Changing the School Climate - Essay Sample

Introduction

School climate encompasses the character and quality of life in school for the staff and the learners. It is the essence of a school to lead the children, teachers, and administrators to the school and make them need to be there for one another all school days. There are elements shaping school climate, some of which are easy to change while others are difficult to change. School managers, led by principles, are looking forward to creating a positive school environment related to numerous positive students' outcomes when they complete their studies. For instance, a positive climate relates to higher academic performance, less bullying, and better mental health. Changing school climate elements can be a preventative measure to reduce behavior that may look disruptive and improve attendance satisfaction and achievement. However, making changes in some elements may prove difficult, calling on the school principles to take time and invest in measures heavily to ensure they are achieved. Academic elements of school climate seem easy to change for the better to ensure academic excellence, while community elements associated with relationships are challenging to change.

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Academic Elements of School Climate

Academic elements are the teaching and learning practices promoted within the school compound to ensure that the set learning objectives are met by ending a study period. Additionally, the composition of academic elements incorporates learning, teaching, leadership, and professional developments. Leadership is entirely the responsibility of the administration under the principals of the schools. It becomes effective when the school heads communicate their vision, support the schools' running, and substantively provide access to resources. It shows that school principals have the mandate to change their various schools' leadership styles to suit their vision geared towards creating an enabling environment for the students. Other teachers, parents, and students may have little influence on how the school heads run the administrative and leadership roles, but changing leadership style and roles proves easy.

Teaching and learning are the actual instructions and methods teachers use to ensure children gain knowledge and skills they intend to achieve by the end of their study period. It constitutes various things curriculum, evaluation, and the means teachers use to communicate their expectations and feedback. The nature of teaching and learning processes are the responsibilities of the teachers. Different teachers have different approaches to their teaching practices giving the learners different experiences and life lessons. Depending on the teachers' outcome expectations, they are at liberty to carry out their teaching practices in the best way they feel would bring the best out of them. Therefore, the teaching and learning process is part of the academic elements that are easy to change because they are decisions made by the teachers. Moreover, they are decisions that will influence students' motivation and engagement in their classroom activities, affecting their academic performance.

Professional development includes teachers' access to further training and mentorship activities relevant to achieving their learners' lives. Such training is appropriate when they are in line with the needs of the schools, parents, and the surrounding community. Schools minding about creating a positive climate; teachers have numerous and subsequent access to job training where they learn new strategies that are significant in improving their professional capabilities. These professional development activities are initiatives that the teachers coordinating the leadership decide to gauge their benefits towards creating a positive school climate. Making changes in the professional development programs to suit the school's mission of creating a positive school climate is easy because it depends on the teachers' decisions or school leadership.

Community Elements of School Climate

Community elements entail relationships that the schools have with the students, parents, and the surrounding community. This relationship substantially influences the students" behavior and achievements by the end of their studies. The relationship between teachers and their students' affect the learners' engagement in the classrooms, self-esteem, and final grades. Similarly, a positive relationship amongst teachers, parents, and the surrounding community creates a peaceful and enabling environment for the learners. However, changing relationships seems hard because it is an individual initiative and develops a type of relationship that suits their interests. School principals would say that people have their minds, and no one can make them feel optimistic and peppy about their commands.

Conclusion

School climate should be positive regardless of the challenges that principals and administration go through to achieve that goal. It is critical to identify the easy elements of school climate change and make implementation decisions on them within the shortest time possible. The difficult elements to change may be manageable, and principals should ensure that relationships are good, and the environment is suitable for learning purposes. Moreover, school principals should be liberal and accommodative in their decision making to create a friendly environment between the schools and the surrounding environments. Minding about relationship with the community will help the students to learn the importance of effective relationships in their studies.