A Shared Vision for District Learning

Collaboratively Developing a Shared Vision for District Learning

Collaboratively Developing a Shared Vision for District Learning

To our guests, welcome to St George’s School. St. Georges has an appealing pleasant environment where students feel comfortable learning due to its location in the countryside, away from the city center. As a result, the school is free from noise, car fumes and traffic. Students here are also close to nature, and they also learn to love protecting animals, flowers, and trees. Occasionally, the students would take a guided walk to the countryside and visit natural places like rivers, lakes, and farms. During such natural walks, our students get an opportunity to participate in nature-related activities like bird watching, hiking, plants, and animal study from their natural habitat (Jones et al. 2020).

We also have a modern building critical for a conducive learning environment. The learning commons atrium comprises such a colossal brick and glass structure, four stories high. Every floor has a balcony encircles this wide-open area to serve as the instructional space and a classroom hallway. All these structures are located on 132000 square feet designed in a manner flexible of their learning zones. The buildings are also designed to achieve the current institutional needs of our students and teachers. Our instructional space is organized into cohorts that group science labs, smaller learning areas that are more flexible, classrooms, separate learning communities, and maker spaces. It provides the students and teachers with multiple learning zones for project-based learning, collaboration, and independent works. For instance, a group of students can be doing a class project in the primary classroom during certain particular times. A handful of the students are taken through personalized learning within the adjacent smaller room. At the same time, another group of students can collaborate at the learning commons nearby. The learning commons are furnished with whiteboards, an open area of tables and chairs located in the hallway outside the classroom (Jones et al. 2020).

The arrangement of these classrooms provides teachers with flexibility and space to allow students to engage in varied activities minus getting crowded into the artificial and limited confines of a single classroom. In contrast, the teacher can keep an eye on all students. Also, a line of sight to every instructional area is provided by this floor to ceiling glass walls. The reason for all these spaces is to enable change in pedagogy, particularly for this 21st-century learning. The rooms also enable varied activities to run simultaneously, minus interfering with each other.

Furthermore, as you can see, our classrooms are organized into learning hubs with glass walls enhancing large collaborative spaces enabling students from different classes to converge together. This design facilitates our efforts to migrate from a teacher-centered learning approach to student-led instruction. These walls are moveable, and on a need basis, the walls can be moved to form one giant classroom whenever there is a need for more spaces. Also, students can write on the glass walls and post charts on them to facilitate learning. Some teachers also divide their classes, letting students move to zones outside the classroom while still observing them (Valentim & Freire 2019).

Also, we have blended learning design guidelines where there is no front or back of a classroom to establish more flexibility in the classroom. In principle, due to the blended learning, we have reduced all class learning style instruction to around four percent of our school day favor small group, individual, or direct engagement. Thus, creating a school environment focused on multiple learning places rather than focusing on any single point. To make students college and career-ready in line with the increasing interest in science, engineering, math, and technology, we use a learning environment that focuses on personal responsibility, project management, and collaboration (Valentim & Freire 2019).

On the other hand, our school administrative chain consists of the principal and the deputy principal. Each grade has a dean of a discipline and a faculty advisory committee composed of three teacher representatives from every grade, one person from the parent-teacher association, and two people from the classified staff. There is also a student representative from each grade. Through the assistance of two deans of discipline, our student body has established a peer court. The court is made up of eight members elected from the student body. Also, the supreme court is composed of the principal, deputy principal, the deans, three teacher representatives, and two student representatives. The principal’s role is primarily the school’s management; for instance, the principal oversees the budgets, schedules, issues of personnel, and transportation. While the deputy principal assists the principal in any area as may be assigned. The Deputy principal is also in charge of staff development welfares and enhancing mentoring programs. Our peer court is mandated to hold weekly sessions to address any rising concerns; for instance, students suspected of having violated school rules are presented before the peer court for hearing and determination. However, all other matters of discipline that are not handled by the peer court, like suspension or any other safety concern, are dealt with by the deans of the disciplines (Jones et al. 2020).

Also, in our school, we love visitors, and we have created a welcoming atmosphere for the public in our school. Every morning, we are acceptable, we shake hands with everyone visiting the school, and we usher them with words like, ‘Welcome back’ or ‘I am so glad you are here today or ‘Have a great day. Our students also love this ritual, thus, making everyone feel welcomed to the school. Moreover, almost every morning, one will not fail to find the principal and the deputy standing outside to open car doors for our students to greet both the parents and the students. This ensures that both the parents and their children understand that our school is a safe place where learning place for both the staff and the students (Valentim & Freire 2019).

In the form of security, first, the school is surrounded by fences made of tabular steel topped with spikes that are very hard to cut or climb. At the same time, we have lights at every section of the school complex and cameras at strategic locations. There are also well-trained and armed guards outside and within critical entrances into the buildings. Adults are to keep watch and supervise the minor activities within the playgrounds, hallway, lunchrooms, and bathrooms to ensure their safety. The staff is also trained to use the National Incident Management System (NIMS) to help out in a scenario of a national disaster to direct the school administrators to the department of federal agencies mandated to respond. Here are also Panic alarms and an intercom system in every class that links to the administration office to ensure teachers can still monitor any development within the classroom and respond immediately. To ensure security amongst the students themselves, the school has counselors mandated to implement bully prevention programs that minimize aggression and behavioral challenges amongst the students. Through the PATHS curriculum, school counselors conduct two to three sessions weekly where the students are taught about self-control, empathy, resolving conflict peacefully, and establishing positive peer relationships (Valentim & Freire 2019).

Besides, the school embraces a warm relationship between the students and their teachers. Our teachers, therefore, genuinely show concern to students to establish their cooperation. Students who feel valued are likely to excel socially and academically than those poorly treated by the school staff. The school has also adopted programs that teach students on multicultural perspectives to promote unity. Our students, therefore, admire and respect their differences. The school has also developed a school toolkit that creates a caring school culture. The material is segmented over an 18-month period where staff can select the appropriate activities designed to effect non-violent discipline, improve classroom management, promote learning, and develop mutual respect (Jones et al. 2020).