school is a place

School is a place...

During the last year, I was asked to develop a school is a place project for my students to complete as a part of a grad school assignment. This year, at the end of the first week of school, I asked my students what they thought school was. Most of them had been to pre-school, so they had some idea, but it is always interesting to see how individuals perceive school. My students responded in a number of ways, including: to learn, to read, to have fun, to make friends, to count, to draw, and to use computers. They drew images to capture their ideas.

I took these images and held on to them. Today, I put them out for the world to see. We had open house at my school this evening, and I thought that that was a perfect time for these responses to be put out there for parents to see. I love having this student touch as individuals approach my classroom. For me, it also serves as a reminder that school is about so much more than sitting down and learning. School is a place where my students are learning social skills, are developing oral language, and are testing their limits. As a teacher, it is my job to facilitate this growth, which means that school cannot always be about learning (regardless of what officials who have never been inside of a classroom may say).

I plan on taking this project one step further. At the end of the year, I plan on repeating this activity. It is my hope that at the end of the year my students still have these same thoughts about school. I hope that they still view school as a place to make friends, a place to have fun, and a place to play. I also hope that when they say that school is a place to learn, and read, and do math, that they say so in a positive way. It is my vision that education is fun and engaging and worthwhile. Through engagement, my students should walk away ready for first grade at the end of the year, and not feeling as though they have just been set free from mundane and draining tasks.

What is school to you? What do you think of when I say "School is a place?"