What is your ideal school like

What qualities make for an ideal school or classroom?

Recently, I have come across some readings that have prompted me to think more about what it means to create an ideal school environment. One reading was a forum discussion posted on Education Week entitled, Creating An Ideal School Environment. The other reading was in the last chapter of a book I have just finished by Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.

I believe it is possible to create an ideal school or classroom environment. There are ample examples in public and private schools throughout the US in which schools work tirelessly to shape their school culture to meet the needs of students and teachers. However, it is important to realize in this conversation about creating an ideal school or classroom that what is ideal for one child might not be ideal for another child. For a school or classroom to work as a learning space for a child it has to be a good match with the child’s needs, as well as the child’s personality. We are quick to expect children to adapt to their schools, but not expect schools to adapt to their students. So while there are ideal schools, I believe they come in different shapes and sizes.

Unfortunately, we do not allocate sufficient resources for our schools, especially public schools, to rethink their curricula and learning spaces to effectively meet the needs of all their learners. Our standards mentality has resulted in our public schools looking and acting as though there is only one image of a good school or classroom.

Are there common traits that ideal schools share? I think the answer is yes. Here are some thoughts from the Center for Teaching that I shared in my response to the Education Week Teacher forum, Creating An Ideal School Environment.

Here are the qualities that Susan Cain suggests parents keep in mind as they look for a school that is a good match for their child.

While Susan Cain’s qualities differ somewhat from mine, I think the general intent of our two lists focuses on a school culture that puts the child first. The primary interest of a good school is to create a balanced educational program that recognizes and values the “whole child” and is interested in each child reaching his or her full potential regardless of their personality.

Susan Cain comes from the point-of-view that schools generally acknowledge the world of the extroverted child, but do a less effective job of valuing the world of the introverted child. Cain’s characteristics of a good school focus on how well a school works with children who are more introspective and quiet. I think she is correct in suggesting that parents carefully study how teachers and administrators show their understanding of personality types, especially those of children who are inner directed. Do teachers deeply understand the introverted child and create a classroom environment that is safe for any learner to take risks and challenge themselves?

Throughout my career, I have been sensitive to the way many teachers write about children in their classrooms who do not participate in discussions. Valuing and assessing class participation, teachers will usually comment to a parent that their child needs to ‘participate more in class.’ The teacher puts the responsibility for change on the child instead of asking him or herself what is my responsibility to adjust my attitude toward quiet children and shift my classroom dynamics to allow for all children to quietly reflect. Maybe then the introverted child would feel safer to explore his or her thoughts and share them with the class. Participation in classroom discussions is seen as the positive norm. Why?

So let’s get back to an ideal school or classroom. Why is it so hard to achieve this end? I think the primary reason is that we come at this question from the perspective of standardization and accountability. We tell schools and teachers what they have to do to ‘measure up’ and we leave very little room for creativity, adjustment, and adaptation. In evolution, species perfect their kind because they are able to adapt to new situations, stresses, and forces. These adaptations allow for the ‘fittest’ to survive and replicate. While I am not advocating for the fittest schools to survive and those that aren’t disappear, I am advocating for schools and teachers to be granted the space and resources to innovate, adjust to the circumstances they find themselves in, and adapt in ways that best meet students’ needs. Unfortunately, our policy makers, parents, and to some extent, school officials are overly interested in meeting prescribed standards and holding everyone’s feet to the fire.

Standards and accountability are useful structures within which to operate; however, when they become the drivers for change they tend to limit innovation. We end up with all schools looking and feeling the same and most classrooms being rather generic places in which students learn. One size doesn’t fit all students! I fear that the high-stakes assessments that will follow the Common Core Standards rollout will only make matters worse.

For me, an ideal school environment recognizes that student success is a complex goal to achieve. Providing for this success for all students and measuring it must be accomplished with many tools. The same goes for the classroom. If teachers are going to meet the needs of all students, they must build a toolbox of strategies that is geared towards diverse learners and learn how to work effectively with each of their students.

Does this post resonate with your views on an ideal school or classroom?

What Does Ideal School Look Like?

The school environment, from the colour of the walls to furniture design, can affect student learning and academic performance. While radically changing the interiors of standard school buildings may be impossible, there are several improvements designers can bring to schools.

