Monthly Archives: April 2018

Wir sind mit der Arbeit beschäftigt – Week 7 in Stuttgart Reflection

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This is now the second week that I have worked with the Grade 5s (23rd of April – 27th of April) at ISS and it has been a week of much learning, reflection and hard work – for teachers and students alike!

Monday was testing because the class teacher was unexpectedly absent so I had to maintain order and structure in the class while she was away. It was very reminiscent of the first few days of responsibility I had with my class last year because, as children like to do, some of them wanted to see how far they could push their limit of slacking off and trying to see if I was going to be authoritative or be dismissive. However, I did not let this deter me and I made sure that ground rules were outlined between us. What I found most beneficial for my practice this day was the break-up with the kid’s specialist lesson. This allowed me more time to be able to plan a more cohesive lesson for in the afternoon if I had otherwise had them the entire day. I could use the same strategy as the class teacher of setting to-do lists on the board so the children know what specific things they need to accomplish whilst also setting up an aid sheet where students could write what resources they needed (this being exhibition time many things need to be printed or sourced). By the end of the day on Monday, I felt it was necessary to get the children to have a self-reflection on their actions for the day – many were able to stay focused and work towards their goals in completing their work for the exhibition, where as others took this opportunity of change to sit back and have too much fun with their friends instead of being able to be productive on top of mingling with their peers. I did not ask for an answer of how the students felt they had conducted themselves today as the purpose of this self-relfection was to intertwine it with the ethos of the entirety of the school – learning is individual.

Before beginning their work in the exhibition, the teacher always get the students to think about and write down what they hope to accomplish by the end of each lesson – I kept up with this practice on Monday when I had the class myself. It also allowed me to practice my handwriting on the whiteboard!

I brought the focus back to the learner profile within the IB and asked, “were they striving towards being the best version of themselves that they could be?”

I ended on a more positive note and emphasised that tomorrow was a new day, a new beginning for them all.

Overall, Monday was a great test of my overall practice because I did not know I was going to be entirely in-charge of the class but I was able to maintain the order that the class teacher normally does. On top of this, I was making sure that students were receiving feedback on their weekly journal entries (a requirement in their exhibition to-do list because they need to also be checking in with themselves regularly on their learning and progress during the run-up to the exhibition night). It was great to be able to take charge of this section of marking because it allowed me to gain a scope into each individual child and be able to gauge where my support would be needed most.

Tuesday brought about some more normality as the teacher had returned and was feeling better. She was impressed that I was able to keep everything organised in the same manner that she would and thanked me for being able to keep the class on task and not lose out on a day of learning.

This meant I could continue my work with the German specialist class on the Tuesday. The class were tasked with memorisation games to introduce the learning for the lesson and get everyone warmed up to work in German again. The rules were quite strict in that, in order to gain a point, the student had to not only remember the word in German, they also had to spell it correctly, remember the article (der, die oder das) and remember capital letters (the topic was still die Gebäude – buildings so they are nouns and require a capital letter). This then shows the students the importance of learning a word and its article, which is a great way in introducing them to the many grammar rules that German holds. It is also good for me to see the progression, not only between the grade levels, but also across a singular grade level’s learning process. I’ve been planning with the German teacher and she hopes to then lead this vocabulary into experimenting with sentence structure and teaching particular points of grammar. This approach will facilitate the introduction of skills needed to communicate in the language of German. It also makes the language more “user-friendly” instead of putting grammar rules in front of them and forcing them to re-write them and just try and memorise them. Actually playing with the language and being corrected along the way makes it more fun and engaging for both students and practitioners.

I have also discovered this week some difficulties that can occur with the inquiry-based approach to learning, particularly when great amounts of responsibilities are put upon children. Although it produces autonomous learners who strive to learn for themselves, there can be problems that occur (like any approach to learning). For example, this week the grade 5 students were required to bring back their display boards they had taken home to mount with new paper, however, some students forgot their board and were unable to continue with putting their information on the display boards. This then led the students to take up the idea that, because they did not have the resources, they could easily sit back and do nothing. This then led to distractions occurring and many students were then taken off-task by their peers who did not have the resources they needed. Children had things left at home, needed technology, had to do certain tasks that required resources that they didn’t have at that time, therefore, it pushed them to think they had nothing to do. It places a lot of responsibility on students to a point that it could be detrimental when they fail to meet the expectations. On the other hand though this could spark learning experiences in itself because the exhibition results are a reflection of the capabilities of the student not on the practitioner because they have provided the prompts, they have provided the skills to accomplish the task they have set and they are there to support. Reflecting on this, I think if I was ever to conduct a project in this way, I would make it a priority that resources are left at the school because taking things home then causes an issue of things being left and people straggling behind, however, it has also shown the students that they need to be prepared and organised in order to gain the most from their learning… It is all a learning experience.

Wednesday was also interesting as during planning meetings I discovered the teachers need to organise when they are doing the MAP tests. This was interesting because the International Baccalaureate outlines that standardised testing is not in their educational ideology. MAP tests stand for Measure of Academic Progress and it is an online assessment for literacy, numeracy and reading. Some give multiple-choice questions while others ask for more analysis in regards to an extract to see if a child is capable of recalling what they have read and being able to make sense of it. This will take up a whole week of learning because of the different times of classes, specialists and the timing of their class trip. The teachers also told me that the results of these tests are shared with the children and their parents – something that is a little different from the standardised tests I remember doing in primary school where the information was purely for the teachers to see where their children were at. My particular class teacher mentioned that many parents come to the class and are worried by the change in results by these tests and the practitioner has found there is a correlation with the lower scores lining up with the students completing the assessment the quickest – proving that they probably just click whatever answers they are given to finish it instead of actually being examined for their true mental capabilities.

Mathematics has also been a different setting from the other grades. The grade 5s are nearing the end of their measurements and grid topic and are working on consolidation through textbook work. Now, this is another opportunity for the students to be independent. The practitioner always states that the students should work on areas they need the most work on and shouldn’t just do every question in the book. Each student has their own checklist of chapters that would be beneficial for their progression in mathematics. Furthermore, if they feel they are doing well in a particular section and are getting all the questions correct and feel confident, they can move on. On top of this consolidation work was more fun activities such as grid plotting images.

Here is an example of the end result of a grid plotting activity – the students were really focused and it required their skills to be tested in order to complete each section using the correct co-ordinates. A great consolidation activity.

As the week was coming to a close, it was time to organise the roles that the staff members would have in preparation for the exhibition night. The teachers had totally forgotten that they must also make a video documenting the learning of the students so I felt it would be beneficial for me to take up the responsibility for preparing and making the video for the night. We have picked particular students that have progressed well in their exhibition and are able to take time out from their work to be a part of the video which will document their overall learning in the scope of the learner profile. We made a sheet up and gave it to the students to think about over the long weekend and we will begin recording on the Wednesday back from the bank holidays here in Germany.

Overall I have really enjoyed this week because it is giving me more responsibility with the classes of Grade 5 because I am working with them for a longer period of time. Next week will be a shorter week as we begin back on Wednesday, which gives the students even less time in class to work on their exhibition topic. I hope to come back refreshed from the longer weekend and be ready for more learning and responsibility ahead!

The Constant Changes at an International School

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Whilst working with the grade 5s during the final weeks of my time here in Stuttgart, I have discovered the startling fact that over 11 of the children are not moving onto the middle school with the rest of their peers in the next year. However, I have been told by my fellow practitioners that this is somewhat normal in international schools. Children and staff come and go for when they are needed…

Just as the learner profiles promote, the school itself exhibits international-mindedness with their outreach work being global.

