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.

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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