We met this week for collaborative planning of a new unit of inquiry for the start of the new school year… Times have changed. We have changed. Planning is not coming up with a range of activities or developing a series of lesson plans. It’s a time to consider the rationale behind the unit and […]
I used to think being ‘assessment capable’ just implied things like setting tests, planning summative tasks, grading and giving feedback. A thought provoking conversation the other day with @YuniSantosa and @MKPolly, in relation to various workshops we will lead in the new year, highlighted the following questions assessment capable teachers and learners might ask ourselves: […]
It’s exciting to see teachers adopting the idea of thoughtfully considered reflective questions for themselves, as well as for the learners, in continued pursuit of the goal of developing the whole child – and the whole teacher! – rather than simply focusing on curriculum content. If I want the children in my class to be creative, […]
In the enhanced PYP, schools will have agency to decide on their own format for documenting planning, as long as collaborative planning follows the PYP guidelines. We’ll no longer be obliged to fill in the traditional boxes or follow the linear design of Managebac. It was an honour to be invited by the IBO to […]
I start today’s collaborative planning session asking each of the teachers to share what strengths they think they bring to the new team. (Two have worked together for years, one started this year and one will join the team in the new year.) People are reluctant to share what they see as their own strengths and, instead, […]
The power of filming and then watching yourself teach has become evident during our coaching and growth review processes. What did you notice? What are the patterns? What do they make you think? What surprised you? Does what you see yourself doing match what you think you do? On a larger scale, having educators from other schools visit us […]
It seems that a number of participants in my Digital Citizenship workshop imagined they’d be learning about cyber safety for three days! Is that what comes to mind for some people when they hear the term digital citizenship? Instead, we explored what it means to BE a digital citizen and, by the end of the workshop, […]
Can other people’s expectations alter what you can do physically? This question is the essence of a recent This American Life podcast, entitled Batman, which explores experiences of blind people and investigates the impact of other people’s expectations on what blind people can do. It’s fascinating! As educators, starting a new school year here in […]
Today’s collaborative planning session with the Year 5 team is both challenging and invigorating. There are 7 of us in the room and one digital participant. The conversation is impassioned and (mostly) focused as we debate, disagree and eventually reach some common understandings. It takes over an hour to ensure our conceptual understandings are sound and to […]
Cross-posted at Inquire within, following on from Inquiry: to what end? by Cristina Milos. In a concept driven, inquiry based learning environment, we do NOT plan a series of activities to ensure coverage of the requirements of our national curriculum. Instead we spend our planning time reflecting collaboratively, exploring which conceptual lenses will produce the deepest learning and designing a few powerful […]
What Ed Said 