Confessions of a PYP Teacher

Send us Fan Mail Greetings friends!  Welcome to another week of our PYP Classroom Success Criteria podcast series!  We are going to have a lot of fun exploring interactive walls that are transdisciplinary.  More talk about the walls?  Yep.  They are the most underutilized teaching tool that we have at our disposal, so let’s talk about ways that we can use them better. This episode was sparked by a...

Send us Fan Mail This episode came from a question that was posed by Nirali Parikh, a transitional kindergarten teacher, originally from India that works at the Creation Village World School in Celebration, Florida.  I’ve had the pleasure to work with Nirali on several occasions and she makes me think differently about the capabilities of an early years child.  If you haven’t already, consider fol...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to our new series on a PYP classroom success criteria.  I am so excited for this series, because I feel like it’s been so timely with things I have learned recently from the Pop-Up Studio Edu-Retreat in Brussels with Misty Paterson.  In this workshop, Misty took items around the school to create a welcoming gathering place that was flexible and driven by learner use. This...

Send us Fan Mail In the past six months, I have visited a lot of schools through official IB workshops, independent workshops, and curriculum development.  One repeating theme that came from these encounters is this simple question: What does a PYP classroom look and feel like in practice?  On the surface it seems like an easy question to answer.  But, as you unravel the layers, you discover that...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we conclude our journey with The Expert Effect by exploring selective perfectionism, major takeaways from the book club experience, an excerpt from the companion book The Expert Expedition , and some reflections about our podcast experience.   Be sure to join us for this action packed episode. For a written blog post and other resources, visit:    https://thinkcha...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we unpack the big ideas from this section of the book with authors Grayson McKinney and Zach Rondot of the Expert Effect .   During this dynamic conversation, we explored our own personal learning experiences, setting the conditions for learner agency to thrive, and leveraging technology as a teaching tool.  There are so many aha moments in this episode. If you wo...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the third episode in our series about the Expert Effect.  I apologize for such a delay, but sometimes our personal life takes time away from our passion projects.  I hope to get back on track with this fabulous book in hopes to help you get connected with the expert effect. In this episode, we will talk about people who have influenced our understanding as teacher learn...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the second episode exploring the book, The Expert Effec t by Grayson McKinney and Zach Rondot.  It has been an absolute pleasure to read this book and learn how to set the conditions for engaging with experts.  Now that we have started with our WHY, we can move forward with engaging with experts.  In this episode, we will explore:  Finding local resources to enrich unit...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the #CITLreads Book Club for The Expert Effect by Grayson McKinney and Zach Rondot.  I am so excited to explore this book through my podcast and appreciate the authors for indulging my connections and reflections.  In this episode, we will explore:  Pick a new book club role based on the approaches to learning Discover our "WHY" Define an expert Make essential...

Send us Fan Mail As I finish this series on local and global inquiry, I couldn’t forget my early years friends.  Oftentimes, there are many strategies presented that are beyond the scope of what our little people can do.  I wanted to honor your special role in making learning come alive too. In connection to the Crafting Inquiry conference, I was inspired by the ideas of Kimberly Mitchell about as...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we will look at local and global inquiry through the lens of the specialist and supporting teachers.  I see you my friends.  I know many times you don't feel included in the planning process, because the ideas don't apply to your roles.  This episode is an attempt to make local and global inquiry occur in your practice.  It's not perfect, but it&apo...

Send us Fan Mail As I mentioned in my last episode, I was able to interact with many of my eduheroes last week, including Stephanie Harvey.  What a firecracker!  She is not only quite intelligent and articulate, but she has a fire within the language development for all learners.  Something that stayed with me was Writeacide; to die a death of writing worksheets.   How do we get learners to write...

Send us Fan Mail Let's take a moment to discuss ways to shape the story of local and global inquiry.  What does this mean?  Take a look at these questions to get a flavor of this week's episodes.  Why do stories matter when exploring various content areas? How can storytelling help us to make deeper connections to ideas? How do stories humanize the experiences being faced in this world?...

