Internationalism and a PYP Field Trip

Our current unit of inquiry in Grade 4 is a 'How we Express Ourselves' unit. The central idea is 'People around the world express their values and beliefs in many ways.'

For our summative assessment task we created an assignment sheet, a student created vocabulary list and a teacher/student created assessment rubric.

We planned a field trip for this unit of inquiry to visit different places of worship in Bengaluru. After a collaborative planning meeting we thought it would be most effective as the stimulus for the students summative assessment task. We designed the assessment rubric with students before the field trip so that they were clear about the purpose of the field trip- to find evidence of how people express their values and beliefs.

Our field trip involved a visit to a Gurdwara, a Mosque and a Church. We also have a trip scheduled to a Hindu temple next week. Though we went on this trip with a view to creating a summative assessment task the benefits of the field trip far exceeded this aim.

Our student group represent five different religions as well as those identifying as non-religious. They were enthusiastically welcomed into each place of worship and received an interesting presentation as well as a question and answer session. Frequently throughout the day we saw many PYP attitudes being demonstrated by our students including appreciation, curiosity, enthusiasm, respect and tolerance.

Appreciation: appreciating the wonder and beauty of the world and its people.

Curiosity: being curious about the world, its people and cultures.

Enthusiasm: enjoying learning and willingly putting the effort into the process.

Respect: respecting others and the world around them.

Tolerance: being sensitive about differences and diversity in the world.

Student questions were encouraged and were treated with kindness and respect. Many students made comparisons between their own religion and other religions. We discussed scriptures, worship, symbols, traditions, history, language and many other aspects of religion.

Recently, news coverage on different religions in the world does not focus on the connections, peace and harmony that these religions teach. This was a welcomed and refreshing way for students to experience different religions and perspectives, and all the more meaningful that we were able to experience it on International Peace Day.

Visible Thinking Course Begins

I have spent the last few years learning an increasing amount about the Visible Thinking approach from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

I am delighted to be starting the 'Visible Thinking' course tomorrow and will be sharing my reflections on this blog.

Global Codeathon 2017

Read about our day at the Global Codeathon online event.

Adobe Spark

I have recently been introduced to the wonders of Adobe Spark. Many educators are using it to 'communicate with an impact'. It is a really effective way of presenting work, videos and stories from your learning environment.

Above is my first attempt. I am evaluating the success of a Grade Five lesson on Mapping skills. The students completed a google form to provide me with feedback about the lesson. This feedback has been summarised and is now shared as this Adobe Spark presentation.

The presentation took about forty minutes to put together. This included time spent downloading photo's and creating the text. I can see that this will be much quicker now that I understand the capabilities of Adobe Spark.

If you haven't tried it yet I recommend it. The fonts and graphics are appealing and easy to use. I can't wait to introduce this to my students! 

Dear Grade 4

This letter began as a fictional letter as part of an assignment. It is now becoming an actual letter that I plan to share with my future class of Grade 5 students. I always try to connect with my incoming students to help prepare them (and me) for their transition to Grade 5. This letter is an opportunity to explain my teaching philosophy to my future students.

Dear Grade 4 Students,

I am really excited to be your homeroom teacher next year, and wanted to write to you so that we can begin connecting and learning about each other.

There will be some elements of Grade 5 that you are already familiar with, but also many things that may be new to you. I know that teachers can all be very different so I thought you may like to know some things about my teaching philosophy.

An important aspect of your learning in Grade 5 will be learning creatively. I have been teaching for more than two decades and what I have learnt during my experiences in the classroom is that students are more effective learners when they are allowed the freedom to learn creatively. It is important to mention that this does not mean it will be not challenging. I expect you to work hard, be eager to learn, and to be respectful of the learning process.

So what can you expect from learning in my classroom?

It may be easier to provide you with a list of what not to expect:

• Repetitive activities
• All students completing a task in the same way
• Every minute of the day scheduled
• Learning ‘trick’s to answer questions
• Completing the task in a set time limit
• Following my ideas
• Learning by yourself
• Working quietly
• Having a ‘seat’ and table
• A teacher desk/no student zone
• Using your iPad's when I tell you too
• Showing your thinking by writing answers.
• Being told how to complete a task
• One answer being the only correct answer
• Me (your teacher) knowing all of the answers
• Kutumia lugha moja (how can you work out what this means?)

I look forward to welcoming you to Grade 5 soon!
Yours creatively,

Ms. Amanda

What would you write to your future class?