In The Middle by Brooke

In The Middle by Brooke - October 2014 Scholarship Essay

Imagine an atom; substitute school staff for neutrons and students for protons, while the electron cloud consists of equally distributed substance, discipline, and consideration. This visual portrayal abstractly represents my ideal educational environment. A balanced classroom with more individual assistance from educators who maintain a quality curriculum would promote my educational success.

The substance of a course is vital to a student’s success in broad terms. Students need to know certain information for future classes or careers. Instead of attempting to cover a wider range of topics, teachers should focus on this information. This allows students to have positive attitudes concerning class work, because they trust the teacher is giving them assignments that will be beneficial to their future. The information should be presented in the form of a lecture for pupils to annotate and then be supported by written assignments that parallel the lecture.

Discipline must be applied in appropriate ways and with careful consideration to weight. Discipline can be a result of classroom distractions, but can cause disruptions. Students who are disrupting the educational process should be abruptly stopped using a technique that minimizes the amount of class time wasted. This is achieved when strong teachers set clear rules and predetermined punishments, with few warnings. Stopping instruction to give an unruly student a cautionary statement will only hurt the students eager to learn. I have witnessed multiple warnings go unheeded and teachers never taking action, yet punishments have also been too strong for the misbehavior. An excessively punished student will cause distractions as he or she attempts to defend themselves. Their peers also have a greater likelihood of supporting the trouble maker. This scenario distracts the minds from whatever material is supposed to be learned. These cases need to be stopped so that attentive students can be a priority.

Teachers who create bonds with their students have always provided the best classroom environment for me to learn in. Educators should know each student’s short and long term goals so that they can plan lessons accordingly. Homework loads should be less significant on weeks before they take a college entrance exam or have a sports game that recruiters will be attending. Knowing each students goals helps to identify their needs, such as needing to know some statistics before they go into college as a psychology major. Smaller class sizes allow school staff to better focus on individual students in such ways.

My ideal school situation consists of me learning information that relates to my life from a teacher who guides students carefully and considers me, as a person, when he or she makes lesson plans. The school would be preferably smaller to ensure all of these qualifications are achieved. Information, discipline, and thoughtfulness should be balanced with students as the focal point, because these aspects of education will create the best product (an educated me)!