New Year, New Kids, New Goals

This year's group of kids is really different in personality and skills from last year's. As such, I've modified my teaching methods to meet their needs.

Let's start by reflecting on last year's goals:

Last year I wanted to:

• Improve my constancy with having students write the central idea for each unit
• Introduce Cornell-Scratch notes earlier in the year so they are confident when the exhibition begins
• Develop Key Concept question cubes to reinforce the KC as a way of evaluating a subject
• Increase my student's motivation to take an action during the year
• Increase my practice in having student inquiry lead the discussion

How well I met my goals:

I began switching my classroom focus from the white board to the unit board. We actively used the unit board to track where we are and ask deeper questions as we progress in the unit.

Students building the foundation of the unit board

I implemented Cornell-Scratch notes in each unit and most students were able to use them independently in the exhibition. Many were able to use their notes to write essays and to ask further questions.

I began creating Key Concept question cubes during workshop for my first two key concepts in unit one, but I need to focus on incorporating them more often.

I enjoyed the focus of listening carefully to student questions, and identify their interest in the units, then encourage actions (Inspired by Chapter 4 of The Power of our Words, Responsive Classroom.)

To refine these skills I read Dive into Inquiry with the PYP Book Study Group and used the conversations to focus on guiding student's inquiry.

Goals for this year:

This year I have a few new goals for this year's kids:

• Develop their awareness of the world 
• Develop their public speaking skills so that they are confident, knowledgeable, and have fun
• Develop their ability to ask meaningful questions
• Develop their confidence to take small but meaningful actions across the unit.

How I plan to meet my goals:

This year I have undertaken a new project based on a discussion at the Kath Murdoch workshop. A group of exhibition teachers got together to discuss how we promote inquiry in the process of the exhibition. A teacher from Bern said that their team organizes a weekly guest speaker to share their passion and I was impressed by the big idea. 

I've been implementing weekly speakers this year and have seen how consistent exposure to models and mentors is improving their research and presentation skills. In future posts, I plan to discuss how they have been learning by doing.

An optometrist modeling measurement and tools

Each Thursday we have a guest speaker, 23 speakers across the year. They give a 15 minute presentation of their passion.  The students have 5-10 minutes to ask questions.  While the presenter is speaking the students take notes. We do a gallery walk to observe each others notes and take a few minutes to

An alumni shares his passion for cultural explorations

add more details. After, we come together and write 5 questions as prompts for reflection journal. 

Over the year I have been modeling how to write questions. Now I am having them generate the questions as a class and choose 3-4 that they can answer in a 1 page reflection.   

A passion for analyzing safety data

Practicing data analysis methods

 I am satisfied with what I am seeing in my first year trying this process because:

• The speakers are opening them to new perspectives in the world
• The guests are exposing them to a wide variety of public speaking styles
• It gives them a focused chance every week to ask both interview questions and reflection questions
• The guests are modeling how they take action, guided by their passion 

They are seeing a wide variety of presentation methods and figuring out what interests them. We have had standard PowerPoint presentations. Guests have brought models for students to explore, workshops for them to try, and presented photo galleries. Observing this wide variety of presentation methods is building their sense of style.

Most importantly, they have seen guests have technological problems and carry on with grace. When our technical analyst could not connect to our projector she kept going using both her laptop and our white board. The students responded with empathy and gave extra focus to her small screen, asking clarifying questions.

Taking notes and reflecting

Taking notes and reflecting

I have been seeing their note taking and questioning skills develop. Each student is developing their own style to take notes, but  the majority are identifying key terms, using symbols.

By extending the exhibition across the year, they have developed a taste of what they might be interested in studying and how they might like to present it to the community.




I'm curious:
What goals do you have for the school year?
How do you prepare students for the exhibition?

Please comment below to develop the conversation.