First I think that the atmosphere of a school, like a classroom, needs to feel warm and inviting. I have walked into schools that are dark and bare and I feel that I am in jail instead of in a place to learn. A school should make its students, staff, and families feel safe. It should make them feel welcomed. I love working in a school that has student work on the walls and invitations to upcoming events displayed. Its how I feel about a home. I want to have a home that looks lived in. I want people to walk in to my house and feel comfortable to be themselves, to sit anywhere, to get their own cup of water. I want my school to look learned in. I want the students to see their accomplishments and to show off all they have done. I believe that the feeling a school gives can set the tone for behavior and a students ability to learn. It is the same for each individual classroom.
I think that the staff should be looked at next. A good school is full of staff members from the principal and teachers to the lunchroom staff and janitors, all there to help the students learn. Each staff member should be know that no matter what their job is they are there for the kids. I honestly believe that to be a good educator you have to know that this job means that you give more. Every member of the staff should be trying to make personal relationships with the kids. My school has been giving us a professional development all year on Love and Logic. This is a behavioral management program that focuses on how you talk to and treat students. One lesson we learned was about creating personal relationships with your students encourages them to respect and listen to us. This may be as simple as noticing that they have blue shoes, or that they got a hair cut. I think that these relationships, though important in the classroom, should not stop there. I have worked with a principal that didn't know many of the kids and I have worked with ones that knew every kid. I have seen what a difference that can make. Feeling important can change so many things for a student, as can feeling like another one in the masses.
I believe that having teachers on the same page with curriculum while still allowing them to bring out their own individuality helps to create a good school. I think it is important for students to see some commonalities in their learning as they move from classroom to classroom in a school. This may consist of using the same vocabulary, the same programs, and the same tools for teaching. At the same time, like every student learns differently, every teacher teaches differently. I have heard of schools that demand their teachers to do everything the same. They are given scripts to follow and they can not stray from the chosen curriculum. I don't think that I would be teaching at my best at a school like that. We all have our own personal takes on how to teach. Our styles are different. Our delivery is different. These differences help to make us better teachers. It should be encouraged instead of stifled.
Last I think that a good school is present in its community. It offers extra activities and programs to the students and their families. A school should allow other members of the community to take part in what happens in the school. I was wowed by how many community members were a part of Dave Eggers tutoring program. It just goes to show that given the right opportunities people are willing to put in their own time and efforts.
There are so many components that go into making a school good. It bothers me that most schools are rated solely on test scores, when really that is just one aspect of a school. Being able to do well on a test can only get these kids so far. If we look at the bigger picture. Schools at the elementary level all the was to high school are helping to prepare kids for the real world. We are shaping them into the people they are going to be.
http://www.loveandlogic.com/
This website explains about the love and logic theory. It gives tips for parents and teachers. I have found a lot of what they teach to be helpful and started implementing it into my own classroom.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-mcguire/what-makes-a-good-school_b_779035.html
This is an article written by Jim McGuire. He describes his ideas of what makes a good school. I agree with a lot of what he says.