Although 11 is a bigger number than normal, it is very common for students to move on at different stages in their learning whilst being at ISS. This might be due to the types of contracts that big companies in Stuttgart offer their employees. A staff member at ISS told me that they have friends and family that are hired on a 2 to 3 year contract basis and are offered the incentives of accommodation, a car for transport and of course education at an International school for their children coming with them.

It gives me a real representation of the point we were told in university; schools are communities themselves but they also serve communities beyond itself. Big companies in Stuttgart (such as Bosch, Daimler – parent company to Mercedes Benz and Smart, and Porsche) need to have schools that their staff member’s children can go to for formal education and that education needs to be able to be conducted across the world in similar manners. This is what the International Baccalaureate emphasises when it says that it is an international stage for learning. Although interpretation is unique, the majority of international schools will have similar frameworks and outlooks to learning which will allow companies to house families that can gain a similar education anywhere that they find themselves to be working. It links back to the idea of the International Schools themselves being businesses (although the majority being non-profit they still need to meet guidelines in order to call themselves international schools).

Therefore, a network of international systems needed to be established for businesspeople to be accommodated for a few years at a time depending on their contract before being moved – taking their families with them. Companies can send people away and they can also bring people into the country – interlinking with the overall concept that a school is more than just a place where people learn, it becomes part of a wider community that it needs to represent.

So, students at ISS may be moving for parental job opportunities whilst others may even be going back to their home country. A common theme amongst the Japanese community at ISS is that the students are put into an English school setting to improve their language and then they return to the Japanese system to gain their qualifications, which is also quite an interesting concept. It shows once again that ISS needs to be providing what their “clients” want and need. There are many students that live locally to Stuttgart and they will continue their time in education completely at ISS, whilst there will be other students that have experience a wide array of educational settings and facilitation of learning has to be seen in both scenarios.

I felt that this particular topic required further analysis through a blog post because it has given me a real-life context to see why International schools exist and why there is a real need for them. Consistency for those children of military families, footballers playing for teams abroad and workers of global companies need to have a system that can provide learning no matter where they are placed in the world, but also consistency for those students that call Stuttgart their forever home. It emphasises the mixture of backgrounds that international schools bring, just as the global workspace does in a similar fashion.

Willkommen bei unseren Gästen – Week 6 in Stuttgart

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Well, I’ve now made it to the last grade at the lower school of the International School of Stuttgart this week. I worked with the grade 5 class for the first time from the week beginning the 16th of April and I will continue to work with them until the end of my placement, as it lines up fittingly with the run up to their big exhibition event on the 9th of May – something that my teaching will work into.

Although not an aspect of this week that has high importance, weather has greatly improved here in Germany with temperatures in the 20s being the norm – something unheard of back in Scotland!

To coincide with all of this, we also had special guests that came to visit the school as part of the Erasmus project so it was a very busy week for all staff members at the school.

So, to start off the week I had to first, once again, introduce myself to two new classes of students but I also had to get my head around their individual topics that they have each chosen to focus on for their Exhibition. I don’t think I was fully prepared for some of the really hard-hitting topics that are going to be examined by the students: anorexia, racism, child labour, hacking and even pollution are some of the examples of the topics chosen by the students. For students that are only 10/11 years old, I was surprised that such serious problems in the world are going to be unpicked extensively by such young students. Now, this could open areas of disturbance so the teachers and mentors of the students (each student is assigned a mentor based on their topic) are in charge of assisting the pupils in sourcing their information. Filtering needs to be utilised in order for the students to be able to grasp a deep enough understanding around their topic, whilst still being protected from the extreme examples that can be found in any of the themes.

Passion can really be seen within the students and that is because of the inquiry-based approach that is employed by the PYP through the exhibition. This is also because they have had the freedom to be able to select a topic relating to an issue for themselves.

This made me realise, however, that it must be a massive job for the teachers at an IB school to facilitate this learning because all of the children are doing something completely different from one another. However, what I have discovered this week and what I have been able to learn from the exceptional team that work with grade 5 that your approach to teaching as a whole needs to change. Instead of having whole class lessons that link in with differentiated tasks, a teacher needs to teach skills that are useable across any given topic. Analysing sources, establishing the types of writing that can be used, mathematic skills etc.

Furthermore, it is one thing for the students to choose a topic and look into it, but the PYP emphasises that the internationally-minded students can do more than that and that they must conduct action – “education must extend beyond the intellectual to include not only socially responsible attitudes but also thoughtful and appropriate action. An explicit expectation of the PYP is that successful inquiry will lead to responsible action, initiated by the student as a result of the learning process” (International Baccalaureate, 2009, p.25)

Monday, brought about an introduction to our guests that came from Italy, Poland, UK and other parts of Germany as part of the Europlay Erasmus project. An assembly was held in the morning where, as I discussed in my Erasmus post, students were dressed in their traditional garments. Then, we began our work towards the exhibition for the week. Some students were working on websites, others on their speeches, some were thinking about their artistic component and all of them were needing to work with NoodleTool to reference where they were getting their research from. The class teacher and I then had to work between the students individually to keep track and check-in on their progress. Whilst doing this, we made a short list of particular students we wanted to have a chat with to see how they were getting on to ensure that we could lead them in the right direction of inquiry. This allowed me to see a great importance of working one-to-one with students; being able to see the individual learning process allows for very specific goals to be set by you as a practitioner but also for the pupil themselves. The exhibition allows for this one-to-one approach to work effectively because all of the class are motivated by their own particular topic that they have picked and they know themselves what they need to achieve with every lesson. Thursday saw both myself and the class teachers work for long periods with specific students that needed the extra support and it really emphasised the difference one-to-one attention can bring to the child, which is quite lacking in many practices due to time constraints being placed on teachers (Jacklin, Griffiths and Robinson, 2006). One particular student was able to accomplish many of their goals just by having that extra prompting from me and being focused in the learning.

Tuesday afternoon I was tasked with assisting staff members in preparing for the Erasmus students to go on a forest trip – a key example of German educational ideology being experienced by the guests – by organising the resources that they needed. It was great to see the staff members come together to facilitate activities beyond the classroom setting. They needed food supplies, tools for starting a fire and gifts for their visitors that were fitting to Germany. What was also great about having the visiting children was also getting to meet with their teachers. I got to interact with even more qualified practitioners about what it means to be a teacher and I gained a lot more insight into the job itself.

This week I have also worked in the German classes of the students that have just started their studies in the language and the German teacher hopes that I can stick with this group for the rest of my time with the Grade 5s, as it will be both beneficial for their German but also mine. We tasked the children in German to start to understand the words for die Gebäude (the buildings) that are in a city. The teacher then hopes to progress them into manipulating the words in grammatical sentences once they have got the hang of the vocabulary first. It was also good to be able to assist the children in how to work with a dictionary, as it reminded me during my beginnings in learning the language of German in school.

Once again, I was also able to be a part of the planning meetings amongst the grade level teachers and the lower school co-ordinator and get to grips with the events that will be transpiring with the classes. The teachers looked at what they needed to be doing that week but they also were planning ahead through the rest of the month of May to look at the class’ school trip. They were also planning what learning they would do once the exhibition was completed as they only have over a month left once the exhibition night has wrapped up the UOI. The teachers began planning out a possible event where they can showcase all the learning that has occurred throughout the year in a school show manner, however nothing has been finalised yet. This showed me the importance of collaborative planning across all time frames: short-term, mid-term and long-term all go hand-in-hand, which can be somewhat daunting for us student teachers as we only really understand the short-term goals towards learning (Hayes, 2014). It was good to see how organised teachers need to be and not just with the teaching they are doing, but the overall experiences their children will be experiencing during their time in their practice (school trips, school shows, events and other on-goings beyond the classroom setting).

