Good Bye ISM

For the past two years, I have been very lucky. I got the opportunity to teach with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever International School of Morocco. Working in an environment where we would walk into each others' classrooms and get inspired regularly was wonderful.  It always seemed that we were spiraling great teaching ideas off of each other. The ideas that other teachers at this school gave me inspired me to do more for my students, to push myself to allow them new and different learning opportunities, and to expand my ideas of teaching.

Before coming to ISM, I was already a strong, project based teacher with ESL experience and a thirst for technology integration.  ISM has a lot of technology for it's students - iPads, iMacs, projectors etc.  This allowed me to experiment with lots of new technologies and push my students to experiment with different programs and presentation models.  This school encouraged my Edmodo use to build community within my students.  This has been especially important for my international, English language learner population, with students from more than 8 different countries.

As a candidate for the PYP (Primary Years Program - precursor to International Baccalaureate), ISM has encouraged me to take my standard pre-fabricated projects that I have always done with students and give over the control of research, project development and evaluation to the students, with me taking more and more of the "guide on the side" role.  I found out how much I loved watching my students take control over their own learning and how much more they learned when the ideas they were researching inspired and interested them.  Inquiry based lessons and student responsibility for learning is often hard to implement, but these two years I have learned exactly how wonderful they are to have in your classroom.

Tomorrow, I will get on a plane for my new adventure - homeschooling my own children with the lessons I learned these past two years, traveling around the world in an RV, and spending time perfecting my resources to help out other teachers.  But first, here are some of my favorite moments from the last two years:

 

Seeing the creative designs my kids came up with when tasked to make a car that would go the furthest distance:

or to keep a water bottle frozen for the day:

  

Using the kitchen to further our science lessons by making lolipops to experiment with irreversible and reversible change:

or create a real life model of different types of rocks:

Watching students present their online portfolios to their parents:

Watching my students master technologies that I hadn’t yet mastered: Prezi, Powtoon, iMovie etc. :

Getting a chance to participate in my children’s PE during swimming time – you really learn so much more about your kids when you get them in a pool!

  Watching students work across age levels to help each other out on a wide range of projects:

 

Going on some amazing field trips – from a free range beach trip to explore tide pools, to the inside of factories, to ancient Roman ruins:

Good bye ISM!  Thank you for the lessons and memories.

Desert Landscapes with Real Sand

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

One of the things I love at ISM is that an effort is always made to integrate our science and social studies topics into our enrichments – art, music and drama.  Last year, the teachers taught the enrichment classes.  I taught art and we made African masks during our Africa unit and lamps during our Machines unit.  This year, we are lucky enough to have a full time enrichment teacher, Emma Sanders, who has done a lot of integration as well, including doing marble art during a forces unit and newspaper collages of important economic articles during our economy unit.  One of my kids’ favorite integrations – and the thing that showed up time and again on their online portfolio planning sheets as their “favorite part of art” was sand art.

Currently, our entire school is studying the desert.  Ms. Sanders did a project with the students where they drew desert landscapes in sand.  First, students poured sand on their paper and used their fingers to draw out what they wanted.  Then they took a picture of this to hold their “brainstorming” electronically.  Next, students took another piece of paper and used glue sticks to make their design.  They then sprinkled sand over the glue and voila – desert landscapes with real sand.

 

How does your school integrate the arts?

 

Desert Day

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

For the last science unit of the year, all of the students at the International School of Morocco study a biome – on a four year rotation.  Last year we studied the forest (to align with our study of Ancient Rome).  This year we are studying the desert (to align with our study of Ancient Egypt.)  Next year, we will study the rainforest (to align with our study of the Mayas and Incas).

Since we live on the edge of the Sahara desert, it would be very easy to make this unit about only the Sahara desert.  However, in the spirit of international mindedness, we all felt that it was very important for students to learn about the different kinds of deserts that appear around the world.  The older students (Year 3 – Year 6 or 2nd – 5th grade) are each researching the plants, animals and peoples of one of the deserts around the world – from the Mojave desert to the Attacama desert to Antarctica and will be creating a “Virtual Field Trip Experience” with their data.  The Year 1 & Year 2 students have compared animals and plants from different deserts while looking into food chains.  The whole school has been learning about how all life in the desert has adapted to these harsh biomes.  The Reception students even learned about how camel caravans used the stars to find their way through the desert.

