Magnus Hemans

Professor: Dr. Bonnie Fusarelli

Vision For My School

I was born in poverty and experienced hardship while growing up as a kid. My

parents did the best they could to satisfy our basic needs in terms of food,

clothing, and shelter. We didnt have most of the things that the average

child had. However, my mom ensured that my brothers and I were always

clean and looking sharp for school. My parents werent college graduates. A

lot of emphasis was not placed on education. My dad would sometimes get

angry when he saw me studying during the days because he thought that

there were other things to be done at that time other than being engaged in

books. He belittled me with every opportunity he got. I was told multiple

times that I would not have made it in life, I was stupid, and I didnt deserve

to be sent to school.

At elementary school, I had some teachers who didnt believe in me either. I

was ignored and sometimes overlooked even though I wanted to participate

and be an active learner. My biggest support was my mom, who kept

motivating me all the way. In the latter part of my elementary years, I met a

teacher who saw my potential, worked with me, and gave me hope. This

experience has pushed me to advocate for our children who are living

poverty, to give them hope, and to let them know that there is potential in

everyone of them. My students need to know that the sky is the limit
regardless of their home experience or the negative things people may have

said to them.

It is my belief that our children are unique individuals who need a secure,

caring and stimulating environment in which to grow, mature and develop

emotionally, intellectually, physically and socially. The onus is on me as an

educator to help students maximize their potential in these areas by

providing an environment that is safe, one that supports risktaking and

invites collaboration among all students. I believe that for our students to be

successful, there has to be strong and dedicated individuals who are excited

about working with them.

It is with this intrinsic motivation, that I believe I must always seek ways to

inspire my staff to work diligently in preparing our students to be lifelong

learners. We will incorporate things in our lessons that are meaningful and

relatable to them. We will seek to incorporate critical thinking,

communication, collaboration, and creativity in everything we do. Our school

will be committed to high expectations and high standards. We will

proactively work together to provide skills, knowledge and resources, thus

providing a fully supportive environment for staff, students, community and

all other stakeholders.

When our students get off the buses daily, they will be greeted by names,

with bright smiles and a handshake by the assistant principal. They will be

asked about the evening, games played, and their passion or stories they
may have shared. They will be complimented and encouraged to have an

awesome day. Having disembarked the buses, teachers will be waiting to

greet and welcome them to the cafeteria for breakfast. Inspirational music

will be played in the background while students are eating.

I will be greeting and welcoming parents and students in the car pool line

every morning and evening. We will open the car doors for our students in

the mornings, shake their hands, and let them know how delighted we are to

have them at school. Conversations will be had with our parents as well. We

will use it as an opportunity to communicate and promote our school. We will

also answer questions that our parents may have. Our students will go

straight to the cafeteria to eat and socialize with their friends briefly.

After breakfast in the mornings, teachers will be standing in the hallways and

at their classroom doors welcoming students to school, calling them by

names. Students will walk to right side of the hallways freely, not in straight

lines. Inspirational songs will also be playing in background as well. The

building will be extremely clean, smelling fresh and inviting. The front office

staff will also use the opportunity to reach out to everyone in a very polite

way that will make students, parents and visitors welcome.

When students get to classes in the mornings they will write their reflections

of the previous day. Students will be encouraged to share. While speaking, all

attention will be given to the speaker as a manner of respect which will be re-

emphasized daily. Following reflection time, students will be engaged in an

advisory period where they will discuss and share challenges and difficulties
that they may be facing at school or in their communities. Teachers will give

advice and refer cases to the counselors if necessary.

Classrooms will be arranged in groups or teams. Teachers will facilitate

students learning and motivate them. Shout-out and different celebrations

will be done daily to inspire and recognize the efforts of our students. Our

school will be involved in project-based learning (PBL). The main objective for

this is to revitalize the education for our students so that they can develop

intellectually and emotionally. By using real-world scenarios, challenges, and

problems, students will gain useful knowledge and skills that increase during

their designated project periods. The goal of using complex questions or

problems is to develop and enhance students learning by encouraging

critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and self-management. Students

will have the opportunity daily to present and teach classmates using

methods of their choice when explaining their projects. Students will be

exposed to Howard Gardners Multiple Intelligence Approach and so they will

have the flexibility of incorporating the various intelligences.

