Thank you to the entire ISPP School Community for a fantastic 2014 Grade 5 Exhibition!

Dear students, parents, mentors, experts, and teachers who were involved in the ISPP Grade 5 Exhibition of 2014,

The 2014 Exhibition teaching team would like to thank all of you for your support and participation in the Grade 5 Exhibition this year! The children grew a tremendous amount in the course of their research and the effects of this period before their transition to the secondary school will undoubtedly be a highlight of their elementary school experience.

This blog will now be shut down for the year. As posts will begin in January 2015 concerning the next Exhibition, you may want to UNSUBSCRIBE to this blog at this time.

Best of luck to all of you over the holidays,

The 2014 Exhibition Teaching Team

Exhibition Night, May 22, 2014 Schedule and Rotations

The Exhibition Evening is rapidly approaching. The students are busily putting together summative assessments, action plans, journals, and blogs to showcase their learning in an all encompassing presentation on the night of Thursday, May 22.

We would like to inform you of some times and procedures for this night that will hopefully ensure your enjoyment of this evening with your children and all of the Exhibition students. These procedures have been created to maximise the amount of discussion and presenting that the Exhibition students will engage in. We will allow everyone freedom to roam after each issue group has had the opportunity to discuss and present twice.

Exhibition Evening, Thursday, May 22

5:15 PM in Ms. Alison's Room (Students only): Grade 5 Exhibition students must return to ISPP. Students will, at this time, set up computers and technology for their kiosks, get into their Exhibition uniforms, and will be addressed by their Exhibition teachers.

6:00 - 6:25 PM on Basketball Court (All parents, teachers, mentors, experts, and students): Exhibition opening presentation. Welcome. Poems. Song.

6:25 - 6:30 PM: Exhibition students go to their venues in the Media Center, Ms. Bridget's room (36), and Mr. Jon's room (37). Parents, mentors, and experts follow their own children and students. Other guests choose which room venue to go to.

6:40 - 7:10 PM: Students do first round of short presentations followed by 10 minutes for parents to discuss issues with various groups in that venue.

7:10 - 7:15 PM: Adults rotate. From Media Center, adults go to Ms. Bridget's room. From Ms. Bridget's room, adults go to Mr. Jon's room. From Mr. Jon's room, adults go to Media Center.

7:15 - 7:40 PM: Students do second round of short presentations followed by short discussions with adults present.

7:40 - 8:00 PM: Adults and students may circulate freely and look at the Hall of Blogs, Guest Speaker Quadrants, and other issue groups' work while discussing learning with all students.

Thank You to Parents Who Came Into the Second Exhibition Open House and Exhibition 2014 Evening...

Again, the Exhibition teachers and students greatly appreciated parental visits on Friday, May 16! Students enjoyed discussing their action plans for how they will address their chosen issues and getting feedback from caring adults on group work, ideas, and presentations. As we discussed at the Parents' Information Evening, your continuing support of the students is a crucial aspect of their success during this unit. A million thanks go out to you for your efforts with all of our young learners.

We look forward to seeing all parents, experts, teachers, and mentors again at our 2014 Exhibition Evening this Thursday, May 22, at 6 PM on the basketball court. The children are preparing a short presentation to welcome all of you there before sharing their knowledge of their issues and their Exhibition journeys in Ms. Bridget's room, Mr. Jon's room, and the Elementary Media Center.

We will send out more detailed information about how the night will run closer to the evening itself.

Please fill out this survey about your perspectives on pollution!

Dear ISPP community members (and beyond),

If you have a few spare moments, please fill out this form from the Exhibition's Pollution Group. They would like to know your perspectives on pollution.

ISPP Pollution Survey

Image Credit: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3685/10362491406_8c096967b2.jpg

Reminder: Tomorrow, Friday, May 16th, from 7:45 until 8:30, is parents' open house to discuss action plans and summative assessments!

Dear Parents,

As previously mentioned, tomorrow morning from 7:45 until 8:30 you are welcome to come to Room 36 and Room 37 to discuss the action plans and summative assessment plans of each issue group.

