I always feel tired after eight classes a day, so my dream school starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m. There are three lessons in the morning and two in the afternoon. We can choose our favorite lessons to learn. We can spend more time doing some outside reading. The students do after-school activities for one and a half hours every day. We needn’t do a lot of homework. We are all happy to stay at school.Besides that, my dream school looks like a big garden. There are many kinds of flowers around the modern buildings. Sweet perfumes are diffused all around. If I want to have a rest, I can lie on the grass, listen to music by the lake or look out at the flowers from the classroom windows.The teachers here are kind and helpful. They are not only our teachers but also our good friends. The students are polite and friendly. We all know how to keep our school clean and tidy. There is no litter around the campus.I love my dream school. We will grow up to be happier there.
My dream school is first of all a school where life begins with the teacher who is full of passion and liveliness. The teacher not only grabs the students’ attention but keeps them on the edge of their seats wanting to know more. His or her enthusiasm ignites that spark of excitement that opens receiving minds to wider fields of knowledge. Such a teacher asks more questions from the students, explores with the students and is a friend to them.
My dream school is a school where teaching methods vary from the use of contemporary technologies like robotics to out-of-class experiences. Those experiences are important because they do not confine students to the four walls of a classroom.
There would also be integrated learning of subjects both in the Arts and Sciences so that the education received would not be about confining but expanding. Given choices, students get a sense of freedom, can express opinions and will be more sociable. All these make them better persons in society, possessing a wide range of skills.
My dream school would be complete with amazing facilities like classroom labs, pools, and gyms. A library and counselling centre would be at hand to enable students to be more familiar with their subjects and themselves. Studying in a hands-on environment allows students to use their five senses to gain knowledge. It moulds them to be excited about their abilities and excel with them. Also at hand would be a canteen stocked with healthy food. A balanced diet is vital for students who spend many hours in school. Clean, non-processed, nutritious food is a key feeding requirement for students.
Foreign exchange programs in my dream school would create understanding and respect. They would satisfy curiosities and instil intercultural awareness. They would be open to all students, rich and poor. Including students from all parts of the world would make this education truly global.
Sports would be given equal emphasis with academics. After all, education is not only for the mind but for the whole self – mentally and physically. Sporting activities instil a healthy lifestyle by encouraging students to be physically fit, emotionally strong, and have good self-esteem. They build team spirit, and at the same time encourage individuality. Through sports, people from different backgrounds meet and learn to respect each other.
Academic subjects must be relevant. The syllabus would include significant impact fields like environmental studies, political views, and economic struggles. It would grab the attention of students and lead them to action.
Improving schools would require international collaboration. Such cooperation would encourage dialogue and lead to common standards. Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the great engine of development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that the child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation”.
Education can bring a change in someone’s future as Mr. Mandela observed. The struggle to keep fulfilling that observation must be made by us. Students need to be inspired, amazed and be aware of endless opportunities.
While school is the best thing that ever happened to mankind, there is still yet more to do.
My name is ______. I am _____ years old. I am a student at ________. Today, I will tell you about my dream school. .
My shool is very large. It has a lot of trees and chairs to sit . Before students go to them classroom, they go past the school yard so the school yard must very beautiful.
There are 90 classroom in the school. In all classrooms have 20 desks. Teachers and students can decorate to them classroom is nice.
I will always love you I do it for you
Each class select 6 students to join music team . There is 1 music competition every months. Music instrument will be given for the winner.
Music team .There are 10 computer rooms. Each room have 25 computers. Students can study and play in them.
Computer room very large. All food is free so students can have everything food they want.
Library It has many books such as: science books, English books, history books, geography books, chemistry books,.. Science room has a lot of pictures of animals.I love your dream school.
My dream school will be the best and biggest school in the world . It will looks like a palace in the sky . It has 15 floors and 55 classrooms . In each floor , the walls will painted white - my favourite color . And there is a lift in each floor , too . The classroms are very large . In the classroom , there is a most modern air conditioner on the wall . On the middle wall , there's a picture of Uncle Ho - a beloved leader .My dream school has the most advanced education equipments . It always gives the students what they need to learn . The teachers here are the best teachers. Thanks to the superior facilities and excellent teachers , so the students here are the most out standing students . In the schoolyard , there's a colorful flower garden and there are many trees , too . Many trees were planted a long time . At break time , we often read book under them and enjoy the cool air . Especially , there's a practice room - the biggest practice room in the universe . In it , we can do Physics exercises , Science exercises , daydreaming in the pictures , .....ect. There is a large swimming pool at the back of my dream school . It decorated very nice and luxurious . We can study to swwimming . It's for every age from 6 to 18 . I hope my dream school will be truth someday .
