Leigh in Azerbaijan » school

Exhibition Day in the PYP

Leigh Newton — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:31:25 +0000

The morning of the Exhibition! Final touches are put to the displays. I was rather proud of the kids today as they presented at their stands. They presented at an Assembly to parents and other invited guests, with scripts that gave some information from what they had learned in this unit. They sang Mad World to begin with and We Are The World with a harmony to conclude. Some people, including this one, had tears in their eyes at the end.

These grade 5 kids are surveying people, testing their questions, graphing and analysing results, interviewing people and researching issues around the world. Did do you much of that when you were in grade 5? In addition they present their learning at stands for 2 and a bit days to various groups that come to visit, from pre-schoolers to parents. I reckon it’s all rather impressive.

Sadly there’s one more unit to go after this.

Artistic Shoes

Leigh Newton — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:19:17 +0000

Priscilla would be proud. Grade 4s at TISA have just posted their work on the passage wall down from my room. I was impressed. … and I love this one…

Teacher display goes up

Leigh Newton — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:54:12 +0000

I don’t have photos yet but Michael and I with Natasha have put up our teaching time-line and teaching process display for the Exhibition. We’ve also included a display on the Student Profile, which is jargon for the characteristics that we believe students should have in the PYP. Monday we get to finish the display with mobiles.

The large rental display boards arrived. Sadly our order for purchasing a new set from last December was vetoed and then another order was also cancelled this year, so they had to hire some instead. Crazy logic.

Our display must be good as one student was overheard to say, “The teacher display is seriously awesome!”

We have a holiday today. The ex-Soviet realm is celebrating Victory Day. This is from Wikipedia:

Victory Day marks the end of World War II in Europe, specifically the capitulation of Nazi Allies (the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, the United States and other principal Allied nations) on May 8, 1945. It is celebrated in the successor states to the Soviet Union on May 9, because when the German Instrument of Surrender actually entered into force (May 8, 1945 at 23:01 CET), it was already May 9 in the USSR and Eastern Europe.

Democracy is a funny thing here. The minister for internal affairs here reckons that democracy doesn’t allow groups to meet of their own free will. He wears a military uniform. You can make your own conclusions.