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!