BlogPost 9

Based on your reflections on this week’s readings, the in-class school design project, and your thoughtful consideration of your lived experiences, what do good schools look like?  

To me, a good school at its core is where all the students feel confident being themselves and are able to reach their full potential of learning. For the in-class school design project we agreed that having a mission statement was key to forming this ideal. The mission statement for WinterValley stated, "Our goal is to enrich our students lives through emphasizing hard work, improving their minds, and instilling a drive in the students to achieve academic excellence."

We also wanted to put the importance of integrity and responsibility on the students as well as the faculty. By having the students know the expectation but letting the responsibility of obtaining these standards be in their hands, it can help create a sense of the importance of learning no matter what age level the school. Our five ideas a WinterValley Student should obtain were, A hard work ethic, Respecting themselves, faculty, and their peers, Students should be involved at WinterValley through academic and extracurricular activities, PMA (Positive Mental Attitude), and Students should be motivated to achieve their full potential.

The importance of good teachers is key to any school. Our teachers should be welcoming of all students, should understand that each student has individual talents(and utilize them), should create a safe and open environment, and encourage their students to achieve academic excellence. This applies to all schools because if a teacher is not welcoming, students can easily become defensive and closed off and even loose interest in the class if he or she begins to feel that the teacher doesn't care about them. A teacher should have the opportunity to plan their own lessons that include the students learning abilities and add supplemental material to the lesson plan. This can help the teacher create a more individual student based curriculum and help the students form individual connections with their teachers. Teachers are an important part of a students life. Children spend a large portion of their childhood in classrooms learning both academically and socially. Teachers play a large role in both aspects and if a student feels comfortable around these adult role models, it can help them feel they have someone outside of their family they can confide in if needed throughout the difficulties of child and young adulthood.

A good school, at is core is centered around the students and the teachers. without these two basic components of a school there is no reason to have a school. The teacher-student relationship is one of upmost importance and one that needs to be acknowledged in all schools and at every age group.