Teachers will escort students to the cafeteria for lunch. They will spend a total

of thirty-five minutes in the cafeteria. We will work in conjunction with the

district and state in providing choices for meals. They will have the option of

selecting their entres, sides, juice or milk. Students will be given twenty-five

minutes to eat and socialize with their peers. Stations will be set up in the

cafeteria with materials for students to engage in reading for the last ten

minutes. They will select materials of their choice and engage themselves in
reading independently and in peers. Immediately after lunch, students will

have ten minutes recess on the playground. This is just a time for them to

relax and have some down time before going back to classes.

At the end of each school day, every classroom teacher will take five minutes

to encourage and motivate our students. This will be done in the form of

poems, songs, dramatization, or just free speech. Students will be

encouraged to continue to work hard despite challenges they may be

experiencing. They will be reminded that they are being loved, appreciated,

cared for, and their best interest are at heart. They will be given high fives

and hand shakes as they exit classroom doors. Teachers will thank students

for coming and let them know they look forward to seeing them the next day.

The same procedure will be followed for bus dismissal and car riders as it is

done in the mornings.

Discipline will be handled differently from the norm that exists in our current

schools today. We will employ a restorative approach. This philosophy or

guiding principle will see relationships as central to learning, growth and a

healthy school climate for students and adults. We will incorporate the

restorative circle to help resolve issues or challenges we face daily. This will

be a community process in which we will support conflicts. It will bring

together the three parties that are involved in the conflict. These include

those who have acted, those directly impacted and the wider community. The

dialogue process will be shared openly with all participants, and will be
guided by a community member, counselor and teachers. The process will

end when actions have been found that bring mutual benefit.

We will communicate with our parents in many different modes. We will send

home weekly newsletters and do connect-Eds. Teachers will use class dojo to

send home daily feedback to parents about their students and inform them of

up coming events at school. We will have an electronic marquee at the

entrance of the school. This will be used to promote our school and to capture

the attention of the public. We will use it to highlight students or faculty

achievements, celebrate important staff milestones, recognize students

participation, achievements for regional competitions, science fair

participation, student of the month, announce school functions, sporting

events, and special occasions. We will also have PTA meetings every other

month. This will be used to inform parents, address concerns, identify areas

that need to be improved, and discuss possible solutions to problems

identified.

Progress reports will be sent home every two weeks and report cards will be

distributed every six weeks. The standards covered will be listed and the

other three columns will show advanced, mastery, or need improvement.

Behaviors will also be shown on these reports. These will be measured as

satisfactory or need improvement. We will have two mandatory report card

pick up per year. Our first mandatory pick up will be after the first twelve

weeks of school and the other in early March.

Students will be involved in extra curricula activities. These activities will be

held on Fridays, the last ninety minutes of the day. Students will choose three

activities they want to be apart of for the year. These activities will include:

Math club, Key Club, Student government, University societies, Debate,

Drama, Sports, Fan clubs, English society, and Culinary. Students will also be

placed in four different houses. They will compete against each other every

other week for the last forty-five minutes of the day on a Fridays. Students

will be given topics to present a week before the competition. The school

audience will determine the winner of each competition.

Students will have no formally assigned homework. There is no research

to prove that homework improves students performance. Students will

spend at least eight hours away from their families each day at school. It

is important that they have time at home to interact and form bond with

family members without being forced to isolate themselves to get work

done. Rather, we want them to spend their evenings doing things that are

proven to correlate with students success. These include: eating dinner

as a family, read together, play outside, and get to bed early.

We will have different types of celebrations for our students. Family members

will be invited to come in and join in these celebrations. These will include

unit/term mastery, student of the week, student of the month, positive

behaviors aligned with schools mission and vision, accelerated reader, and

academic improvement. Students will be presented with certificates and

medals of accomplishments. Students and staff will perform various activities

to celebrate the accomplishments of our scholars.