Dream School
I am going to write my paper on my vision of
the perfect school. In describing
my dream school I will explain how it will
operate, involve special education
students and prepare students for life
after high school. A strong site based
administration is not only my
preference, but is also the system that is most
effective. I will first
identify the individual positions of my dream school and
then define their
roles. I will call my school Dream High School. Dream High
will have a
traditional administrative chain, consisting of a principal and
a
vice-principal. There would be a dean of discipline for each grade, and a
FAC
(Faculty Advisory Committee) made up of two teacher representatives from
each
grade; one person from the classified staff and two from the parent
teacher
association. There will also be one student from each grade on the
FAC. With the
assistance of the two deans of discipline, the student body
would establish a
Peer Court. This would consist of seven members elected
from the student body at
large. Dream Supreme Court would be made up of the
principal, vice principle,
both deans and two teacher representatives. The
principal would be responsible,
primarily, for the business management of the
school. Budgets, building,
schedules, transportation and personnel issues
fall into the area covered by the
principal. The vice-principal would assist
the principal in all areas. In
addition, the VP must deal with staff
development concerns. He or she will
facilitate the mentoring program, manage
the training schedules and ensure that
all staff is allowed to attend
seminars each year to further their expertise.
All discipline issues not
covered by the PEER COURT system-suspension,
expulsion, safety- will be dealt
with by the deans of discipline. The PEER COURT
would be responsible for
holding weekly sessions to address routine concerns.
Students’ accused of
violating a rule will come before the PEER COURT for a
hearing. In my school
the accused will have an opportunity to present their
side, witnesses may be
called and may testify. The PEER COURT will then
determine guilt and impose
consequences. The accused may appeal to the deans of
discipline. The VP and
deans must approve of the imposed consequences. The Dream
Supreme Court
must automatically intervene when issues of safety, security, and
or state
law are involved. Otherwise, the decisions of the peer court are
final.
The Parent Teacher Association is an integral part of the running
of my school.
Formally, they are represented on the FAC. It is the
representatives’
responsibility to bring to light concerns, issues and
desires of the community.
It is an absolute mandate that the staff be
responsive to community concerns.
The school, primarily through the PTA,
must actively seek not only their in-put
regarding concerns, but also their
needs and wants. The expertise of everyone in
the site community must be
sought to enhance the overall effectiveness. Each
professional at Dream High
will be assigned to his or her best area of
expertise. The staff would have
the FAC to deal with their issues while the
students would have
representatives on the FAC as well as their own PEER COURT.
I believe
that when those involved have direct control over their lives, the
results
will benefit all involved. Giving control to the local community,
students
and staff members will increase the feeling of belonging and investment
of
all who come in contact with the school. DREAM SCHOOL ISSUE: SPECIAL
ED
DISCIPLINE Dream High will include its Special Ed students with the
mainstream
population with regards to discipline. Since federal law
interjects formal
discipline guidelines, someone must be placed in charge to
over see this
process. The case manager (Special Ed teacher) for each student
will act as the"legal advocate" for the Special ED student on his or her
caseload. This
utilization of the teacher will accomplish several things:
First, federal and
state laws will be followed. It is simply not reasonable
to expect all staff,
FAC members and student PEER COURT officers to be
familiar with all legal
statues. Therefore, the case manager will guide all
involved through the
discipline process. Next is the possible communication
concern. Many Special Ed
students are dramatically delayed in the
communication and social skill areas.
Having the case manager present
will alleviate some of this concern. The
student(s) will certainly feel much
more comfortable with a known spokesperson.
The student will be able to
"voice" his or her case through the advocate.
IDEA mandates that schools
discipline Special ED students as mainstream students
are treated. Therefore,
it will be required that ALL students be disciplined in
accordance with the
Dream High School governance system. CURRICULUM Dream
High’s curriculum
will be based upon the fact that it is a two year (11-12)
school. The Base
curriculum will be made up of the following core classes: Math
English
Social Studies Science Physical Education Humanities In addition to
the
above-mentioned classes Dream High will have an interactive agreement
with the
local university to provide college level math, English and science
courses to
the students. These courses will be offered during the evenings
and weekends so
as to allow students the opportunity to enjoy a variety of
classes both during
the school day and outside of the school day if the
student elects. The
alternative classes offered will include: Welding
Auto-Shop Cooking Wood Working
Carpentry Computer Technology Cosmetology
Drama For all of the above mentioned
classes industry leaders will be called
upon to help develop the curriculum and
course content. It only makes sense
that the people that are working on a day to
day basis in the fields that
apply to these courses would be better suited to
establish the levels of
importance of course content. An engineer working at IBM
for example would be
working not only on the Computer Technology class but on
the math curriculum
as well. Construction firms and local architects would be
able to build a
class that would target what skills are most important for a
student that is
interested in working in their field. Skilled Chef’s would be
working with
our curriculum design team to identify the basics that an
apprentice Chef
would need to know when entering the workplace. In short, it is
important
that the people with the most expertise in the selected areas should
have
input on what course content should be. Because technology and
techniques
change on a rapid basis the curriculum would be reviewed on a
bi-annual basis
and innovations would be implemented at that time. Specialty
Area-Music The
music program in most high schools is probably one of the most
under appreciated
programs in general. Administrators tend to believe that
these programs do not
need the funding or support that athletics or core
classes need but often this
is not the case. It has been proven through
numerous studies that students with
a musical background perform better in
school, have better study habits and
grasp abstract thinking better that
those students that are not involved in a
music program. It is for this
reason that Dream High will place great value and
pride in both the music
program and the athletic program. The following classes
in music will be
offered: Music Theory Music Appreciation Concert Band Concert
Choir Jazz
Band Jazz Choir Students entering their first year at the school will
be
required to take music theory and music appreciation regardless if they
play
an instrument. This is to provide the student with a basic knowledge of
music
and it’s history so that the student may have a well rounded education.