This will be an informal meeting as the children are very busy working on summative assessments to bring together all of the knowledge that they have been learning.

You may want to ask the students questions like:

• What are you working on this week?
• What action or actions has your group decided to take?
• Is your action a direct action, indirect action, or advocacy?
• Where will your action take place?
• Who will be the target audience for your action?
• What makes you think your action will help solve your issue?
• What are some challenges you might face in doing your action?
• What are you making to show all of your knowledge?
• What technology are you using as part of your action and/or your summative assessment?
• How are you dividing up the work between your group members?
• Is there a leader of your group?
• What things have you found challenging this week?

• 
  
  
  

Ms. Penny Fields, Country Director for the Peace Corps, Talks to Grade 5s About Action!

The Grade 5 Exhibition Teaching Team and the Grade 5 students greatly appreciated having a chat with Ms. Penny Fields, the Cambodia Country Director for the U.S. Peace Corps on Thursday, May 8. Ms. Fields discussed the activities of the Peace Corps around the world and talked about how volunteers assist in the development of Education and Health sectors in rural Cambodia. Students listened raptly as Ms. Fields told some of her own stories of being a Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon. Thank you for your visit and for inspiring the Grade 5s to think hard about the actions they will take next week to address their Exhibition issues!  

Thank you to all parents for coming to our Open House!

The Exhibition Teaching Team and the Exhibition students would like to express their deep thanks for your consultations from last Thursday, May 8! Students benefitted enormously from sharing their research findings with all of you.

Please check out their blog entries from our Useful Links page! We hope to see you all again this Friday, May 16 from 7:45-8:30 in Room 36 and Room 37 to discuss ACTION!

Please see photos of the Open House by checking out our Picasa Web Album.

Week 6, Pick Up...THE PACE!

Image Credit: YellowFilter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode

Ok...now for a bit of variety, and a WHOLE LOT OF BUSY-NESS. Students should be by and large FINISHED with their research into their chosen issues early this week. What does this mean? Most groups should be dedicating their time to SORTING OUT this information, in the form of a summative assessment/synthesis, and MAKING CONNECTIONS between their new knowledge and the world around them.

These connections, we are hoping, are blossoming into ACTION PLANS that students will be putting together early this week. As part of constructing these action plans, students may be going on a field trip or listening to an expert specifically to find out about, discuss, or confirm what action can be taken to deal with their chosen issue.

Here is a bit of Mr. Jon's opening speech to his students this week that may also help you frame the work you are doing with students (and also might clear up some confusion over Action, Summative Assessment, and Presentation):

"This week, you have wrapped up your research but may be finding bits and pieces of information to fill in holes in your understanding of your issue.

This week, you are also bringing everything together into some sort of summative assessment that shows your new knowledge and answers all of your key concept questions (and more!). You have already decided what your summative assessment PRODUCT will be as part of your Summative Assessment Plan late last week. You will want to consult this plan throughout your work.

Now, try not to get this Summative Assessment confused with your Presentation on the Night and Day of the Exhibition (for the whole school community). By "Presentation" we mean, "How are you going to share your new knowledge and the entire Exhibition process with the whole school community?" As part of this PRESENTATION you may show your summative assessment, but overall the PRESENTATION will be bigger. It will include your summative assessment as a piece of evidence documenting the Exhibition journey, but will also showcase your journal and much more of the process.

You are also making a solid ACTION PLAN to address your issue this week. We are going to ask you and your group to think carefully about details of this action such as: what are you and your group actually going to do, what materials will you need to have, what places will you need to go to or use, what jobs will each person in your group have to accomplish to make your action successful, and what assistance will you require from teachers/parents/or experts. You will want to share this plan with your mentor at your meeting.

SPECIAL NOTE - Your summative assessment product will most likely be a part of your Action Plan.

Finally, we are going to go over a rubric with you that we will use to assess your entire trip through the Exhibition."

