Month: March 2013

PYP, Teaching

Questioning Conceptually

Sonya terBorg

We are two weeks into our Passion Project and my kids have pretty much narrowed down their area of focus for their passion: travel, gardening, healthy living, animals, music….the list goes on.  These are all big, broad areas of interest, so how do we begin on our passion journey?

Our ‘way in’ was through the PYP concepts. We thought about these in two ways: as lenses and as keys. Some kids really bought into the idea that they were picking up and putting on different glasses with different colored lenses through which they would look at their topic.  Some kids bought into the idea that they were standing in a room with eight colored doors and each key in their hand unlocked a different door to step through to their passion. I was pretty impressed with the speed at which they figured this out, actually!

Download the cards below, updated to include related concepts, here. 

concept cards 2 concept cards 1

Each child made a set of concept cards using the following information.  A descriptor of the concept on one side, and curriculum area sample questions on the reverse. These were mounted on different colored cards and bound together with a ring. We were ready to begin!

picture-15 picture-16

I started with the whole class and a topic close to my own heart and one they could relate to: dogs. We started going through the concepts and thinking of questions that would fit that lens:

FORM: What are the distintive characteristics of a dog?

FUNCTION: How do the lungs of a dog work?

CHANGE: What are the newest medical advances that are now in place to help injured dogs?  

Each child was given a large concept question planner and, armed with their passion topic and their concept-question cards, were asked to think of questions for each concept.  PDF Concept Question Planner

Concept Question Planner

We discussed that some concepts may lend themselves to more questions and some to fewer questions. As we continue with this on Monday, my hope is that we can help each other focus our inquiries through the use of concepts. I also want to make sure that their time is spent on relevant, engaging and worthwhile questions.  I want their questions to be deep and open. But how?

I came across the idea of a Question Quadrant to help see if where your questions ‘fit’: The Quadrant can be used to distinguish closed and open questions that relate specifically to a text; or closed and open questions that stimulate intellectual curiosity.

Question Quadrant

I also really like the Visible Thinking routine Question Starts.

Question Starts

Once they have generated questions, I am thinking of using the Visible Thinking Routine, “Question Sorts” to help my students ensure they are really focusing on questions they care about:

Question Sorts

A question sort, would be similar looking to the question quadrant:

Question Sort

I am still thinking about how best to help them make the most of their inquiries.  I think we are off to a good start! I know a lot of the focus still remains on ‘producing a product’ which is not the goal of this project but is something that I think people are more comfortable with given that is how we were educated: to produce ‘something’.  My goal is to keep putting the tools out there and hoping that the more product oriented ideas arise from the deeper inquiry, rather than become the sole purpose of the project.

Inspiration

Never Lose the Why

Sonya terBorg

I love GapingVoid cartoons.  Here is the one that I am most recently in love with:

Never Lose the Why

As a fan of Simon Sinek and “Start With Why?”, this cartoon is a great reminder for once you have your why pinned down – or as pinned down as defining your purpose can get.

It is also a good reminder for teachers when we ask things of our kids in our classroom.

  • WHY is this worth their time?
  • WHY are we doing this?
  • WHY do we need to do it?
  • WHY did I do it this way?
  • WHY not something else?

I would like to believe that most teachers have a pretty good idea of why they teach.  Sometimes when we move from the philosophical  ideals to the human reality of bodies in the room, administrators, parents, and our own personal lives, we have the potential to lose the ‘why’ that drove us to this profession in the first place.

Don’t do that. Or at the very least, resist at every turn! Keep an eye on your why.  And live it, daily, in your classroom.

A great example of someone who consistently lives out his why, is the CEO of the YMCA here in Boise, Jim Everett.  We visited with him for the second year on our passion tour and again, Jim was hugely popular with my students.  The letters they wrote him were heartfelt and just amazing.  Jim told the story of the death of his dad when he was in third grade and the huge impact that had on his life. One of my kids concluded his letter with, “If your dad were alive today, he would be the proudest dad in the world.”  Yes. Yes he would.

