Interviewing Mr. Scott's Class about their Intelligences

Our current unit of inquiry is all about learning with the central idea "Understanding different ways of learning enables people to respond to their own learning needs as well as those of others." As part of our study, we have been looking at the scientific research of Howard Gardner on what he classifies as Multiple Intelligences (or intelligences for discussion purposes in our classroom). As part of our inquiry into different people's intelligences, we decided to interview different members of our family including older adults in our families as well as young children to see if there is any variation in the activities people enjoy and their "intelligences".

On Friday, 23 August, we interviewed Mr. Scott's ELC3 and Reception students about their activity preferences. We then used the information we collected to find out what kinds of intelligences are their strengths and weaknesses. We will use the data we collected to create a pie chart about their dominant intelligences next week. We will also be interpreting this data, looking for trends.

We also interviewed Mr. Scott and found out that his dominant intelligences were bodily-kinesthetic and interpersonal. We are now wondering how this relates to his choice of career.

We also learned a lot of about working with younger students. Some of these revelations included that we have to be patient because they might not understand our question the first time, sometimes we needed to rephrase our questions because they have not had the experiences we are asking them about yet (for example, writing assignments) and that we need to take breaks so they are able to focus on our questions so they can give an accurate answer.

Please join us at assembly next week (Friday, 30 August). We will be presenting some of the data we have gathered about different people's intelligences and sharing our interpretations with you. We look forward to seeing you then.

Below are some photos of us working with our ELC3 and Reception friends.

We even decided to interview Mr. Scott to find out the things at which he is good.

We are so proud of our new to English friends! They did a great job of asking the questions and writing down the answers.

After we asked our ELC3 and Reception friends the questions, we recorded the answers and calculated the totals for each intelligence.

We think everyone had a good time. It was nice to meet some of our new ELC3 and Reception friends.

Assembly Performance Friday, 16 August 2013

On Friday, 16 August, 2013 we performed our Reader's Theater  The Ugly Duckling. We discovered this play was written by the Scandinavian author Hans Christian Anderson in the 1840s.

Each member of our class had a different part. Our director asked all the members of our class what part they wanted to have before we started. Everyone was happy with the parts they had. We practiced for several days before our performance, both at home and at school.

We also discovered folk tales usually have a moral (this was partly to teach children the difference between right and wrong in the olden days). The morals we think come through from The Ugly Duckling are: don't judge a person by the way they look, believe in yourself and that we need to respect the difference of others.

Below are some photos from our successful performance.

Our narrators and Mama Duck

The chicken, cat, wild duck, friendly swan & the ugly duckling.

The girl and boy who spot the beautiful swan at the end of our story.

Beginning of the Year Letter from Ms. Trish

13 August 2013

Dear Grade Three, Four and Five Families,

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the 2013-2014 school year. I am happy to be part of the ISB community again this year and I am looking forward to working with you and your children during the upcoming months.

I look forward to meeting you all during “Meet and Greet” week from 21-23 August 2013 but also during our first Community Brunch and Open House on 24 August 2013. In the meantime, I have included a short biography for your reference. I am originally from a small community on the west coast of Canada, and attended the University of Victoria.  I graduated with a 5 year Bachelor of Education degree, a double major in Elementary Education and Science.  I am in my fourteenth year of teaching (my eleventh within the IBPYP) and have taught children from Preschool to Grade 8.  I taught in Canada, Germany, China and Indonesia (Papua) before arriving at ISB.

During the first weeks of school I will be assessing your children in the areas of reading, writing and mathematics. This will enable me to ensure the most effective instruction for your child. We will also be developing essential agreements in class for behavioural and work habit expectations. I will be sending home our first unit of inquiry newsletter next week, outlining the order and central ideas of this year’s units of inquiry. We are continuing to work on the class schedule, but this will be forwarded to you as soon as it is confirmed.

