Reorganizing, rethinking

So today I had a department meeting with Casey, and since it became just the two of us for reasons beyond our control, we got to talk about more than just what was on the agenda and it cleared some things up for me. Thinking about things from a PYP perspective has been a challenge for me, because I thought I had to think in units, and units seem, to me, like they need little parts that build up to something bigger, and getting those separate little parts finished has been frustrating me. Whew.

But she reiterated something today that I hadn't fully realized when I was planning before - my timing for the units of inquiry doesn't have to align fully with the classroom teachers unless I'm fully integrated. Which means the portrait/landscape/still life unit I was trying to fit in after completing my unit on materials (which is going WAY over the time frame I anticipated), just got zapped. bzzt! Now I can actually finish the project we've been doing without sacrificing quality. Now I can read them Where the Wild Things Are and discuss what sort of wild things our paint monsters are becoming! Now I can really get the kids to look at the pictures of the waves rolling onto the beach, and talk about what colors the water is.

Yee-haw.

With that in mind, this afternoon took on a more relaxed pace. I used the last of the yellow circles Olga traced for me and let the class that botched it last week try again, and the class that didn't even get as far as cutting out their circle got to back up, draw a better bird, and start on the cage. It was fantastic, and I, for one, felt better knowing that they were going to make something cool, rather than having it be sort of half-assed because they were the first class that I tried it with (now - for a while at least - that dubious honor will shift to 1W on Tuesday afternoon, but they seem more up to the challenge).

The kiln is not ready, so we are not going to be painting and assembling our windchimes this week. Instead I'm going to go ahead and start talking about the next unit, which deals with the way people decorate their homes. I think I will take advantage of the fact that I have the flexibility to set up double periods and do some with year two if I can figure out the best time to do so. I'm thinking of doing a mosaic or weaving. Tomorrow will deal with cave paintings, so I'm off to pull pictures from Altamira, etc.