As he did last year, Jim wrote back to us and this year reminded us of the “P” words that he lives his life by and encouraged us to live our lives by.  I turned his words into the following as a visual reminder to always look to fulfill your purpose and never lose sight of your why: (PDF Download)

Jim Everett Manifesto

PYP, Teaching

Rising Above

Sonya terBorg

On Friday morning, I met with about half of my class parents to share with them about the upcoming PYP exhibition, to answer their questions, and to get a feel for where they were at in their understanding of the work ahead. I shared the following slideshow with them:

For detailed notes about each slide, take a look at the post on my class blog.

In addition, I shared a number of documents with my parents: an eight week tentative plan, single subject integration, language arts integration, exhibition rubric, weekly reflection criteria, and student contract. I also gave everyone a copy of the 16 Rules that I posted about earlier in the week.

After the meeting, I went back to my classroom and when my kids came in from recess, I told them that they would be working on the tasks we had discussed the previous afternoon, focused on our exhibition.  This is what “work” looks like in my classroom:

I was asked a lot of questions from my parents about final products, accountability, level of involvement, and how to “know” if kids are working and/or learning anything.  Here is what I know to be true:

  • if you set high expectations, kids will rise to meet them (and then exceed them)
  • kids are inspired by kids and will feed off each other (in a good way!)
  • kids know when they are working hard and when they are hardly working
  • kids don’t want to waste their time any more than we want them wasting their time
  • what looks like “wasting time” to us, is often a valuable learning experience for kids
  • kids have a way of viewing the world that often exceeds our world view

I think we all have kids in our class who struggle.  Their struggles may be with confidence, time-management, organization, academic skills, social interactions….the list goes on. Undertaking a unit of inquiry of the magnitude of the exhibition is a real challenge – for any 10 or 11 year old. But does that mean that because it is hard, we shouldn’t do it?  No.  Because:

Source: seesawdesigns.blogspot.com via Sonya on Pinterest

When I asked my kids “Who is ultimately responsible for your Exhibition journey?” I got a resounding and unanimous “We are!!” from my kids.  And I trust them, so I trust that this is true.  They know they have the support of their teachers, mentors, parents and myself, and now they just have to trust in their own abilities.  It is really hard to let go of some of that control.  To sit back and to watch where the journey takes each child without constantly wanting to move the rudder and steer them where we think they should go.  

I am learning that the Exhibition is a great learning ground for students: it is a chance for them to shine, to showcase their skills, to develop new skills, to become independent, and to experience hard work, failure, success and learning. As adults, it is also a great learning ground for us: a chance for us to trust we have prepared them well, to take a bigger step back, to guide without overshadowing, and to trust in the process and the journey.

What I know to be true is that I am seeing, already, kids rising. Rising to the challenge.  Rising above my expectations.

More than ever, I believe that children learn best when personally invested in what they are learning about.  And it is a pretty awesome thing to watch.  

Inspiration

To Learn Is To Live

Sonya terBorg

A beautiful reminder to stay curious, always,  because the future belongs to the curious.

 

 

Creativity, Inspiration

16 Rules for Sharing Your Story

Sonya terBorg

Yesterday, I posted about Sharing Your Story.

Today, I turned the “16 Rules” into a graphic that I will share with my students tomorrow at school – and with you tonight!

Click on the image to enlarge. Click here to download a PDF file.

16 Rules

Creativity, PYP, Writing

Sharing Your Story

Sonya terBorg

Recently, a friend sent me a link to Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling.  I loved them – for a number of reasons, primarily that Pixar is clearly a company that knows how to tell a story, so when they share, I listen!

My first thought upon reading through them however, was not the application to ‘storytelling’ in the traditional sense of the word (telling a fairy story) but in the application of these rules to the journey my students are about to take as part of the PYP Exhibition. 