During Week 6 of the Exhibition Students Will Be...

BIG PICTURE for the Week

• Engaging in mostly "Sorting Out" and “Taking Action” activities related to their particular issue. Students are filling in holes in their research this week. Students are also completing action plans. Finally, students will also be shown the rubric that they and teachers will use to assess their Exhibition journey (Click here to see the Exhibition 2014 Rubric!).

little details for the week

Students, in their issue groups will:

• Be  doing final research about their issues on the internet and with other secondary sources, most likely as homework;
• Be reviewing how to accurately record bibliographic information in their journals using provided scaffolds;
• Be deciding what roles and tasks each student in the issue group must take on for this  week and next;
• Be sending thank you letters to local or international experts for the interviews, visits, or Skype meetings they have offered;
• Be meeting with guest speakers and experts from a variety of fields either on field trips or at school;
• Be summarizing the knowledge they get from each Primary or Secondary source;
• Be sharing these summaries with other group members at the end of the week;
• Be writing a reflection on the sixth week of the Exhibition about working on research and with their mentors, and about the status of their group work;
• Be completing a plan for some potential action they might take with their new knowledge that hopefully is: voluntary; self initiated; demonstrates responsibility and respect for selves, others, and/or the environment; and extends their own learning OR  has a wider social impact (Click here for Action Plan sheet!);
• And will be coming up with new questions they have been developing based on their issues, and arranging those based on concepts in their journals.

Reminder about Exhibition Parent's Open House tomorrow, Thursday, May 8 from 7:45 to 8:30 and Friday, May 16 from 7:45 to 8:30

Dear parents and guardians of the Grade 5 Exhibition Students,

Please remember that tomorrow, Thursday, May 8 from 7:45 - 8:30, we are going to have our first Open House meeting in your child's Exhibition' classroom (Rooms 36 and 37) in which you can come see what the Exhibition students have been up to for the past few weeks. 

We will have another Open House next Friday, May 16 from 7:45 - 8:30.

As part of this Open House, the Exhibition teachers would love you to talk to the Exhibition students, in small groups, about what they are finding out in their inquiries into their various issues and the process of the Exhibition in general. If you choose to come in on this morning, we will invite you to sit with a few groups of students and to have a chat with these students about the following items (amongst other things you may want to discuss):

• What have you and your group done so far related to the Exhibition?
• What have you learned about your issue so far?
• What plans do you have to collect more information?
• What are you trying to find out about your issue?
• Where have you gotten your information from? What experts?
• What tasks are you and your group trying to accomplish this week?
• What sorts of action can you take to address your issue?
• What sorts of action do organisations and other experts take to address your issue?
• What sorts of things did you have to do as a group in order to prepare for research?
• What is it like to have a mentor?

Students will have Exhibition journals, blogs, and research documents that you may want to discuss with them as well.

We  look forward to meeting all of you this week, AND/OR next Friday, May 16.

Thank you so much,

The 2014 Exhibition teaching team

Week 5 is here! PARENTS' OPEN HOUSE this week on Thursday, May 8 from 7:45 until 8:30!

We are over the halfway point in the Grade 5 Exhibition of 2014 this week! This week students are continuing to research into their issues, either through interviewing primary sources (experts), going on field trips, or looking into secondary sources of information in the form of books, websites, movies, and each other's notes!

Students, in their issue groups will:

• Be brainstorming and doing research about their issues on the internet and with other secondary sources; 
• Be meeting with parents who come in for our Parents' Open House on Thursday morning at 7:45; 
• Be reviewing how to accurately record bibliographic information using Easybib and Google documents; 
• Be deciding what roles and tasks each student in the issue group must take on for this week and next; 
• Be sending out more letters for the purpose of asking local or international experts for interviews, visits, or Skype meetings, and for thanking those same experts for their attention (if they have met with students already); 
• Be meeting with guest speakers and experts from a variety of fields either on field trips or at school 
• Be summarizing the knowledge they get from each Primary or Secondary source; 
• Be sharing these summaries with other group members at the end of the week; 
• Be writing a reflection on the fifth week of the Exhibition about working on research and with their mentors, and about the status of their group work; 
• Be brainstorming about ideas for presenting what they have learned during the actual Exhibition nights and days; 
• Be coming up with new questions they have been developing based on their issues, and arranging those based on concepts in their journals; 
• And will be brainstorming about ideas for action with issues groups and the whole year group.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR MENTORS

Mentors, please check out our For Mentors section of this blog for a list of ideas to work on with your issues groups.