MY DREAM SCHOOL. Nina MK, Ph.D. We have been engaged in “My Dream School” international project with International Education and Resource Network since the 1990’s., with all levels and ages. The European Schoolnet also offers similar topics. They are great for class discussions, essay writing, extra-curricular activities, and sites creation. Needless to say, any such project stimulates children’s imagination, and gives us teachers valuable insights into their wishes. • Primary school. The kids’ vocabulary is not too big, but their enthusiasm is enormous, and their energy is limitless. My pupils, ages 8-9, always began with drawings which they accompanied with short captions. Their whole word-stock can be activated this way. They would envision bigger rooms, spacious hallways “to run along in during the breaks”, play areas, roomy cafeteria with very good food, huge computer classes, and regular email correspondence with their peers from other countries. Among their recommendations is this rather sad one: teach teachers not to yell at children. • Middle school. By the time they became teenagers, all my pupils would have taken part in a few international projects. Their computer skills would be quite solid, and their vocabulary sufficient for writing short essays and exchanging messages with their partners. We moved from large drawings with short captions to occasional drawings, class-created web pages, and longer essays. At this stage, using English as a means of communication gradually becomes the key element of any project. • High school. At age 16-17, pupils are interested in real face to face meetings and contacts. They still talk about larger and lighter classrooms, bigger, more modern ICT classes, and the painful topic of enormous home tasks becomes a constant. They wish to have specially assigned rooms for after-school studies and activities, better equipped gyms, and cafeteria with breakfast, lunch and dinner served all day long. They universally express the desire for teachers’ salaries to be raised “to sportsmen’s level”. • The teacher. Listening to children of all ages and reading their essays, I learned to formulate my own ideas. When we come to work at any school, we take it as is, and do what we can. My own nebulous thoughts stem from my experience with the Manhattan School for Children in New York, USA, which my children had attended in the 1990’s. It was organized largely thanks to the efforts of several neighbourhood parents who wanted to open up a safe school for their young children, and to the tireless work of wonderful teachers. Together we took up an empty wing of a large school, wrote fund-raising letters to every organization we could think of, held fairs and sales to raise money, involved parents and children into our work, and thus this amazing school started. • Staff. There is a saying in my country: Personnel determines everything. Meaning, it is possible to erect a great school building and cram it full of all the facilities and equipment imaginable. However, if the teachers are not up to par, if pupils dislike them and parents have no respect for them, no good will come out of it. • Language learning in the future. Ideally, any teacher and any pupil who wish to visit another country to learn more about it, and to improve their foreign language skills, should be able to do so. Several schools in my town have ongoing exchange programs with English-speaking schools in Germany, for instance. Only a few students can afford to attend language courses in the UK. • Good salaries, reasonable amount of paper work, sensible hours, flexible curriculum, affordable travel, regular refresher courses. Children of all ages who are willing and able to learn. Teachers who are willing and able to teach. Parents who work with, not against, educators. And world peace. Ah, the stuff that dreams are made of…
Hello friends . My name is Oanh . I want to tell you about my dream school.
My dream school is very beautiful. It's big and wide schools. the school has about 1000 students and 30 classrooms, two stretch ting and two computer room . The school has many trees and stadiums, swimming pools, sports grounds for students to play. teachers and students are very friendly and kind. After school, students can join the club. if I have a lot of money I would make a modern classroom with a small wardrobe in each classroom so that the students take their coats or anything and put a drink machine for students and flatten that would be a great room for every teacher to sit together in a room very modern, large and other teachers are like that. About the garden, I wanted it to be a big garden to make students feel free to move, play and do everything they want ..and sure to put protection in the garden if anyone was injured or something like that But I expect most things, it's a great academic school with more modern equipment. what it is all about my dream school.
DREAM ON ...
"More room! More room! More room!"
That was the unmistakable cry of John Grady, the P-Files principal from Fairgrounds Junior High School in Nashua, New Hampshire. Grady was one of many P-Files principals who dream of more classroom space.
"Every school I've worked in lacked regular classroom space," principal Joe Lazarski told Education World. "Many buildings were built when populations were down, parochial schools were still abundant, and specialized programs didn't exist. Now many schools put regular classes in rooms that were formerly conference rooms, work areas, or small group rooms.
"Our school is about a dozen rooms short of giving every teacher his or her own full-sized classroom," added Lazarski, principal at Ray Middle School in Baldwinsville, New York. "So my number one priority in building a dream school would be an abundance of full-sized classrooms, enough so that bubbles in the population could be easily accommodated."
"My first wish would be for lots and lots of additional space," echoed Lucie Boyadjian, principal at Glen Oaks School in Hickory Hills, Illinois. "I could use at least six more classrooms. We purchased a two-section mobile unit this year to help with overcrowding. Part of our teacher's lounge has been taken away from the staff to allow room for two special education resource teachers. Talk about sardines!"
