Bright Futures

I choose to read and reflect on “Bright Futures: A Framework of Twelve Core Practices for Maine Middle Grades Schools Developing Full Academic, Personal and Social Potential for Maine Young Adolescents,"” which is a report, focused on middle school, which gives a meaningful look into ways in which we can create better schools for our students and children. There are twelve main points to this report and they include:

1. Students have access to curriculum that is relevant, challenging, integrative, and exploratory and is organized and executed to maximize accessibility for all students.
2. Teachers use research-based instructional practices in their classrooms that are effective in increasing the learning and achievement of young adolescents.
3. Teachers in all content areas use teaching and learning practices that are anchored in 21st century literacy’s.
4. Students have access to one-to-one computing technology integrated throughout the curriculum allowing them to acquire the critical thinking skills related to information, media, and technology.
5. All middle level students experience learning opportunities that emphasize creativity and innovation.
6. School leaders, using a collaborative and democratic leadership model, focus on establishing an environment that supports the learning needs of young adolescents.
7. Faculty, administration, and students collaboratively build a safe and caring climate that nurtures the individual while creating a sense of community where everyone is valued.
8. Students benefit from organizational structures within the middle grades that maximize the sense of community, support meaningful relationships, and optimize curriculum delivery.
9. Students have access to a co-curricular program that encourages all students to participate, develop skills, be a member of a team or activity, and simply have fun.
10. Teachers' professional development is an ongoing process that is embedded into the daily life of the school.
11. Parents are actively involved in the life of the school and their child’s education.
12. Teachers, administrators, and staff who are responsible for the education of young adolescents are knowledgeable about their developmental needs and appreciate them for their uniqueness.

The points included in this list may have been ideas developed at some point but as are many good ideas regarding education, hard to implement. But the first step in being able to change our educational system or better yet our ideas and usage of education is to recognize what we are currently doing and acknowledge ways of changing. If these ideas were taken in and put to use in every Maine school we would be looking at a future for our educational system that would help to ensure not only the success of the students but of the teachers and entirety of the school system. Part of putting these ideas into practice requires teachers, schools, and educational leaders to work together in order to promote this change. In addition working together in the school with collaboration is crucial. Allowing teachers and students to interact and learn from one and other as well as inter-mingling the subjects creates a connection for all. This idea of connection needs to trickle down into the actual teaching in the classroom. Making connections to students’ lives with the material at hand is important not only in promoting more academic learning but in moving students towards a “brighter future”. There needs to be, as this report stated in multiple ways, common goals not only for schools and teachers but looking towards the future and the end result. The common goal here is to build students who are not only confident and successful but prepared for what their future will bring.

This report was really interesting to me not just because it allow me to see what can be done with the education of our middle schools but because it gave the good and the bad examples for each point and allowed us to see scenarios in which such points could be used. Being able to see good and bad also allowed us to see how well the student is taken is recognized, and in this case we see that the report took the entirety of the student into consideration. Being able to teach to each student as well as their learning needs and abilities is crucial in education. I loved that this report allowed me to see how students’ lives outside the classroom, outside the world of academia is important. Not only are extra-curricular activities important but their personal or home lives influence their learning and being able to not just make connections but really know their lives allowed for richer educational experience based upon that relationship. This report, I believe, acknowledges that school is a place not just for learning but where students should feel nurtured, cared for, and guided through material, discovery, and life.