve problems. Also, here they can share ideas or
complaints...
Finally, Musical Chairs talked about the importance of
the relationship between the teacher and the pupils. Their teacher has to treat
equality all students and also have to account in mind that not all of them
have the same learning process.
In conclusion, it seems a good job as we could get
ideas and ask how to carry them out. Unfortunately, this change is not
immediate, the change needs much time and money to build our ideal school. But
the most important thing for me is to know that school is a place where we learn,
but also we can have fun.
