We went to a school all week this week called Sagrado. It’s
a beautiful, private Catholic school with many resources. When we walked in,
KeJuan said, “Is this a school or a hotel?” We were excited to see some
teaching! For the record, it’s very easy to comprehend management and
instruction when you can’t understand the language! It’s all you can understand!
:)
The school day here is from 1:00 PM to 5:45 PM for
elementary students; high school students go in the morning. We sat and
listened for about 4 and ½ hours, Students ran wild in the hallway, which at
first we thought was bad. By the end of the week we were saying how cool it was
that kids could be kids here! In the upper grades, students sat in desks for
long periods of time, but didn’t seem to mind. The main difference was that the
classrooms were very teacher led, where ours are very student led.
We can learn a lot from this school. For starters, they
write everything in beautiful cursive. This could be the way to integrate
cursive back into the curriculum even if my students just saw me writing in it!
The students look professional, yet comfortable in uniforms. They change
subjects with music on the intercom! The students learn another language in
school, English. Also, there is no system of rewards for behavior. Some might
argue that this is a bad thing, from what we see in Raleigh with a push from
PBIS, but hold that thought until I tell this example. A student dropped her
pencil case. Pencils and pens went everywhere during a lecture. The three
students closest to her went immediately to help her pick up her things. They
were back in their seats in about 7 seconds. No acknowledgement was given. It
was beautiful. Students did this out of pure kindness, not for the sake of
rewards. I can’t tell you how many times students at home will come up to me
and say, “Miss Brooks! I did something nice! Can I have a point?” Something to
think about…
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