Send us Fan Mail In the last episode, we talked about going from a local issue to more globally minded.  I used the PZ visible thinking routine, Projecting Across Distance as an example.  As I went through this past week, I realized that this may be a bit advanced for some people, so I scoured my files to find something that might be an easier starting point.  A tool that I really like is Investig...

Send us Fan Mail Wahoo!  The moment has finally come.  We get to merge the local inquiry with a global context.  I’m physically and metaphorically rubbing my hands together with glee.  I can’t wait to put these ideas together to create something meaningful.  When I think of the relationship between the local and global inquiry, the first thing that pops into my mind is the PZ visible thinking rout...

Send us Fan Mail Now that we have stretched our learning to think a bit deeper about our standards, let’s think about how we are going to leverage the local community and beyond to add value to the learning and teaching.  There are many people within our local community that want to give back, but don’t know how to do it.  They are a valuable resource to adding a richness to the learning and teach...

Send us Fan Mail In the last episode, we ended with the idea of connecting our local issue to our curriculum and standards.  So, I’d like to dedicate this episode to examining possible ways to explore this.  I am providing some tips, but you and your team must decide what best fits for your school and learners.  I love challenging myself in creating curriculum connections that are not so blatant o...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to our new series on local and global inquiry.  After the book club on “Getting Personal with Inquiry Learning” by Kath Murdoch, I wanted to extend my thinking towards making local and global connections to our inquiry.  This seemed like the natural next step.    When I think of local inquiry, my mind immediately shifts towards place-based learning.  There are numerous def...

Send us Fan Mail We all have something that we are wanting to invest in ourselves that we have put off, because we are too busy, too tired, or overworked.  Take the time to invest in yourself.  There is only one you. In this episode, I'm getting more personal than I have ever been to set my goal and hold myself accountable.  For a written blog post and other resources, visit:    https://think...

Send us Fan Mail After this book study, I decided to try something different.  Instead of picking random goals for my action plan, I pulled quotes from each week and partnered them with the enhanced PYP types of action: participation, advocacy, social justice, social entrepreneurship, and lifestyle choices.  I chose 3 or sometimes more quotes that resonated with me and placed them in a column.  At...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to our final session of our club for Getting Personal with Inquiry Learning by Kath Murdoch.  This session leads out with a bang by looking at resources that make personal inquiry manageable.  A big thanks to Bhavna Mathew for being our moderator.  As usual, she posed some deep questions for us to ponder and we used a visible thinking routine to synthesize our ideas.  What...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Week 7 of our Getting Personal with Inquiry Learning book club.  This fabulous book by Kath Murdoch has stretched our capability of thinking about personal inquiry learning.  This episode, we will explore how to document, reflect, assess, and share our process, so we are able to take meaningful action, which are sections 3.6 - 3.7 of the book. We have to give a big than...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back for another session of our book club on Getting Personal with Inquiry Learning by Kath Murdoch. We are focusing on sections 3.4 - 3.5 in this episode to learn how to confer and sustain the inquiry process.  Before we begin, we need to give a big shout to Nisha Vahi, our moderator for this session.  Nisha helped us to explore new reflection tools: Root, Bark, Branch fr...

Send us Fan Mail This is the section we have been waiting for!  It’s at the heart of how to get started with a personal inquiry, how and what to document, and tons of reflection prompts.  If I were you, I would have my notebook ready to jot down some notes. I can't wait to get started using the templates provided in this section. For a written blog post and other resources, visit:    https://...

Send us Fan Mail This week, we are going to look at various scaffolds that will support and assess our use of inquiry within our practice.  For newer teachers, we will explore some systems that may help you get started.  For others, we will examine ways to deepen our practice so learners take more agency. For a written blog post and other resources, visit:    https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com Thank...