Teacher Extraordinaire - Portfolio of a Teacher and Lifelong Learner

 Last Year I was teaching Year 3 (Grade 2), and the beginning of the year had me teaching about balanced lifestyle. The students in Year 3 can choose their own food, and one thing I noticed immediately was that there was little to no knowledge in how to make healthy food choices. I started taking images of the foods choices students were making at lunch. I didn't tell them why I was taking these pictures, and didn't include their faces with their plates, I just took pictures of the food on their plates, and sometimes I took pictures of all the things the cafeteria had on offer during that particular day. After that, I got to work teaching about food and healthy food choices. Firstly students were taught about the different food groups. Students were placed into mixed level small groups and set about learning about five different food groups - Dairy, Grains, Protein, Vegetables and Fruits. They were each assigned a book about their topic and were instructed to write information ...

 This year I feel like I've really been working on my Wonder Wall game. Why is the Wonder Wall so important? It's important as it is a place for students to express things that they are interested in, as relates to the current unit.  Increasingly I try to find interesting photos or provocations or design activities that get students thinking, then provide students with cards containing question words (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How, How much, How many, etc) and let them write away. Students then undergo a process either facilitated by the teacher or in small groups, where they consider the questions that are meaningful, and the questions that require deeper thought to answer. By the end of the year my Year 3 students (Grade 2) were also using a modified version of "Question Formulation Technique" to think of which questions were open questions, and which were closed questions.  With my units on Civilization and Earth's Changes this year, I found the use of pictu...

 Whenever students study Ancient Civilizations, they need a solid grasp of place and time. Two essential things that are necessary for students to have an understanding of are timelines and how the numbers on timelines work (both during Common Era and Before Common Era) and they should also know some basics about world Geography and how to use an Atlas.  Students were put into pairs and each assigned a civilization. Each pair was given a basic description of a civilization along with it's start and end date, and then tasked to write the name of their civilization on the start and end cards for their civilization, to write one interesting fact and to draw a picture that represents their civilization. After this they came outside and placed it on the timeline with teacher assistance.  After all students put their cards on the timeline, the next step was to see where their civilization was located, by using an atlas. Students were then called up one by one to look at the map...

 With the current state of the world being effected by the presence of the coronavirus, often times we cannot do field trips, even though we would very much like to. During our time studying Ancient Civilization, students were exposed to many new concepts, including, "What is an artifact?" and "What can artifacts teach us?"  We created our own museum! First, each student chose an artifact. At minimum there was a description that included where it was found, and what it was made out of. Then they had an opportunity to discuss what they thought the item was used for, with their peers. After that they had to be the archaeologists. They were tasked to think, "if you were the person who found this and had to write a card describing it for the museum, What would you say? Include what it is made out of, where it was found and what you think the item was used for." So students wrote their descriptors of their different artifacts. Of course not all students got the...

 For our Unit of Inquiry about "Earth's Changes" we did many different activities and experiments related to learning about the internal structure of the earth, tectonic plates and natural disasters. We also briefly inquired into climate change and actions we can take to mitigate climate change.  When we were learning about the interior of the earth, we watched two different videos, one of which was the SciShow Kids  video "Could I Dig a Hole Through Earth?"  After watching the two videos, I paused on a segment showing the different layers of the earth and we reviewed the names for the different layers. Then came the fun part! Students got to use clay to create their models of the earth, in pairs. When students were done, they placed the earth models to the side to dry. Of course one might then ask the question, well what good is a model with layers when you cannot see the layers inside? Well, the next step, after the earth models were dry, was to take students ...

 Every teacher should always have at the forefront, how they can best communicate with parents, and also support connections between school and home.  How to we create lifelong learners? How do we create inquirers? How do we foster healthy relationships between the school community and parents? How do we help educate parents in best practices with child development?  During my tenure at Chengdu Meishi International School , I designed and led a two period workshop for parents called "What is Inquiry?" wherein parents were led through the inquiry cycle, and periodically would have to complete an inquiry related activity. It shed a lot of light on the key understanding that parents should have, if their child attends a school where inquiry is paramount.  The following article is one that I wrote at Zhuhai International School to explore the teaching of maty in lower primary, and to encourage parents to take more of a hands on approach / an inquiry based approach and an...