To give our students even more exposure, we turned our half day into a “Desert  Day” where students rotated through 4 different deserts – each from a different continent.  The students worked together in their multiage “house” groups (from 3 years old to 11 years old).  In each room, students learned about the plants and animals of the desert, but they also spent time learning about the people of the area and the cultures that developed in these tough climates.  Here is a bit of what we did:

The Sahara Desert in Africa

In the Saharan Desert room, the students learned about Dromedary camels, cactus, and the Berber peoples of the Saharan with Mrs. Kadiri and Ms. Tolentino.  They learned how to wrap their head and face to protect themselves from sand storms.  They also learned about the tea ceremonies of the Berber people, and the tea ceremonies where people pour tea from a “camel”.  Students simulated this by sitting on top of the table and attempting to pour water into a cup below.

The Gobi Desert in Asia

In the Gobi Desert room, the students learned about Bactrian camels, wild onions and the people of Mongolia with Ms. Johnson.  They also learned about the yurts they live in, the music they make and about the Olzii symbol, also called the never-ending knot, which symbolizes the infinite universe and cycle of life and death to the people of Mongolia.  The Olzii symbol is said to keep away evil spirits and bring prosperity.  Students then created their own versions of the Olzii symbol with paint.

The “Outback” Deserts in Australia

In the Australian Desert room, the students learned about kangaroos, dingoes, Eucalyptus trees, and the aboriginal people of Australia with Ms. Nassar.  They learned about the oldest instrument – the Didgeridoo, about ancient rock painting and about body painting.  Then, students had a chance to create their own rock paintings, body paintings and even their own Didgeridoos.

 

The Chihuahuan Desert in North America

In the Chihuahuan Desert room, the students learned about bats, buffalos, javalenias, mesquite plants and the Apache Native Americas of the Southwester United States and Mexico with me.  We learned about how the Apache made clothes of animal hides and beadwork, and made baskets with willow shoots.  Then, we tried our hand at weaving – mats for the younger students and baskets for the older students.  The baskets turned out to be a lot of work, and many students got frustrated, but all left with a sense of appreciation for the work that goes into making those beautiful tools.

 

Throughout the day, students carried with them their Desert Day Book, so that they could record facts about each desert and reflect on their learning.  If you are interested in doing a Desert Day at your school, feel free to download the book for free from Google Docs.

What collaborative days has your school done?

  

Earth Week Activities

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

To celebrate Earth Day, we had an entire Earth Week at the International School of Morocco.  Here are some of the things that we did to celebrate this week:

Monday morning, we gathered for a whole school read aloud of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.  That afternoon, our Year 3 – Year 6 (2nd – 5th grade) students used this book as an inspiration for their persuasive posters to convince people to take care of the earth.

    

  

 

Monday afternoon, we had a “Energy Free Afternoon” where students and teachers did not use electricity for the afternoon.  It was a great way for students to realize how many things (like internet and iPad chargers) required electricity.

 

On Wednesday, we did Earth Week Rotations where students moved in their “house groups”, which are mixed age groups of students from Nursery (3 year olds) to Year 6 (11 year olds).  Students moved through these four rotations of Earth Day activities:

Rotation 1:  Bottle cap mural – students used old bottle caps (We’ve been collecting them for weeks.) to create a mural of flours and sky.

  

Rotation 2:  Tagxedos & Hand prints – students brainstormed words about ecology and used them to create Tagxedos.  Then, students created “globe handprints” by painting their hands with blue and green paint.

   

   

      

Rotation 3:  Earth Day RAFT – students worked in groups to create something to persuade others to take care of the earth.  Students chose one Role, one Audience, one Format and one Topic using the organizer below.

 

      

 

 

 

 

Rotation 4:  Mrs. Rumphius – students read the book Mrs. Rumphius, planted sunflower seeds and wrote or draw about how to make the world beautiful.

 

       

 

On Thursday, the Nursery students created a picture of the earth with tissue paper. 

We gathered together to watch the animated version of The Lorax and compare and contrast it with the book that we read on Monday.

 

On Friday, we had a whole school picnic and game session where we taught the students games that you could play WITHOUT buying new equipment or by reusing materials.  Some of the games that we played were egg and spoon races, pillowcase races, sponge races and hot potato.

    

All throughout the week, Year 3 – Year 6 students worked on the Level 4 – Earth Week section of my Spring Holiday packet and worked on the words: natural resources, ecology, environment, reduce, reuse, recycle, litter and protect.

     

How did your school celebrate Earth Day?