Skip to main content

Teaching and Learning in the PYP

So what is teaching ? What is Learning?

Those were the big questions we were all interested in knowing more about during the three day workshop in Beijing.

As a workshop leader and practicing class teacher, I have to say that I do not enjoy preparing for workshops in isolation. The whole joy of being a learner comes from collaboration. I have a great PLN with whom I can share ideas and learn from. Unfortunately, there are, I have found, educators who are loathe to share their knowledge and experience. What a pity! They are never the ones who change people's lives! And we are in  the business of changing lives.

Edna Sackson, thank you!

Here are a few snippets and glimpses of the workshop.

The teachers were from different parts of the world. Ireland, Russia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, USA, and India. Some worked with kindergarten children, while others had taught TOK in high school at some point in their lives.  The room was abuzz with vibrant, knowledgeable, enthusiastic educators. But their greatest gift to  all the participants of this workshop, was their respectful demeanour which was maintained throughout the three days. It was a privilege to have worked with them!


It was quite a task to keep this group of teachers engaged and challenged. Using a variety of strategies and tools in order to drive home the point was fun. I learnt so much from them in the process!




David and his lovely wife. I hope they have had their baby by now!

When I look at this picture, I can only marvel at how these teachers thought deeply about EVERYTHING. What an inspiration they are! They did cheat on the artifact task though :)

Assessing their schools.

Sharing time.

Metaphors at work.

A continuum using our artifacts.

Collaboration.

Discussions

Testing out.












Dots doing the talking here...

Bum's up activity, well...sitting on chairs.



I loved how they worked in this group using one of the Visible thinking Routines.














Diamond ranking







It started snowing on the first day!

Presentation of personal inquiry cycles. 



Group work


Going solo.



Using a treasure box.


Atlas shrugged!

Our philosopher!

 I do hope to cross paths with these amazing educators sometime soon!

Comments

  1. BluestockingOctober 18, 2016 at 1:47 AM

    Hi Naini,
    Thanks for sharing this and your presentation. Your blog is truly inspirational! This looks like a great workshop.
    Thanks again,
    Latha

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Popular posts from this blog

Unravelling the inquiry cycle in a PYP class room

“ People can make choices to support the sustainability of the Earth’s energy resources .” Me to students : Does that make sense? Students to me : (after a while)...not really...  Their understanding of "energy" during the pre-assessment task also reflected a superficial knowledge of the term. And thus our unit of inquiry started. As I was browsing the net, I came across this picture prompt- a map, which I thought would serve as a great provocation. The annual energy consumption per person . Kids love guessing where countries are, so it was a great way to address some geography at this point.  I had also been reading Craig Dwyer's  post  which inspired me to change my inquiry cycle and use a simpler one. Wonder (while exploring)- Explore (while wondering)- Create (while reflecting)- Reflect (with subsequent wonderings). I was feeling more at ease now. The map allowed the students to make a lot of inferences based on patterns whi...
5 comments
Read more

Generalization-Designing Your Lessons for Conceptual Understanding (Part 3)

This post is the third of our blog post series on how to design lessons for conceptual understanding. Part 1 here Part 2 here Strategy 3 : Generalizations You may have come across Lynn Erickson's diagram on the structure of knowledge. In my IB workshop's I always like to present the avocado model alongside this diagram when I am talking about facts. The intention of inquiry-based teaching and conceptually-driven understanding (or Concept-based inquiry- whatever terminology suits your fancy)  is to enable students to make generalizations. In other words, can they transfer their learning to a new context because they have understood what they learnt.  In order to make generalizations, we need to first plan lessons that help students acquire facts/topics that are interesting  and worth knowing. Bringing in local and global issues that are relevant to the topic help students as they begin to compare the topics and see emerging patterns. Remember, facts and concepts have a syn...
Post a Comment
Read more

5 classroom routines

Communication I plan to try and improve communication between our classroom, parents, and students. I'm not sure whether students or parents read my emails or get our classroom news. At times, they do not respond to the posts on Google Classroom. The silence from that side of the wall has been baffling, frustrating and a big challenge for me.  I just may have found the solution. The App  Remind   is an excellent way to overcome this problem. It is a great tool which ensures everyone receives the message instantly on their phones, and it need not be an iPhone or an android! Community Last year, being new to Japan, I was unable to take advantage of the resources around me.This country's unique culture and history have much to offer. After reading Ron Berger's " An Ethic of Excellence ", and seeing the powerful learning that can take place with the help of the community, I plan to actively learn more about and reach out in order to seek expert help ...
2 comments
Read more