"I have gotten to the point of converting the janitor's room into a classroom," added Emma Sidders, principal at Sharon-Mutual Elementary School in Sharon, Oklahoma. "What will I do if I need to have more space next year?"
RETHINKING SPACE!
The need for more space challenges many school personnel to rethink the uses of the space they do have.
Lucie Boyadjian has remodeled some of the classroom space in her school to encourage more team activities. But her dream is to remodel the whole school. "The remodeling would give us larger classrooms, which are desperately needed to house all the resources schools now need -- computers, learning centers, multimedia carts, televisions. ..."
Principal Karen B. Slack at the Pre-Academy at Madison Park in Boston would design a dream school in which her teachers would have everything they need at hand, so as not to waste a single moment. Among the facilities each teaching team would have are a science lab, a computer lab, a presentation/mini-library space, and a set of bathrooms.
"Students and teachers could make those spaces their own," said Slack. "Ownership makes a big difference. It fosters investment. Investment creates tradition. And tradition creates belonging and self-esteem, which in turn improves learning." Joe Lazarski's teachers teach in teams, but there is really no room that lends itself to team activities. He'd like to see two or three classrooms created for large group instruction. "Fortunately, our faculty is resourceful," said Lazarski, "but it would be great to give them a present of a couple rooms big enough to encourage team activities."
In the school Helene Dykes dreams of working in, teacher workroom pods are connected to each group of grade-level classrooms. "Those pods would be designed as storage areas and places to run small group instruction or to hold grade-level meetings, IEP meetings, parent conferences, or counseling groups," said Dykes, principal at Marian Bergeson Elementary School in Laguna Niguel, California. All classrooms would be wired for close-circuit and open-circuit television, she added.
"All the classrooms in my dream school would be big enough to have built-ins, [and they'd have] computer wiring, pull-down screens, laminate boards, and strips from which to hang posters," added Dee Ann Manitzas, principal at Accelerated Middle School in San Antonio, Texas.
SPECIAL SPACE FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES
Many of Education World's P-Files principals dream of more space for special purposes -- including spaces strictly devoted to eating, physical education, and the arts.
"I would wish for a stage with all the trimmings for my school," dreamed Kathleen Hill, principal at Sandwich Central School in Center Sandwich, New Hampshire. "Our students are very accomplished in the performing arts. It would be great for them to walk out onto a real stage under real lights with a great sound system," said Hill. "Instead, we set up a portable stage and rig up lights to the volleyball poles in the gym."
Jane Carroll, principal at St. Teresa School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, has dreams of a school theater too. "I know, I know," she said, "this is an elementary school, and most don't have this, but it's my dream. Students who do not have an opportunity to experience the fine and performing arts are at a loss. We provide art, music, and drama, but to have a stage with a curtain and comfortable [seating for an] audience and to give students a real chance to show their stuff -- that would be beyond any hope!"
Paul D'Astoli -- principal at Thomas Carr College, a grade 7 through 12 school in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia) -- is in the process of building a new school. "My wish is for a specialized music facility to facilitate our instrumental music program -- one that would drown out the sounds as students practice."
Carol Roebuck dreams of a nice art room. "Right now we have art on a cart," said Roebuck, principal at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis, Tennessee." It would be so nice to have a large art room with art tables, storage spaces for supplies, and whatever else [the students] need."
If that weren't asking too much, Roebuck would also like a gymnasium. "We are in the same building as the middle and high school and there's one gym," she said. "So you know who is last in getting to schedule time in the gym!"
A school gymnasium is also on the wish list of Greg Robinson, principal at Ginninderra District High School in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. "At present we have an all-purpose hall, which has to be used for indoor sports, physical education classes, school assemblies, music and drama concerts, and any large-group indoor activities," said Robinson.
Well-organized storage space is another dream that was repeated by several P-Files principals. "Every school I've worked at was lacking storage space," said Janell Logue-Belden. In a school with well-organized storage space "taking inventory and reordering needed supplies would be easy," she added.
"Storage space for teachers in each classroom would be great!" concurred Emma Sidders. "The way it is now there is no space for storage, and everything is mixed up in our school basement."
SPACE FOR THE COMMUNITY TOO!
Many of Education World's P-Files principals recognize the importance of opening their schools to the community.
"The school of my dreams would include facilities for a community services office, a parenting education program, and 24-hour day care," said Jerry L. Mueller, principal at Pleasantview Elementary School in Hastings, Michigan.
"Our school would be used as a learning center and shelter for the community," added Dee Ann Manitzas.
"My dream school would include a center to provide day-care services for staff and students," added Logue-Belden.
MORE LAND WOULD BE A DREAM!
Additional spaces around a school are in the dreams of many principals.
"I would love to have the 5 acres next to our school donated to us," said Lucie Boyadjian, noting that the owner recently passed away and the land is for sale. The land could be used to build an annex, complete with 500-seat auditorium, and for added playground space, she said.
