KIS Exhibition 2018

Posted on 14/05/2018 by niko

A big thank you to all of you!

Here are some pictures and videos from Thursday and Friday

Tuning in report videos:

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Strategies for Parents and Students

Posted on 08/05/2018 by niko

We all know that children learn more efficiently when teachers and parents have a clear picture of what each student knows and what they are ready to learn next.

That’s why we utilize the NWEA’s Measure of Academic Growth assessment that reacts to each student’s every answer. This makes the test adaptive or personalized to measure the needs of every student. If your child answers a question correctly, the test follows up with a more challenging question. If your child answers incorrectly, the test follows up with an easier question. Adaptive tests make it possible for teachers to pinpoint what each child needs in order to learn best.

Our partners at NWEA have drafted a parent toolkit to help you with hands-on, practical,  ideas of how to practice these essential academic skills at home.

Strategies  for Parents and Students For Improving Reading, Writing, and Mathematics Skills

map-growth

Parent Strategies and Activities For Improving Their Child’s Reading and Writing Skills

The following suggestions are intended to help increase your child’s understanding of reading and develop his or her confidence in the learning process. Choose two or three of the following strategies and continue to implement them for the remainder of the year. These methods will also be effective during the summer months
General Reading and Writing Improvement Strategies:
‰ Read to your child.
‰ Model good habits by reading in front of your child.
‰ Check your child’s assignment notebook daily.
‰ Provide a consistent, daily study period without distractions.
‰ Help with specific skills (e.g., phonics or comprehension).
‰ Use reading software, if available.
‰ Visit the public library frequently.
‰ Join public library summer reading programs.
‰ Provide opportunities for your child to attend theater performances, musicals, etc.
‰ Limit TV or video games.
‰ Provide activities that relate reading to daily life.
ƒ Have your child write the menu for dinner.
ƒ Have your child locate letters and words on food containers.
ƒ Have your child help write a shopping list and have them check off the items on the list as you
shop.
ƒ When traveling, write words in a grid and have your child color in the boxes as they see the
words on signs.

Parent Strategies and Activities For Improving Their Child’s Mathematics Skills

The following strategies are intended to help your child to increase his or her understanding of mathematics
and develop their confidence in the learning process. Choose two or three of the following strategies, and
continue to work toward them for the remainder of the year (as well as the summer months).
General Mathematics Improvement Strategies:
‰ Encourage participation in enrichment activities outside of the classroom.
‰ Check your child’s assignment notebooks daily.
‰ Monitor daily work and be aware of the content being studied.
‰ Provide activities that enrich and relate mathematics to daily life:
ƒ Talk about how many bowls to put out for dinner.
ƒ Fold napkins in different shapes.
ƒ Have your child count similar items as you put away groceries.
ƒ Have your child help measure ingredients for recipes.
ƒ Give your child change to count out in order to pay for small purchases at the store; have older
children calculate the change.
ƒ Ask your child to compare prices of items by asking things like, “Which can of beans costs
more?”
ƒ Allow your child to weigh the fresh produce; have older children calculate the price by
multiplying the price per pound by the number of pounds.
ƒ Read the days and dates on a calendar, talk about the number of days in the month, the number
of days remaining until a special event, etc.
ƒ Draw a scale map of your home and determine the best escape route in case of an emergency.
ƒ When traveling, write numbers on a grid and have your child color in the box as they see the
numbers on signs or license plates.
‰ Provide your child with a mentor (such as an adult, neighbor, community member, or high school
student).
‰ Use computer software to enhance mathematics skills at home.
‰ Provide a consistent mathematics activity at home using family mathematics activities:
ƒ Dice. Each person rolls the dice and has to correctly add, subtract, or multiply the numbers.
ƒ Dice and Money. Each person rolls a die and gets the number of pennies as dots shown. When
someone gets five pennies they trade it in for a nickel, dime and so forth until they’re trading for
a dollar.
ƒ War. For two people, give each person 13 cards from a deck of cards, have each person flip a
card, then have your child decide whose card has the higher value to determine who wins the set
of cards. In a tie, place three additional cards face-down, then turn the last card up; the higher
card on that turn wins all the cards. Play until one person has all the cards in the deck.
ƒ Newspapers and Magazines. Find numbers in print and cut them out, then glue them in the
correct order onto a larger sheet of paper.
ƒ Store. Keep empty food containers, write different prices on them, then play Store by using a
calculator to add up the prices for different purchases
I hope that you’ll find these suggestions helpful, engaging, and fun! In addition to these tips NWEA provides a parent guide and a full blog section dedicated to support you and your child.
https://www.nwea.org/content/uploads/2017/08/Parent-Guide.pdf
https://www.nwea.org/blog/category/parents/
Posted in Curriculum, Knowledge, Parenting, Pedagogy, Teaching | Comments Off on Strategies for Parents and Students

What is the PYP Exhibition?

Posted on 08/05/2018 by niko

I can’t believe that we are already in our final week of the G5 PYP Exhibition, but what exactly is PYP Exhibition?  IBO defines the PYP Exhibition as part of the assessed curriculum as:

The PYP Exhibition: encouraging in-depth, collaborative inquiry

https://www.ibo.org/programmes/primary-years-programme/curriculum/assessed-curriculum/

in addition in Exhibition guidelines

As a culminating experience it is an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the International Baccalaureate (IB) learner profile that have been developing throughout their engagement with the PYP.

In the students’ final year of the PYP, which occurs in some schools at age 10–11 and in others at age 11–12, there are five units of inquiry and the exhibition*. The exhibition unit takes place under any transdisciplinary theme at the discretion of the school. Students are required to engage in a collaborative, transdisciplinary inquiry process that involves them in identifying, investigating and offering solutions to real-life issues or problems. The central idea selected must be of sufficient scope and significance to warrant a detailed investigation by all students.

