Today was my first field trip in a year and a half. I really enjoyed being out with the kids in a less-structured way than class time, and seeing the work that they did (we went to RAK's Saqer Park where the Year One classes did plein air sketching), but I also kind of wonder if it might not be more relevant to see an art display of some kind next year. I'll have to be better prepared for it.
Today also marked the first class I taught all week. The last two days were PYP training, which was a good and necessary experience. But at the end, I still found myself wanting more. As I completed my first "reflections" area of my planner, I had to face the facts - I didn't have much to put in the "Student-initiated Inquiries" section. I don't think I really know how to generate student inquiries, and it wasn't really covered in the workshops. What was covered was how to develop a transdisciplinary theme, and how to use all these concepts, etc, as we plan our units...which I had a pretty good grasp of, thanks to Casey. But it did clarify them further, and every bit helps.
The class in question was year two, and it's my naughtiest, noisiest class. They had to paint their windchimes today, and it was chaos. Tomorrow I do the same lesson with another class, and the only thing I can think of to smooth it out is having the windchimes passed out before the students arrive in class, because that DID take a lot of time. And I guess I could ask their classroom teacher to put their paint shirts on before they come down (yeah, yeah, I'm slowly caving in to paint shirts, but overall I still consider them to be a huge pain in the ass). The upshot to the chaos today was the fact that the kids really enjoyed it and were really proud of their windchimes...one of my troublemakers even dragged his mother in after school to show her his work.
Tomorrow is Middle Eastern Dance club, day one - HOORAY!!! Totally siced about it.
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