If I would start a new school, our definition of success would be see a positive leader that is concious about HIS community, his story, his strengths and his weakness and want to do something about it.  I would consult the community  itself to determine if we have seen a positive change in the environment. 

First of all, the school has to be inside the community. Our examples in clases would be about the things happening in the community and our projects would be in the and because of the community. We would bring community leaders to the classes to talk with them, and actually I would like to put them examples of other teenagers that are doing positive things with their community, and with this, inspired them with examples that they could make.  

Our presentations would be for all the community, we would make invitations to see what are we creating for them and for we.

Q1: Success in my school would be: teams of students, mentors, teachers, staff, parents and other members of the local community working together to solve problems in their own community. Classes would be the time in which students equip themselves in order to be more effective in their community projects afterwards. School would be a place where students are taken out of their comfort zone and put in an environment that challenges their way of thinking; Even though they would often feel challenged, they would know they are in a  safe environment in which they can explore who they are, make mistakes, test different hypothesis and learn new things about the world they are part of. 

Q2: Before class it is noisy because of buzzing enthusiastic discussions. Everywhere there are different spots with room where you can sit, eat, chat, think, have a rest, reflect. These spaces are designed by teachers and students and they are very colourful and different. Teachers, other staff members, students, guests, parents (everyone is welcome) gather in different small groups. They discuss their progress in current projects they are working on together. Everybody is smiling and feeling comfortable. 

Older students greet younger students and help them with their backpacks. The students then choose their classes according to what skills and knowledge they need in order to achieve the goals they have set for themselves until the end of the semester. Classes are long 

(~1 hour), because everyone wants to immerse themselves in the subject matter and explore it deeply. In class students move freely to explore materials provided by the teacher or by peers; they ask questions and discuss issues together; they ask for help and use every minute and resource in the classroom effectively because they know what their goal is; They track their progress on the wall; what they have learnt today is like a small jigsaw puzzle piece that makes the picture look more finished. They leave the classroom satisfied because they know what they have learned and what they need to do at home, so that they take the most out of the next class. The breaks are also long so that people can communicate effectively. 

Definiría el éxito por la capacidad de liderazgo colectivo enfocado en el involucramiento y empoderamiento de la comunidad. Que puedan conectar con su cultura, sus tradiciones, sus necesidades, desde lo que son, su esencia. 

Que el líder pueda acompañar el proceso de identificar las soluciones a acciones y bajarlas a acciones concretas que les permita empoderarse y hacer sostenible.

Quien podría determinar el éxito es nuevamente la propia comunidad, su apropiación, consciencia del otro y si responde a sus necesidades. 

A través del empoderamiento por la educación de sus hijos y demás miembros de la comunidad de forma integral. Una frase utilizada por una PEP que hace mucho sentido, educar para la vida, es decir, que sea transferible a todos los aspectos de sus vidas y no sólo en el salón de clases. En este proceso, la comunidad, enlazando con la pregunta anterior, serían quienes definirían que precisan y que acciones llevarían a cabo para asegurar el éxito desde las salas de clase, dentro de la escuela, dentro de todo el ecosistema educativo, la comunidad en general. 

Sin involucramiento de la comunidad no sería posible instalar capacidades perdurables. 

Success should be a collective one and not individual based in a school. It would happen when every child is aware and able to articulate and utilise their strengths and what they need for themselves and others in the community. This will enable them to complement each other in the community or class and be empowered individuals. Success will involve the combined efforts of people in the school and community. Only when everyone is involved, the school can be sustained and transformed. To determine it, each and every stakeholder involved must be consulted. Only when everyone’s opinion is heard success will be a long lasting one.

2. What would the typical methods of teaching and learning be?

The teaching methods would be application or project based involving hands on experience on the concepts taught. It should be in a way that it caters to all children in the class (differentiated instruction) keeping in mind their strengths and learning styles. The learning method would involve lot of collaboration in class which would strengthen the culture and value system in class. Assessing everyday learning through reflection or exit slips is necessary for both the teacher and the students. Curriculum and projects should b relevant to the children and their community to make them realize the connections between classroom learning and the world outside.

- Bi/Multilingualism where students are driven and motivated to contribute to their own community by solving community-based problems, while also engaging with the outside world
- Community leaders, parents and educational researchers whose research address the question of interculturality in the curriculum
- As an evolving process of reform, perhaps the students and ex-students, whose experience (whether good and bad) are captured as essential lessons for improving the system
- Success in each community would need to be reconsidered to ensure the education system is more inclusive and active in addressing cultural diversity and identity development. However, students need to have the ability to navigate their own pathways and choices, with the understanding that what they can see as precedents are not the only possible routes.

