MY IDEAL SCHOOL - MARÍA SCHNELL

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

Gema Gutiérrez 1ºB Primary Education.

 First of all I will say that nowadays, the most important thing that should be teached and developed in schools is creativity. For that, when we though about our ‘ideal school’ we gave too much importance to subjects like music or art because in those, are in which children develop creativity in a highest way.

 - The first video that we saw was the one of Ken Robinson in which he explains that schools are killing creativity. This man says that creativity is as important as literacy and I think that it’s true. For example in some groups like ‘Team Perk’ or ‘Musical chairs’ they said that in their school they wouldn’t have an static methodology and I think that this is really good and coul be something for make children develop their creativity because, with an static methodology that doesn’t change they will be bored and they aren’t going to pay attention. Beause of that, in our video, when we talk about the nine qualities that a teacher should have, we said creativity. Also teacher should be creative and surprise their pupils with new activities and games.  
In other groups videos that we saw in class like ‘Modern students’ we could see that they purpose an school in which children don’t have examns, just Project. This is a purposal that ‘Cronicas viajeras’ and also my team made. Things should change because as Ken Robinson said on the video “we’re educating people out of their creative capacities”. As we said on our video, there’s too many theory that isn’t put into practice, so in learning by projects process, children could develop their capacity of creativity and also they will made thing more greatful.
As I said before and as it is said on the video, subjects like art or music and those which needs more creativity are being cathaloged as those for entertaiment and not for the future because of that they are being deleted of schools timetable.
Finally, in this video, Ken Robinson said that “every education system on hearth has the same hierarchy subjects” and thanks to my partners who includes educstion systems of other countries like ‘Amigos del football’ o ‘Wanderlust’ we could see it because they talk about how is the education in countries like USA, Turkey, Germany, etc.
In conclusion to this video, I think that schools of 21st century needs more subjects and breaks for implement their creative capacity because as literacy it’s one of the most important things that will be useful for them in the future. In this case, don’t care how the building is if the methods are wrong.
- The second video was the one of Takaharu Tekuza who was talking about the best kindergarden that we have ever seen.
He presented the kindergarden which was a circular one with too many opne spaces where children could keep in contact with nature. This idea was presented in some videos like ‘Modern students’, ‘Wanderlust’ or even mine.
I think that it’s very important for children to stay in contact with nature and study in open spaces because in my opinion they will concentrate better.
This man, Takaharu, said that in the classrooms of this school, children are too concentrated because they need noise for work in their homework, not noise.
The ethic of that school, as this man said in the video is that children learn to help each other. As we saw in our projects, this is very important, we all mencionate that point, for example the ‘Unknowns’ or ‘Cronicas Viajeras’. Also in my team, when we talk about ethics we explain that as coopeartive learning.
Finally, Takaharu said that sometimes pupils when their are runing around the school, the fall and they hurt theirselves so in that point he said that they don’t protect too much children because they want the to be prepared for the real world.
This point I think that we didn’t mencionated in our Project because we forgot it but, I think that in my ideal school I would like children to be authonomous.

 - The third video that we saw at class was the one about ‘teach kids to love science’.
In this video, a boy who is teacher explains that imagination is more important than knowledge. I think this is relationated with the idea that some groups mencionated in their Project, for example, ‘Team Perk’ or ‘ Musical chairs’. This is the idea that ‘children are the creators of their own knowledge’ that was in my Project of my ideal school.
If we take a look to all the projects that we saw at class we could see that they are very similar between them but not all of them talked about the problems that we can find nowadays in the schools that we want to change. ‘Cronicas viajeras’ and my group, for example, did it.
There are too many problems that need to be solve nowadays in the school and I think that it’s the best way of start for create an Ideal School. Those problems are: bullying, homework, huge timetables, too much theory that isn’t put in practice, etc. In our ideal schools, this will change.

We all talked about points like: the structure of the building speaking about that we want open áreas, huge classes prepared for cooperative learning, adapted to everyone because we want them to be inclusive schools, etc. O fcourse they all should have different sport áreas, technologies and cantine, as all the schools.
We also talked about something that it’s very important, VALUES. We spoke about respect, tolerance, trust, equality, etc.
But, for me, the most important thing that we talked about was methodology. For that point we speak about contructivism, cooperative learning, learning by projects as I metionated before, etc. In this point we also included things like homework. Nowadays is a very bug problem in Spain that shoul be changed because children cannot spend too much time relaxing, playing or staying with their parents because they have lots of homework for checking the next day at class.
In this point we also included that learning has to be fun. Teachers have to motivate children and be creative in the way that they surprise them with funny activities that will make children learn a lot.