During this planning time, the class teachers supplied me with more educational resources interlinking with the exhibition and the principles behind the learning in Grade 5.

As the week ended, we had to then say goodbye to our Erasmus friends. Another assembly was held to highlight the work the Erasmus students and their ISS peers had been doing during the week. Friday was a much quieter day due to the upper school being closed for the MUNISS (Model United Nations International School of Stuttgart) event where students from across the world were part of a recreational debate where they had to represent a particular country and their political stance (more information about this event that was held last year can be found here). Although minor, it showed me the wider connections that the school of ISS has because many students came from different countries in order to take part in the event, showing that there are many more stakeholders involved in the school.

Overall, my first week with the grade 5s has been really eye-opening in terms of what teaching can be in a totally different scenario from what I’m used to. I’ve been thrown out of the comforts of regimented whole class lessons to focusing on breaking down learning on individual principles due to the exhibition being an area that children can take in whatever way they see fit as working with the concept of the topic being a particular issue in the world today. Furthermore, I have been able to see even more of the people that are involved with ISS as a company with both MUNISS and the Erasmus scheme being two events that were great in bringing people together under one educational institute. I look forward to completing the rest of my time at ISS as I will progress into my 7th week here with only a few weeks to go until I am finished!

Reference:

Hayes, D. (2014) 1.2 Professionalism and Trainee Teachers In: Arthur, J. and Cremin, T. eds. Learning to Teach in the Primary School 3rd edn. London: Routledge. Pp. 21-34.

Jacklin, A., Griffiths, V. and Robinson, C. (2006) Beginning Primary Teaching: Moving Beyond Survival. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Exhibition Topics – A.Is in Education, Hacking and Warfares – My Inquiry

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I have first explored what the actual purpose behind the Grade 5 exhibition is, however, I also want to write a particular entry into my portfolio where I explore some of the main topics that have interested me; the topics that the children have chosen to explore, I mean.

One of the biggest one I was drawn to was that a particular student will be examining the concept of artificial intelligences (A.I) in education.

This topic has already been introduced to me from lecturer back at the university where they told us that, in the future, people are planning to replace many jobs with machines that have an artificial intelligence and are able to communicate independently. One of the professions could even be teaching… The child wants to examine this issue that can have drastic consequences in society. Millions would be out of a job because machines do not require breaks like humans and they are capable of being programmed to follow commands from their human overseers. However, some startling videos in recent media attention towards A.I “life-forces” have been quite scary in terms of blurring the lines between what is considered human and whats not:

However, Poth (2018) finds that the majority of these artificial intelligences will be used for supportive roles in practice, such as with administration paperwork, marking and keeping track of grades. They would not completely replace the role of the classroom teacher that needs to be human in supporting children in a classroom environment emotionally. A.Is are unable to feel emotions and understand the humanity needed to be supportive of children. However this could even eventually, through time and advancement in technology, be a simple program that needs to be implemented to robots… With emotions then, they could then claim rights just like the rest of us. Sophia, the A.I in the video, was the first ever robot to be seen as a citizen by any country and that was from Saudi Arabia. Gershgorn (2017) argues back that Sophia is merely a more sophisticated chatbot robot that has a face that has been very much sensationalised by the media… For this subject, it is really relevant for me as a future teacher and I am glad that a student is taking an interest in seeing what the future of education may look like and I hope to be of assistance when they are preparing all the aspects they need to complete

Hacking was another one that was of great relevance in today’s society and was similar in the sense that it was interconnected with the advancement in our dependence on technology in our modern world. We’re all so connected to the internet world that we really have become far more vulnerable to cybercrime and cyber attacks. A key story that always sticks with me is the cybercrime attack on the National Health Service (NHS) where the company was hit by a hacker, who supposedly did not need to create such an advanced virus to break the system, out of nowhere. This meant that peoples operations were cancelled and many issues occurred with the NHS across the UK. The student in particular wants to take their action into creating a platform where they can inform people about the dangers of hacking and how people can keep themselves protected from hackers.

A relevant theme that was featured across some of the students’ topics is the concept of warfare and conflict. Some are looking into the wars in Chad, the wars in Syria and the conflicts between North and South Korea. Now, these are much harder to analyse due to the broadness of war itself. However, what makes it far more relevant is the grouping of the children when it comes to literacy circles; the children have been assigned to particular groups depending on the themes of their topic. The children focusing on warfare then come together every week to talk about their developments in their exhibition and they can gain feedback from their peers and are able to gauge where they are at in comparison to the progress of the other students. Furthermore this also allows for them to see the types of issues that might be getting a focus from particular pupils. I know that these conflicts (particularly Syria and the Koreas) are very relevant to modern society because they are still very real and happening currently. 

This, although not very in-depth research, was useful because it is in line with what the students themselves are doing. They have to go out and collect data centred around their issue in a more in-depth manner.

One really needs to get submerged into a topic wholeheartedly to truly understand it. This is where I fell the component of action really cements the exhibition process. There is one thing researching a topic but it is completely another thing to go out and try to make a change to a big issue that you are passionate about. Students are going to countries to do charity work and donate money that they have fundraised, there are students that are helping with homeless schemes in the area, there are also students that are wanting to bring awareness to a big issue that they are enthused about. It is emphasising to the pupils that they can really make a difference through doing something they are passionate about – a skill that interlinks with the learner profile that the IB wants to construct.

Personal topics such as the issue of anorexia or allergies are also going to be explored by students. Anorexia is one that is becoming ever-increasingly an issue in modern society because of our constant bombardment from social media around what we should look like or what the perfect body is. This then leads young teens and even children to feel pressured to live up to unrealistic expectations (which are most likely photoshopped and edited in the first place).

Overall, it has been quite useful to unpick some of the issues for myself, because it then allows me to see some of the issues in a more knowledgable sense. It also then allows me to see the topics and reflect on them knowing the kids that have chosen them, why have they chosen them? What has made them so passionate about this particular topic?

Reference:

Gershgorn, D. (2017) Inside the Mechanical Brain of the World’s First Robot Citizen. QZ [Online] Available at: https://qz.com/1121547/how-smart-is-the-first-robot-citizen/ (Accessed: 23 April 2018).

Poth, R. (2018) Artificial Intelligence: Implications for the Future of Education. Getting Smart [Online] Available at: http://www.gettingsmart.com/2018/01/artificial-intelligence-implications-for-the-future-of-education/ (Accessed: 23 April 2018).

Kirchheim unter Teck – die Kultur und die Verbindung mit Großbritannien

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Whilst staying with my host family, I have been able to really get engrossed into the town of Kirchheim unter Teck. Kirchheim is a little while away from the city of Stuttgart – it requires a drive of 20 miles to get to the International School of Stuttgart across the A8 Autobahn, something that I have blogged about as I’ve been driving us to and from the school everyday.

