Math

I think this could be problematic for students who come in later than 7th grade because this is a little bit faster than many students learn math (in terms of starting algebra 1), but some students could take lower level ones and possibly skip either calculus or stats. 


12 - Probability and Statistics
11 - Calculus
10 - Pre Calc
9 - Algebra 2
8 - Geometry
7 - Algebra 1

Volunteering

I think every year's students should have some sort of volunteer activities that they need to do. The service projects would have to include all students in the grade in some way and would focus on leadership, goodwill, community outreach, environmental awareness, and other similar skills and lessons. We'd have to be careful that students could work on these projects throughout much of the year, and it is preferable that students would not have to go off campus many years for their projects. Also, many projects would have to be split into smaller parts on which groups within each year could work. Student council in high school could pick exactly what to do (younger kids' activities are planned), but there would be general outlines for each year, if not all.

For example:

Lower elementary: going to animal shelters to play with/socialize animals, draw cards for hospital patients/military, play/talent show for a nursing home

Upper elementary: feeding/washing/cleaning up after animals, making cards for hospitals/military/school faculty and staff, raising money for a charity, play/talent show for nursing home and one-on-one interaction

Middle school: tutoring elementary kids, food drives/work in food pantry, maintaining school grounds (flower and vegetable gardens, tree nurseries, etc.), community environment/clean-up projects, raising money for a charity, crafts (like blankets) to donate

High school: raising money for a charity, tutoring middle school kids, doing something special for the elementary/pre-K kids) like fun days, volunteer at an animal shelter/nursing home/on-campus day cares/hospitals, environment projects, maintaining school grounds, working with orphanages, letters (to people or answering letters to Santa, letters to government officials)

If necessary, culture class could take some sort of grade for volunteering so that it is mandatory and there is a way to track the volunteering.

There is a website that has great volunteer ideas for people of all ages, even though it's geared toward middle school students:

Learning in the Class

There are many ways to learn other than in the simple lecture/notes way. I think my American Education professor has a unique way of teaching that works. The class is broken into groups that have to do at least one of several assignments each week, totally one of each assignment for the semester. Because this is an education class, the assignments are focused on education, but they would work for many different classes. Among these assignments are:

News: summarize current local, state, and national news on then lead a short discussion
Debate: two people on each side*, other groups ask cross examination questions so they have to be educated on the topic
Book Discussion: read an approved book, lead a 20 minute discussion
Interview: interview a professional in the subject, then give an oral report to the class and lead a short discussion
Speech: choose any topic related to the course and give a five minute speech
Position Paper: write a few-page paper on any debate issue* that was not that student's debate topic thats briefly summarizes, defends their position, hold a meeting with their group for a small discussion
Topical Essay: same format as the position paper but done on any topic in the subject
Field Experience: certain number of hours working with subject (ex: tutoring at a local school for education, getting a positive evaluation from a supervisor), and write a short reflection

*Our debates are based on the book Taking Sides: Clashing Views of Controversial Educational Issues (16th ed.) by J.W. Noll. Each chapter is an educational question, and there are two short essays arguing "Yes" or "No," which are the sides we take for our debates in class. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in education.

There should also be an emphasis on guided conversations about class material. How many times will a student take a multiple-choice test after they finish school? Basically never. How many times will they write a paper? Depending on their occupation, a few times to many times. How many times will they have to talk about what they're doing? Many, many, many times.

Boarding School?

I'm pretty sure I want my school to be a boarding school because - and I'm just being honest here - I think parents have way too much potential to screw their kids' education up. They can show plenty of support to their education by sending the kids to a good school and loving them like crazy when they're home, so I can control the rest of their educational lives. And with the environment I'd like to provide in my school, the only things my kids should really be deprived of are their actual parents.

However, I don't want kids who are too young at a boarding school. What I'm thinking is either all of high school or just the last two or three years will be boarding school. This is where I will start when I am building my school. Then I'll build down with the day school kids (this causes big problems with who gets to go to the boarding school - local kids who were raised in my younger schools or anyone who can get in...interesting problem).

I'm thinking the boarding school will be the main campus then surrounding it or next to it will be more generic areas for the younger kids. All the facilities will be present and awesome, but all the kids use the same facilities. I'd like to get students all the way down to the baby level on these campuses. Of course, that age children are there with their parents for programs or perhaps day care.

Education in Sweden

I did a biography project on education in Sweden for my Comparative Education class. I did some research and asked my friend, who was raised in Sweden, about her education. The 2010 most popular girl's name in Sweden is Maja, so I am going to call my friend Maja. The name is a variation of the Greek name Maia, which means "great" or "mother."

Peer Biography: Maja from Sweden

Research on Sweden

            At every level of education in Sweden, schooling is free, even at the university level. Sweden spends much more money on its education than most countries do. A school term goes from August to December then another one from January to June (World Education Encyclopedia, 1322). There is no single teaching method preferred by the state, as long as the school meets the state-approved standards  (World Education Encyclopedia, 1325), a policy that was determined by the Education Act of 1985 (Sas, 111). Schools simply follow the standards that the National Agency for Education develops (World Education Encyclopedia, 1329). The Agency assesses knowledge through national tests and assessment guides for teachers. It also evaluates schools and provides support for issues like problems in subjects or others, like bullying (Agency). Literacy rates in Sweden are 99% (World Education Encyclopedia).

