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!

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 3^rd edn. London: Routledge. Pp. 21-34.

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