Writing a unit: Art as a window

Posted by | Concept Based Inquiry | No Comments

The other day I was on the phone with my parents and they made a confession to me of sorts. They were talking about their holiday last year into central and northern Australia. They said that before they went they hadn’t given much thought to Aboriginal culture: considered it a little boring and a bit basic. During their holiday they went on a few different tours that changed their minds dramatically, one specifically that looked at the meaning behind traditional dance and art. “It was fascinating,” they said, “and our whole thinking has shifted from ignorance to respect.”

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Concept-Based Inquiry

Posted by | Concept Based Inquiry | No Comments

At the end of this calendar year, a group of teachers from ISH participated in an amazing 6-week course with Rachel French and Carla Marshall on Concept-Based Inquiry in Action. The structure of the course followed their book of the same name, supported by recorded videos of the authors and others of classroom practice from around the world.

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Visible Thinking Routine Symbols

Posted by | Resource | 3 Comments

Visible Thinking Routines, are a series of processes developed by Harvard’s Project Zero and published in Ron Ritchart’s book Making Thinking Visible. They are completely amazing – simple yet powerful structures for thinking and learning. These structures have been adopted as one of the five essential practices at my new school.

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Visible Thinking Routines for international mindedness

Posted by | Projects, PYP | No Comments

International mindedness, intercultural learning, global competence… all these terms are slight variations on a theme, an ever growingly important aspect of modern life: you are one of many people on this earth and there are people out there that think differently to you; not because they are evil or even unkind, ignorant or better informed, educated or not, not even because they are WRONG or RIGHT… just because they think differently.
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