Experts of the HSE Art and Design School examined the standard design of general schools in Russia and identified a few things which students, parents and teachers are missing now and would like to see in order to improve their school experience.*

Students Want Pretty and Modern Schools

In addition to classes, most children spend time at school doing homework, mingling with their peers and participating in various activities, often similar to those they practice at home, such as using computers, playing outside, working on creative projects and taking naps. Yet nearly half of all students do not feel comfortable in classrooms, hallways, library and cafeteria, i.e. areas where they spend the most time while at school.

What many students find missing includes:

In addition to this, students would love to have classes in spacious rooms with walls painted in bright colours, creating an informal environment. School interior decoration could benefit from using materials such as wood, ceramic tiles and metal; furniture should preferably be modular and easily transformable, and lighting mostly natural, e.g. via skylights or panoramic windows, according the survey respondents.

Comfortable Spaces According to Students

Classroom

Customisable. Functional. Mobile.

Cafeteria

Separation between the dining area and a snack bar. Tables for several people.
Good-quality ventilation.

Library

Zones for work and relaxation. Interactive. Reading room.

Hallway

Lots of space. Minimalism.

Student storage area

Individual lockers. Minimal furniture.

Parents Value Convenience and Parking Spaces

According to parents, schools are about teaching and learning but also about creating opportunities for youngsters to mix and mingle, relax and play in the fresh air. Parental perspectives on what is missing in school environment are similar to those of the children. In addition to this, parents would like to see more parking spaces outside the school building and better indoor navigation, as some mums and dads reported problems with finding the principal’s office.

What is missing from their child’s school, % of parents surveyed

In addition to the above, parents feel that their children’s school needs:

Teachers Seek to Combine Business with Pleasure

Just like students, teachers would like to work and relax in a comfortable environment, but only half of them (56%) have this opportunity.

Some of the things teachers are missing include:

Teachers spend most of their time in the classrooms and teachers’ room. In the former, they would like to see moveable furniture, interactive whiteboards and the internet. In the latter, they’d prefer separate areas for work and recreation as well as “enough shelves and cabinets and sufficient space for work, rest and for having a snack.”

Modular vs. Standardised Schools

Studies confirm that school environment can affect student performance. In particular, such factors as the height of ceilings (higher ceilings work better in secondary school and lower ceilings are preferable in primary school), air quality, furniture, noise, and others can all make a difference. It would therefore be unwise to consider investment in school building design as extravagance and waste of resources, the experts argue, while emphasising the current trend to replace the old-fashioned, standardised «assembly-line schools» by customisable high-tech school buildings consisting of multiple modules, such as

At the moment, such modular solutions are in short supply. Yet the school environment can and should be made engaging and attractive. Let it be a challenge for designers.

*The study was conducted between March 31 and September 25, 2016, in Moscow, using methods such as briefing and questionnaires with the target audiences of students, parents, teachers and school administrators (212 respondents), and interviews with educational experts.

My Ideal School

My Ideal School

Write about your ideal school

My ideal school is near the ocean beach. The children can go boating with their friends and they also can play with dolphins.

The school is big and modern. There are big windows. There is a big football field and a big playground. And there is a modern gym for older children. There is a swimming pool on the school roof. Where children can play water games.

Classrooms are light and spacious. There are interactive white boards and TV sets. Every child has a laptop, and he or she can chat with friends or teachers on the internet.

Some subjects like Maths, English, German, French, Ukrainian Literature and others are compulsory. Subjects like photography, swimming, and crafts are optional.

There are lots of delicious dishes in canteen. You can choose different dishes such as healthy burgers, salads, juice or cola.

Teachers are friendly and not too strict. They often play games with children. There aren’t any bad marks.

Classes start at 8.00. There are two big breaks after the third and fourth lessons. Classes are 30 minutes long. All lessons are not boring. There are lots of trips around Ukraine and to different countries of the world.

Students mustn’t do anything dangerous. They can’t leave school, but they can go to the playground and they mustn’t miss school. It’s a popular school.

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13 Comments

My ideal school is a place where students can develop their creativity and where healthy social relations are fostered by high motivated teachers.

