SARAH
Elementary Education
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SARAH
Elementary Education
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Uh-oh. I haven’t blogged all week! It’s been a week of settling into routines, reflecting on each day, and planning for the days to come. Today’s post will be a quick re-cap of my first full week of school here in Siena.
This week in Grade 2 we started our unit on water. The “central idea” of this unit is: “Humans have a responsibility toward fresh water as availability is limited.” Everything that we study for the next 6 weeks will revolve around this topic. For the first few days this week, we really focused on figuring out what the class already knows about water, and where we need to go with the unit based on their prior knowledge. As opposed to most public schools in the U.S., the curriculum is not set. Each week, the IB coordinator meets with teachers to discuss what they will be covering during the unit, ideas they have, needs the students have, and how best to meet those needs. As a result, every bit of learning that goes on is tailored to the specific needs and prior knowledge of this particular class. For our first water activity, each table was given a cup of dirty water, clear water, and yellow soapy water. The students were asked which one they would drink and why. We recorded all of their thoughts verbatim. Some students wrote their own thoughts on the paper, while we scribed for others who may have fantastic ideas, but struggle to put them down on paper. We also asked them why water was important, again, writing down everything they said. My favorite response: “If you don’t have enough water, you don’t have enough blood because blood is made of water, so if you don’t drink enough water your blood goes away. If you have no blood you become vampire.” This kid was deadly serious. During gym, the IB director/gym teacher did an activity to try and get the students thinking about carrying water, its weight, the problems that carrying water can present, etc. The students were given a case of 6 large bottles of water. Their task was to see how many times they could bring the water from one end of the garden to the other within a ten minute stretch of time. Some of the bigger kids could carry the entire case of water, but after a bit, most students realized that it made more sense to separate the six large bottles and work as a group to get them from one end of the garden to the other. There was a lot of fighting, whose water is whose, did you really go to the end and back, but so much practice in communication and collaboration. The teacher was totally hands-off, letting the kids work out the problems for themselves. We saw a myriad of different ways that the kids were carrying the bottles (including using one’s head to roll the bottle along the ground). It was quite chaotic, but highly effective. We had a debrief afterwards, and the students were able to make connections between the activity in gym and the central idea. The highlight of the week was the creation of a giant mural/painting/poster on our classroom window to represent the water cycle. After learning about the different parts of the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection (or “collectation,” as some of the student have been referring to it), the students were tasked with organizing themselves into groups and creating their part of the diagram. Some students made the sun, others worked on depicting condensation, and others on creating precipitation. It turned out beautifully. It was amazing to see six and seven year olds take ownership of a large art project like this (with guidance, but kids can do wayyy more than we give them credit for) and create something so meaningful. I’ll have to take some pictures next week of the completed project. All in all, this week absolutely flew by! School, planning, reflecting, exploring Siena, and life with my host family fill up every second of the day. This Sunday I made the decision to stay home all day and re-charge my batteries. It’s been lovely, and I’m feeling rested and ready for the new week!
4 Comments
Nancy Chicola
4/1/2019 09:18:49 pm
Sarah,
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Wendy Paterson
4/1/2019 10:09:41 pm
Dear Sarah,
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Pixita del Prado Hill
4/3/2019 06:02:03 pm
Sarah -- I am fully enjoying your blog postings and especially interested in the unfolding curriculum about water -- best wishes for a wonderful teaching experience! (P.S. I work with PDS and help facilitate the IPDS Chile program -- it's great to hear about other IPDS locations)
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Shannon Budin
4/9/2019 12:37:03 am
Your photos and insight are amazing. It is so cool to see the work that students produce and the great work you are doing. Keep it up!
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AuthorHello! Ciao! I'm originally from the rural Finger Lakes region of New York state, but I've lived in Michigan, Japan, South Korea, and now, Siena! I originally got into the field of education after teaching English in South Korea. I've continued to study education because kid-brains never cease to astound me. Apart from spending lots of classroom time with young children, I really love to run. I am excited to explore the gorgeous Tuscan hills on foot. Hopefully all the hiking will balance out the ridiculous amounts of pasta and cheese I am sure to consume. Thanks for following along! Archives
May 2019
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