SPECIAL NOTES FOR PARENTS

Parents, please remember that we have a Parents' Open House on Thursday, May 8 from 7:45 until 8:30 in Mr. Jon's room and Ms. Bridget's room. Please come and be prepared to meet with various issues groups to discuss and share what these students have been doing and learning during their inquiries as part of our Exhibition this year. We will send out a reminder as we get closer to the day. 

Also, please remember that Friday, May 9, there is no class for students due to professional development for teachers on that day. 

Finally, please check out some of the reflections students have been writing after meeting with guest speakers and taking field trips on our Useful Links section of this blog and our latest photos on our Photos and Media page!

Finding Out in Week 4!

After a frenetic few days last week of searching for local experts, writing and sending letters to these experts asking for interviews, meeting mentors, making Tweets about research hopes and findings, and blogging about their experiences, the Grade 5 ISPP Exhibition students are beginning to see their hard work pay off! Experts in many of the issues that students are inquiring into have begun responding to the students, interviews are beginning in our classrooms and around Phnom Penh at the offices and work places of NGOs, and field trips are planned and waiting to happen!

Some experts that our Social Issues Group students met last week and will be meeting with this week include: Ms. Janne Ritskes from Tabitha, Ms. Rana Flowers from UNICEF, Sophal Chhor from PACT, Mr. Supriyanto from PLAN, and Mr. Silas Everett from the World Bank (Asia Foundation).

On the green side, our Environmental Issues Group students met or will meet with Karen Nielsen from the Wildlife Conservation Society, Mr. Vong Khem from the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team and Wildlife Alliance, and Mr. Albert Weinmann from Mlup - Baitong. The Endangered Animals Groups have also helped arrange their own field trip to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center and are set to head out on Thursday, May 1.

The Grade 5s are thrilled to meet with all of these experts in the various issues as they move through the "Finding Out" stage of their inquiries. The ISPP 2014 Exhibition Teaching Team likewise extends a huge thank you to the community for supporting the students' learning this year!

This week, please remember to check out student blogs on our Useful Links page.

Parents, please look on the For Parents page of this blog to find handy items like field trip permission slips! Also, please remember that we have an assembly this week, and a Parent's Open House morning on Thursday, May 8 from 7:30 until 8:30.

Finally, please remember to check our photos from this Exhibition by clicking the Photos and Media page and as always...Follow us on Twitter @ISPPExhibitions

First Field Trip Tomorrow (April 25) for the Environmental Issues Groups in Mr. Jon's Exhibition Class!

Students in the Endangered Animals, Deforestation, and Pollution groups will all be taking vans to the United States Embassy tomorrow morning to listen to a panel of visiting U.S. scientists and officials from the Marine Mammal Commission, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Marine Fisheries Services give an update on the Irrawaddy dolphin and efforts to conserve this graceful and endangered denizen of the Mekong river in Kratie province.  

Guest speakers will include: 

Frances Gulland, Senior Scientist at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA and Commissioner of the Marine Mammal Commission

Randy Reeves, Chair of the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group and Chair of the Committee of Scientific Advisors, Marine Mammal Commission

Robert L. Brownell, Jr., Senior Scientist National Marine Fisheries Service

Randy Wells, Mote Marine Lab, Sarasota, Fl.

Andy Read, Duke University.

Peter Thomas, Marine Mammal Commission

If your child is currently in Mr. Jon's class for the Exhibition, please make sure she or he returns to school tomorrow with the permission slip, signed by you, that went home today. 

