Mirna Vezzali

My dream school

I spend a lot of hours to study. This takes away great part of my day, it often it takes me all the day. Even the night. Once I went to bed at 2am and another time at 1am. It implies some stress to the point that I don’t have time for myself. Sometimes it takes all my time and sometimes not.

I want a school where these problems don’t exist.

 For me education is important in order to know how to act when you’re with other people and also because today people only look at what you have studied, therefore, in my dream school, I want teachers to teach how to act and how to be educated.

I think that security is very important in schools, sometimes security cameras should be  used to make everyone feel safer.

At school I study: Russian, French, German, Latin, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, English, Italian, Law, Religion, Physical Education and Computer Sciences. 

 These are a lot of subjects to study but I don’t really want to change anything but maybe take more trips. This doesn’t necessarily mean going out of my country but also visiting cities around my town, or going to museums, or taking part in some conferences, or maybe also going into the woods in order to study the flora and fauna of my area. I would also give more attention to sports by adding more extra courses maybe, like archery, horse riding, or football, tennis.

In my dreams I would really like a school like Hogwarts, with magic, potions, witches, and fantasy creatures, but I know that this is not possible in real life. It would be fantastic to go to school with animals but not all types of animals, maybe only horses, if the school provided students with an extra course of horse riding. I think that schools should take in consideration our extra curricular activities, of any kind, from sporta to art, to literature, to logic, to music, even just to develop a hobby or to meet with other people and socialize.

I also think that students should use high-tech gadgets like iPads, ebooks … , they could greatly help to decrease the load of books that every day students must take, or they could solve the problem of forgetting course material.

I really think that teamwork is very important, it allows us to come into contact with different mentalities and this teaches us to respect them and accept them. This is an experience that prepares us for our future world as adults. So, I think, that the space in the classroom is crucial as regards the work in groups, because it consists occasionally in moving from one desk to another. In general coexistence in class is made more tolerable. I think a small space is more unpleasant as opposed to a larger space where each one has his own space,

I really would like having maybe some clubs at school, like the history club, or the sports club. It would be fantastic also to have parties like the proms or also Halloween parties, or it would be great if school could propose projects of various school subjects and at the end the students could prepare an exhibition for the whole school. 

In conclusion I would like to have a school similar to the American ones so yes, I think some type of changes would be radical, but others not.

© Mirna Vezzali

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Jenny Kostner

MY DREAM SCHOOL

I spend almost half of my day at school. We have to be at school five times a week from Monday to Friday from eight am to two pm. Then, when I come home, I eat something and then at quarter to three I start doing my homework and studying. Usually it takes me from three and a half to four hours a day. Of course during these hours I take little breaks but they are no longer then fifteen minutes. Since we spend half a day and sometimes also more at school, I would change the chairs, because the chairs are quite bad for our back. It would also be nice to have longer breaks because we need to eat something quietly, not too quickly, because it creates stomachache to some of us. I think that they are not radical changes and it would be possible to approve them.

Since I consider education so important I spend a lot of time at school and doing homework. For me a good education will offer a good job and a better live. A well-educated person can’t be cheated on by anybody and that is one of the most important things to have a safe life. Things I know, nobody can steal or take away from me. With a good education I can choose my job and do all my life something that I love and I’m interested in. Every lyceum or high school have to plan a similar basic syllabus in order to give the same basis to everyone, then every school has its own direction. For example I chose the linguistic lyceum, and the syllabus is half covered by languages, Italian, German, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The other subjects are Mathematics, Latin, Science, History, Geography, Physical Education, Economics and other subjects that are added in the third class. Our school is a linguistic lyceum, but it also gives us a general education in order to be informed in every direction. Our timetable is very good, but if I could choose I would add an hour a week of music, where, who plays an instrument can practice it, and others can start to learn an instrument, because some young people have just to be pushed to start and then they love it and continue for a long time. Music is something incredible and it makes you forget your problems, it is something that frees almost everybody from their stress. The other subject I would introduce is computer science, but not that one we already have: the teacher shows us, not even once a month, how to use Microsoft Office, Word and PowerPoint. Nowadays it is impossible to work without a computer. This subject is too important to not insert it into our syllabus. During this one hour a week, we should learn and also try by ourselves to use these programs. One of the most important things nowadays is to be able to write with ten fingers. In the future nobody can work at an office without being able to write at the computer with ten fingers. Teachers tell us, that there is no possibility to learn it at school and we can do it on our own at home, on the Internet there are a lot of possibilities. That is true, but we have to study all day and I don’t think that anybody has the power to exercise in the evening, because also teenagers have to relax. They say that the best years to learn new things is youth, so why don’t they give us the possibility to learn more varied subjects? Adults have bigger problems to face.