In conclusion to the videos of TED TALKS and the projects of my partners, I have think in my final idea of Ideal School and I would say that it has to be an inclusive one in which all children have the same portunities and it will be adapted to everyone. Children will make a good use of cooperative learning in the way that they also learn values like respect, collaboration and trust.
They will learn with teachers help but by themselves in the way that they are going to be the creator of their own knowledge using methods like constructivism.
Parents are also going to be include in the learning process and in the school with their children because they are going to have meetings with teachers and also with their children going with them to the school and staying with them in class. 

Thanks to this Project we could reflect and investigate of some points that we have never thought in.



 

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

Nelson Mandela said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." We all live in the same world, but we all do not share the same reality and not have the resources to enjoy this type of education. There are different problems in education worldwide, but on this project I will focus on the problems that exist in the current education in Spain. For example, bullying, heavy backpacks, too much homework, too much theory that is not put in practice, large timetables, etc. It is also important to explain which are the needs of students in the XXI century that are reflected in the projects that we have done about our ideal schools. 

The purpose is to improve the nowadays education, but there are some restrictions that do not allow or hinder the process of change. As we saw in class, some of these restrictions are:

1. Schools aren't adapted, some schools aren't adapted to the necessities of the children with physical or psychological problems.

2. School dropout, in Spain almost 20% of the children leave the school without any guaranties and without being qualified. The 24% of the students leave their studies before finish the secondary education. The 23% of the students finish later than the others because of repeating a course.

3. Family, the opinion of the parents about the teachers and the methodologies that they use is a constant pressure for them. .

4. Family-economy, sometimes education is exclusive because go to the school is free but the families have to pay materials, uniforms...

5. Scholarships and government supports, the requirements for the scholarships are very strict and they can't get them but really they need help to face the school expenses. The budget is very close and between 2008-2011, Spain incremented the total spent in education around a 4%.

Some of the ideas from the videos that we saw in class and help us to build our ideal school are:

-Education is not the same all over the world, students have different subjects that often do not fit the context and depend on many factors, such as demographic factors.

-The creativity and human imagination are also very important, students have to develop creative skills and discover their talents. It is therefore important to consider creativity as literacy in education.

- Students must develop the ability to innovate without fear, if they are not ready to make mistakes, they never do anything.

- There are not subjects that are more important than other subjects, for example, mathematics can be very useful for the children, but also dance or draw.

-The academic ability is important and could be acquired by any child because intelligence is dynamic.

-Also is important to consider the space and the context in which children are educated, because this factors can influence their education. Obviously, it is not the same to live with your family in a house that is located in the city to live in a house in a village or in a shantytown.

As we saw in another video in class, the school that had a circular architecture, for me, was the ideal place to educate children. The architecture of a building and the separation in different parts, favors personal development of the children who study in this type of place. The architecture is a roof. This school is open all year round, which benefits families that works all day and have not any palce to leave their children. In this school children are not controlled and they do not get nervous, they need a small dose of danger, so they learn to help others and to care for themselves. Children do not need any training, through the various activities that they do, they can acquire different athletic skills or abilities to solve their problems.

Often, children classified subjects as easy or difficult, funny or boring, depending on whether they are good or not in these subjects. All courses can be fun, it is demonstrated that the pupils acquire the knowledge through practical activities and not memorizing the theory. Science subjects can also be interesting, we can do different activities and experiments to encourage student’s curiosity and desire to know more. Also children can participate with their parents in this type of activities. Imagination is more important than intelligence.

As already mentioned, there are many problems in education today. To begin with, the times are very long and students spend a lot of time at schools. The homework excess is also a problem, children do not have time to play and to spend time with their families. The structures and the environment of many schools do not provide the means that students need to acquire new knowledge. Because of the crisis, there is not enough money to improve school structures. The methodologies used by many professors are old and do not encourage the acquisition of new knowledge and do not provoke the motivation and interest of students. The methodologies that were once used should be changed and based on constructivism methodologies. Students should create their own knowledge with the help of teachers, who are the guides.

The relationship between parents and teachers is also very important, since many parents believe that bring their children to class is sufficient and it is not. There has to be some involvement of parents in the education their children receive in schools and help teachers to teach good values to their children. Another important aspect that needs to change is the organization of classes, work in groups has many benefits. Cooperative learning is a good way to encourage student’s communication skills and work the multiculturalism. A major current problem is the bullying, because teachers often do not know what students have such problems. To build a great school, we need to teach students to solve problems peacefully, talking and reaching agreements.

