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Oprah Winfrey United Press
Since becoming the president of the United States, I have searched the world over visiting thousands of classrooms and interviewing hundreds of teachers in search of the ideal classroom where students and teachers were working together to achieve individual goals set by each student according their own interest needs and desires.
I vowed sometime ago to citizens of the United States that when I found that classroom, I would pour endless money into the education system to have every classroom in America modeled after it. At long last I found that classroom located in Phoenix Arizona where the saguaro cactus grow wild and the sky blazes with orange and gold sunsets every summer night.
I visited each classroom at Longview Elementary School located in Central Phoenix and to my surprise and delight I found that all the classrooms were organized in the same way. I was mesmerized by the knowledge that was being shared between the students and their teachers.
I sat down with Dr. Julie Gates one of the teachers at Longview, to discuss the philosophies and organization of the school.
Mrs. Gates: Tell me about the organization of your classroom.
Well Mrs. President, As a school we decided that we did not want our students confined to a desk all day so we have replaced the desks with round tables. This way the students are face to face which makes it easier for them to collaborate together on different projects. It has also given us more room in the class for students to get on the floor to read or work together. Each student has a laptop which can be hooked into a main computer for projection to the entire classroom. This unit can also receive projects from other classrooms in the school or around the world.
This technology you have sounds interesting please tell me more about it.
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