OUR IDEAL SCHOOL - Elvira Astola

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

First of all, I want to say that I have learned a lot with this project; as a future teacher and an actual student, I would like to make some changes in our nowadays school to have the final result of ‘’my ideal school’’ but as I saw and as we explained (in the part of sociology) not everything is as easy as we think; we need to change a lot of things and people to get the results.

We all have similar ideas respecting to the things we want to change to get that ‘ideal school’; In the case of my group, we decided to make a ‘mini city’ where pupils were able to find all what they need, also we wanted to insist in the fact of the inclusion (no mattering the race, the capacities or the aspect) because nowadays buying it is one of the most dangerous problems of the schools. We also included extra activities like sports or arts and a lot of possibilities of learning new languages with native teachers because of the importance that it receives nowadays.

Then, referring to the methodology, we thought it was so important to promote the cooperative learning so they learn how to work in groups at the same time that they work by themselves, they need a feedback so they can change their mistakes, learn how to work in constructivism and behaviourism, use new technologies, and do more practice works. So, the arrangement of the class would change, the tables would be placed together so they could work in groups (we can see this nowadays in some schools) and develop a lot of skills that they couldn’t develop by their own but they could do it if they work in groups.

Respecting to the timetable, they would have less hours of class so they would enjoy the ones that they have, they would have more breaks so they can play (because we can’t forgive that they are kids) and they can also open and clear their minds for the next class.

Finally, talking about the places and spaces in our school, we emphasised on the importance of having big spaces with a lot of light, colourful classes so the kids love their schools, adding some points of nature with trees or plants so they start caring about the environment and a lot of different apartments adapted to the different activities like normal classes, funny ones, extra activities like football or art, the gym, the pool or the teacher’s room where they talk about the development of the pupils.

In class we watched some videos of different, new and creative schools around the world. The school was so open so they feel like they are free and they like going to the school; it also represent a place where their pupils can develop different skills playing in the playground and doing different activities. The want to promote the independence in the children so they let them explore the zone and see what they like and what they don’t.

Now I am going to talk about my partner’s works; we all had great ideas and some of them were the same.

Amigos del football divided the video in two parts, they started talking about the different education systems (including timetable, structures, methodology or free time) of Germany, Turkey and Spain and then, they started telling us the main ides of their ideal school. Their ideal school had so many similarities with the German one, but at the end, we noticed about something we don’t liked it. The kids around ten years old have to choose a branch to continue their studies and I think this is horrible. They emphasise on the fact that the teachers should change the actual methodology that is being used here because we have a lot of problems with education.

Modern students started the video with the plane of the school (the location of the pool, the library, the gym, the classes…) then, they started talking about the important things they would like to have in their ideal school like for example it should be located on the nature, the would have to do a lot of projects but exams, work using cooperative learning and a lot of things and activities to develop the different skills.

One of the ideas I liked the most was the fact of the parents assisting to the classes so they could say ideas to change and do a better job and also, as we watched on a video that the teacher put us, to finish with the enormous problem of bullying. Also I liked the idea of bringing plants and animals to class so they start respecting the environment.

Wanderlust team started explaining the main ideas of the education in USA, Finland, Indonesia and Holland because it is said that they have the best schools and education system of the world. They wanted to exemplify with real data to show us that it was possible to make a different and better school. And as the others, they made a plane, they had pool, gym and library and they wanted to promote values and make their students have passion for the nature.

Dumbledore teacher’s army started the video showing us the main problems of our actual school like for example the methodology or the bullying and then, using Harry Potter scenes they show us their ideal school; using cooperative learning and a lot of different activities to develop the different skills.

Musical chairs wanted to have big spaces where the children could feel free, coloured classes for the attention of the kids, adaptable real estate for the different conditions of the students; they also wanted their kids to have contact with the nature, to take account of the different feelings of the students, educate in a critical way where they can see their own mistakes and solve them and the most important thing, they have to learn at the same time they are having fun.

Team perk also would like to have different facilities, they would like to improve the different skills in the children, made curses of learning for the teachers, innovation in relation with the methodology, educate lots of values, change the actual timetable (adding more breaks and stuff) and making some special days like for example the family one where everyone bring their family and have a nice them with all the people at the school. The also emphasise on the fact of using new technologies and giving different guidelines to the teachers o they learn how to use them.

Finally I am going to make a conclusion about everything (my work, my partner’s ones and the project in general.)

I liked it, it was fun but stressful at the same time, it was a little bit difficult but I liked the idea. From the outset we had very clear ideas and work very well. And I think the result was very satisfactory.

I also liked my partner’s works, and I think we all had brilliant ideas but if there is something I have learned about this is that not everything is as easy as we think.

As I said before we all had great ideas but it isn’t easy to apply them in the reality, that is why I found very interesting the sociology part of the work using real data and percentages of the community of Alcalá de Henares.