Learning Never Stops

"Construction of the Golden Temple began in  1574  on land donated by the Mughal emperor Akbar. The building project was overseen by the fourth and fifth Sikh Gurus. The temple was completed in 1601, but restoration and embellishment continued over the years. The temple had to be substantially rebuilt after it was sacked in the 1760s. In the early 19th century, 100 kg of gold were applied to the inverted lotus-shaped dome and decorative marble was added. All this gold and marble work took place under the patronage of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The legendary warrior king was a major donor of money and materials for the shrine and is remembered with much affection by the Sikh community and Punjabi people." http://www.sacred-destinations.com/india/golden-temple-of-amritsar Funny thing is, if you stand in their way, they sweep you away too!  The fierce gaze... I could smell history all around me... India! Vibrant, colourful,...

Where: Pink City, Jaipur, Rajasthan! A fairy tale setting indeed... Hawa Mahal  All the buildings of the city are pink! Jaal Mahal Amer Fort! Light and sound show begins... The school reminded me of Fiona's palace (from the movie Shrek) Step by Step Interantional school. We had three fun-filled, yet intense inquiry into assessment in the PYP. Here are a few snippets: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Critical thinking Stakeholders  KWL Chart Grouping strategy, Hum the nursery rhyme and find your new buddies! Reading MTPYPH and creating a visual of the various ways of reporting. Creating an assessment task The workshop ended with a climax, with every teacher presenting a dance, song and drama showing their understanding of assessment.  Oh boy! Did we laugh. A few things received and bought. The vibrant colours of...

Unity is strength... when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved. Mattie Stepanek Image source : http://thevitalityinstitute.org/tag/cross-sector-collaboration/ I have been having so much fun lately. Since I've come to know about the inquiry workshop I have to conduct in a certain part of India, my mind has been abuzz. I have absolutely no idea about the history and culture of the place and I knew my challenge was to come up with a theme that would engage my workshop participants. And so I turned to my best sources of inspiration: my colleagues and of course my PLN. I know of many educators who prefer to create a workshop presentation all by themselves for reasons unknown to me. But what that tells me about them is that they are just not interested in learning from others and  feel that they alone can come up with interesting ideas. Isn't that just sad! I remember sending a tweet to Edna Sackson ( sitting far away in Australia) a...

“ 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...