Kirchheim itself is a small German town located in the southern part of Germany and in the state of Baden-Württemberg. I got to see more of the town itself with the family. We even got to go up the Teck mountain and see one of the castles that are on top of the mountains. This is where I also got to understand its historical connection with the UK. Queen Elizabeth’s grandmother, Mary of Teck, was born in the UK however, she was seen as a princess of the Württemberg due to her father being the Duke of Teck and he was married into the British royal family. This then shows an unusual connection between the two countries, particularly the Baden-Württemberg section that I am residing in. It made for an interesting discussion with my host family about the history behind Teck itself and how the world can be a small place sometimes…

The view from the castle on the Teck

It is the same for when the family went away to a conference in March, they ended up talking with DC Thomson & Co. from Dundee and it was strange that, out of all the companies that they interacted with, it was one from my hometown that they were with. Somewhat of a digression, however it made me realise that you never know who you will bump into in life.

The coat of arms on the front of the castle. The one on the far right is the coat of arms for the Duke of Teck, the family that is interwoven with the British royal family.

Part of the beauty of Kirchheim unter Teck is the heritage that it holds, with many of the buildings being traditionally Fachwerkhäuser (traditional timbered German homes). However there are also more modern developments across the town beginning to take shape as, like many parts of Germany, they are still rebuilding after the war. I’ve been able to experience both the traditional shopping settings of the weekend markets where fresh produce is sold on stalls by local vendors and I have also been able to see the giant supermarket mall that is here also. It also made for an interesting talking point with the family about if modern constructions fitted with the older buildings that already existed.

There are also a lot of bigger companies within Kirchheim. I had a lot of deja vu walking into the Lidl that is here because they are identical in the UK, which reminded me that it is a German company in the first place. Recaro, the famous company for making the seats for race cars and aerodynamic planes, has their headquarters here also and the head of the company lives here too.  I have come to discover there are lots of businesses in Kirchheim and of course within the wider city in Stuttgart, as it is famous for the engineering industries.

This short post has allowed me to put into writing some of the details I have discovered about where I am residing during my placement, showing that I am engaging with the wider community as well as the community of the school. It also allows me to showcase some of the pictures I have taken too!

Grade 5 Exhibition – Examining the PYP

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I have successfully worked my way through all of the grade levels during my first month at ISS and have been able to teach and assist in all of the levels of progression that are offered at the Lower School… except for Grade 5.

This was done purposely during planning because it is now the time for the students in grade 5 to be focusing in on preparing for the exhibition where they will need to have investigated a topic independently and organised a presentation centred around the issue.

My job for the next month of my placement is to assist in the teaching of the grade 5 students in their exhibition, which are all unique to the child. So, my dynamic as a teacher will need to adjust to fit the PYP once again.

Within the Primary Years Programme Exhibition guidelines (2008), it outlines the exhibition as being a key event that displays all of the skills a student has built up during their time in the international education system and it allows students to showcase their findings and actions that they have done to work through a real-life problem in the world.

More Documentation – The guideline reading has been really beneficial for me to get a better understanding of what the overall framework looks like and must feel like in order for a school to be truly considered an IB school.

Purpose:

The purpose of the exhibition is for the children in their last year before moving into the middle school to really go in a large amount of detail during their inquiries that they predominately do in a collaborative manner with their peers. It also allows students to really show their own learning on both an individual and group level basis. This is because, in the run up to the exhibition, the students are continually reflecting on their learning journeys with their teachers, their mentors and their peers.

The Basic Outline:

  • Students work towards the exhibition during (normally) the last term and it culminates towards a big event day where students can showcase their learning through a specific topic of their choice that interlinks with the central idea.
  • The exhibition itself must enable all the attributes of the learner profile to be showcased, whilst also incorporating the key concepts and also making sure that the transdisciplinary themes and skills are being utilised. Overall it is the grand finale of the PYP before students move onto the next phase into the middle school/secondary education.
  • The students need to also cover all of the “subject areas” with the exhibition incorporating an artistic component (which could be art, writing, music or a drama piece; it must relate to the expressive arts subject areas), a usage of mathematics (data handling in our case), writing (speech, interviews, research) and technology (using technology to create websites or to research information). Another other area can also be tapped into with their action – some are doing experiments to collect results (science) and others are looking into the background of a particular event (history). The pathways are really open to interpretation so long as they interlink with the central idea and the key concepts of the PYP.

The Central Ideas & Key Concepts – these are core to the PYP programme and the exhibition as a whole, as the exhibition is showcasing all of the skills students have culminated up to this point in their time in education.

Now, seeing this in practice, I have really found that the exhibition really holds a strong place in the eyes of the children that are actually part of the process within grade 5. This is because they are choosing a topic that both interests them but also a topic that is an issue in society that they can bring awareness to and even bring about change towards. For being aged 10-11, the topics are really hard-hitting: racism, anorexia, warfares in home countries, air pollution and many more topics have been chosen by the children. What I’ve found is that the issue really is of a great passion for the children. In the words of the Exhibition guidelines, it should “offer the students the opportunity to explore knowledge that is significant and relevant” (International Baccalaureate, 2008, P.2)

Within these topics then, is where teaching can be worked within the frameworks that we are used to. Data handling and graphs are the centred topic within mathematics so many students are creating surveys and then analysing the data they have collected centred around their topic, thus creating a duality product of inquiry-based knowledge interlinking with the advancement of skills within a particular “subject area” (however, the subjects are not so regimented in comparison to other curriculums).

This then all allows for more freedoms for teaching, but also places more constraints on it as well. It is much harder to do a whole class lesson with this approach to learning because the children are very individual in their specific areas of inquiry. However, what can be done instead is the introduction and advancement of specific skills – how to analyse sources, how to construct grafts, how to write a speech and other useful approaches needed to conduct the exhibition.

The children are continually reminded by their environment of what they are capable of when they work towards being the best versions of themselves. Not only this, but also focusing on reflecting across the journey of learning.

Looking beyond this stage of learning, I can see how it is really preparing the students for the futures ahead. They are required to maintain a log of their references (something that rings true at university level) through NoodleTool. This way, the students are not just plagiarising from their sources and are seeing the relevance of crediting where they have found their information. Then the topics themselves and the process of finding action to try and make a difference towards the problem really emphasises the internationalism within the learner profile that the school strives to achieve. It shows students from an early age that, through drive and determination, they can truly make a difference once they have established a strong ground of research behind a topic.

What I also find is that because there is no standardised testing in the system (or not as heavily as other systems) the students are really being able to explore as much as they want to with their topic. It is establishing an environment where students continually want to be doing their best because it is those that reap the best benefits. There’s no need for extrinsic motivation because the children realise that the learning is for themselves. This also interconnects with another area of the exhibition and that is the reflective journal. I knew straight away what this meant for the students being that for this very module I have to maintain reflection around my learning. The students are required to document their progress in their exhibition weekly in the run up to the event and create goals. These goals are then self-assessed – “was I too ambitious?”, “do I need to work harder next time?” and “where do I go next?”. Regulation and self-awareness are then also advanced because students are checking in with themselves on what they’ve done. It is not a focus on what someone else believes upon their progress, because at the end of the day the learning is for them.

Taking this outlook on the concept of the Grade 5 Exhibition has been very helpful for my practice because it allows me to go in with my time with the grade 5s with a greater understanding of what is both required of them and what is required of me as a teacher that is directing them and aiding them in their learning.

Reference:

International Baccalaureate (2008) Primary Years Programme: Exhibition guidelines. International Baccalaureate Organization: Cardiff.

Erasmus Visitors at ISS (Section 3)

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Much preparation at ISS has been put into this week (16th of April to 20th of April).