The highlight of our exhibition evening last year was sitting and listening to student after student get up and tell their story. They shared their journey through the process: where they started, where they went, where they currently were at and where they were heading.  Their stories were compelling, engaging, entertaining, interesting and a true reflection of their growth and development over the course of the Exhibition.

As I read Pixar’s rules, I can’t help but convert to advice for my current fifth grade students as they embark on their journey with the idea of telling their story.

Here are my 16 rules for my kids to guide them as they tell their learning stories:

  1. We admire you for trying more than for your successes. 
  2. Once you reach the end of your story, look back and share the theme that has driven your learning.
  3. Simplify
  4. Focus
  5. Tell us how you dealt with challenges.
  6. Write your ending now, before we begin.  Speak into existence what you want to be your reality!
  7. Be ready to not be perfect.
  8. When you get stuck, make a list of what you are NOT going to do next and hope the material to get you unstuck shows up.
  9. Put your ideas in writing, all the time, even in the middle of the night.
  10. Discount the obvious ideas.  Keep thinking.  Surprise yourself.
  11. Share your opinions – be bold!
  12. Ask yourself: “Why this passion?”  Why MUST this be the thing for you.  Build off this burning belief within you.
  13. Be honest!  We admire you for it!
  14. No work is ever wasted.  If it is not working, let it go and move on – it will come back around to be useful later.
  15. Do your best.
  16. What is the essence – the guts – of your story?  Start there and go!

Planning for these stories can be done digitally.  Digital storytelling simply means using computer based tools to tell stories. Click on the image below to check out five digital storytelling tools for kids.  Three of them (Voicethread, Show Me, and Toontastic) are familiar to me.  The other two, Sock Puppets and Puppet Pals are new to me.  All look like great tools for encouraging students to get their ideas down.

Which have you used? Which are you willing to try?

Digital Storytelling

These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coats, Pixar’s Story Artist.

Brain Research, Creativity

Are You Creative?

Sonya terBorg

Duck-Rabbit_illusion

I just read a really interesting article on creativity.

The well-known known illusion above can be seen in two ways: as both a duck and a rabbit. Which do you see first? And if you see one, can you also see the other?

Most people see the duck first and can flip between the two representations, but the question is: how easy is it for you to flip between them? Does it require real mental strain, or can you do it at will?

The article suggests that the ability to see both the rabbit and the duck and to flip easily between the two is an indicator that you are more likely to be creative in your thinking. To test this idea, researchers gave participants a limited time period to come up with novel uses for everyday objects: a chair, a brick, a paperclip. Those who could see both animals in the illustration could come up with five novel uses for an object.  Those who couldn’t, could come up with two.

While I am now incredibly curious to try this with my kids, I am also left thinking:

  • would kids have an easier time of thinking with greater flexibility than adults?
  • how do we grow our ability to look at problems from creative perspectives?
  • is this inherent or learned behavior?

As I was thinking about this, I was also thinking about a creative solution to a real world problem that my friend’s fifth grade class encountered. Some may say that picketing and boycotting and protesting are not creative solutions, but when you are in fifth grade and the people you are standing up to are tenth graders from your school, I would say it was not only a creative way to express their point of view, but a very brave one too. Check out their story – it is a fascinating read.

As teachers, we need to be prepared to flip the duck (or rabbit) and challenge ourselves to see things differently: our kids, our curriculum, the assignments we give out, the expectations we have of our kids.

Equally, it is probably a good idea to ask the same of our parents.  School as we knew it shouldn’t be the same as school today. At least, not a school I want to be a teacher at.  Many parents are more than receptive to this, if we share our why with them: why we are making changes, why school is different, why we are pushing something new.  One of my blog posts on this subject was recently reposted on the IBO Sharing PYP Practice blog. To me it was reassuring to hear the feedback from parents: once our reasoning was explained to them, they were more than receptive to the change.