What would the typical methods of teaching and learning be?
- Students will have access to (at least primary) education in their mother tongue
- Students will study a (societal) dominant + a foreign language, not with the aim of becoming a native speaker in that language (it's impossible), but being able to express their own identity in the dominant language in other to navigate the mainstream and have their voices heard
- Curriculum will be written specifically with the target cultural group as the audience in mind
- Learning is a lifelong human capability, something that is part of our life (rather than something that is just part of an institutionalised practice), thus being engaged with school needs to be framed in a relevant way so that it is seen as a need, that is comparable to the need to eat and drink

It will have to be consulted with various stakeholders as community is not usually represented by a single person or a group. The voices that should have been heard are voices of students, their parents, locals who, a mayor, local representatives etc .

Q3:
I imagine a school in a rural area, where the community is determined rather regionally than culturally or ethnically. A school, where the community consists of both- of citizens who live directly in the village as well as of citizens who live in settlements on the outskirts. The core idea would build upon what Maggie said in her story- on the school culture where students can contribute to their community. Therefore such a school will have to work as a hub somehow co-working with various local communities, institutions and stakeholders, such as kindergarten, Church, library, local NGOs, community centers etc. - opportunities where students could contribute and thus foster the community of the whole village/ area. 

Me imagino una escuela con espacios físicos amplios donde niños y jóvenes tengan la libertad de movilizarse y disfrutar del aire, no solo para recreación sino también para tener en algunas ocasiones clases al aire libre. Deben haber muchas zonas verdes (arboles, plantas, pasto), para que ellos valoren y aprecien la naturaleza y puedan disfrutar de la misma. 

 

Los salones de clase son amplios y cuentan con diferentes instrumentos para poder aprender de diferentes formas, dependiendo de los intereses y habilidades de cada chico. 

 

En este lugar se respira tranquilidad, seguridad y confianza para aprender, hacer amigos, valorar y corregir errores. Aquí se valoran las diferencias, las cualidades de cada persona, sus creencias y cultura, su raza y sus habilidades e intereses. 

 

Es un lugar bonito y agradable para compartir conocimiento y en cuanto a su sonido, indudablemente sería de tranquilidad y diversión. 

 

La sensación tanto para las personas que ingresan como para los estudiantes es de estar en un ambiente seguro, amigable y de aprendizaje continuo.  

 

Finalmente, el éxito de esta escuela estaría reflejado en el nivel de aprendizaje que alcanzan los estudiantes debido al lugar en el que se encuentran y el trabajo en equipo con sus compañeros de clase. Para determinar el éxito consultaría tanto a los estudiantes, como a profesores, los padres de familia y en general, todas las personas que estén involucradas con este lugar. 

When someone would walk in any lesson, they would see that all students are engaged and try their best to collaborate and reach goals. When you ask a student - are you happy in school, they say yes! When you ask a teacher how it is to work in school and is it shaping and benefiting community, she can answer in a positive way and explain examples. If you ask a parent - what his/her child learned that day, the parent can answer this question and is involved in children education. 

It looks full with with students works and projects. Everything is made or thought with students (pictures, cafeteria, food etc.). It sounds quite loud, but just because students are really involved. You can feel that students fell free and school provides different learning methods to achieve their goals.

School celebrates communities traditional festivals and holidays. In schools are traditional choirs, dance clubs, pottery, after school activities in nature. Schools design is with communities symbols and some historical facts.

What would the typical methods of teaching and learning be?
Experiential learning, inquiry, and project-based learning; providing students with opportunities to engage in meaningful action and become effective agents of change. 

I believe there are a lot of indicators to consider in terms of success. I would divide them into two dimensions: cognitive and socio-affective (non-cognitive). 

In terms of cognitive development, a student that is successful is the one that 

-          has basical knowledge that enables him or her to pursue whatever path or career he or she decides to 

-          is able to develop and apply projects using theorical concepts he/she learned in classroom, and to solve real problems using this concepts. 

In terms of non-cognitive development, a student that is successful is the one that 

-          analyses national or global problems from a critical perspective 

-          recognizes who she/he is and what are her/his virtues and difficulties, and knows what to do with them 

-          is resilient, creative, innovative , empowered. 

-          is willing to become a leader in her/his community by identifying problems and work towards solutions. 

(Of course there are other things that might be significant but these are the ones that came to mind today) 

I would love to consult teachers from different educational systems (here in Uruguay for example there are public schools and private schools, technical schools, some that have mixed systems) about what is success for them, and also students from different systems too, and members of the community the is in. Maybe focus groups were this same question is asked, or ask what things they are being taught that they like and what things they would like to learn or are important that we are not giving attention to. 

I would like students to be happy to attend school, to enjoy their education. I would have them develop healthy relations with their peers and teachers. I would have tutors for every class, whose role would be to accompany the children more closely. I would love to feel that the general atmosphere is one of optimism, enjoyment and development. 

