Photo by Polina Zimmerman on Pexels.comPhoto by Pixabay on Pexels.comThe 'new normal' Our back to school experience is joyful and yet it presents its own challenges. Our students were out of school from December at the start of the Winter Holiday until May, after four long months of learning and connecting through Zoom classes and … Continue reading Back to School, Post-Lockdown
Trying to Live the Learner Profile
My classroom and office 13 Weeks of Online Learning and Counting... We haven't been in school or seen our students 'in the flesh' since December. Our school combined our winter and Chinese New Year's holidays and then we didn't go back as scheduled on 3rd February. 13 weeks, of online learning and this has become … Continue reading Trying to Live the Learner Profile
Continuing our Parental Learning Journey
On Thursday 24th October, UN Day, we had a follow-up parent workshop (you can read about the first one here). This time we were inquiring into International Mindedness and the importance of supporting home languages. We had a few more parents in attendance than last time and like last time, had led into the session … Continue reading Continuing our Parental Learning Journey
Taking Inspiration from What Ed Said
As I was planning for a parent workshop on "Why is the learner profile important to us", I read, and was inspired by @whatedsaid's post called An Open Letter to Parents. With Edna Sackson's permission (I do love being able to connect with my PLN on Twitter!), I used the blog and the questions for … Continue reading Taking Inspiration from What Ed Said
A Journey through the PYP Exhibition (part 3 – reflections)
It is well after the fact that I sit to write this but I have been thinking a lot about the process of PYPx and how it is and will continue to tie into the learning and planning for inquiry across the whole school this year. This academic year I am no longer in class … Continue reading A Journey through the PYP Exhibition (part 3 – reflections)
A Journey through the PYP Exhibition (part 2)
Working on a Frayer model about concepts In the last post I wrote about the first week or so of our PYPx process, where the students chose a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal and the part of the transdisciplinary theme, Sharing the planet, to focus on. They had written me an email with their chosen … Continue reading A Journey through the PYP Exhibition (part 2)
A Journey through the PYP Exhibition (part 1)
If I am honest this whole year has been a huge learning curve for me. It is my first year as a PYP 6 Homeroom teacher and also the first as PYP Coordinator. It has been quite the balancing act but a great opportunity to develop my practice as a teacher and in leadership. If … Continue reading A Journey through the PYP Exhibition (part 1)
Creativity in Unit Timings
"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. " Erich Fromm This year in my PYP6 class, inspired by reading about others' creativity in timings, I have been trying to get the most out of my units by spreading them out over the year. It is a pivotal year for the students. One of … Continue reading Creativity in Unit Timings
The dilemma of the decimal point
This follows on from our inquiry into place value. The students had been talking about division and multiplication of decimals as being a simple issue of just having to move the decimal point. I wondered if after looking more conceptually at place value their thinking about this may change, or they may at least accept … Continue reading The dilemma of the decimal point
What is place value?
We have been thinking a lot about number recently. We watched the BBC documentary The Story of One. https://youtu.be/ojqfwtwitMI My students were fascinated and made some great connections with things they had already learned about and it is inspiring new inquiries into binary numbers and other things linked to it. I has inspired some great … Continue reading What is place value?
Juggling Approaches to Learning 