Sometimes it is really hard to change our focus from the rabbit (or the duck) but that doesn’t mean we should stop looking or stop challenging ourselves to look at things from a more creative perspective.If you are ready to take the challenge, here are some cool tips to rid yourself of excuses for you lack of creativity (this is going up in my classroom tomorrow!):

 

 

 

I ask you again: Are you creative?

Brain Research, Innovation, Inspiration, Internet

We All Could Do With a Little More “Happy”

Sonya terBorg

A parent of one of my students recently sent me this video:

Shawn Achor encourages us to think differently about the correlation between success and happiness. Many people would say that if you become successful, you will be happy.  Achor argues that if your focus is first on being happy, success will follow and your happiness will be longer lasting as it is built into the fabric of who you are, rather than pinned to reaching your latest goal, target or sales figures.

Students in the fourth grade class next to me, have recently watched this video and started a 21 day happiness journal via Hapyr. Each day the students choose to write three things they are grateful for and/or a happy memory they had in the last 24 hours.

Hapyr

I have recently become a big fan of TEDEd: Lessons Worth Sharing.  This is a great resource for teachers who want to find a video (from TED talks or on YouTube) and then create a lesson for students by ‘flipping’ the video = providing guided content after watching the video that students can do at their own pace (at home or school). One of the great things about it, is that if you find something you like but the creator hasn’t asked quite the questions you were hoping to have your students dig into, you can ‘flip’ the lesson yourself and rework it to suit your own class.

Here is the TEDEd Lesson I created using Shawn Achor’s “The Happy Secret To Better Work”.

Here is a SKITCH screengrab explaining the features of TEDEd:

TEDEd - Happiness

Have you used TEDEd or Skitch? What are your thoughts?

What is ONE thing you could do RIGHT NOW in order to be happier?

21st Century, Inspiration

Write Your Story – Change History

Sonya terBorg

All the great things that haven’t happened yet, are history waiting to happen.

Brad Meltzer presents this idea and more in his passionate, inspired TED talk: Write Your Story, Change History

His three main points:

Dream Big

Martin Luther King Jr. was 26, Amelia Earhart was 25 and Steve Jobs was 21 when they all made their mark on the world. If you dream big, no matter how old you are, you can change history.

Work Hard

The hardest work of all is being resilient in the face of failure. Every time the Wright brothers went out to fly their aircraft, they took extra materials for all the crashes.  They knew they were going to fail and they kept trying anyway.

Stay Humble

No one likes a jerk and the world needs fewer loudmouths – so stay humble.

All history is is stories. To change history, all you have to do is write your story. You will change history – in big ways or in small ways – and both are equally important.  History is changed when you write your story.  You will have moments when you will doubt, wonder if you will succeed, or wonder if you should give up.  The good news?  You don’t have to create a multi-million dollar change overnight. You can start by being kind to one person. And you will change the world if you do something beyond yourself.

Every life makes history and every life is a story. What is yours?

What makes your heros important to you?

How have you ever changed history?

Do you agree with Meltzer that simple things done by ordinary people can help change history forever?

Internet, Organization

Google Apps for Education: MindMeister

Sonya terBorg

mindmeister-ipad-logo

The second app I found through Google Apps is MindMeister – which was also referenced in this post. I signed up for a free account and created the following (click to enlarge):

Sample Mind Map 2

MindMeister allows for a collaborative approach to brainstorming or planning. You can add icons/images from the built-in library or source your own images. Links to websites can also be added. Files can be uploaded and attached but not with the free version. For the most part, this is fairly easy to use.  I didn’t use any tutorial to get started and didn’t have too many issues as it is fairly intuitive. When you are finished, you have a number of options for sharing (similar to sharing a google Doc) or exporting in a number of formats including PDF or an image file.

As we begin the Exhibition, I am looking for tools that will help with the planning and organizing for my students. I have previously used MindNode Lite, but this doesn’t seem to have the same range of features (sharing, exporting options) and MindMeister just seems a little more useful perhaps?

What online tools do you use for mind-mapping?