Taking Action!

What an exciting week in my classroom. My students have been learning all about 'The Power of One' meaning that one person can influence change in the world. A big part of this unit is students figuring out ways that they can get involved and make a change in their school, community and the world. 

Action.

Taking action is a large part of the PYP. The goal is not just for students to learn different concepts and memorize them. We want our students to apply their learning outside of the classroom as well. We call this Taking Action. Each classroom at our school has a 'Taking Action' poster either inside or outside the classroom where we post pictures, notes and examples of students who are taking action.

Sorry about the blurriness...

  Originally, I thought that students had to bring in examples of what we are learning about from home and when I taught kindergarten it was very difficult to remind students to bring things from home. At an IB conference I went to in Indianapolis two years ago, I learned that action can take many forms. 

Since action is all about a verb, I started to write down on sticky notes when I noticed students taking action by sharing a thought wit the class or noticing something in books and let students know that this was taking action. I soon began to realize that students were taking action every day!

So back to second grade... My students this week really ran with Gandhi's quote "Be the change you wish to see in the world." They decided to come up with their own action plan. They wanted to encourage others to pick up trash, stop littering and recycle more. On Monday, they are going to be making an announcement to the school to get the community involved in their action, as well as make posters to hang around the school reminding people to pick up their trash and recycle. 

How awesome is that! Students taking action and getting excited about it! 

Also, something else we did this week was a Pathway to Change. I got this idea from A Year of Many Firsts. Students traced their feet and wrote on them how they can make a change. It is our hope that anyone who comes into our school will read our feet, which will inspire them to make a change. Check out the pictures below.

Our pathway goes from the front of the school all the way to the second grade classrooms. We have already received a ton of compliments from students, teachers and parents about how impressive and motivating this project is. The only downfall is that it has slowed some students down when walking to their next class because they are stopping to read our feet!!!

Whether you are a PYP school or not, encourage your students to take action with their learning. you could also start your own Action Board in your classroom or in your school to encourage students to take that next step to apply their learning.

Teachers Love Breaks Too!

Alright my blogging friends, the reason I did not blog last week is that we were on our Spring Break! We have had a cruise booked for 15 of my family members for almost two years and last week was the big week. Let me tell you... I needed this break. Teachers need breaks. We work hard day in and day out. We spend most nights, weekends, breaks and summers working to do everything we can for our students. (I'm not knocking any professions. Everyone works hard and needs a break too!)

This was the first break where I did no school work. 

No lesson plans.

No planning.

No paperwork.

No emails.

No Pinteresting (that counts as school work!)

I did not even think about my students until the last day of my break. 

And let me tell you... I needed this break.

I know I spend a lot of time working and being in a teacher mindset. I am constantly thinking about my students and how I can be a better teacher. As I once heard a great teacher say "teaching is not a job, it's a lifestyle" and it is so true. So at first before break I felt a little guilty not working on anything school related, but now I know that this Spring Break has made me a better teacher because it allowed me to recharge. 

Yes, all most? teachers love breaks too, but they need them to be the best teacher they can be. 

Here are some pictures from my trip! (My younger brother is an amazing photographer)

Remember teachers, take time for yourself and recharge!!!

Learner Profiles and Attitudes

Happy (almost) Easter everyone! One more week and we are on Spring Break. Whoo hoo! Something that people ask me when it comes to teaching the PYP is "What is the biggest transition going from non-PYP to a PYP school?" Honestly, I think there are a bunch of things, but one of the biggest transitions for me was the vocabulary, specifically using the Learner Profile Words and Attitudes. 

Learner Profile Words

The learner profile traits and attitudes are characteristics that we want our students to not only know, but develop within themselves. It is like a 'character development program', but it is incorporated within the PYP. At our school, the learner profiles and attitudes are posted in every classroom (forgot to take pictures of mine, oops!) and teachers use these words throughout the school day. 

My first year, I really struggled with using this vocabulary, but once you start making it a point to say the words daily, it becomes a part of your teaching. For example, you may start a lesson by saying "Today we are going to be thinkers..." or you might notice a student doing something and say "Wow Susie, you are being so caring by helping your friend zip up their coat." When you use the language often and refer to your posters throughout the school day, students begin to use it as well.

Attitudes

Once a week as a lower elementary team (K-2), we take a half hour where we meet to talk about the learner profile traits and attitudes. Usually we read a book and complete an activity that surrounds the learner profile trait that we are focusing on that month as a school. We call this 'Team Time'. It is a great way for the students to practice and develop these traits. You can see our monthly Learner Profile focus at our school below, which also incorporates the attitudes.

Our current unit of study in second grade revolves around the phrase 'The Power of One', we we are learning about local and famous heroes. The past week we learned about Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges and how they made a change. But something I really like that we are doing in this unit is thinking about what learner profile traits and attitudes these people display. It is great to see that students are recognizing these traits in others. My hope is that my students see these traits and attitudes in action and develop these traits within themselves.

Happy Easter!

From Private to Public

Alright, I need to take a second and get on my soapbox....

We had a staff meeting this afternoon and a big discussion that came up was what aspects of our school still hold true to the 'private school mentality'. Let me give you a little background... Our school originally was a private school, but due to a lack of enrollment and funds administration decided the best route for our school was to become a charter school. So three years ago we 'closed our doors' as a private school and opened up as a public charter school. Since then our school has grown leaps and bounds, but we try to give students a 'private school education on a public school dime'.

So back to our staff meeting, we were discussing how there are some families leaving our school because they said that our school has changed too much. As a staff, we talked about what types of things that have changed and what we still do that is the same from our private school days. It seemed through the discussion that the biggest difference we feel as teachers is the pressure.

The pressure to make sure we cover all the standards.

The pressure of documenting everything that we do.

The pressure to monitor progress and to constantly collect data on our students.

The pressure to prepare students for standardized tests.

Just looking at this list it is frustrating to see that teachers have no control over any of this pressure or relieving it. It is the people above us that put this extra stress on us. As a private school, the teachers could just teach! Yes we had the standards in mind, but we did not have to document everything we did or take weeks and weeks to prepare students for tests. 

I wish we could go back to the days where teachers could do their job and just teach...

Ok, I'm off my soapbox now, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this!