Written by Journey Wright.
George Jenkins High School is a public high school in Lakeland, Florida. It currently hosts around 2,517 students with numerous courses and academies. The atmosphere is very diverse and so are the academics, but can the learning quality be? As a student attending George Jenkins currently, I noticed that along with myself, various students learn differently. But because the teachers can’t teach the same lesson to 20 different students 20 different ways, all the students must learn the way the teacher primarily instructs. At most times, it’s not very beneficial.
What I came to realize is that the school doesn’t have many alternative learning opportunities. Many of the scholars are very smart here, but not everyone learns the same, which leads most to struggle academically.
This article will describe some ways that Geroge Jenkins can include alternative learning options in their academics.
Some ways are:
- More required school projects - A lot of the students here learn better when they are able to apply their creative skills to their core studies.
- A LOT of hands on learning – This allows kids to see and better understand what they are doing. Sometimes, just reading doesn’t cut it. A lot of students struggle with working it out in their head and are not very imaginative. It’s like in preschool, when we were doing a lot of playing. That was how we better remembered our shapes, through fitting the blocks in the shape sorting box and our colors by painting.
- Diverse settings - If there were some core classes that didn’t mind teaching outside of their conventional classroom, it would be a lot better. Sometimes it is the setting and environment students don’t thrive in and not necessarily the work itself.
- GAMES (!!!) - I remember when everyone was playing Blooket and still learnt the criteria. I was stealing everyone's gold and passing my tests with flying colors. Kahoot is just not the same. But when I say games, I don’t necessarily mean these types of games. I’m talking about actual in-class games like Jeopardy; flyswatter slap, where you have to slap the right answer on the white board; hot potato, where the student who holds it lasts answers a question; and Bananagrams, which is basically like scrabble. I really like the Bananagram method because it can help kids prepare for their English section on their SAT’s and ACT’s.
There are so many ways that this school can improve, but let’s make the first big step academically. Let’s change the WAY we are learning and teaching, not WHAT we are learning and teaching. More kids will want to come to school, and I believe that this will make it more enjoyable.