Of course, exclusive schools should be replaced by inclusive schools, where children with physical and psychological problems have the same means that children who do not have these types of problems. Moreover, teachers must adapt to the changes that appear in education and therefore, there should be evidence to assess the capabilities of each teacher. The tests are necessary, but not in a excessively way. There are other ways of acquiring knowledge, for example, carrying out projects. Many students are not motivated because their knowledge depend on an exam that often goes wrong and they get low marks. Learning should be demonstrated in a practical way and not by examination. A good or a bad mark cannot determine your knowledge.

CONCLUSION:

My ideal school would be the school which can meet all these requirements, or at least most of them:

-New methodologies based on constructivism who replace traditional methodologies. Promote learning through projects and encouraging cooperative learning. Acquire new skills doing different activities and workshops for each subject. Reducing the amount of duties and implement formative assessment. Activities in which children develop different responsibilities and critical thinking. Establish a closer relationship between teachers and students, but without forgetting that the teacher has to have authority and must also trust on students. The contact with the nature is important, the best way to learn is not to be enclosed within four walls. Innovation plays an important role in education, introduce new TIC'S in class is a good idea, but in a controlled way and not leave it alone some traditional methods that are flattering to acquire new knowledge.

-Interaction between parents and teachers. It is very important the collaboration between the, because it is easier to track the progress of each student. Parents should go to some classes with their children and also to open days.

-Promote the development of different values ​​that favor the education of students. For example, respect, solidarity, tolerance, empathy, multiculturalism, equality, etc.

-Provide the necessary resources to students who have difficulty attending schools. For example, grants for school transport, grants for materials, etc. That equality of resources must be the same in all public educational institutions, as we all have the same rights.

-Change the current class hours, more flexible schedules and extended breaks between school hours. Parents who cannot adjust their work schedules should have the possibility to leave their children at school.

-Finally, my ideal school would have green spaces, adaptable furniture, must be illuminated with natural light classes, must have large classes, a swimming pool, tennis courts to practice sports, computer rooms, a small garden, pets, etc. 

Finally, it is not enough to change the structure and other factors that influence the current education. The most important thing is that teachers are willing to change their minds and to fight for these changes that will benefit their students. Finally, I am going to explain some of the qualities which I want to have as a teacher:

-I want to be a motivated teacher because motivation is the key for anything that we want to achieve in our life, if we are motivated as teachers, is easier to transmit this motivation to students.

- Responsibility, I should accept the same expectations and standards that I demand from my future students.

-Captivation, I want to take the students attention. Bringing curious things up and relating the contents to everyday life makes easy to connect students with learning.

-Creativity, a good docent should be capable of surprising his/her pupil’s everyday with new activities, problems, games and new funny methodologies.

 BY ADALISA LICU 1º GEP B

THE CONCEPTUAL MAP OF OUR IDEAL SCHOOL:

Gonzalo Gallego Clemente

1º MEP-B.

CREATIVE SCHOOLS: “GIVING AN ANSWER TO STUDENT NEEDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY.”

My ideal school.

The school I would create referring to the students needs in the 21^st century would be:

Values.

The docents in my  school will work towards an ethic and educational way of teaching in which values such as; respect, collaboration, cooperation, honesty, effort... Are implicit in the methodologies they employ with the pupils looking towards a global education. In this school the teachers will provide academic and social skills equally, always looking towards the good of the children (Wanderlust). The phrase that will collect all this values and would be the slogan of my school is: “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think” . Margaret Mead

Building and installations.

The main point we part from in this issue is to create different spaces for different activities depending on what we want to work (Team peark). If we want to work sports we will need an area to practice them but if we want to work the pupils’ writing we would do it in a quiet environment. But this is not adjustable only towards the general point of view as I have explained it is also to adapt the classes to the knowledge is being given inside that space. If we want to teach science we will have green areas where teachers could give self-experience lessons to pupils where the knowledge is reflected in nature, not books. (Vídeo Youtube 2º) Another thing referring to the classrooms I will design for my school would be:

Classrooms would be open, luminosity and colorful areas that incite children to enter and explore by themselves this spaces, always giving a place to curiosity that is where the real learning is hide. This classroom will have a mobile furniture that could be adapted to the different methodologies the teachers will employ. (Musical chairs.)

And finally, our installations and docents will be adapted to every child and this means from adapting the toilet for a disabled child, to have docents trained in sign language for deaf-mute pupils.  (Crónicas viajeras.)

