Greetings everyone.
As the seasons turn once more from Winter to Spring, I hope this finds you well and glad of heart.
Grades 4 & 5 have been busy this month with making preparations for their upcoming PYP Exhibition.
Our Transdisciplinary theme for this unit is Sharing the Planet. And within this, we are exploring Environment and human connections and responsibilities in relation to.
We began February with the students choosing their working groups for this project and then developing their own group Lines of Inquiry (LOI).
Throughout this year, the students have been heavily involved with the formation of LOI’s but this has been their first time developing these areas of inquiry by themselves. So far, so good!
Whilst their critical skills are still emerging, overall I have been impressed with their grasp of sub-themes and key concepts.
From our Central Idea, “All life on Earth is interconnected and bound by limits“, we had a really great conversation based around “What are limits?” and specifically, “What are limits at ISN Gojo?”. For example, everyone was adamant that, while board games are fun to play, spending all the school budget on games while continually buying them and filling the classrooms to overflowing with them, was definitely not a good idea. However, we then scaled this up to the global level and the question of whether it is a good idea for people to continually buy things they might not need proved a little more difficult to swallow. However, after some consideration the class decided that the refrain of “Reduce and Refuse” would be a helpful guiding principle with regards to production and consumption.
As you can see from the above photo, we had multiple examples of extreme situations at school (in white) while solutions were proffered (in blue).
An ISN Gojo campus were students called “Mizuno-chan” were offered all the best facilities and lavished with attention, proved particularly engaging. This entered into discussions about the lasting values of (bio)diversity and equity.
The students are now hard at work and looking forward to sharing their explorations with you next Friday 7th March. Be reminded that the exhibition times will be from 09:00-09:30 and 11:30-12:00, with the end of year music concert from 09:30-11:30.
We look forward to seeing you all there. 👍🏽
And finally, as another school year comes to an end, we bid farewell to several students. From Grade 4, Ayane and Gaia and from Grade 5, Kokono. As one door closes, another opens and I wish them all the best with their further adventures.
And to everyone, your kindness and support have meant the world to me. May new beginnings be filled with joyful possibilities.
Fare thee well.
Martyn 🌳