This is because of the special visitors that have come to the school. There are students coming from England, Poland and Italy as part of an Erasmus scheme where the partnership is centred around rethinking “Playgrounds as a Learning Environment” with the partner schools.

I have been witness and have supported the work that has gone into this week. Within art, the students have been making displays of their home country’s traditional garments that they wear on special occasions. On the back, as these displays will be showing both sides of the outline of a person, the students were then tasked to either draw their home country’s flag or make their own design using the recognisable shapes, colours and symbols from the flag (interlinking with the visual elements that are crucial to the teaching and understanding of art).

The corridors have been full of the traditional garments – further emphasising the celebration of differences at an international school.

On the 16th of April at the start of the week, students were welcomed into the school with a whole lower school assembly that celebrated the city of Stuttgart, but also the different languages of the visitors. Students were also dressed in their home country’s traditional clothing. I saw kimonos, lederhosen, saris, dirndls and even american football jerseys all across the school (it made me wish that I had brought my kilt with me). The kindergarteners and Nest children (who I worked with during week 5) sang the guests in; first in English, then in German, then Italian and then Polish. It was amazing for all of the children, no matter their background, to be able to experience the different languages that are out there and be able to practice in singing them too at such an early stage – this could even spark an interest later in life and students may even study them further. Then, students that are ISS that are from the visiting countries put on a sketch with some staff members to demonstrate them first arriving at ISS and wanting to learn more about Stuttgart; a particularly useful aspect for me because it gave me more insight into Stuttgart and the surrounding area of the school. We got to then see the German children from Grade 2 sing us through a pretzel song – a famous delicacy in Germany –  that they had also made illustrations for.

The student council were then tasked with taking their visitors to the library where they would be working on their projects centred around playgrounds.

Tuesday (17th of April) was another special day for the visitors who will be with us for the whole week, as they were treated to a multi-cultural lunch. Staff and Parents had prepared dishes from their home country and shared them with the grades 4 and 5 and the erasmus guests. I also got to enjoy some of the foods and they were all so delicious and different from one another. I tried sushi, chill, coconut rice, ham sandwiches, quiche and a mixture of other things! There was so much food and everyone was very full afterwards. It was also great to see all of the kids mixing with one another and including the erasmus students at their tables in the canteen – it highlighted to me how inclusive international school children can be of one another because they understand what its like to be in a strange environment from what they are used to back at home.

The Erasmus Cake – one of the desserts that were available for us during the feast. This particular cake really stuck with the partnerships theme of exploring the learning spaces of playgrounds.

The visitors will be here for the rest of the week and I have made sure to welcome them to the school in the same way the rest of the staff members welcomed me when I first came here in early March.

This all interlinks with section 3 of the portfolio as I am really getting to see the broadness of the stakeholders that are associated with ISS. The interconnectedness of this Erasmus partnership has shown how the stakeholders can all come together (parents, staff and students) to produce a week of great events that showcase the diversity of the school and, in turn, the wider world as a whole. This all then fosters the learner profile that ISS strives to create within their students.

Something that was also hard-hitting amongst all of the celebration was one particular staff member opened up to us in the staffroom and emphasised that they wished their more conservative family at home could be so open-minded to all of the differences of people in society and that the staff member will miss this ethos at ISS when they return home over the summer. Celebrating differences breaks down the boundaries and I really love the ethos of ISS because all of the parts of learning all correlate to one another to really ensure that open-mindedness is at the core of everything.

Early Years at ISS + Exploring the Reggio Emilia Approach

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It has been documented heavily that the early stages of childhood have a massive impact on the future capabilities of an individual as the biggest brain developments happen (French, 2007). So much so, that many educational institutes have invested massive amounts of time and money in making sure that children’s introductions to education is both effective and engrossing towards the overall development of the child as a whole.

The International School of Stuttgart prides itself on providing a great start for their children in the early years within the framework of the International Baccalaureate system.

During my fifth week at ISS (9th of April – 13th of April), it was my time to work with the Kindergarten and early years Nest team. Prior to this, I worked my way through the documentation provided by the school that detailed the frameworks of the early year systems at the school. Particularly within the EY 3/4 Nest Handbook (2017) it was clear to see the importance of play being evident within the early years programme at ISS. The Nest encourages a good mixture of the types of play: free play, guided play and inside/outside playtime. “It is the greatest tool the child has to help him make sense of his world” (International School of Stuttgart, 2017, p.4).

Play is a natural act that is vital for a child to develop physically, mentally and emotionally – an example of some of the many toys that the children can use in the early years playground at ISS.

This, then emphasises that play facilitates much of a child’s introductory skill basis as it is how they make sense of the world. It is through this method of learning that we can then formulate a student that is prepared to move their way up in education as they age (which is evident across the grade levels at ISS because a clear transition can be seen, in my eyes, between the skills needed to learn particular areas of the curriculum that progressively challenge a student further and further to go beyond their capabilities at any given stage in their time in education and to prepare them for challenges in life in general).

Particularly, the concept of conflicts is evident from the offset of education at ISS – “As children learn to play together, conflicts will naturally arise. Our role as educators is to help the children to deal creatively and constructively with conflict situations and to learn through them” (International School of Stuttgart, 2017, p.4). This reminded me of my role in assisting the conflicts of the grade 4s UOI groups. ISS sees that conflicts are a natural part of human interactions from an early age and they are ensuring that children are facilitated with the correct skills to physically, mentally and emotionally deal with their issues with their peers. This will ensure that they can grow up to be strong-willed people that have the skills to understand conflict and be able to overcome it. No doubt as time progresses, the children in the early years settings of ISS will still be constructing new knowledge upon the skills they gained in their beginnings of resolving social conflict. Life revolves around working with people and we need to be adequately skilled to be able to understand the various personalities and differences of opinions that are evident in the world. Collaboration was also seen across grade levels when the grade 5s assisted the Kindergarten children during their tree planting expedition, which sparked real differences in maturity being tested (which I have reflected about further within my weekly reflection post linked above).

So, children from the ages 3 to 5 start their time at ISS within the Nest and then progress into Kindergarten at around age 5 or 6 (and even possibly 7 depending on their background of prior education):

“Early Years students, ages 3 and 4, learn together within four different IB Primary Years Program (PYP) units of inquiry taught over two years. The Kindergarten program, age 5, focuses on learning, literacy and the transition to grade 1 by exploring five PYP units and one integrated Art unit over the course of the whole year.” (ISS – Early Years in Degerloch)

With this progression, the children will build upon more skills needed in learning through inquiry. Intertwined within these will be core skills needed to succeed in life in general and an emphasis will be placed on tapping into the curiosity of the children to learn (International Baccalaureate, 2009).

Delving deeper into the pedagogical understructure of the early year approaches at ISS, it is found that the Reggio Emilia approach is heavily influential in the actions of practitioners:

“Our Early Years programs on both campuses are designed to reflect the spirit of Reggio Emilia.  These early learning programs incorporate the use of maths manipulatives and have a strong emphasis on languages, including EAL support.” (ISS Website – Early Years)

The “approach” (it is said to be more of an ideology towards education rather than a full approach, due to modern institutions being inspired from the beliefs towards education) originated from the Italian town of the same name, where the people cried out for an adjustment towards the teaching in schools in order to bring societal restorative change. Today its core premises can be found globally across various educational systems as the beliefs have been adapted and developed to fit specific settings in which the approach needs to adopted. In short, the main belief of the approach is that teachers and students are co-learners in the school environment and they can use one another to traverse through learning, which contrasts with the traditional didactic approaches that are still seen by many as being core to education. This also relates with the historical importance of the International Baccalaureate’s heritage:

The History of the progression in education and how IB came about (International Baccalaureate, 2017, P.3) in the wake of traditional methods of education proving to be dated and need of adjustment. This history is crucial to fully understand why constructivist approaches like the Reggio Emilia approach are adopted in order to establish international mindedness even from the early stages of education.

