Scratching Out A New School, Part Next

In yesterday’s blog I poured the foundation for the school I would create from scratch, the foundation being people.  I am not interested in the size of the school, the layout of the hallways and classrooms, the colors, the gadgets, the lighting, or even the bathrooms.  The focus in my from-scratch school is on the humans who will teach and the humans who will learn.

My school from scratch will educate children ages pre-birth – ten years old.  We will educate pre-birth by connecting with expectant families through prenatal classes at our community hospital, explaining simple ways to strengthen reading skills at home during the infant and toddler stages of life.  We would not abandon families through these stages; we will offer…..no, require family participation in our Early Childhood classes within the first month after birth.  This bond with the family will continue throughout the ten years each child attends our school. 

During the 4-6 year-old stage students will begin to independently attend school, though the family will still be looked at as a partner in the educational process.  Our school will replace grade levels with developmentally appropriate academic and behavioral standards that students must meet.  Rather than a first grade teacher children would have a first teacher (4-6 year-old standards), a second teacher (7-8 year-old standards) and a third teacher (9-10 year-old standards).  The detailed explanation of this system would need its own blog post – trust me, I have the details.

A school created for the youngest learners will cater to young minds and bodies.  The school day will start (7:00-7:30ish) and end (2:00) earlier than traditional schools.  Up to four recess periods would be built into the daily schedule, with NO indoor recesses because of weather.  School will be in session for 12 months with at least 200 student contact days; long summers off will be replaced by frequent smaller breaks (the maximum break will be two weeks…..in early November).  The topic of the day, every day, will be F-U-N.  Our school will pulse with the philosophy that learning flourishes when students are having fun.

The ideas I have for this from-scratch school mean nothing without a dynamic staff of teachers in place.  The staff I envision would be as close as possible to a 50-50 split of male and female teachers.  I have no preference for one gender or the other….ok, fine, I prefer the ladies….but our youngest students deserve more male teachers than they currently get.  Also, I firmly believe that loading a staff too heavily with one gender poses threats to cohesiveness and moral; making learning fun requires a fun group of teachers who love their students and each other.  I will get in trouble for this, buuuuuuttttttt…….my school will need a young staff.  I am a few years away from not being qualified to teach at my own school because of my age.  The youngest students require an incredible amount of energy from their teachers, and in a school that will focus on fun each and every day, well – older bodies and spirits might not be able to provide what the students and I will demand.

The most important quality I will look for in a potential teacher is mindset; to be specific, a realistic mindset.  I do not want optimists, I am not interested in how full someone’s glass is, and I absolutely do not need to see a constant smile on everyone’s face.  I want teachers who can view a situation and see what is right and wrong, weigh both, and proclaim what CAN be done next.  Not necessarily proclaim a positive outcome – this is where the realistic part comes into play – but a real outcome that could be expected from whatever the circumstances may be.  The teachers in my school need to be upbeat, energetic, full of laughter and easy smiles, creative, playful…but not without the ability to call a spade a spade if necessary.

As I read and reread these paragraphs I cannot decide if I have been too detailed or too vague with my explanation of the people who make my school – somehow it feels like I have been both.  In a nutshell, I would create a school specifically for children ages 10 and under by assembling a staff of youngish men and women dedicated to teaching with fun while maintaining a realistic attitude about all things.  In tomorrow’s post I will point out what my school will NOT have; if I have not already written myself a ticket to the dark side of the moon with these first two diatribes, tomorrow could be the day.  Until then – thanks for reading.

Scratching Out A New School

For the past nine months I have spent an irreplaceable amount of time pondering what a school should look like.  My district passed a bond referendum last spring, enabling us to add a new wing to one of our elementary buildings.  As a member of the design team tasked with planning this new addition I toured facilities and met with architects in an effort to create a structure that would fit our students’ needs and our budget.  Being woefully underwhelmed at what our new “building” will be I have continued to longingly ponder exactly how I would construct a learning environment if given the true power to do so.

Intrigued was I with a lunchtime Twitter post posing this question:  “If you were to start a school from scratch, what would it look like?”  It has been roughly ten hours since I began to formulate an answer and somehow what I am about to write will sound nothing like my initial thoughts.  In fact, this has been a therapeutic exercise that has shifted my mindset about our future facility and what a school really is.

Two words kept gnawing at me all day while I mentally crafted my response to this question I had already been answering for weeks.  “From scratch” conjures the image of baking or cooking; recipes, ingredients, cookware, taste tests, a final product.  Much of the food I consume is created from scratch – I rarely eat out or buy processed foods – so my thoughts about creating a school began to align with the process of creating food…which led to a new question:  Why do I create my food from scratch?  It’s a healthy way to eat.  I feel more connected to food that I have created myself.  I have true ownership over the food I create with nearly all meats and vegetables used being gathered by my hands.  When I create my own food I have a much stronger desire to end with a high quality final product.  These answers about my food have, in turn, formed the vision for my school – my “from scratch” school will be healthy because of the connectivity and ownership felt by those striving to create a high quality final product.  My school will not be created out of bricks or wood.  Layout and design are irrelevant.  My school creation will start with people.

In my 18 years of teaching I have yet to see the size of a classroom engage or inspire a learner.  Nor have I heard students converse about the great natural lighting in this year’s classroom.  Too many educators get suckered into believing that things beyond themselves hold the greatest power in education.  From technological devices to ergonomic furniture to meditative music, nothing has a greater influence over a child’s development than the quality of the human connections in that child’s life.  I know, I know – natural light boosts test scores…but can it tell a good joke or redirect off-task behavior?  I would rather my own children be taught in a dark room by a personable teacher than in the sunshine by a teacher who doesn’t know when to laugh, when to grump, when to scold, and when to hug.  My school will be shaped by people, warmed and lit by people, and held together by people.  Well paid people I might add since, you know, we won’t have any heating or lighting expenses…’cause of the people warming and lighting the place.  Ugh, never mind.

This has become a three-part blog.  With today’s first part you have, hopefully, been given a taste of my school’s flavor with the knowledge of its main ingredient.  Tomorrow I will share the entire recipe, the human elements that will create this “from scratch” school.  Part three will be devoted to the ingredients that will stay in the cupboard, the features of schools I find unnecessary, wasteful, and impeding.  Thank you for reading.  Until tomorrow……