I would try to create a strong institutional culture, creating spaces and activities for students to interact with others students different from the ones in their level, and also creating spaces for graduates, for them to continue to work with the children or the school. I would like to encourage teachers to develop projects between them and students, and for them to feel supported. 

I would have extra curricular activities, for example workshops were children can develop their abilities and give back something to the communities, or classrooms personalized by every class, or debate groups, or leadership groups to develop abilities such as communication skills or self-awareness, or groups were children might go to do volunteer work. 
I would love to hear students say that they feel at home in school.

First, we might have the focus groups I mentioned earlier at different important points throughout the school year, for students, teachers and members of the community (parents for instance). We could evaluate what we are doing and change the approach. 

Then, I believe that if one of the indicators of success is that students are able to identify problems in their communities and create solutions, they should practice this skill from an early age, therefore being a fundamental part of the school program. We should encourage them to go out and see the place where they live, who they are and what are their strenghts/virtues. What is their history? What is their role in the major narrative? What can I do to improve my community? 

I believe project based education would be very useful and effective. Children would learn, apart from cognitive habilities, other non cognitive ones such as creativity and problem-solving. 
I also believe that creating habits in the classroom is very effective too: exit slips, weekly challenges for instance, metacognitive activities (what did I learn today and how).
And last but not least I think students should have an active role in their education, deciding which projects or workshops they might participate in, having class delegates that can talk with the principal about what the students want, engaging their families in their learning experience. 

I loved imagining a school and I think that in the school i'm working in (and in Uruguay in general) there is a lot of room for improvement, specially in terms of community engagement and non cognitive skills.

I believe this must be defined with the community, but not before they know what can be accomplished. I would consult schools of refference, ones which have values and a mission that involves community engagement. There are lots of really interesting experiences from different parts of the world to study and get in touch with that opens the possibility range and takes the imagined ever further.
Success must be a challenge, not something reachable as a simple task. It must make teachers, students and families reach their highest pottential, not only for them but for the whole community to become a better place for everyone. For this to be of interest of the whole community, there is a huge task to be made to develop “agency” and commitment with others by knowing who we are, where we come from, where are we going and why are we walking this or that way. I belive success will be accomplished only after students become aware of their power to be real changemakers and leaders to their families, neighbours, friends and community.

3. How would the community be reflected in your school?

Community is not only going to be reflected in the school, but the school is going to be inside the community, open and active for families and neighbours. I believe that to a school to be successful it must answer the needs of the people that live there. The best way to accomplish this is to open the school to the community, to enable the community to have an active role and empower them to bring the best of each of one of them to bring the community to its fullest.

4. What would the typical methods of teaching and learning be?

The school would have a PBL curriculum, where students have projects that integrate several subjects and enable them to develop skills for life as team-work, determination, critical-thinking, innovation and more. I believe this kind of education is what we need to encourage because it understands that students are have dreams, expectations and objectives. Students are children and teenagers that can be leaders that empower others too, so we need to push them to develop soft-skills as one of the most important part of their education to have the resources to reach their dreams and be able to make the best decisions in life.

For the PBL to be successful and reach the objectives, projects must be designed after knowing our students, it must be of their interest and it must challenge them to go further.

Q1: Success will take the shape the student, their family and the community decide to give it. The goal is that the school give the tools to the students to define what they think success should mean, limited by their own context. This way they will take control of their lives. 

 

Q2: School will be an adventure. Students will become explorers of the world and its different manifestations. They will have spaces to develop their own projects or challenges proposed by their guides (teachers). School will be exciting enough to sound like failed experiments, fatigue whispers, happiness laughs and astonishment screams, but it will also bring the calm of the nature when you want to relax o explore its beauty. 

 

Q3: Community will be part of the school by allowing the people come and learn, teach and experiment. People from the community will dictate the course of the school and its culture will be impregnated in each space. There will be weeks where the students won’t come to school but they will have their learning in the same community, going and learning how to plant and harvest, how to deal with a costumer  and the different opportunities that exist in it. 

 

3Q.- The learning could be by using the environment of my students during classes, that is when the community gets involves because all can participate to improve the activities like their traditions or farming. The parents are going to take decisions in order to facilitated the work of their children.

 

4Q.- One could be a project based method, with extracurricular time for my students to work, with a goal of help to the school. I would like to have a project similar to the one in Canada, with healthy snacks for all the school and have a sense of care with their classmates.

I imagine a school, where students are working with projekts. On a typical day, students are walking around, not sitting on their chairs. Everyone is commited to the projekt they are working at. We have open classrooms and students are working together cross age and grades. 

Many of the schoolprojekts are made in cooperation with the local community - something for the local grocery (many posters), the daycare center (playtools, storytelling....) and for the older generations (history, theatre....). 
So the projects of the school makes sense to the students lifes and becomes valuable to them in their given community context