What was interesting during my time with the Early Years team was seeing the various different approaches used with classroom outlet. Kindergarten A and B contrasted in the sense that one room was more regimented in clear areas for learning: areas for reading, role-playing, quiet study and teachers desk for example. The other was far more care-free and open-planned which also allowed children to take real ownership in their classroom. Both dynamics allowed me to see both the pros and cons of using different layouts. I know that there is never a surefire approach to organising the learning space, however, it is crucial for practitioners to be able to be critical to what impacts they can have on learning with the changing of layouts of the environment of the classroom. Fahey (2012) also has a take on the Reggio Emilia approach within the IB system as being a freedom for the children to express their learning and for their learning to be observed and documented in a way that is showcasing their development, particularly in the early years.

Overall, it has been very fascinating to be able to see different approaches and pedagogical theories that I had never heard before, particularly within the early years sector of education as this will be very beneficial for not only my MA3 Early Years placement next year, but for my professional practice as a whole. Early years is very much the foundations into setting up a person for the rest of their lives and practitioners need to make sure that the are ensuring that the foundations they make are strong and stable for the children in their practice.

This particular blog post describes the Reggio Emilia approach very well, also.

Reference:

Fahey, J. (2012) Ways to Learn Through Inquiry: Guiding Children to Deeper Understanding. Cardiff: International Baccalaureate Organization.

French, G. (2007) NCCA: Children’s early learning and development – a background paper [pdf] Available at: http://www.ncca.ie/uploadedfiles/curriculum/ld%20background%20paper%20may.pdf (Accessed: 19 November 2017).

International Baccalaureate (2009) Making the PYP happen at ISS: A curriculum framework for international primary education. International Baccalaureate: Cardiff.

International Baccalaureate (2017) The History of the IB. [Pdf] Available at: http://www.ibo.org/globalassets/digital-tookit/presentations/1711-presentation-history-of-the-ib-en.pdf (Accessed: 1 April 2018).

International School of Stuttgart (2017) EY 3/4 Nest Handbook 2017-18. Stuttgart: ISS.

alle kleiner Kinder – Week 5 in Stuttgart Reflection

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First week back at ISS after the Easter break last week and I feel that I have been able to get back into the structure of working at the international school of Stuttgart and gain new knowledge once again in terms of professional development.

Before the holidays, I had worked my way down the grades right to grade 1. This week progressed this continuation of moving down the grades as I began my work with the Early Years team at ISS. This meant working with both the Kindergarten and the Nest teams and children.

Now, I will admit that before this week I hadn’t much experience working with younger children within an educational setting, hence why I made the decision that I wanted to see the whole perspective of a child’s experience of education whilst working at the international school for Learning from Life. I also knew that much of what we have learned about the Early Years in MA2 would be missed out if I didn’t get to experience it in a real-life practice this year before my MA3 placement next year when I will work at the lower end of the primary school system in Scotland.

So I spent the first half of the week (9th of April – 11th of April) working with the Kindergarten children. The children within the two classes ranged in the ages of 5 to 7 depending on their prior experience within educational settings (one particular child was older but was never part of any form of formal education and therefore was put in Kindergarten to introduce them to school). They were very enthusiastic to interact with me and tell me all about themselves.

I also got to tell them a little bit about me when exploring the concept of time as I investigated the different time zones with the teacher to show the students what the time was in Scotland, what the weather was like and how it differed from Germany (and even their own home country).

What I loved about the two classes were that their learning environments were totally different from one another; emphasising the importance of individuality for teaching practices. One class was very regimented in its layout where clear areas for particular learning (role play, quiet reading and chill out area, letter/number forming and art areas) were clearly evident. The other class was much more carefree in the layout of the room and was more flexible in terms of allowing the children be more independent in choosing what they did within the room depending on the task they were doing. Yet, they both worked very effectively within their own right. It really proved to me that there is no one way of having your classroom set out because if that was the case, teaching wouldn’t be so flexible. This allowed me to get firsthand knowledge into early years classroom layout strategies.

Now, what I really learned from the practitioner that had the open-spaced classroom this week was the beauty of allowing enough time for learning. Monday morning was really testing of my patience because the teacher made it her job to give the simple (what I thought was simple) task of writing out the date on the board to the children but it took far longer than what I expected…

This was because the teacher made sure that it was solely the children’s job to complete the task of writing the date with only minor prompts from her so there were many different suggestions of what day it was, what the number should be drawn like, how it should be displayed correctly etc. At first, I thought that it would be so much easier just to write it yourself and to get on with the lessons of the day. However, as my short time progressed with the kindergartens, I soon realised there was a great purpose behind this approach that really needed a patient and consistent practitioner – giving me an area where my opinion on teaching completely changed. Once the date was completed, the teacher then got the children to work out how many days were left of the term with chain links on the board. Many questions of, “what should we do if we have this number of days in total and we know how many days are left?” were asked by the teacher and then the task was left to the children to work out themselves. I was amazed that such young children were skilled in working with numbers. It proved to me that starting with concrete materials will ensure sound knowledge is the first layer in the building of a strong foundation in numerical skill. This all relates back to the overall purpose of ISS – to foster inquirers that will go out into the global world and really make a difference with the determination that they can do whatever they set their hearts on with hard work.

It was because of this morning routine, that consisted of working with date and time, place value and number identity (mind you, this was all in English with children that mostly do not have English as their first or even second language so it was also assisting in language acquisition), the children could really be at the forefront of their own learning. Even during the children’s snack time, they were coming up to the board and explaining their thinking in working out how old I was when I gave them the year I was born in. The young children took it upon themselves to start their own inquiry in number work to work out my age by subtracting the year it is now with the one I provided them with – which was also assisted by the teacher aiding in prompting the children to use different strategies to find their answer.

Overall, what I really took away from the easiness of learning that the teacher had was that we may always worry about the next thing that needs to be completed by the children, but real secure learning comes when that extra amount of time is truly spent on real moments of learning. Quality over quantity, particularly in the early stages, ensures that learning is really profound. Not only this, but the whole ideology that is evident across the whole of ISS is beginning to take shape in Kindergarten because the children are learning to be inquirers from the get go – their natural curiosity is really being fostered because it is them going about with their learning with the teacher. They aren’t being told how to do something or to just learn something, they themselves are taking an interest in learning that is part of their everyday lives (little scenarios like counting how many days it was until a child’s birthday were used to advance mathematical skills).

So, I may have originally felt at the beginning of the week that time was almost being wasted away over an everyday task, but I soon realised what deep learning these tasks held when a well-knowledged teacher was pointing children in the right direction, rather than entirely leading the learning process, thus establishing a shift in my overall teaching ideology – something that I will take into great consideration later in my practice. Time is crucial. 