Exhibition Guidelines 2008

Therefore the PYP exhibition has a number of key purposes for us here at KIS. As an IB World Continuum school as we prepare our students’ educational journey through all three programmes:

  1. for students to engage in an in-depth, collaborative inquiry
  2. to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate independence and responsibility for their own learning
  3. to provide students with an opportunity to explore multiple perspectives
  4. for students to synthesize and apply their learning of previous years and to reflect upon their journey through the PYP
  5. to provide an authentic process for assessing student understanding
  6. to demonstrate how students can take action as a result of their learning
  7. to unite the students, teachers, parents and other members of the school community in a collaborative experience that incorporates the essential elements of the PYP
  8. to celebrate the transition of learners from primary to middle/secondary education.

These eight points work as a cornerstone to frame our understanding of the PYP Exhibition. To promote student agency and to offer them opportunities to share their passions, PYP exhibition is by nature planned to be a very open/free inquiry with our teachers and mentors facilitating the student planning.

Facilitators role during the exhibition is to coach their students to perform at their peak level and to make sure that students have shown their knowledge, inspiration, and spirit throughout their learning process.

During exhibition, there is a

Increased emphasis on: Decreased emphasis on:

Flexible timetabling within an extended time frame

Fixed timetabling and time frame

Range of assessments developed with students with input from other members of the community

Teacher-determined assessment and feedback from teacher only

Students reflecting on and keeping evidence of learning throughout the process

Students showing final products

Personal responsibility, management and accountability by students

Teacher management of student input and involvement

Community-based inquiry: working with and presenting to the school and wider community

School- or classroom-based inquiry: inquiry process and presentation limited to class or grade level

Teacher as facilitator and observer

Teacher as instructional leader

Utilizing a range of teachers, mentors, advisors, specialists

Classroom teacher(s) as sole advisor/expert

Student empowerment—direct student involvement in selection of issue, development of central ideas and planning, organization and presentation of the inquiry

Teacher/adults responsible for selecting the topic and planning the inquiry

The KIS core values align and validate the importance of our exhibition as a process.

Knowledge

Students at KIS are able to interact with a rigorous and dynamic international curriculum developing the knowledge, skills and characteristics that will support them in the pursuit of their goals and in becoming lifelong learners in an ever changing and diverse global community.

  •  students to exhibit the attributes of the IB learner profile
  • all the key concepts; an understanding of the key concepts should be demonstrated by the application of key questions throughout the inquiry process
  • students should develop and apply skills from all the transdisciplinary skill areas in their exhibition inquiry

Inspiration

KIS provides a safe and supportive environment where students and community members are encouraged to be creative and passionate about learning, share their ideas and inspire each other to be their best.

  • offer the students the opportunity to explore knowledge that is significant and relevant

Spirit

The KIS spirit is evident in every aspect of the community and provides a sense of belonging. It can be seen in actions taken to encourage and help each other, and in providing service in the local community and beyond

  • offer opportunities for students to display attitudes that relate to people, the environment and their learning; these attitudes should be evident throughout the process

Exhibition guidelines 2008

Inspiring Individuals

For me the most important part of this journey though is for the students to find their own voice and seek out to the world, to make connections that will make a lasting impact on their opinions and ideas.  Our goal, of course, is to take meaningful action

What kind of action ill you take?

What kind of action will you take?

This all is evident in our exhibition as you walk through these busy learning areas and observe the dedication and passion that is displayed as we are gearing up for our Exhibition day

I am so proud of all our groups for making the connections with the UN 2030 SDG’s, the convention on the rights of the child, and their own issues and interest. Thank you for a wonderful journey, now let’s celebrate it #PYPX2018

Copy of KIS #PYPX Invite 2018

Posted in Curriculum, Inspiration, Knowledge, Learner Profile, Pedagogy, Spirit, Teaching | Comments Off on What is the PYP Exhibition?

3 ways to amplify #stuvoice by embedding #edtech into instruction

Posted on 30/04/2018 by niko

We are a brand new #googleEDU school and having just finished my #GooglePD certification level 2. As a novice user of G-Suite, I was looking for some inspiration and guidance on how to effectively use these new tools in my use. Luckily I have a very knowledgeable #PLN on twitter and in no time I connected with awesome educators that are doing an amazing job of sharing their practice with others.  I wanted to highlight a couple of examples that inspire me to use #edtech to enhance voice and choice in my classroom: These wonderful examples are either directly available as templates from their authors’ website (links provided) or they are very easily tweaked to suit your needs. You should also follow these wonderful innovators on twitter:

@Tommyspall
@ShakeUpLearning
@alicekeeler

 

Here are three tools in G-Suite for Education to empower your students’ voice and choice.

#googledocs

Here are samples of choice boards on steroids: with little scaffolding, you can end up having your students also creating the choices on the boards.

https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/interactive-learning-menus-choice-boards-using-google-docs/ 

Tommy Spall has taken this strategy even further with:

#googleslides

https://brenhamtechdaily.blogspot.com/2017/10/teaching-tip-thursday-digital-menu-for.html

The last example is a combination of

#googleforms and #googlesheets in #googleclassroom

http://www.alicekeeler.com/2015/05/20/google-classroom-giving-quiet-students-a-voice/

I use this quite often as I want to ensure that every learner in my classroom has a voice and an opportunity to use it.

Posted in Pedagogy, Teaching, Technology | Comments Off on 3 ways to amplify #stuvoice by embedding #edtech into instruction