Students will leave ISPP at 8:20am and return by 10:10am.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3002/2994057677_5ff77b75fc_o.jpg
25/04/14

Week 3 of the Grade 5 Exhibition of 2014 Has Begun!

Welcome back to school after a lovely and warm Khmai New Year break!

 Here in Grade 5, we will be jumping right back into the Exhibition.

Especially mentors, but parents and students as well, please check our "For Mentors" section of this blog to find out what sorts of activities will be going on this week regarding the Exhibition.

Or click this link below:

For Mentors

Special Note for Exhibition Students About Homework This Week!

To our hardworking Exhibition 2014 students,

Your teachers commend you on your leadership skills in guiding your parents through your learning today at the student led conferences! You were confident, enthusiastic, and independent in your presentations and really showed your development as communicators and knowledgeable thinkers!

Now, we have received questions from some of you about the Cornell Note Taking system...please see the "For Students" section of this blog for more info about this...or click the following link:

For Students

Reminder for Parents of the Student Led Conferences this Thursday, April 10th. No class for students.

Dear parents and guardians of the Grade 5 Exhibition students,

The Grade 5 Exhibition teaching team would like to remind you that the Student Led Conferences of 2014 are coming up this Thursday, April 10.

Please remember that you must come at your allotted time * with your child to your child's original classroom where he or she will guide you through his or her work and reflections for the past semester. 

Please be prepared to discuss your child's learning with him or her during the 30 minutes or so you will spend together in the classroom. After you have spent this time together in the classroom, you may go visit your child's specialist teachers together. 

Some useful conversation starters while meeting with your child on this day are as follows:

• What did you learn from this piece of work?

• If you had to do this piece of work again, what would you do differently?

• When you think back over your year so far, what makes you proud? Why?

• What are some of the things you would like to work on before the end of the school year?

We look forward to seeing you on this special day,

The Grade 5 Exhibition teaching team

*If you cannot come at your allotted time or you are unsure of your allotted time, please contact Ms. Kaltrina (kaltrinarexhepi@ispp.edu.kh) or your child's teacher.

READ ALL ABOUT IT! Excerpts from Student Reflections on Week 1 (Written by the Grade 5 Exhibition Students!)

"Five guest speakers in a week! Wow! This was one busy yet fun week! The best part of this week was listening to Ms. Amy and Mr. Vibol from Wildlife Alliance. Ms. Amy talked to us about the amazing WRRT who catch down those nasty wildlife hunters, keepers, traders and sellers. Mr. Vibol talked about reforestation and the forest in Koh Kong. I love the idea of reforestation giving life back to the forest! Ms. Causland, she sparked me up. One of her talks inspired me - floods and droughts always seem to happen in Cambodia. Last year there was a big flood and nearly everyone got affected....."  
(from Carolyn)

"This week was the beginning of the Exhibition. My highlights of the week were listening to Ms. Janne talk about Tabitha, Ms. Kritin about I.O.M. I enjoyed listening to Ms. McCausland from Action Aid, and Mr. Haig from Little Big Films. One of the talks that touched me was Ms. Amy and Mr. Vibol talking to us on Wildlife Alliance. These guest speakers intrigued me and they were great sources of information when you are thinking about what to do...." 

(from Zeke)

"This week was a week to get used to the new classes without grade fours, however it was a pretty good week. My highlight  of the week was when Ms.Dadey revisited to talk about human labor and trafficking, because I learned about human trafficking and the cause of it.

