The more I read today, the more I believe that schools need to run with a menu style--each child comes to school each day and follows his/her personalized menu. A menu might look like this:
September - November Menu
1. Social Competency Group/Shared Reading/Mentoring 9-10
2. Project Based Learning: Mathematics/Science and Tree House Design - 10-12
3. Lunch/Break 12-1
4. ELA Enrichment: Poetry/Multimedia Composition 1-3
5. Arts Block: Dance 3-4 (optional)
6. Sports Block: Soccer 4-5 (optional
The advantages of this system include the following:
- Teachers could focus on smaller groups of students and fewer curriculum standards, thus resulting in greater effect.
- Students would have a more responsive, streamlined program that meets their essential skills needs and individual passions and interests.
- The potential for children and staff to be happier and more successful at what they do lies there.
- Staff time and effort would be used in more strategic, reasonable ways.
The old design of schools seems so inefficient and cumbersome to me these days, yet our students continue to come to us with wonderful potential and enthusiasm for learning. How does this model appeal to you? Do you think restructuring our schools in this way would make a positive difference in terms of serving children well? Let me know.
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