Time Capsule

Once every four years (or ten or whatever number), my school could make a time capsule. Probably it'd just be for them, maybe to open on their 50th reunion. I do think it'd be interesting to have one that was historical, though, but that would have to be a one-time thing. It could be a community event.

Time capsule historian William Jarvis complains that many time capsules are filled with useless junk that does not actually tell much about life at this time. Therefore I want to make sure my school's time capsule could be historically significant. It could be a school project. Different grades could have different topics, like sports, current events, and politics, and figure out creative and spatially efficient ways to represent these topics for future generations.

Life Lesson Lecture

My economics professor gave us a "life lesson" lecture today in class instead of a regular lecture. He said it would be about some of the things he wished he had known at our age. I think it was very insightful and a good speech for anyone to hear, regardless of age. It was based on the “human capacities” that Marshall Gregory had identified:

Imagination
Introspection - check list of virtues, too much sensory input
Reason
Language - English class, theater
Morality/Ethics
Aesthetics - love of knowledge, pleasure in beauty
Sociability
Physicality - maintaining alertness, controlling impulses, mind and body

I think this would be a good workshop topic.

Mommy and Me/Baby Weight

I think a great program would be a combined Mommy and Me and Baby-Weight-Burning class. Half an hour would be spent on Mommy and Me activities, and the other half would be spend doing a low-impact workout that helps burn baby fat. During the Mommy and Me portion of the class, either the instructor or a nanny/babysitter would be in charge of watching the babies. The mothers would, of course, be close by, just in case.

Speaking

There also needs to be an emphasis on proper speaking in my school. Proper speaking and writing increases a student's chances of success. This can be done in speech, culture, or English classes.

Even at a top twenty university, my mythology professor today used the words "um" and "uh" 106 times...in 20 minutes. That's 5.3 times per minute or once every 11 seconds. Now, she is a fairly extreme case, but not as extreme as people might think. No person should use "um," "uh," "like," and other filler words regularly in their speech patterns. This is another part of proper speaking.

I think a good way to deal with that is to take off one point - especially at the middle school level - for every "um" or "like" or any other filler word used in a presentation. Train them young! I also think that a teacher should give the students comments (for example, on their rubric) about ending strong if they don't and being confident in what they're saying.

Other endeavors

I'm also interested in programs outside of the school I would like to start, so be on the lookout for those posts!

Three semesters?

Update as of 6/1/12:
I think I will not have three actual semesters but will have two normal semesters (possibly with the Spring one going until mid- to late June, like some European schools), and then there would be volunteer trips (and other kinds possibly, like leadership trips and such) in the summer. To my three semester idea:

PE classes

   I'm not actually liking anything I said about P.E. before (but it is all still there underneath the page break). Instead, I think students should not have a P.E. class but should have sports that are practiced for a few hours on Saturday, either at the varsity or JV level.

I must say I am not terribly interested in having the students compete with other schools though. I read an article about Finnish kids and why they are so smart, and it looks like Finnish schools take a lot of the bells and whistles out of school, including sports teams. I want sports teams, but I'm okay with not having them compete and possibly miss school or scheduled time.

Culture Classes

I envision culture classes to have a large focus on etiquette like a traditional finishing school. The first semester is the same for all students in their respective levels, but second semester, the students get to choose from a much more limited list of classes to pursue for the entire semester. These classes should work well for classes with both males and females. 

Schedule

  I have had conflicting views on the schedule recently (6/1/12). Below the page break are what I thought when this post was originally written, but I have since changed my mind a bit. Here is my new proposed schedule. It is based on the "block" schedule, where there are four classes every day (two before lunch, two after). Monday and Wednesday would have periods 1-4, Tuesday and Thursday would have periods 5-8, and Friday would alternate between 1-4 and 5-8. I am still debating if Friday classes should be half as long, all before lunch. At the moment I am thinking that will not happen.

1. English – all four years

2. Foreign language – all four years

3. Social studies – all four years

4. Experimental Sciences – have to do one year each of biology, chemistry, and physics and at least one of these has to get to the second year of it – can we have the first year be AP?

5. Math – all four years

6. Culture – all four years

7. Arts/PE – at least one year of each, three years total

8. Further Studies – at least three years total 

Students whose first language is not English can be placed in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class instead of a language other than English as his or her second language. This is only if the student's English needs improving for the student to excel in school and in the work force.

These classes are just numbered, not put in the order in which students would learn them during the day. All students would take all of these subjects all four years. Subjects 7 and 8, in this schedule, allow for students to go to a higher level in several classes if they are interested. 

Single-Sex Education

My position is that there should be a heavy emphasis [updated position below] on single-sex education within a coeducational structure. There is so much to be learned by simply interacting with students who are different, and there are huge differences between males and females. I also agree with the argument that coeducation can prepare heterosexual couples for future marriage. All of this being said, I do think it would be very difficult to have single-sex classes within a coeducational institution. There are obvious subjects, like health class, that could be made much more beneficial if taught to each gender separately, but I remember learning a lot from a guy friend by simply seeing his facial expressions (shock, horror) when we learned about the birds and the bees for the first time in the sixth grade.