The issues I have chosen for Exhibition are: climate change because of how the change of the climate has a huge impact on earth and people, endangered animals because of how people don't see animals are living beings just like us and last but not least human trafficking because of the impact of trafficking on people's families and impact on people in general." (from James)

"This has been the first week of the Exhibition I have got interested in so many things but I have got my eye on 3 things: Child Labor, Women's Rights and Health Care. I was interested in Child Labor for a long time but once Exhibition started I got more interested. Tabitha and Action Aid really pulled me into it. Did you know how many women have no rights? Imagine this, you are a women and people say you're a house wife. You don't have the right to school and work. All you do is chores. How would you feel? Health Care........ most of the time when women are in poverty they get sick sometimes they die at the age of 30-40. I really want to learn and take action to save them." (from Sopheak)

"Finally, I'm going to talk about why I choose my top three issues which are deforestation, endangered animals or animals extinction and land pollution. I chose deforestation because I really adore nature around me. Like plants. At home, sometimes I watered plants that I grow but when I heard about cutting down trees, I was so mad. So that is why I chose deforestation. I chose endangered animals because I really love animals and how they interact with other animals. I chose land pollution because I love the planet earth and the environment." (from Techavoan)

"Hi there! The first week of exhibition just finished. I had a lot of fun. This week we had many guest speakers. There were people from many NGO's. Like: Wildlife Alliance, IOM, Tabitha, Little Big films and Action Aid. For each of the guest speakers that visited us, we wrote a reflection. In the reflections, we had to write what we learned, what they showed us, what we thought about it, etc. We had to write reflections for Ms. Caroline, Ms. Janne, Ms. Amy and Mr. Neth, Ms. Kristin and Mr. Haig.

We stuck our week one checklist into our journals that we recently got. In the checklist we had to tick the things that we finished in the week. we had many pieces of work in groups.We chose the groups by doing the lucky dip. But sometimes, we just worked in our table groups. We worked on things like: a visualizing reflection, a discussion on the key concepts, a collage of issues and when Ms. Kim visited to do things with us.

We chose our issues too! I chose water pollution, animal extinction and deforestation. I chose them because they are a very dangerous and common threat to the environment. They are destroying the environment, causing the world to get unhealthier.

Overall, it's been a great week. I am feeling happy and joyful right now. I also enthusiastic because I want to go out there to take action." (from Aakanksh)

Students have chosen issues and groups have been formed for the 2014 ISPP Grade 5 Exhibition!!!

As a result of meeting with many guest speakers and taking part in exploratory issues research activities last week, Grade 5 students chose the following issues to inquire into:

Human Rights

Access to Education

Children's Rights

Child Labor

Human Trafficking

Poverty

Deforestation

Endangered Animals

Pollution

Students may still break some of the broader of these issues down into smaller issues, but the Exhibition teachers have already formed groups based on expressed interest. 

Students will learn of their groups and which classroom they will be based in on Monday morning at 7:30am. 

This week, students will create questions and lines of inquiry about their chosen issue centred around the key concepts of: form, function, change, connection, causation, perspective, reflection, and responsibility.  

ATTENTION MENTORS! REVISION TO EXHIBITION CALENDAR! Mentor Meeting on Monday, April 7 at 2:45 in Ms. Bridget's Room has been changed to an OPTIONAL meeting/Gmail chat time IF you have questions or concerns!

The Exhibition teaching team has sent you a link to a document in which we have organised students by issue group and homeroom teacher. On this document, you will also see which mentor we have matched each issue group with. Mentors, please check the list to see which group you will be working with and edit it by adding three times during the week that you have time to meet with students and a place in which you will host these meetings.

Rather than have a formal meeting about this document during this busy week, if you have questions or any concerns about the information on this list you may do the following:

1) Send Ms. Bridget and/or Mr. Jon an email;

2) Start a Gmail chat with Ms. Bridget and/or Mr. Jon on Monday, April 7;

3) Start a Gmail voice chat with Ms. Bridget and/or Mr. Jon from 2:45pm on Monday, April 7;

4) Start a Gmail video chat with Ms. Bridget and/or Mr. Jon from 2:45pm on Monday, April 7;

5) Drop by Ms. Bridget's room from 2:45 until 3:30 on Monday, April 7.

As always, thank you for choosing to be a mentor for this great group of kids this year.

The 2014 Exhibition Has Begun!!!

