Okay, I am a bit behind on things I want to blog about, but here it goes…
Back in March (yah, March), there was a lot on the web about what happens when you type “School makes me” into a Google search. A lot of not so nice things come up in the search results that drops down for you to choose from. These descriptions made people quite upset and concerned about today’s education system. You can read Scott McLeod’s post about it here (be sure to read the comments as well). Well, I know there things that we are really focusing as a district and as a province, but I wondered if this was truly how students were thinking because this was not what I was seeing in the school where I work.
As Mark Schneider points out in the comments of Scott’s post, this would be an interesting research study.
As a result, I turned the camera on our students and had students complete the sentence, “School makes me . . . “. I was pleased, but not surprised, by the results. I have included all the responses in the video below. Yes, there are a couple, “School makes me sleepy.” and “School makes me tired.”, but, for the most part, the students were very positive and loved talking about their school.
Our students make us so proud!
We have a wonderful school, with wonderful students and terrific teachers who make it all happen!
I wondered if students in other schools would have similar responses. I had many questions. Would older students say things that were more insightful? Would students in different types of schools have “deeper” responses?
When I visited the Calgary Science School in May for the ConnectEd Canada Conference we all had the wonderful opportunity to visit classrooms and ask students questions. I asked about 8 of these students to complete the same sentence I had our students complete. I wondered if their responses would be different since this was a Grade 4-Grade 9 school that focused on inquiry and not the traditional way of learning. While I know the sample size was quite small, but of the 8 students I asked, the answers were very similar to the answers I received from our own students (happy, smart, learn….).
I would suggest that similar responses, regardless of age, socioeconomic status, would be given by many students in all of our schools.
Of course, there are still more questions, but I believe this is a good reminder to us all. For many of our students, their school is their home away from home. Their school is their escape. Their school is their safe place where they know they are cared for and where they feel loved.
For many of our students, school is their happy place!
Isn’t that what we want?
How would your students complete the sentence?
It's All About Learning 
Great video. Love seeing those smiling faces! 🙂
We know that engagement with school decreases as students get older. We also would hypothesize that students are less likely to say negative things face-to-face or on video than they might on an anonymous survey, for example. Not sure how this might impact your results. Am just noting that how/where the question is asked makes a difference…
Keep up the great work (and blogging)!
Hi Scott,
Yes, absolutely! I agree – people are more likely to respond differently face-to-face (especially when they are talking to an administrator) as compared to doing a survey anonymously or compared with talking with a peer. Good point! They may actually respond differently with peers, more in a negative way (depending on age), than they may actually feel toward school as well. It might not be perceived as “cool” to actually like school. Not sure sure how you could actually get truly “accurate” data. It’s interesting though, that’s for sure!
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Tia