Learning Never Stops

Summary of Unit - Poster In the last unit, I kept my central idea a mystery and tried to provoke my students' interests. This time, I will try another strategy. They will have everything on their platter ( from the poster above). I will encourage students to help me plan the lessons. They will be given the option of choosing the graphic organizers which they think will best suit them, in order to pursue the lines of inquiry. In groups, they will decide which resources to use and will subsequently delegate work to each other. They will take total control of their learning. My students are new to PYP (inquiry-based learning) It will be interesting to see how they perform. Here are the Graphic Oganizers  the students will choose from. (Source: http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/graphic_organizers.htm ) My students mainly come from ESL backgrounds and find the websites very hard to understand. I have spent a few pleasant minutes browsing the internet for the most su...

I am enjoying walking the streets of India. They  are vibrant; the smell and noise can be overpowering, but when in the right spirit, it can be an extremely enjoyable and adventurous experience. The best thing about the streets are the little surprises that one finds along the way. Blue Rajasthani ceramic pottery dot the dusty roads and add bright colour to the city. I picked up a special kind of pot that every household Indian has at home.It even has a little lamp attached to it. People grow basil in these pots as it is considered an auspicious plant. Well, no harm in inviting the deity to your home. So I got my pot. Each side has a different deity staring benevolently at you! My friend and I strolled into an ethnic shop. Indian silk and cotton fabrics draped the walls and shelves. The colours were vibrant and the patterns on them were amazing. Deep rich blues and rustic terracotta colors teased the senses... Shades of whites will muted gold and silver filigree work. I bought a s...

...while hoping to create life-long learners. What learning must the kids come away with by the end of this unit? Should they be able to talk for some length of time about a few heroes? Will they pretend to become heroes for a day (for their summative) and then forget about it when the next inquiry starts? Is it good to have a summative at all as it seems pretty conclusive? How about keeping the pictures of heroes up on the classroom and constantly refering to them when the need arises? My next unit is all about ecosystems. I think I will put up pictures of heroes of people who fight for animal rights...Jane Goodall, Gerald Durrel, etc. How will I encourage a higher level of thinking skills in the children. Right now some of them are blurting out facts with a lot of pride and confidence. Looking back at all the strategies and tools I used, it is a pointless endevour unless they are able to talk about heroes critically, from different perspectives. For ins...