My ideal school

My ideal school has got a lot of things: three sports centre, four labs, seven cafés, a lot of classes and a lot of libraries.
We have got four lessons and a one break.
There are classes of thirty students and one teacher.
School starts at nine o’clock and ends at half past one.
In the libraries there are a lot of books and films, and in the computer rooms there are a lot of laptops, play stations and ipads

My ideal school

My ideal school is a modern place. It has got a lot of lockers and a cafe with differents types of food. My ideal school has a big sport centre and a volleyball court. It has two computer rooms and the teachers are good and creatives. It has got two breaks in wich you can do various activities and six hours of classes

My ideal school:
My ideal school is very simple,It has bigger classes,so the students can have more classmates,a bigger place to study in the library so more students can study there,a sport centre where you can do pretty much anything,the bathrooms are close to the classes,and a dance class so students that like to dance go there to practise.It also has two lunch breaks like the school that I go to and you can choose if you study some subjects like music,PE or even math.

My ideal school

My ideal school is a very big place with big lockers, it is funny because there are a big pool and a climbing wall. The teachers are very good because they don´t put exams and neither they don´t put homework.

My ideal school
My ideal school has to be cosy and welcoming. I´d love it to be small and well decorated. On the walls of the corridor there would be hanging, proyects, drawings and photos of the students. Classes would be small and each. Students could choose their class. In each class there would be nice and comfortable chairs and desks. There wouldn´t be any textbooks and everybody could work from their school tablets. I would also like to have a big lab, a computer room, a nice café, a sports center and an interesting music room.
It would be great if all the teachers were nice friendly and good.

My ideal school.

My ideal school is near the ocean, it is small and confortable. Is an boarding school, the students have eight hours diary to classes and they aren’t homeworks but they makes jobs very intensives and play a lot with the nature. The IT classes are funny because the students have a laptop and only have virtual classes. Are more subjects how: PE, Maths, Spanish and Galician language and fishing.

the food of my ideal school makes your mouth water. Is an the most delicious food for the five continents.

My ideal school is in Japan, near a beach where we can go in PE. It’s a very big school with a lot of anime pictures on the walls. In music we learn how to play anime openings like Touch You of Yarichin Bitch Club or Sasageyo of Shingeki no Kyojin and in art we learn how to do our characters in a show. In my school, the chemistry teacher is Kuroo Tetsurō, the PE teacher is Karasuma and the rest of subjects teacher is Koro-sensei. There, we have lockers like the american shows and a big swimming pool. We also have a lot of clubs like photography, literature or sports and all the students can join where they want.

My ideal school is a place where the teachers understend their students and where we are more creative. Lastly I would like it to be more fun. Also I would like mechanics scheirs and the lockers. My ideal school has a cinema.

My ideal school.

My perfect school is located in Rianxo and the name of the highscool is Castelao. In this highscool there are 3 buildings, a main building and an enormous playground.
In this buildings there are the classrooms., each building is used by students from 2 differents schoolyears. The classroms are the biggest and we have a board and another electronical board, furthermore there are wardrobes to store notebooks, dictionaries. In adicction, each students has got one personal computer.
The main building has an enormous sportcenter where you can play many sports, we continue with a cafetery, where they serve sandwiches. Finally, in this buiding yhey have teachers staffroom and offices.
The playground is big, they have sports traks and one area where you can talk with yours friend.
Our timetable is cool, there are 5 lessons of 50 min and 3 breaks, one of 20 min and others for 30 min. And the classes start at 08:30 and finish at 2:10

My ideal school is a place full of plants, with meny classes lovely, many outdoor spaces and friendly people. The teachers are good at teaching and giving classes. It’s a confortable place. Has got some libraries,coffees, gyms,teaters, art class, music and dance. The theachers let talk in class for coment problems or doubts. Has got diferents subjets. there isn´t uniform. This is my perfect school.

My ideal school

My ideal school is a beautiful and modern place. The classes are very decorated and creative, for example theatre and art. The teachers are good because don’t put exams and a lot of homework. Has got big sport centre, a lab, a computer room and a caffé. The students has got five hours of classes and one break.

What is the ideal school day like?

Recently I’ve been listening to a few history podcasts that have been talking about how different educational philosophies were dreamed up, and what the ideal school day looks like. This reminded me of a history lesson from last year talking about the father of modern education. After reading the lesson in Mystery of History 3* last year I posed the kids a question:

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What is the ideal school day like?