Band
and Choir students will be offered lessons free of charge from an
agreement made
with the local music store. Experienced staff and instructors
are compensated
for their time by having students promote music throughout
the community by
visiting local elementary schools, civic events, and
entertaining the residents
of local nursing homes. Students will also
experience seminars given throughout
the year by experienced professional
musicians so that they better understand
the demands and rewards of a career
in music Individual Educational Programs
Students at Dream High will be
participating in academic classes until the 10th
grade when they would be
tested in academics, take an interest inventory test,
and complete a
comprehensive Individualized Education Program (IEP). Students
with academic
abilities who wished to continue on a "college prep" schedule,
would do so.
Those who are not as strong academically would address possible
vocations
that would appear in the Interest Inventory Test. At that point, each
student
would develop a comprehensive IEP. Most students have a good idea if
they
want to go to college or not and what they are good at. Most have
thought
about, and may know, what they want to do when they are grown-up.
Most of them,
however, do not know what’s involved in achieving their goals.
An IEP is very
helpful in developing a "plan of attack". It gives the student
manageable
steps to take to be successful. Having goals helps keep students
motivated.
There are fewer discipline issues and their transition into
adulthood is much
easier. The IEP’s would focus on the present levels of
achievement,
social-emotional adaptation, future goals and objectives as well
as address the
seven intelligence’s. The "seven intelligence’s" are;
interpersonal
relationships, introspective abilities, spatial
(visualization), athletic,
musical, and verbal or mathematical
intelligence’s. The principle would be
"How are you smart, not how smart
are you?" At my school I would endorse
these intelligence’s to where students
are in "a state of flow", that
learning lane that is challenging, but not so
much as to cause anxiety. Students
would be learning within their strong suit
and therefore, would be motivated and
successful, requiring very little
direct instruction. Students in their junior
year, who did not plan to go to
college, would be placed in a vocational
training program and in their senior
year, they would work as apprentices within
the work force of their chosen
area. Instruction Business people would be acting
as "teachers" in the work
force, with teacher support when needed. Business
people are not trained
educators, and therefore, tend to fall into "incomplete
teaching" naturally.
They present the task with brief directions and then,
usually, walk away,
leaving the student to rely and hone his problem solving
skills based on his
or her short term memory and seven intelligence’s. This
type of learning is
what is lacking in the schools today, because students do
not have a personal
interest in the topic and very little to figure out, they
are simply required
to use rote memorization. Special Program Preparation for
Life: A
transition program from school to community Abstract of
Program:
Preparation for Life would be a program that is designed to
prepare individuals
with special needs for the transition from school life to
adult life. Through
classes and experiences, individuals with special needs
will gain insight into
the areas of work, leisure activities, adult living
realities, and skills needed
to be independent in the community. The program
has 3 levels, based on the grade
and need of the student. In the following
composition, the 3 levels of the
program will be described. Level One: The
first level would be for 9th and 10th
graders. During this level, students
receive much of their instruction in high
school classes that are geared
towards the individual student needs and goals.
Instruction during the
9th and 10th year is intended to prepare students for the
next level.
Students at this level will be taken into the community to learn
aspects of
transition, including; grocery shopping, going to the doctor, going
to the
post office, public/private transportation, etc. Students will have
the
opportunity to be paid for school-based work experiences, to build
and
strengthen positive working skills. Academic training during this level
would be
based on practical needs of individual students. If a student is not
ready to
move on to the next level, then that student will stay in level one
until he/she
is ready to move on. Level Two: Level two would be made up of
11th and 12th
graders. At this level, students spend more time in the
community. Most students
spend ½ of their school day in classes and the other
½ in the community,
usually being paid to work at a business, in a group or
individually. Classes at
the school would be based on job seeking skills
(where to look for a job, how to
contact job sites, how to keep a job, etc.),
how to fill out various
applications, interview skills, how to be a good
employee, etc. Students would
also become more independent in the community.
When students have successfully
completed this level of the program they will
go through the graduation process
to signify the completion of high school.
Based on what the need is, some
students will not go onto level three, they
will stay in level two until their
22nd birthday. Those students will not
go through the graduation ceremony until
that point. If a student moves on,
he/she goes to level three. Level Three: The
main focus of this level is
independence. Once students have reached this level,
they no longer attend
high school classes. Students are hooked up with adult
support programs, such
as Vocational Rehabilitation, JOIN, OARC, etc. The school
would still support
individuals, but the support would come from as job/life
coaching in the
community. At this time the students would be given the option
to work full
time for pay. Living arrangements may include; at home with family
or in
assisted living situations. It would be expected that the student display
a
certain amount of responsibility by showing up to work on time. Once a
student
turns 22 he/she will have completed level three. At this point the
individual
should be ready to be an active part of the community. A program
such as
Preparation for Life would be designed to prepare individuals
with various
special needs for a life after school. The program would help to
ease the
transition from school life to adult life, a successful transition
based on
individual needs and
goals.