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...

...with tasks that can be fun and engaging. CAVEAT None of these tools are new. You have probably used them or heard of them.The question is, have they been used to create authentic learning or are they forced? Can they be improved upon? This particular group of students have taken to IT like fish to water. Dr Sugata Mitra's project "Hole in the Wall" addresses this innate ability of children to learn on their own! I  hardly set up my classroom blog and the kids are already posting comments, commenting on their friends' posts and embedding pictures. I taught them nothing. Just gave them their passwords. "Hey kids! Slow down will ya? I need to TEACH you bloggin' rules first!:" :) "Nah", they probably mutter under their breaths..."Just show us what to do and we'll figure out how." Activity one : Hero Hunting How do we show recognition of heroes? What do we do to remember their deeds and celebrate them? On Heroes of Hyderabad  ...

A reflection: It's funny how people start addressing women as Sir in India once they do something heroic! A step by step process of my inquiry lesson. I think I'll keep updating the same post in order to keep this on one page! 23rd August My class is learning all about heroes, and I have created a short but provocative video ( I hope! ) using Animoto. What a wonderful tool :) Famous and the infamous This was my provocation. I decided not to tell the kids what they were going to inquire into. By carefully watching the video they will have to identify the characters they know. I posted a power point of the famous and infamous characters on the new class blog (The kids are absolutely thrilled and amazed to see themselves on it) so that they can go home and show their parents the ones they had trouble identifying. 24th August The following day we made a Venn diagram. A three way one. I used http://billsteachingnotes.wikispaces.com/Graphic+Organisers  to make copies ...

I did not have the luxury of meeting with the kids during the summer camp in July. I was nervous and hoped they would like my face. Bright eyed, chirpy , extremely smart kids came up to me with more confidence than I could muster. One looked at me and smiled and seemed happy that I would be her teacher. Phew! I come from Africa...that is how I was introduced. The kids looked at me in wonder and I overheard two of then talking during break time, analysing the colour of my skin and wonderiong where I fit in. These children are completely new to PYP ; they are very comfortable with their mother tongue. English does not come easily to them though they speak it loudly and with infinite confidence.I knew I had a challenge ahead of me. I have to introduce the the pyp lingo very slowly. I looked at my wall where all the attitudes, concepts, learner profiles glared beadily at me...maybe one word at a time? What is the hurry? I would love to share my first weekly planner with my ...

What an experience. Searching for an apartment in this huge city has been a challenge, but lucky for me, my colleagues did most of the ground work. So all I need to decide is which flat to take. How does one plan the next moves. What do I need to do to make my first few weeks in the place comfortable? Water, gas, an Internet connection, a bed....etc, etc. This is a sketch of the block. This is a learning experience for me and definitely needs a place in my blog. Having travelled from Singapore, to Mombasa and finally Hyderabad within a few weeks has made me appreciate how different cultures are; the cities and its people have a distinct characteristic. Our school talks a lot about pluralism and how we need to infuse this notion into the curriculum. We, as teachers need to be pluralistic...when in Singapore, i miss the naturalness of Mombasa; when in Hyderabad I miss the structure and order of Singapore and the quiet of Mombasa. However, I find myself accepting and engaging with t...