To have animals around us is very important. At home many people have dogs and cats or even bigger animals like horses, but they don’t keep them at home they let them on a farm. I think big animals like cows or horses are a little bit exaggerated at school but it would be nice to have an aquarium, relaxing, and it would give the students more inspiration. Of course the aquarium has to be cleaned and that is a lot of work. But if the students can plan it and organize the cleaning turns it would be wonderful. Animals give us more inspiration and we can learn better. The beginning of a new school is to eliminate (in part) the heavy books, which we always have to carry with us and I think it's time to get young people used to technology. Using iPads or laptops to take notes in class would be helpful. Other high-tech gadgets like pull-down screens and computers, we already have them. Drawings are always creative and inspirational and to hang them out would be a good idea. But students shouldn’t be forced to do the drawings, but drawings by these who have time and want to do them are very welcome. The drawings should let us feel good and invite us to learn. They deliver imagination and at school everyone should feel welcome. So if we install security cameras at school, which are superfluous they keep us always controlled and under control nobody feels well or inspired. Ours is a private school with a little quantity of students. Everyone in our school has good manners and there is no need of a camera. At the age of fourteen we should be old enough to behave and too much control isn't good, because it doesn't give us the possibility to show our maturity.

To test our maturity a school exchange would be in every way a good idea and important for the experience of everyone. It gives us the possibility to grow, to experiment new things, to see the world with other eyes and to get independent. We automatically travel and see a lot of new things. There isn’t a better way to practice a language than live for some time there where they speak it. Students can live in families almost for free and know better the population and the atmosphere.

Spacious classes are fundamental. In spacious classes there is more oxygen that makes us work better and we can also walk around and there is more place to work in teams. In smaller rooms all teams are too close to each other and it is too loud in class. We absolutely need bigger classrooms. Also a bigger garden with more green and grass should help everyone to relax a bit during the break. In spring and in the beginning of autumn sports could be thought outside. In the garden we can also practice gym and move, what is very healthy and since we have to study a lot a change wouldn’t be bad.  It doesn’t matter what we have to study but everything is hard and requires a lot of work. Movement keeps us healthy and concentrated. Our Dream School lets us collaborate to restructure our school program, the way of learning and studying which in part should also be done in teams, so that we can also think about he ideas of others and mix them with ours. Usually those ideas are the best. Of course, my Dreams School should offer me a good education and preparation for the future, but it should also respect my time to practice a sport, because sport is fundamental for a healthy mind. We can study better and with the help, ideas and experience of other students for the future.

© Jenny Kostner

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Rafaela Isufi

My Dream School

Family is the very first nucleus of our society. The second, I think, is education. School gives us the opportunity of reaching knowledge, which implies the creation of our personality, dignity, and the possibility of asserting ourselves within society. Culture grows with us and gives us the means to see the world in a different way. 

School is so important for us. It directs us to follow our talents, and in the future we will succeed in giving our contribution to society, each one of us according to our capabilities. Ours is the wish to improve our world.

There are unluckily so many girls and boys around the world who do not have our opportunity, and this is a further reason for us to appreciate the fact that we can study. See Malala’s fight for education, rewarded with a Nobel Prize. 

We logically have to invest a lot of time in education. I personally spend over one third, or even half of my time on books. The subjects I am studying are important, especially the study of foreign languages. They are the ones that will shape oru future professional careers. Exchange programs and school-trips abroad are fundamental to practice what we study at school. 

High-tech gadgets, especially Ipads or tablets should be used at school, because our classes would become more interesting. They could, at times, supply school when for some other reason we cannot be present. 

I also think that the American school model is good. The fact that students have to go from one classroom to another might trigger more enthusiasm, and we might find school less tiring. Laboratories are supported, since that is where we put into practice what we have learned in an abstract way.

Physical activities and extra-curricular ones have to be present since we all have varied talents, and they could come out through other courses. Among the extra-curricular activities I think that volunteering is most helpful. It requires services to our community, to the elderly, spending some time with children to help them out with their homework, or games with orphans and handicapped people. They moreover give us much satisfaction in bringing some light to those who are most in need.

It would be wonderful for a school to be surrounded by green spaces with trees and flowers. Nature brings health, and it also helps us to find peace and harmony in relationships.

Security cameras are important. They can prevent unpleasant situations that might happen at school.

Our school should be the one we think is ideal for us because it is the most important place in this moment in our lives. It is our passage to our future and we must be aware of it.