A contrasting example of practice that wasn’t evident in the other grades as much was the importance of free play. Children were allowed time everyday to play (something that the host family’s son was very jealous of when he heard about it from me). However, this play wasn’t entirely left to the devices of the children: once more, the teacher had set up stations that would aid in particular learning points – art stations that fostered creativity, iPad stations that tested mathematical skills through the medium of technology and the role play station that was given a voted “setting” that the children had to construct and act out with materials (campsite won this week). I came to realise that play itself is natural to children and that the best kind of learning can be found through allowing kids to be kids – so long as it is also purposeful: “It is through play that children explore their world, learn to ask questions, to solve problems and to socialize” (International School of Stuttgart, 2017, p.4). Teachers need to be there to move the learning forward within play. Answer those questions or pose new ones to get them thinking further – these are some of the changes I’ve been making to my practice at ISS.

What was also evident during my time with the early years was the emphasis on “Outdoor Learning”. The children had the unit of inquiry that centred around plants and living things. The children had the task of planting over 250 trees around the borders of the playground. However, they did not need to do this entirely alone as Grade 5 were also tasked with collaborating with the young children to ensure that the bigger jobs of digging and lifting the plants were done properly so not to injure one of the little ones. It was great to see the intergenerational groups work so well, even through the differences in maturity and experiences of life. For the kindergarteners it was also great for them to use their motor skills to dig, measure and plant the trees to make sure there was enough room for the roots with the assistance of the older grade 5 children. They both got to get a hands-on experience with nature.

Some of the trees that the children planted – The collaboration of the Grade 5s and the Kindergarten children produced a great product of life as the children got to understand a physical representation of their topic around plants.

Beyond this outdoor learning, the children were also given the task of growing their own plants in the classroom whilst using a wet tissue paper to soak the seeds on a plate that was put in direct sunlight. Now, I remember doing this same topic with children that were double the age of the Kindergarten kids, so I first thought that it would be a challenge for both the students and the teacher. However, once again, I was proven wrong. Freedom was utilised by the teacher in that the children were given the free choice of what seeds they wanted to grow – carrots, tomatoes, different types of flowers and more were all on offer. Scientific questions were already being asked by the children also when resources were being distributed – “Don’t the seeds need soil to grow?” “How will the seeds all grow if they are different plants?” and “how will they grow on a plate?”. These were all replied with more prompts of inquiry from the teacher in a very effective manner of questioning. Whilst it got the children thinking, the teacher made sure to keep the flow of the lesson moving whilst also handing out the various resources and then getting the children to then document their “observation” of what their experiments looked like at the beginning. All of this culminated towards a great first science experiment that fostered the inquisition skills that will be very important when the children progress to more advance science as they age.

It wasn’t all happiness in Kindergarten however either.

Interlinking with the pedagogical understanding that young children find it difficult to empathise with others as they are predominately egocentric at their early stages of development, I got to fully realise that many young children cannot understand that others have different viewpoints from their own until the ages of 7, which works in line with the views of Piagetian theory (Halpenny and Pettersen, 2014). It was interesting to see how conflicts were resolved in an early years setting, as they differ greatly from the older children. Some of the conflicts are the first that a child is ever experiencing as school is normally the first place that they are in groups with people that they need to work with (which brings about the possibility for conflict in the first place). Although very minor issues in the grand scheme of things, it was my job to really work children through their conflicts to find resolutions, thus establishing children that could grow into resilient individuals.

Thursday and Friday (12th and 13th of April) were spent with the Nest, which is the Early Years Programme before Kindergarten and Grade 1 at the school of ISS. Children range in the ages of 3 to 5 and a  clear difference between the Nest and Kindergarten is that the Nest is more collaborative  as the children are divided into 3 groups that are each assigned an adult that is in charge of them (categorised predominately by their age), however, much of the time they are working as a whole through learning, as they work between rooms and groups. The Nest children normally begin outdoors in the morning then partake in circle time and then work around centres that are set up by the teachers.

There is even, nearer the end of the day, quiet time where the younger children can have a nap if it is needed or to just chill out and listen to a story.

An example of the mattress and sleeping bag that the Nest children use during their quiet story time where many of them get a well-deserved nap.

Thursday was an interesting day because some of the staff and children were missing due to the public transport strike in Stuttgart and other parts of Germany occurring. Buses and trains were cancelled which meant that some people couldn’t make it (this also tested my driving skills with the increase in volume of traffic that morning, but I digress). This meant that we had to be spread across the groups more due to there being less staff members (however fewer children also helped the flow of the day with less teachers). The youngest children also got to go out and go on a forest expedition with staff members and parents, which interlinks with the German’s system of early years education of Waldkindergarten – forest nurseries. Much of the pedagogy behind the early years practices at ISS are inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach.

The plan of the day for Thursday – Notice the forest trip. Also, the differences in the layout of the day can really be seen when comparing the other grades, as students progress through education.

Friday also brought more challenges as staff members were ill unexpectedly and we had all the children in. It, however, really showed me how successful practitioners can be when they come together in the wake of obstacles and challenges. The staff at ISS really came together to fill the gaps of roles of responsibilities that the different teachers that weren’t there left and it was helpful that I was there to assist. I was also in charge of establishing a station in the “movement room” where the children had to use their body to build role-play scenarios using the resources in the room. It was great to see the creativity of the young children to make their house out of giant cushions and then create characters that fit into the setting they were creating. It also showed me that many of these creative skills are employed as the children progress through development and education (they’ll be using this creativity like when the grade 1s had to think of written dialogue for the actions of my character before the holidays).

This week has established a great foundation of knowledge in early years practice, something that I will build upon as I progress through my time as a practitioner. I’ve found that there is less marking with the younger children, however, the practices are far more physically demanding in terms of having to do a lot of the thinking for the children in planning. Being explicitly clear in instruction is crucial within this too. Also, much more emotional support (although emotional support is very important at all stages) needs to be provided to ensure that young students come into education with a happy outlook towards it, particularly as this is their introductory stages to education and school as a whole. There is a lot more outdoor learning and a lot of benefits come with that as children that get to explore and play within and with their environment in a mulit-sensory manner get the reap the benefits of greater quality development and a better overall understanding of both their environment and themselves (Burghardt, 2011).

However, the biggest development this week I think is in my understanding that time must be given in ample amounts to children – at any stage.

Learning cannot be rushed

Pressures on teachers to satisfy boxes and checklists really hinder the learning for students because they are then advanced through a topic far too quickly and they do not establish strong learning, which really shows that doing tasks for learning far too fast might as well not be done at all because the children do not gain any real substance from it.

Next week will see a shift in pattern as I will move all the way back up to Grade 5 to help in their work towards their exhibition.

Today, also marks a month until I will be returning home back to Scotland and I cannot believe where the time has went and how I have packed so much learning in a months time. I know that my second month in Stuttgart will also be as (or even more) fulfilling.

Reference:

Burghardt, G. M. (2011) Defining and recognising play. In A. Pellegrini Ed. Oxford handbook of the development of play New York: Oxford University Press pp. 9-18.

Halpenny, A.M. and Pettersen, J. (2014) Introducing Piaget: A guide for practitioners and students in early years education London: Routledge.

International School of Stuttgart (2017) EY 3/4 Nest Handbook 2017-18. Stuttgart: ISS.

Frohe Ostern! – Week 4 Reflection in Stuttgart

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Although I am on my easter break this week, I still feel that it is necessary to write another weekly reflection, because I am still gaining a lot of learning in culture and language with my host family. Furthermore, this time has allowed me to explore the town of Kirchheim unter Teck more.