According to John Amos Comenius, the father of modern education, the modern school day has a few important things in it:

First before we got started on their writing assignment, I asked them what our day looks like. They listed about what you would expect, history lessons, science lessons, writing or reading lessons, and maybe a bit of math. Okay more than a bit, but that wasn’t the big thing they remembered.

Then I challenged them to think a little bit and come up with

What does your ideal school day look like?

For their assignment I was grading based off of two components:

They got to writing and drawing and came up with some interesting classrooms. You can see what each child thinks is the most important by their schedules.

For instance Superman’s schedule has quite a lot of recess and P.E. in it. Like two hours worth every day. He didn’t have any history, and being my morning bird, he started at 5 AM. I am not teaching at that school.

He also was really excited by this project and it took up two sides of the paper. You’ll notice the design of his classroom itself is mostly sitting in the desk as the teacher talks to you, but there is a great deal of detail on that playground.

Batman on the other hand either has an impressive shelving system in his classroom or maybe those are some nice windows. I’m leaning towards shelves though. You’ll notice he went for a simple schedule, and he really likes science and history, because each of those classes gets two hours. Lunch and recess happens over an hour’s period of time.

Princess’ school adds in a few more classes than her brothers. She read the improvement of character and made sure to include Bible time, and for the practical work she included crafts. Her science is much more nature study than classroom work, because it is part of our daily morning walk. She also made quite sure to include the dog……

I loved the insights this ideal school day assignment gave to my kids

It really showed what they valued. They actually set up a fairly long school day, which was amusing to me. It really did amuse me to see how very different their planned school days and classrooms were.

What would your kids say is the ideal school day?

Comments

Phyllis at All Things Beautiful says

Interesting question you have posed. My students get a lot of say in their schooling, but I don’t think I have ever asked them about their school day like you have. I think I would be afraid of what they’d say. LOL

They did not get their ideal schedule, but it sure was interesting to see what they thought.

Проект по английскому языку «Моя идеальная школа»

the students of the 7 th form:

It was checked by:

S с herbakova G.M.

2. The main part.

1 . Outside and inside of the perfect school.

2.The ideal timetable.

4.Code of conduct.

4. The list of literature.

School plays an important role in everyone`s life. School is a place where students spend a lot of time. Here they study to count, to read and to write. Besides, school is a place where you make friends and learn about people as well as subjects. And we think, it’s a place which helps you (everyone) to find a good job in future. Therefore we decided to find out what ideal school should be.

The subject of investigation is: a perfect school.

The object of our investigation is: building, timetable, school uniform, canteen, classrooms, gym, school rules.

2. The main part.

1 . Outside and inside of the perfect school.

Everyone from us would like to have perfect or ideal school. The school, where you can have a rest and where it is fun. The ideal school is the dream of every student. Our ideal school is near the city center. It is a modern three-storey building of a typical design. There would be a lift to take us up.

Behind the school there should be a big garden with beautiful flower-beds, bushes and fruit trees and a small zoo where students of our school can take care of animals.

When you enter the building you can see a large hall with lots of plants and benches inside. On the left there is a large and state-of-the-art canteen with modern furniture.

The cloak room should be on the ground floor. On the ground floor we would like to have an olympic swimming pool with an aqua park where students can swim and have a rest.

There would be a computer room, music room, recording studio, language laboratory, dance studio and football pitch. The teacher’s room would be much bigger than the one we have now. It would be light and cosy. There would also be a big library.

The classrooms, the laboratories, the doctor’s office, the library, the teachers’ room are situated on the upper floors. On the walls of the corridors you can see beautiful landscapes, pictures of famous scientists, writers and other outstanding people of our country. There are light curtains on the windows and many pots with flowers on window sills. The halls would be very big, about 40 metres long and 30 metres wide and are full of sunlight. There are many different special classrooms for the classes of Physics, Chemistry, English, Geography and Biology. They have high quality projectors, schemes and tables on the walls.

In every the classroom there is the tactile board, which everyone can use, 30 desks with a comfortable chairs, good lighting the room.

Also we want to have more modern technologies in every classroom. We would like to have a room, where it’s possible to search necessary information in the Internet. The ideal school should be more comfortable. There are small sofas and chairs in the school halls.

2.The ideal timetable.

The lessons would be interesting. An ideal school should begin at 10 o’clock. Instead of books, every student has got a laptop with access to Internet. The students have not got any homework. They have got optional activities and sports clubs.