(c) Rafaela Isufi

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Marta Cattani

My dream school

I spend more or less 1/3 of my time studying and learning at school. But this is not a big problem for me, because  education is very important. Thanks to school I can learn how the world is. Education is the basis that can help me right now and also in the future. I attend a Language Lyceum so I really like languages: French, Russian and English, but I also like History. In my “dream school” I would suggest to add some subjects that could help us with something practical like housework or that could help us with the relationships in our society.

More hours of technological education would be great. Technology is very important in our days, and I also think that these ideas won’t cause radical changes in the school-system.

Personally I don’t think that big animals  would be more useful for our learning, but I’ve read on a magazine that little pets like cats or dogs help the student’s concentration. So, I think that pets should be allowed.

In my “dream school” there must be also a big area for physical activities, because they are really good for our concentration. Another thing that could help our concentration is the fact of learning outside, so I might also put a big garden in my dream school.

 School might take into consideration activities like voluntary work or something that is connected with society. I think that specific services are very useful not only for the community, but also for the formation of each student. It is important for us students to learn that there are different situations in our city/town. I have the opinion that every activity like volunteering or visiting the elderly is good and it brings joy to us and to the other people.

An important point that a school must consider are high-tech gadgets. Technology is helpful to train each student’s methodology. It is curious to change our way of studying, because it helps you find the one that is perfect for you.

Apart from these gadgets, classrooms must be big because space allows us more movement and action. Also team activities are important, they make the students speak. Team activities are an occasion to exchange ideas and concepts and they are always interesting. In order to promote them the tables and chairs do not have to be heavy so that we can move them around.

In a Lyceum the target is to have a “general culture” and the keyword is Learning. I believe that if you want to learn, only reading or practice won’t help. Learning is something that needs practice but also something more like understanding and assimilating. 

Learning languages is sometimes very hard. I personally study more when I can move around and with an open window nearby: fresh air gives oxygen to my brain and I study better.  But there is also another way to learn languages…. trips abroad. A really good way of learning a foreign language is to stay by a family and live with them. Staying in a family in another country is very good also to improve our autonomy and organization.

(c) Marta Cattani

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Celine Lantschner

My dream school

I spend a lot of hours at school, about seven school hours a day and that´s a lot of time for me as a student. Maybe it doesn´t seem a lot of time, but I have to listen to the teacher all the time and our break lasts only ten minutes. I also spend a lot of time by doing my homework, and obviously also by studying. Sometimes I think, that every teacher thinks that his/her subject is the most important and they forget that we have other things to do, too. It´s quite hard for us, in fact, when we get back home we are tired, but we have to do our homework, so after an hour I have to start studying again. I spend ¾ of my time studying and doing homework, sometimes all my time and I can´t find a free minute for me.      So, I often wish my school wouldn´t be so hard, but I chose it and I like the school.  After all I´m happy here.                                                                                                                                     We go to school to learn, but why are we doing this? Education is important, it is always important. This is my idea. Studying maybe isn´t that funny, but sometimes I see something I´ve learned when I visit a city or a museum with my family. I sometimes see things that I know and after that I´m happy, because I can explain my family things they do not know. It makes me feel proud of myself.                                                                                          

It´s nice to know many things and it is important, because that is the way how you can show that you are someone, that you know, and that you are intelligent. It shows that you have learned, it shows that you are interested in the world and that you enjoy new things.         

The subjects that I have on my syllabus are: English, Latin, maths, French, history, German, law, Italian, Russian, sport, religion and science. I think that the subjects we already have are good and I think that they´re enough, because we have a bit of everything we could need in our life. In a few years, we will change some subjects and will have new ones. So, I think that our syllabus is good for now.

There wouldn´t be radical changes in my dream school. Maybe, it would be nice to organise it in a different way, for example to have a more varied syllabus. It would be nice to change a bit, because every day is a routine. It becomes boring after a while, but I know perfectly well that it isn´t simple to organise a big school with so many students. The students could choose the syllabus every week, every week they could do what they want. It would be nice also to learn in a different way or to try some different kinds of learning.                         

