Dream School

If I had to build a school from scratch, I would first of all be very intimidated, as it would be an enormous task. It's clear that there is no one magic bullet for "good teaching" or a "good school", but that it is always necessary to build the best school and provide the best teaching for the unique community you are presented with. Therefore, my dream school would depend very heavily on the student population it would serve. However, some things remain constant. I would look for teachers who believe in a constructivist teaching philosophy, but who understand that students must have basic skills and knowledge in order to provide them with the context they will need to construct their own learning. I would be less concerned with age and years of experience than with whether or not my teachers believe that all students can learn and that all are capable of higher-level thinking. I would encourage classroom discussion and be less concerned with quiet classroons. I would use a curriculum similar to what the common core aspires to be- I like the idea of spiraling knowledge. I think it would be important for students to learn a skill set early on and build on it year after year. In the social studies classroom, for example, I would place an emphasis on interpretation of primary sources, looking for deeper meaning as they progress through the ages, and finally looking for subtext, not only in primary sources, but also textbooks and articles. This kind of critical thinking would be paramount to me. Finally, I would promote the use of technology, using online learning platforms such as Moodle or Haiku, garage band for podcasts, excel sheets for graphing, google form for quizzes, and class blogs to help build community. Ultimately though,I would want to get back in the classroom!