Frohe Ostern! – I got to participate in the host family’s easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday

On the Easter weekend, I got to enjoy many of the traditions that German people uphold in their celebration of Ostern (Easter). My host family had already decorated Easter trees around the house, had easter eggs all prepared and we even had an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday in the garden! It was beautiful to see some of the German traditions come alive in a real life setting – it was interesting to finally see it all transpire in the flesh when comparing what we learned about German culture in school. I must say, however, I think that I have eaten far too many chocolate eggs! We spent Easter Sunday completing the egg hunt and then celebrated with a home cooked roast together, which was really lovely and it made me feel really part of their family unit.

Being off the school has allowed me to engross myself in the everyday usage of the language of German – going to the shops, buying things, interacting with the family and people in the town in the state of Baden-Württemberg. This has benefited the advancement of my skills in speaking and listening, particularly within everyday scenarios. Gone are the days where I am trying to remember specific vocabulary for a presentation in German, now I am actually having to use the language to communicate specific points in order to be understood. I was even preparing shopping lists in German so that I knew I was getting the right things! As small as these milestones are, it really shows that I have had to really go back to basics to really utilise the skills that I established in studying the language of German in both school and the University of Dundee. I may know abstract vocabulary for global issues that we learned about, however, simple conversations have been a lot more trickier but also a lot more fulfilling when I have successfully communicated my point across.

Tuesday brought about some amazing sunny weather, with a nice warm heat of 21 degrees, that we were able to enjoy (what made it even better was getting updates back home that the weather has not been good in Scotland). I got to travel around the town I am staying in and enjoy some of the architecture and the lovely scenery that is evident in the area – much of the town is mountainous and rural very much like Scotland (Kirchheim unter Teck’s name translates to the town of Kirchheim that is under the mountain Teck). I also got to enjoy a nice meal at a traditional German restaurant (supposedly it was the location where the state of Baden-Württemberg was discussed as being formed into one state, as it was historically smaller states that were formally combined in the 1950s). This also led to the family introducing me to some of their friends. What was particularly interesting about these friends was that their German was somewhat different from the German that I am used to hearing from school listenings and news clips. They had a specific dialect of German known as Hochdeutsch (literally high German). I was able to understand main parts of their speech, however, much like when us Scots speak very fast in our dialect, it became quite tricky to understand everything that was being said. This showed me that, very much like English, there are various different dialects to German besides the traditional version we are always exposed to in school and in movies. I think that this interesting variation in dialects and language would be an interesting area to explore in a Scottish curriculum setting, as it would engage students in relating to the differences in their own dialects and language when exploring the styles and variations of another.

An example of Maultaschen (sourced: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Schwäbische_Maultaschen_2.JPG)

I have also been able to dabble in some cooking of German food whilst with my host family. A particular dish that has intrigued me the most is Maultaschen (singular – Maultasche). It literally translates as a feed bag (Maul – mouth + tasche – bag) and it is a unique dish that is at the heart of Baden-Würtemberg and was recognised as a regional speciality in 2009 by the European Union, which protects the dish as being produced only in the area that invented them as it is a Swabian speciality. The closest thing I can relate it to is ravioli, however, it is packed more fully with a minced meat and herbs substance in the middle. They are very savoury and tasty and are a core element to the culture of the Swabian heritage that is evident within the area of Baden-Würtemberg.

However, I have also been able to share some of my Scottish heritage with the host family. On Wednesday night it was my responsibility to cook dinner so I thought I would prepare something Scottish – stovies. Although it did not require gourmet cooking, I found it a great achievement for me to be able to cook a meal completely from scratch for the family. They loved the meal and found it very filling. It was also good to be able to taste something that is very reminiscent to a meal at home. I’m lucky that my grandmother showed me how to make the tastiest stovies! This means that I have not only been able to learn about a new culture, I have also been able to share my own with others, which interlinks with the core purpose of ISS (and also one of the many goals that I wanted to achieve whilst being in Stuttgart). Not only did I cook a Scottish meal, I also baked some Scottish shortbread on Thursday evening. This placement has not only advanced my professional outlook on education, my understanding of German language and German culture, but it has even allowed me to improve my culinary skills – something that is necessary for independence in life (something that I aimed to achieve through this placement). I really am “Learning from Life” because through everyday interaction, I have been able to make big leaps in my own self-concept. Formerly, I would have just bought shortbread from a store, however, being in a different country where that isn’t so easily possible, I had to use my initiative to create my own (and, it is actually an easy biscuit to bake. In future, I think I might bake my own shortbread instead of just going to a shop for some).

The shortbread that I baked for my host family – the sharing of cultures and traditions is proof in itself that differences can bring people together – the core ethos of ISS.

I have also seen a great development in the English of the son of the host family with them having me here. His volume of speech has expanded a great amount with coherence becoming stronger with every conversation he has with me. It is also evident that he has began to imitate much of the vocabulary that I have specifically used to spark new words and terms that he may have not heard before. His homework for English has also improved and he is not needing as much support from me to be able to complete his book reviews. It has amazed me what a young mind is capable of in terms of language acquisition. English is his third language and yet he uses it very well and I can only see improvements from here on out and I am glad to say that I was a part of that advancement. We have also been helping one another in the desired languages we both want to learn (German for me and English for him) by having conversations in both languages and assisting one another in gaining the required vocabulary we wish to learn, but we have also found it useful to watch movies and TV shows in the evenings in either German or English so that we can hear the languages even more through a multimedia platform. Its also been interesting to show him some of my favourite English movies that I enjoyed as a child and to see that interest be passed on. Its been even more interesting watching some of the most famous English movies in German and being able to correlate some of the phrases from English to their German counterparts (particularly, watching the Terminator movies has been interesting to hear it in German).

Now, to conclude this particular post I believe that I should have a check-in with what I have achieved so far, what I still hope to achieve, and what I think will be my future learning to take away from the entire placement when I return home in May.

Firstly, I feel that I have achieved much of what I have set out to do or I am heading in the right direction to achieving it. Particularly, I have advanced in the skills that I broke down in my audit of skills and I have utilised my prior knowledge of German and Germany to prepare me for interacting with the people in both Kirchheim unter Teck and Stuttgart. Key skills that I feel I have progressed in are sharing opinions confidently and taking risks because I have been able to share my professional feedback to other staff members to give them an outsiders perspective on what they do at ISS, but I have also shared my own personal opinions with people at the school and with my host family in order to show them my way of life and culture. I have taken risks in terms of having teaching points with groups of children and having some whole class interactions with some of the children from different grades as well as I’ve had to ensure that my approach towards teaching correlates with the IB’s guidelines. I’ve used my prior knowledge of last year’s placement to really find my footing at ISS and to be seen as one of the staff members at the school by my professional peers and the students. Furthermore I have investigated into the educational literature surrounding the practices of ISS (particularly the concept of inquiry-based learning and the overall ethos of the school in my other blog posts).  Overall, I believe that I will come out of this experience a changed person. I have more confidence within myself and my capabilities as a person and as an educator. I think that the growth mindset ideology has taken shape in my own educational philosophy: everything that I have faced I have tackled with the mindset that I can achieve whatever it was that I set out to do and it has proved to be a great way to go into things.

Next week when I make my return to the school, I plan to begin my work with the Early Years team at ISS and interact with the Kindergarten and Nest areas of the school in order to use the knowledge I have gained this year in lectures and research in a real life context. I also hope to gain new professional knowledge from the staff that will be experts in what it means to be a successful practitioner with younger children. From then on, I will use the rest of my time working with the grade 5s whilst they prepare for their grand event of showcasing their unique topics of inquiry – the Grade 5 Exhibition.