Ruby Tuesday

This blog is about me as a learner. Last week, I viewed a webinar led by Diane Kashin on mind mapping. I am also currently mid-way through a 4-week course on playful literacies facilitated by Jo Fahey. I was struck by what I was learning, how I was learning and the role of the facilitator.  Diane described mind maps as documents that make learning visible. Before using mind maps as pedagogical documentation, I wanted to play with mind mapping myself and decided to map the big ideas of the playful literacies course. I used Miro, a free online platform, to map the big ideas. The structure of a mind map allowed me to identify, reflect on and refine the big ideas themselves and the connections I was making.  There is a great flexibility to this tool and I look forward to making new connections and adding to the mind map in the next two weeks. I also plan to use mind mapping using visuals with Kindergarten. I am also interested in playing with this way to plan responsively and meaningfully

In the recent IB document: The Early Years in the PYP, many aspects of the programme are contextualised and unpacked specifically for early years. This includes the notion of action. Even for 3-6 year olds, action can look and sound so different and could take place in or beyond time in the learning environments in school.  Quoting from the document (page 20): Student-initiated action occurs in response to experiences that are personally meaningful to learners, demonstrating that they have linked their learning to real-life issues and opportunities. The action may be short-term or it could be ongoing.  The document has some very helpful categories of what action might involve and examples of what these categories might look like. This blog is a chance for me to use the same categories and find examples of Kindergarten this year taking this type of action.  Helping self or others Children are very kind to other children. Some children have difficulties to put on and fold away blue vests

Conceptual learning continues to motivate and interest me. Personally, I am much more excited by the power of related concepts, but key concepts do have an important role. This post is about how they might be used in Kindergarten.  Concepts share common criteria. Like the idea of white light, concepts can be viewed and described in a spectrum of different ways.  There are 7 key concepts in the PYP. Here I have used these 7 key concepts as lenses to explore the big ideas of conceptual learning and consider practices we might consider moving away from and be intentional in moving towards other practices.  I have blogged previously about the importance of conceptual learning. The post is here .  The 7 key concepts promote different types of thinking and unpack big ideas in multiple ways. They are not hierarchical; responsibility and perspective are as relevant and important in Kindergarten as they are in any other grade level.  Our current unit of inquiry is built around the related conce

"Informed by assessment" is one of the six IB's ATTs (Approaches to Teaching). Assessment is an ongoing process, embedded in learning and teaching.  Quoting from the recent publication, The Early Years in the PYP, when teaching is informed by assessment, learners: - reflect on their learning - adjust their learning in response to reflection and feedback - co-construct learning goals with educators - have conversations with peers and educators about their learning, including conceptual understanding, knowledge and the ATL skills - engage in feedback practices, including conferencing in small groups, and using language that supports the learning of others.  There are four dimensions for assessment in the PYP which all relate to one another and help to evidence learning. These dimensions are monitoring, documenting, measuring and reporting of learning, and they all inform learning and teaching.  What have I been monitoring, documenting and giving feedback on? Working theorie