The following information is a direct cut and paste from my classroom blog. The blog is used as a communication tool between home and school. I also post homework, ideas, polls, and all things related to life in 4D. Over the course of the year, we have gone from “What is a blog?” to “Can you please put it on the blog?” and now “I wrote my first blog post last night!” as we start our own journey into blogging in our Exhibition groups.
In the process of unpacking our Central Idea, I shared a number of videos that opened up amazing discussions. Some were oldies but goodies, some were hot off the internet, all of them were inspiring. If you are looking for a longer list than the five I am sharing below, take a look at the playlists created by Terri Eichholz of Engage Their Minds. They are for students and teachers via Pinterest (which, thankfully is unblocked at my school now!) and I plan on sharing the link with my students to peruse the library of inspiration!
“Taking Action” is a big part of the PYP and also a big part in our Exhibition. Before we even began, I was hearing the deafening roar of, “We are going to hold a sale…”. In reading the idea behind action as a key component of the PYP, I wasn’t getting the connection to the selling of stuff. I reached out to my friend Marina who put me in touch with the work of Richard Black, whom I had visited (virtually) before. He had a great way of explaining a much more fleshed out picture of what action was. I turned his words into cute cards, but they are all his thinking. We have them up as a permanent visual that in reality, we are taking action at all times which I actually think is freeing the kids up from the ‘bake sale’ idea and potentially (I will keep you posted) opening them up to a more diverse path of action.
What inspires your kids?
How do you encourage authentic action?
On to the class blog post….
Today we looked at the central idea for our Exhibition unit:
We discussed as a class what this meant:
We then watched some videos to support our understanding of the central idea and the Exhibition process:
Follow the Frog – This video is all about what the Exhibition is NOT about. It is not about going over the top with wild, crazy expectations. It is about inquiring into topics that you are passionate about and finding out what action you can take to make an impact. Take a BIG issue and think about taking action on a SMALL scale. It doesn’t have to stop there, however it is often the smallest of actions that can make the biggest impact.
Kindness Boomerang – This video highlights how one small action can make an impact that can grow exponentially. You might not ever know the impact of your actions and one action is never too small in the eyes of the person it impacts.
Emily’s Hair – Some people say “but I’m just a kid, what can I do to make an impact?”…those people need to hear 3 year old Emily’s story. She shows that through the simple action of cutting her hair, she is making an impact. It doesn’t matter how old you are, it matters how much you care.
The Race – The Exhibition is like this race. We have been ‘training’ for it all through our years in the Junior School. We are prepared. We can do it! BUT….we might fall. It doesn’t matter when, where, why, or how hard we fall, what matters is what we do AFTER we fall. That will be a determining factor in the success of our Exhibition journey.
Sarah’s Softball Story – This is one of my favorite stories. To me, it highlights what life is all about – helping others to achieve greatness, doing the right thing, paying it forward, and always choosing kind. The students who helps Sarah, Mallory and Liz embody what it means to a PYP student and to be an inspirational human.
Tomorrow we will be digging deeper into what it means to take action. Today we looked briefly at six different ways of taking action (with thanks to Richard Black, PYP teacher in Canberra, Australia – his words, my layout):
sonya terborg 