Methodologies.

We need to explore more on how a children thinks in order to create attractive methodologies that represent fun and freedom rather than boredom and obligation. In my school the pupils will develop the all different dimensions of thinking but I will ask my docents to center in developing critical and creative thinking (Crónicas viajeras.) through cooperative learning based in the children interest. I will ask them a formative evaluation, asswell,  of every child in which their difficulties and problems are reflected not in a few numbers. (Musical chairs.) And for last our docents we will have the opportunities to take new formation courses  on methodologies, technologies… Anything they think is useful for their work. (Team Perk.)

Schedule.

In my school as I have said before pupils will be taught in social and academic skills equally. So the time will be distributed moreless equally in this two disciplines. For each 90 minutes of class working, the pupils will enjoy of 45 minutes of break. Then, the pupils day would be:

90 MIN CLASS (Math, language, science…) - 45 MIN BREAK - 90 MIN CLASS (Math,language,science…)-  45 MIN BREAK AND GO HOME.

Finally their journal would have a total of 4.5 hours, starting at 9 a.m and finishing classes at 13:30 pm trying to leverage learning through enjoyment. (Amigos del football.)

Parents and teachers.

We are looking towards an union between parents and teacher towards the education of their children. Teachers and parent need to cowork in order to not confuse the child and give them a properly education, we need to eliminate the prejudices that are over the teacher proffesion and create a relation of friendship where friend- means child and -ship means education referring to the education that need to be given through teachers and parents. This is why my school will have open days where parents could come to a class a participate with their child following the dynamic of the lesson. (Crónicas viajeras.)

TICs.

Well, nowdays, we are surrounded of technology: TV, laptops, smarthphones, tablets, watches... The technological revolution has reached the all aspects of hour daily life, at least, in countries from the first world. For example, since a person wakes up, he or she does use of technology turning on the light. Then he/she has to have breakfast, getting out the milk that is in the fridge to stay cold, or making a coffe using the coffe maker either making the toast in the toaster. Afterwards he/she has to dress up for; school,work,college... But before that he/she uses the shower to clean up her/himself. So his/her day hasn't begun and he/she already has used several technological objects in order to follow with a regular day. So now is time to introduce technology not as a resource as a methodology technique inside the educational world. Even though my school won’t have all the ultimate technologies, we will mix traditional tools and technologies always trying to promote education and values.

House tournament. (D.T.A)

In my group we have created a tournament in which the all school and all their members are include. We will make an heterogeneous group mixing ages, sizes, razes… And they will “healthy” compete to gain the tournament in which there are no losers, the all school wins.  In class these group of people will receive points as they do things right but not only in class, in a break if a teacher sees a good attitude from a pupil, this pupil could receive points aswell for his/her group. Finally the last day, would be a celebration day in which the winner would be revealed.

María Schnell

CREATIVE SCHOOLS: “GIVING AN ANSWER TO STUDENT NEEDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY.”

Every people in class has her/his own idea of "the ideal school" and it's too complicate to make a consensus about it because obviously the things that I think better for the school can be wrong for other people but on this post I'm trying to do a general idea of this topic using all ideas we have talked in class about. 

At first, it's important to make clear all of we had good ideas to improve our schools and to change the methodology we are doing in our country because all of we are agree it's fundamental to change a lot of things in the educational system starting for the mentality of the society. 

We all think the school saw as the building is very important: children have to have classes with enough and adequate material and we should to arrange the class on the best way we think, for example in my group we think the best way to learn is cooperative learning. In so many groups the people talked about to add new spaces in the school where the children can develop their abilities, like sports for example, theatres to make concerts, shows... to improve the music classes, to build nature zones... too many ideas about spaces had been showed in class but I think the best idea is to make the children have contact with the nature because it's an important thing to teach them to learn: they have to explore and to play with a lot of things to create their own knowledge. For children is important feel they are free too. 

Talking about the spaces and the classes the teacher bring us a video with too many innovated ideas: Takaharau Tezuka talks about the importance of the spaces in the education and show us a school where the structure are circular and the form to teach is different: boys and girls have a big area where they can run and play inside and outside the building so they are free. Other garish and important thing is the classes are not divided but are all together, each in its space. It's a good form to teach the children to concentrate and to do their things without been attending to other things around them. They are in a constant contact with the nature and here they can learn how to live with others and the most important lesson: it's not important the times you have fallen, the important thing is the times you have stand up after the drop. 