The Grade 5 ISPP students changed class early Monday morning, March 31 bubbling with excitement. Immediately, they jumped into exploring various issues through reading books and scanning a few selected websites in order to find facts for a "Did you know...?" wall that they will organise based on issues later this week. After this learning engagement, students began to discuss and draft a list of potential issues to inquire into.

This morning, students met with our second guest speaker, Ms. Caroline McCausland from ActionAid Cambodia. The students listened and took part in lively discussions with her about poverty and its causes, issues of access to education, human rights, and disaster management, and ways that organisations like ActionAid Cambodia seek to help Cambodian people and the government to deal with these issues. In collaborative groups, the Grade 5s then planned and created murals to demonstrate what they had learned from Ms. McCausland before Tweeting about her talk. Students benefited from an early exposure to a variety of issues and to the concept of action through her visit; as teachers, we hope that they are already formulating ideas about what action they might take as a result of their inquiries.

Please remember to check out recent photos of our Exhibition as it unfolds by clicking on the "Photos and Media" section of this blog or by clicking the following link:

Photos and Media

The 2014 ISPP Grade 5 Exhibition Parents' Information Evening...a Successful Night of Dialogue!

Image credit: All photos Courtesy of Alison Stanton

Thank you so much to the many parents and students who came to our Exhibition Parents' Information Evening last Thursday. The Exhibition teaching team thoroughly enjoyed the high quality conversations about issues connecting to our central idea this year, "Human beings have the. We also hope that all who attended have a much deeper understanding about what the Exhibition truly is, a collaborative inquiry initiated by the students into global issues that hopefully culminates with some sort of action based on students' new knowledge. We also thank all of you who took the time to fill out the slips with information relating to how you might be able to facilitate the students' inquiries based on your own expertise. If you missed this meeting, you may view the Google Slides presentation by checking out the "For Parents" section of this blog or by clicking the link below:

For Parents Section of this Blog

Parents and guardians, please remember to fill out the information form on the "For Students" section of this blog with your child as well. You can reach this form at the following link:

For Students Section of this Blog

We look forward to the official start of the 2014 Exhibition tomorrow morning!

Grade 5 Exhibition of 2014 Parents' Information Night is Coming!

Dear Grade 5 Parents,

The Grade 5 students will soon begin a culminating experience of all their learning in Elementary School, the PYP Exhibition. We would like to invite you and your Grade 5 child to attend the PYP Exhibition Information Evening on Thursday 27th March 2014. The event will be held in the Media Centre on the elementary campus. We will start promptly at 5:30pm.

During the presentation, you will receive information on:

• What is the Grade 5 Exhibition

• Its purpose

• The role of the students, parents and teachers

• Ways you can support your child at home

We look forward to seeing you and your child there.

Sincerely,

The PYP Exhibition Team

Ms. Bridget (G4/5 Teacher)

Mr. Jon (G4/5 Teacher)

Ms. Carolyne (EAL Teacher)

Ms. Susan (LS Teacher)

Ms. Kim (Acting Elementary Principal)

Please follow the Grade 5 Exhibitions blog by email!

Parents, teachers, mentors, and especially students will be very busy during this year's Grade 5 Exhibition.

Sometimes we may be so busy, gasp, that we forget to check this blog for updates...

Never fear!!!

You can "Follow" this blog very easily. Just search for the form on this page, beneath the calendar, that prompts you to enter your email address. Once you do this, hit submit, and verify that you are a human being, not a bot. You will then receive a final confirmation form in your email. Click on this link and you will be set to receive all updates from this blog! 

We highly recommend that students, parents, teachers, and mentors all follow this blog. 

Please see below for a graphic that might help you find the "Follow this blog" form.

Calling All Mentors! Find the Document Covering Our First Meeting in the Mentor Section of this Blog!