Such space is on the wish list of Karen Slack too. The space would be great for "workouts, environmental studies ... so students could take their education outside."
Play space is up there on Bruce Hudson's dream list too. "We really do have a pretty good arrangement here, as overseas schools go," said Hudson, principal at Asir Academy in Khamis Mushayt, Saudi Arabia. "Many overseas schools are in large villas or office buildings [or other spaces] donated by their local business communities. Many of those locations have little or no play space."
"I'd really like some nice landscaped areas with some large trees to provide shade, large enough to protect my bald head from the sun!" said Paul D'Astoli, noting that he had hair before he started building a new school!
"I wish we had a covered pavilion," said Amy Burchfield, principal at Greenbrier (Arkansas) Junior High School. "When it is raining, everyone has to go to the P.E. building during lunch and before school. And the shade would be nice."
"A central enclosed greenhouse for a school garden to be used by all classrooms would be great too," added Helene Dykes.
JUST BEING PRACTICAL...
"I suppose everything is relative to your reality," Bruce Hudson told Education World. "If you don't have it, you want it. If you have it, you want more."
That statement couldn't be more true of the practical things -- things many principals take for granted but that many others only dream of having.
David R. Innocenzi, vice principal at Hamilton (New Jersey) High West, dreams of air conditioning and bleachers that aren't falling apart and modern science facilities. "Our building was built in 1929," said Innocenzi. "To use the hot water in the kitchen, the radiators in the classrooms have to be turned on. Our wooden bleachers are old. New aluminum bleachers would provide safety and comfort for our populace, which is big on athletics." "A paint job throughout the whole school" would be great, said Greg Robinson. "Some parts of my school have not seen a coat of paint in 20-plus years."
New toilet blocks for boys and girls would be a dream too, added Robinson. "Our students have to put up with substandard...toilet facilities. There has been no upgrade since the school was built in 1974."
"An intercom system would be wonderful," added Emma Sidders. "I could make announcements without going to each class individually and get out messages to individuals without walking all over the building many times daily."
For Mary Ellen Imbo -- principal at Westwood Elementary School in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma -- and many others, prefab classrooms are a way of life that leaves them dreaming of "real" schools. "I have four classes each of grades 1 through 5 outside our core building in prefabs," said Imbo. "I would like a whole building with all classrooms housed in it. I would love to have a gym with a stage and a separate cafeteria."
"I would like to have a building that houses all programs in one," added Amy Burchfield. "We have a separate music building, a separate gym, and two annexes. Monitoring access to the buildings is very difficult."
"What a principal would wish for in my daughter's school in our nice suburb would be so different from what a principal in the urban district where I work would wish for," said Lyn McCarty, a special education administrator in an urban California public school district.
Principals in many schools, McCarty said, "would be wishing for things like file cabinets that aren't locked shut without keys or that the cracked old empty pool -- now a safety hazard and a stark reminder of what the children do not have rather than an asset to the physical plant -- would be magically filled in and planted with a tree; and that the air and heat worked."
"In these schools," McCarty said, "folks are wishing for things like file cabinets that aren't locked shut without keys; or that the cracked old empty pool -- a stark reminder of what the children do not have rather than an asset to the physical plant -- would be magically filled in and planted with a tree; and that the air and heat worked."
"We wouldn't be wishing for dream school things," added McCarty. "We wish for all the ordinary expected things that so many other children simply take for granted... When we dream for our children -- all of our children -- I just think it might be worthwhile for us to remember that the deck is by no means evenly stacked and that dreams are relative. I guess that what is important is that we all keep on dreaming for our kids and striving to make those dreams a reality."
Imagine a school where you don't have to use paper anymore. All memos and documents are networked. Every teacher, administrator, and secretary is able to access information through computers. Students get their grades and homework assignments on-line -- and they can get special tutoring too!
That's the school that Janell Logue-Belden dreams of seeing someday. It's a school that would save trees, "not to mention make life easier for everybody in and out of school," said Logue-Belden, assistant principal at Peters Township High School in McMurray, Pennsylvania. She would also like her dream school to have a single main entrance with security cameras in place. "We guard money with locked doors, why don't we guard our children in the same way?" she wondered.
Logue-Belden was among the Principal Files Principals who earlier this month shared a few features of the "school of their dreams" with Education World. The dreams those principals expressed range from the very practical -- the "basics" that many schools still lack -- to pipe dreams that will never happen.
"I'm sure there will be teacher stations and student stations in every room for every child, networks that run, and technology repair [personnel] on site," said Barbara Woods, principal at Marshall Elementary School, of her dream school. Woods continues her dream: "Unlimited supplies are delivered immediately when requested, immediate construction to solve poorly planned areas. ... Oh, well, just provide my school with a genie!" said Woods.