About this topic other groups explain us too many things too like the form to order the class: trough cooperative learning, in a circle, in front of the teacher... and the space that occupies the teacher: it's important for children to see all the time the teacher so he/she can be at the first of the class or walking around the tables for example. 

Other think we deal with in class the time in class, the days the children have to go to the class, the timetable... so many people said it's important to leave rest the children. I'm agree with them because teaching children I realize the little children can't stay concentrated for hours and hours so at determined time they forget they are in class and they do other things they shouldn't do in class. A good way to solve this problem is changing the timetable: some groups talked about the timetables in other countries like Germany or Turkey for example and they conclude the best timetable is the Germany: they can rest twice a day and not only one like in Spain. I think we should go more far than twice a day: we have to lay out the education like a method to do new person in our society so we should do the school interesting for children: it's better for us because the children want to learn and it's better for them because they learn because they want to do it. 

On the other side we have the most important word talking about education: MOTIVATION. In our Ideal school the first adjective to define a teacher is motivated. If one person loves her/his job, he/she don't have to work never and too much important: it's probably he/she makes better the job. In education, teachers have to be motivated to transmit their children this motivation, the desire to learn. If they are motivated they would be able to find the best methodology for every person and every class so it's the unique form to be a teacher: being motivated all time. 

It's not a quality only of teachers because it's equal important than the children are motivated too. As a teachers we can do a lot of things to make it real: activities, learning with technology, different methods in the classes... 

At last of motivation we have to talk about parents: parents are part of the educational system too and they have to take active part in their children education but they have to try in the teachers and the schools and try to do the things teachers want because too many times parents forget the education starts in our home and not in the school so the first values the children learn is the things they see in home. A good form to improve the preoccupation of parents in the schools is to make open days so parents can go to their children's school and see the installations and the methodology in the class, for example, or they can participate in a lesson. (Idea of Crónicas Viajeras) 

Other important thing to remind talking about the education is VALUES: So many times the society things that the most important things we can learn is mathematics, english, history... and they forget the most important things in the life: respect, values, sharing, be generous, help other partners... All groups are agree about this so in our ideal school the values are as important as maths or language: we have to have respect with the Earth and with the others and then, we have to know how to operate with numbers. For example Modern Students suggest us to have a pet in the class and to take care all together. 

One idea we are worried about is bulling in the schools. We all talked about bulling in the expositions and I think it's a real and too big problem so we have to solve it immediately. Some groups purpose different things to do with: One idea was to bring the opportunity to solve the problems: we can do school reunions to solve different problems in our classes so the children purpose solutions to make it in a better way. For example if a children is alone in class other partners can stand down with her/she. 

At last other point that we all have in common is that we have to change the methodology in the schools: all people in class are agree with my team: we learn too much theory and we don't learn useful things for life. We represent it trough a scene of Harry Potter because they are coping laws of magic world and in face we put other scene in which Hermione Granger use the spell "Alohomora" so she applies the things she have learned to solve a problem in the real life. It's just the thing we want: we want to teach useful things and theory trough games, activities... study is not only spend hours reading books.

This is a great idea about my ideal school but apart from this I have learnt there are too many impediments to reach this school like the budget, the mentality of the society, the government control... I'm sure in a few years, in spite of this things, the education will be very different!

Our exposition

Hello everybody! Our exposition's day too many people eas missing and we though it was a great idea to put our exposition on the blog to show it everybody want to see it.

Gonzalo started the exposition presenting our group: how you can see we're Dumbledore Teachers' Army and it's compound by Adalisa, María, Gema and Gonzalo.

Then, Ada and María explained our working tables:

At Last, Gema showed our video to the rest of the class:

It has taken us too many time because as you will see we have search for some scenes of Harry Potter films to express the things that we don't like about the actual schools and things that are similar to our ideal school or the method that we want to follow too.

We could say that our video has like three parts:

• The first part is compund by some problems that we can find nowadays in education. For this part we have relationed them with some scenes of the films. To make it clear we have recorded too many scenes representing things that we want to change. For example one scene is about parents in the school and the education and Ada (Girl's mother) and María (Teacher) are talking about a girl's problem because the mother thinks that it's a school problem but the teacher say that it's a home problem because the education start with the parents. 

• The second part is OUR IDEAL SCHOOL. Our values are represented by Maria's photos and then we explain too many things about our ideal school with videos of Ada and Gonzalo talking about, for example, teachers. 

• The third part and the final one is like an activity that we are going to do in our ideal school for motivate children. We think that it's important to show how we want to work in our school so we have designed this activity based in Harry Potter too.

We hope we have enjoyed our exposition!