At ISB, we are a well-established school and have been authorized in the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP) since 2002.  The IBPYP is a transdisciplinary curriculum that engages students in relevant and challenging learning experiences.  I am excited by the enormous benefits to children participating in this programme.  Transdisciplinary (meaning to include a variety of subject areas such as social studies, science, language, mathematics, etc) units of inquiry will be the basis for the majority of our programme.  This will run parallel with the teaching of fundamental skills/strategies in language and mathematics.

Again this year I will be taking on the role of PYP Coordinator in addition to being your child’s classroom teacher. This role is primarily in support of the teaching staff at ISB, but I am also responsible for parent education about the Primary Years Programme. Please look for more information in the general school newsletter, but please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding this programme.

Below is some general information about different aspects of the Grade 3/4/5 classroom this year.

Ibu Hasanah

We are extremely fortunate to have Ibu Hasanah Sarkaya working in our classroom with the Grade 3/4/5 students again this year. Ibu Hasanah will be working with all children in our class in a variety of individual, small and large group settings. It is important to note that Ibu Hasanah will be responsible for our class in the event that I am absent. She will also be travelling to the various specialist classes if needed to be further support those teachers as well. If I am unavailable, please do not hesitate to contact Ibu Hasanah directly.

The Exhibition

The PYP Exhibition is a directive from the International Baccalaureate Organization (the IB) in which all PYP schools must participate. We will begin the Exhibition process at the beginning of the year, but the public Exhibition will be in May/June (date to be determined). Please look for more information on what we will be doing for the Exhibition and how you can support your child towards the end of August.

Units of Inquiry

The Grade 3/4/5 students will be inquiring into 5 different units of inquiry as well as the Exhibition this year. We will be reviewing the 6 allocated units of inquiry later this week, working with the students and teacher to develop the order of units as well as the theme for the Exhibition. This is an important component of the Grade 3/4/5 programme, as it provides an opportunity for student empowerment and responsibility for the educational programme they will be participating in this year.

Homework

The students will begin bringing home more formalized homework during Week 2. All homework assignments will be related to what they are currently studying in class. It is important to develop a standardized place for students to work on their homework at this age. This will be especially important with their work on the Exhibition as this is a long-term project, and they may need to have a place where they can leave resources for a lengthy period of time. It is expected all homework will be completed on a daily basis and returned to school for teacher assessment the next day. If you child has difficulty with the homework task assigned, please have them stop and indicate difficulty in an email to me or a written note in their homework folder.

Electronics

Students are welcome to bring their laptop/tablet computers to school to support their learning. These types of electronic devices are appropriate for certain components of our programme (as determined by the classroom teacher), but paper and pencil skills will be used for others. If you would like your child to bring a mobile phone to school, they will need to drop them off in the main office prior to the start of the school day. Students are not permitted to bring MP3 players, etc to school as they interfere with important socialization opportunities before, during and after school. Please note that if your child brings anything of value to school, ISB is not responsible for it loss or damage.

Supplies

The school provides all books, pencils, markers, etc the children need. Each child needs to bring a plastic drinking bottle labelled with their name to school each day. It is important that this bottle be filled with water, not juice, in case of spillage. Children will have opportunities to refill their water bottles from a central source at school as well.

Please ensure your child has a hat as well as it is often very bright and sunny during PE and other outdoor activities.

Birthdays

We enjoy celebrating your child’s birthday.  I have found that a shared treat is a good way for the whole class to participate.  If your child is having a private party, invitations should be given outside of school so that feelings do not get hurt if someone has not been invited. If you are inviting all students in our class, students are welcome to hand out the invitations at school.

I believe home and school communication is essential to your child’s learning, so please do not hesitate to come in and see me or write me an email (trish@isbogor.org) if you have any questions or concerns. Please look for more information coming from the office about “Meet and Greet” week from 21-23 August, 2013. There are a variety of dates and times available.

Kindest regards,

Trish Phyall

Gr. 3/4/5 Teacher & PYP Coordinator