Lockers would be perfect, too, because students wouldn´t have to carry a heavy schoolbag.  It would be nice to do many more projects and to spend less time in our classrooms. Students would be more interested and they would follow the classes.  We could go outside and work there. Students have to work in a different way!                                                                                      

I really love animals, I adore every kind of animals and I´m not the only one. Pets are wonderful and it would be beautiful to have some of them in our school. Pets are a different kind of living beings, they aren´t like human beings. They´re much more different and it would be interesting, especially for those people who don´t have a pet at home. Having bigger animals at school would mean that people would spend much more time outside. It would be positive and we would learn something more too, for example how animals live, what they like, what they do. I learned so much just by observing my pets at home and if someone loves animals like me, it would be a beautiful experience. Bigger animals are perfect, because we don´t know much about this topic, and horses, cows and sheep are unusual here.                                                                                                               My dream school should consider our extracurricular activities, because if someone does extra activities it means that he/ she works harder than the other students, so the school should consider his/her extra work! Extra activities are a kind of work, maybe not so hard and not so important, but it means that someone spends much more time and energy for school. Maybe activities shouldn´t be considered so much, because some people don´t really have the time for extra activities or he/she doesn´t have enough energy. So, they should be considered, but not in an extreme way. It´s something that a student choses to do and not something that he has to do. I think every extra activity should be considered, even the simplest ones.                                                                                                                                                             

I don´t really like technology. Technology is important for us, we need it and we will need it much more in the future, so it would be important to learn at school how to use these high-tech gadgets. After all I don´t know if technology is so good for us, especially for our health, but also because it makes us depend on the gadgets! One day people won´t learn how to write anymore and some people don´t have the money to buy these gadgets. There are positive and negative sides. It is important, but it does not have to become our only way of life.                                                                                                                                                                   Another idea for my dream school would be to write letters with students who live in another country. I would enjoy to know someone from another country. I would for example exchange letters with an American girl or boy. I could write in English and she/he could write in Italian. In this way both of us could learn a new language and we could exploit the situation to ask about their culture.                                                                                                                                        

The whole class could also chat in the classroom with students from England or Russia. It would be great to see them and to talk to them. If this isn’t possible a student could also be followed by another family, but without moving abroad! The family could help this student with the homework by chatting on the Internet, sometimes. This would be an interesting way to know new people and to learn something from them.                                                                                

After all moving abroad is the best way to learn and it is the nicest one. It is better to meet people personally and physically, and to visit the country directly. It is much funnier, but the ideas above could be a solution for those who don´t have enough money to travel abroad!                

I don´t think that this is necessary.                                                                                                  

Security cameras aren’t necessary, or at least not in my school. Our school isn´t so big and there aren´t so many students, but obviously our school has to be protected and students have to be controlled. Maybe some cameras outside would be good, especially in my big dream school, but I think that they are already there. One day I lost a key and I found it two days later at the reception. Everyone finds everything in this school, nothing gets lost here, so cameras wouldn´t be necessary.  The Marcelline School is organized, ordered, and governed, and our director is  very responsible and reliable.                                                                             

On the other hand spacious classrooms would be very important! Students need enough space, because if they don´t have it they can´t concentrate. Everyone needs their own space, but not only in our classrooms, but everywhere we go, it is a human need. Students must be able to move and they must feel comfortable.                                                                                                          

Team activities are also very important and I enjoy  them. They  are an opportunity to work with others and to learn not only from the teacher, but also from people like ourselves.  I did a lot of team activities at the middle school. At the moment we aren´t doing them so often, probably because every teacher has his/her own method.                                                                                

 Our garden is quite little and there isn´t much space. Our school has a kindergarden, an elementary, a middle and a high school. The kindergarden and the elementary children don´t have the space that they have to have. There is just a little garden and children can´t play so much and I know it well because I have attended this school for many years.                                                                                                                                                                                             

It would be nice to have a couple of acres around the school. People would go out more willingly and nature is a place where we can relax and have a few quiet moments. People would have the opportunity to think, to breathe, and to evade for a moment from school.Laboratories are also good and interesting for students. I have always loved science and some bigger laboratories would be appropriate. I went to a laboratory at the middle school and we were 24 students. Some of them had to sit on the floor, there weren´t enough chairs and there wasn´t enough space for all of us. They have to be bigger and I think that we should go more often. Learning by abstraction is important, because we don´t have always the opportunity to learn by practicing. We must be able to imagine and to understand also by just reading a text without seeing what we are learning. Learning by practicing is very important, too, because students must be able to put into practice what they have learned. They must be able to do everything they have learned and to show that they have understood.                                                                                                                                          Languages, like in my case, require both of them. People who learn a language have to know the theory, the grammar and have to have the writing skills. After knowing and learning these tasks, students have to practise a lot and they have to know how to use what they have learned.                                                                                                                                                                                 

My dream school should direct me to a future employment, but not just mine, every school has to direct students to an employment. In addition to this a school has also the task to teach us a bit of everything, because people change. We all change when we grow up, our dreams our ideas and our character change. We attend a school in one way and leave it in another, we enter as a student and come out as an adult. This is life, it would be better to learn the subjects we prefer properly, but we don´t have to forget the other things that could be important in our life.

(c) Celine Lantschner

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