Our visits to the High School.
The second week in our program in Bloomington, we started visiting the different schools, an Elementary school, so beautiful and so neat that it was an amazing experience. The learning as in contrasting our schools and systems was huge. Most of the times overwhelming. The resources and differences in how they are used is an extreme outcome for me.
Furthermore the common denominator that I observe in the classrooms, in most of the schools is the freedom that students have. Teachers in Indiana have adapted the Common Core Standards and have made their own standards for the county and the teachers follow them and try to integrate them into their teaching activities. They work before in teams to discuss how to integrate them successfully. This is not so different about how we do things in my system, we work during at least 2 weeks during the year, to do the academic planning, but what is completely different is the freedom students have to express themselves.
Students do not wear a uniform, they dress according to their sense of liberty.
Students are allowed to have their hair in the best and unique style.
Students eat in their classroom in a discrete manner, but they are allowed to do it.
Students participate and speak out their minds, they are encouraged to do it.
Gender and sex are not a taboo; their sexual preference is not something to discuss or to be judged.
My host teacher philosophy is to have a classroom that it is a safe place to the students, in which they can discuss and speak about anything.
They are schools that have multiage classrooms, classrooms in which participate students of different ages and level of knowledge.
