With an eye to collaboration with an NGO here in China, the grade 11 Language and Literature class hosted an administrator from Asia Catalyst during their class to go over information about the company and what kind of assistance the class could provide. It was an hour of information about what this NGO is trying to achieve here and also a time to Skype with one of the actual organizations they assist.
The students had prepared a list of questions to ask both the ladies they would talk to. These included the gathering of information about the organizations and also about what they need he most help with. The kept notes as the answers were given. It was great to see how many students were using their MacBooks to do this. One of the students from the class was chosen as the interpreter for the interview with the lady from Henan since she not speak English. The answers were then given back to the class in English. Truly a real world experience for this young man.
By the time it was over the students have decided to work with Asia Catalyst and the Henan Womans Network in the production of a booklet of information, advertising brochure and posters. The students will also assist with the production of an English section to existing websites. In order to complete this there will be four groups in the class; copy writing, editing, layout and design, and management. Overseeing all this will be a leader from each of these groups who will meet regularly with both the groups in the class and also Asia Catalyst as the project progresses this semester.
Look for more on this as they year progresses.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
IFS Starts a New Course
Integrated Field Studies is a new course in the grade 11 curriculum and in meeting with the teachers they have plenty of god ideas to integrate technology into the course. Since one of the learning goals of the course is to reflect regularly on personal learning, it was thought that a Blog would be a good place for this. The concern was that the students might not be as reflective because of the open nature of a blog. A decision to use the blog on StudyWiz was made as it is a personal blog between student and teacher only. It appears to have all the needs of the teacher for the course.
Secondly was a look at the field book that students will be keeping. It will involve, but not be limited to, field notes, interviews, labs, photographs, charts and graphs and perhaps a movie. In order for all of this to be collated together, Pages was the clear choice. It can be set up to the personal style of the teacher and all of the elements can be a part of this file. The file can be transposed into ePub so that anyone with a tablet or smartphone can use it. If iBooks was used then the only publishing possibility would be and iPad - this is too limiting.
Integrated Field Studies uses a local community here in Beijing to do its study. They look at the changes in certain criteria over time and report his back to the Community Leaders. It is an excellent way for students to be involved in a real part of Beijing, look at a real life situation and be personally involved in their own learning. There are projects associated with this that are determined by the nature of the class and also student interests.
Secondly was a look at the field book that students will be keeping. It will involve, but not be limited to, field notes, interviews, labs, photographs, charts and graphs and perhaps a movie. In order for all of this to be collated together, Pages was the clear choice. It can be set up to the personal style of the teacher and all of the elements can be a part of this file. The file can be transposed into ePub so that anyone with a tablet or smartphone can use it. If iBooks was used then the only publishing possibility would be and iPad - this is too limiting.
Integrated Field Studies uses a local community here in Beijing to do its study. They look at the changes in certain criteria over time and report his back to the Community Leaders. It is an excellent way for students to be involved in a real part of Beijing, look at a real life situation and be personally involved in their own learning. There are projects associated with this that are determined by the nature of the class and also student interests.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Journey Through Social Science
Social Studies is off to a great start with a neat change to an old idea. In the past, grade 9 students completed an Interactive Activities Notebook (IAN) as part of their Asian Studies class. All grade 9 students at ISB are required to take this class.
This year the Social Studies department started to look at alternatives to this assessment and some of the ideas were amazing. I the first meeting, which was held on Aug 14 the member that teach this class thought up a whole new approach to this.
Basically it will be a journey through the year and involve more of a project based model. Students will look at questions that are important to them, through the lens of Asian Studies, determine the areas they are interested in and then propose changes or alternative to help answer the questions. They will research these questions and keep notes, interviews, action plans, reading and reflections on what they find.
And the best part of this to me, it will all be completed electronically. At the moment the final product has not be determined as there are some updates to essential questions and enduring understandings that still need to be worked through. One of the teachers of the class will look at preparing an introduction to the students as this new model is moved forward in the class this year.
The learning that could come from this may be in the areas of individualized learning (students will be more engaged in something they have a personal stake in), project based learning (steps will be taken to arrange this assignment in this form of model which emphasizes and orderly progression from pertinent question through to suggested solution), problem solving in a real world (the topic will be current and pertinent to the student) and creativity (solutions can be formed from a myriad of research).
Watch as this unfolds and there is more work on it.
This year the Social Studies department started to look at alternatives to this assessment and some of the ideas were amazing. I the first meeting, which was held on Aug 14 the member that teach this class thought up a whole new approach to this.
Basically it will be a journey through the year and involve more of a project based model. Students will look at questions that are important to them, through the lens of Asian Studies, determine the areas they are interested in and then propose changes or alternative to help answer the questions. They will research these questions and keep notes, interviews, action plans, reading and reflections on what they find.
And the best part of this to me, it will all be completed electronically. At the moment the final product has not be determined as there are some updates to essential questions and enduring understandings that still need to be worked through. One of the teachers of the class will look at preparing an introduction to the students as this new model is moved forward in the class this year.
The learning that could come from this may be in the areas of individualized learning (students will be more engaged in something they have a personal stake in), project based learning (steps will be taken to arrange this assignment in this form of model which emphasizes and orderly progression from pertinent question through to suggested solution), problem solving in a real world (the topic will be current and pertinent to the student) and creativity (solutions can be formed from a myriad of research).
Watch as this unfolds and there is more work on it.
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