Image Credit: Pablo E. Fabisch, Les Adventures de Telemaque. via http://paesmem.stanford.edu/html/proceedings_4.html

Thank you so much to all of the mentors who came to share ideas both about what the Exhibition means to them and their thoughts on what mentors should or could do for students throughout the Exhibition. You can find a link to the Google Doc we all created by checking the "For Mentors" page (the "dropdown" menu above) or by clicking the following link:

For Mentors Page

Students Create Central Idea for the 2014 Grade 5 Exhibition!

Image by Ryan Leach via http://openclipart.org/

On Monday, March 3, the ISPP Grade 5 students met again with Ms. Kim Engasser to discuss the transdisciplinary theme, "Sharing the Planet", and to distill a central idea from it. Students worked together in groups of three or four to combine their own versions of pieces of the the transdisciplinary theme they found engaging. After this exercise, the Exhibition teachers facilitated a combination of the best parts of many of these groups' central ideas.

The resulting central idea for the 2014 Grade 5 ISPP Exhibition is:

Human beings have a right to have their basic needs met and the responsibility to share natural resources with other living things.

Having come up with this central idea, students will be taking a break from Exhibition preparatory meetings to focus on their current unit of inquiry on materials.

NEXT ON THE EXHIBITION AGENDA...

During the first week of the Exhibition starting on March 31, students will be exposed to many issues through guest speakers, a field trip, and small research sessions. As a parent, you can help your child prepare to select an issue that falls into the realm of our central idea by having conversations about problems both of you see in the world around you everyday.

Mentors, your attention please! Please remember the Mentor's Tea on Thursday, March 13 from 2:45 to 3:45 (at the latest) in Bridget's room.

The Exhibition Teaching Team looks forward to meeting with you again for a more in-depth discussion of the Exhibition and what it means to be a mentor.

You may want to check out documents related to this meeting prior to the meeting itself. 

You can find these documents in this folder:

For Mentor's Eyes

OR check the attachments listed on the invitation we have sent you over Calendar. 

Follow the ISPP Grade 5 Exhibition of 2014 on Twitter!

Image Credit: Sergej Khakimullin / Shutterstock via http://www.redorbit.com/

This year, the Grade 5 students will be incorporating many different technologies and social networking platforms into their Exhibition work; this will be in an effort to increase the collaborative aspect of the Exhibition as much as possible. These apps and technologies will expand upon what students have been learning all year and will include well known applications such as: Google Apps for Education (including Google Drive, Calendar, Docs, and Slides) and Blogger. Students also may use apps such as Voicethread, book making apps, threering, iMovie, and the Educreations suite.

Another platform they will be experimenting with is Twitter. As such, the Exhibition teaching team has created a Twitter account to be used by Exhibition students, teachers, mentors, and parents as a forum for sharing, commenting on, and presenting of new learning.

Our Twitter handle will be @ISPPExhibitions. Please follow us!

For now, any tweeting you see will be from Exhibition teachers. As such, we will be mostly tweeting links to news sites that may be of interest to students as they are searching for issues to explore throughout this Exhibition.

As the Exhibition picks up speed, students will be doing most of the reading and tweeting.

Stay tuned!

Second Exhibition Meeting Completed! Students Have Interpreted the Transdisciplinary Theme "Sharing the Planet"!

Grade 5 students met for the second time last week to learn about and interpret the transdisciplinary theme for the Exhibition at ISPP, "Sharing the Planet".

This theme can be described in the following manner, based on the PYP document, "Making the PYP Happen":

Sharing the planet

An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other

people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between

them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.

Students worked in groups to read through this descriptor, highlight words they were unfamiliar with, and to describe sections of the description in their own words. 

This is all part of the Exhibition process. Students start out by looking at the big picture of the unit in the form of an overarching theme and will be zooming in on concepts and issues that go into understanding this theme as the Exhibition progresses. In the coming weeks, students will be: creating a central idea to guide their inquiries through this unit, doing some initial research into various issues that could help them understand this central idea,  and writing questions about these issues based around the key concepts of form, change, function, connection, causation, perspective, responsibility, and reflection. 

Check out the photos below to see students in action and records of what they discussed together.