Numerous of challenges and limitations are associated with the attributes that are presented in our schooling plan. As we developed our school, we had to consider the possible barriers that could hinder the success of the program. Each area contains at least on challenge and limitation. The noted areas are: population, research literature, curriculum, technology, and resources available. Addressing each challenge and limitation as well as providing a sustainable solution, will serve as a pivotal aspect to our schooling plan. The population of the students within our lower elementary school range from the ages between 4 through 9 years. Social skills are a major development at this age. Students are developing their social skills through self-awareness and socialization with others. A common challenge with this age group is difficulty with self-control. Louise Eckman (2002) stated that, “Children who do not make choices for their own behavior, but instead rely on other children, parents, teachers, or adults to make choices for them, do not learn self-control. These children may follow others’ bad choices and get involved in ridiculing others, taking away others’ things, and not taking responsibility for the consequences of their behavior. They also may listen to others who say negative things about people who may be different due to skin color, race, culture, religion, or disabilities.”. The solution to this would be to teach students immediately about self-control at this age, so that undesirable habits will not arise. Independency is another challenge at this age level, because the school officials are more involved in teaching basic skills which take away from higher level instruction. It is certain developments that come with age progression, so the school’s faculty must nurture each skill and create assignments that are developmentally appropriate and that cater to each. Research literature will not always support the type of school that we planned. There are some criticisms of conducting a curriculum that is fully technology based. The opposing party believes that technology programs will need heavy funding in order to have the newest technologies. They also believe that students are being deprived of basic skills that generations in the past needed in order to be functional in society. Cennamo, Ross and Carter (2010) stated that, “Technologies change at lightning speed, making it difficult to keep up-to-date.”. Lightfoot (2009) notes that “once children are heavily exposed to technology alone (not to mention given tweeting and blogging lesson in class), they will lose touch with their basic skills like communication with depth, for example. Using Twitter is naïve as per some authorities because it steals the focus from more important activities which pupils were taught a generation ago.”. Our school will tackle both of these issues by creating a budget control that allows our school to purchase many of the newest technologies and maintaining an active grant writing program. Students should be challenged in all academic areas. When certain subjects are not taught, students are at a disadvantage, because they are missing out on many onset skills. “Schools who eliminate special area classes including arts education classes (dance, music, theatre arts, and visual arts), foreign language, and physical education are not implementing a balanced curriculum.” (Lee, 2003). Creating our technology based school will bring on challenges with technology itself. Teachers will be facilitators and they must learn to transition from being in the front of the class to a resource that will walk around the class to observe different student activities. “With technology education activities, the students have the vision for their finished products, and the teacher facilitates or guides them through a process of learning through experimentation” (Lenz and Boe, 2002). Technology education content can sometimes be intimidating because we have limited knowledge and training. We are starting a school for bottom up during an uncommon situation. There are not many resources that support this instance. We can begin to establish research by conducting many studies that reveals the effectiveness of the methods in which we use in our school. This will aid us in the future as well as other institutions that will be forming. References: Cennamo, K., Ertmer, P., & Ross, J. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use.. Belmont,CA: Cengage Learning. Eckman, L. (2002). Teaching young children self-control skills:. National Association of School Psychologists, 1. Lee, H. (2003). The balanced curriculum. NC Department of Public Instruction, 11. Lentz, K., & Boe, N. (2004). Implementing technology in elementary. Technology and Children, 19. Lightfoot, L. (2009). Tweeting vs reading. The Independent, 3.
Numerous of challenges and limitations are associated with the attributes that are presented in our schooling plan. As we developed our school, we had to consider the possible barriers that could hinder the success of the program. Each area contains at least on challenge and limitation. The noted areas are: population, research literature, curriculum, technology, and resources available. Addressing each challenge and limitation as well as providing a sustainable solution, will serve as a pivotal aspect to our schooling plan.
The population of the students within our lower elementary school range from the ages between 4 through 9 years. Social skills are a major development at this age. Students are developing their social skills through self-awareness and socialization with others. A common challenge with this age group is difficulty with self-control. Louise Eckman (2002) stated that, “Children who do not make choices for their own behavior, but instead rely on other children, parents, teachers, or adults to make choices for them, do not learn self-control. These children may follow others’ bad choices and get involved in ridiculing others, taking away others’ things, and not taking responsibility for the consequences of their behavior. They also may listen to others who say negative things about people who may be different due to skin color, race, culture, religion, or disabilities.”. The solution to this would be to teach students immediately about self-control at this age, so that undesirable habits will not arise. Independency is another challenge at this age level, because the school officials are more involved in teaching basic skills which take away from higher level instruction. It is certain developments that come with age progression, so the school’s faculty must nurture each skill and create assignments that are developmentally appropriate and that cater to each.
Research literature will not always support the type of school that we planned. There are some criticisms of conducting a curriculum that is fully technology based. The opposing party believes that technology programs will need heavy funding in order to have the newest technologies. They also believe that students are being deprived of basic skills that generations in the past needed in order to be functional in society. Cennamo, Ross and Carter (2010) stated that, “Technologies change at lightning speed, making it difficult to keep up-to-date.”. Lightfoot (2009) notes that “once children are heavily exposed to technology alone (not to mention given tweeting and blogging lesson in class), they will lose touch with their basic skills like communication with depth, for example. Using Twitter is naïve as per some authorities because it steals the focus from more important activities which pupils were taught a generation ago.”. Our school will tackle both of these issues by creating a budget control that allows our school to purchase many of the newest technologies and maintaining an active grant writing program.
Students should be challenged in all academic areas. When certain subjects are not taught, students are at a disadvantage, because they are missing out on many onset skills. “Schools who eliminate special area classes including arts education classes (dance, music, theatre arts, and visual arts), foreign language, and physical education are not implementing a balanced curriculum.” (Lee, 2003).
Creating our technology based school will bring on challenges with technology itself. Teachers will be facilitators and they must learn to transition from being in the front of the class to a resource that will walk around the class to observe different student activities. “With technology education activities, the students have the vision for their finished products, and the teacher facilitates or guides them through a process of learning through experimentation” (Lenz and Boe, 2002).
Technology education content can sometimes be intimidating because we have limited knowledge and training. We are starting a school for bottom up during an uncommon situation. There are not many resources that support this instance. We can begin to establish research by conducting many studies that reveals the effectiveness of the methods in which we use in our school. This will aid us in the future as well as other institutions that will be forming.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ertmer, P., & Ross, J. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use.. Belmont,CA: Cengage Learning.
Eckman, L. (2002). Teaching young children self-control skills:. National Association of School Psychologists, 1.
Lee, H. (2003). The balanced curriculum. NC Department of Public Instruction, 11.
Lentz, K., & Boe, N. (2004). Implementing technology in elementary. Technology and Children, 19.
Lightfoot, L. (2009). Tweeting vs reading. The Independent, 3.