We did it!

Wow! What an exciting night we had!  The exhibition evening was a complete success!  We had many, many parents come during exhibition evening as well as many teachers, principals, mentors and friends of the community in Santiago.  We had a great time sharing all of our learning with everyone!

The students were very well prepared as we spent the Tuesday and Wednesday during the day presenting to all of the students of the school.  We had the grade 3 and 4 students come and visit the grade five classes and give great feedback to each of the presentation groups.  We also took our boards to the grade 1 and 2 classes and gave a short version of the presentations to practice using our English with different types of audiences.  On Wednesday afternoon each of the grade five classes had been able to see the other grade five presentation as well.  By the time it was the evening on Wednesday the students had practiced their presentations at least 4 different times.  They were ready and it showed! :)

Some of the highlights of the evening were the following:

• Listening and watching the student created exhibition song (with voice change effects from Garage Band and recorded on an iPad) via an animoto short 

• Listening and watching two grade five students explain the overall process of our exhibition to the parents and visitors

Opening presentationevening.2011

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• Seeing the various specialist integrations that the students collaborated on especially the recycled artworks and mobiles with discarded technology and the virtual wailing wall from the religion classes

• Watching the students present to their parents in the classrooms with amazing confidence, knowledge and understanding

• Seeing the parents and visitors participating in asking questions, giving feedback via google forms and QR codes and leaving "love notes" on the grafitti wall

It was an amazing end to a great unit! Thank you to all of the students, teachers, mentors, parents and visitors for helping us achieve such an amazing amount of learning and understanding in just 9 short weeks!

When we return from our holiday break, we will finish with the final stage of our inquiry process which is reflection.  We will post a few reflections when we return.

In the meantime, if you visited our exhibition, what was your favorite part of the evening?  Is there any additional feedback you would like to give?

Miss Jessica :)

It's all coming together now!

After 6 long weeks we are at the final stages of the exhibition!  We now have a title for the exhibition which was voted on by the students through this blog...

Technology... upload it to your mind!

We now have two mascots which we will use to identify the two different groups of visitors to the exhibition next week.  Both mascots were drawn by students in grade five and I think they show the theme of the exhibition as well as the personality of the students very well!

Technology Gorilla: Group A

Beach Phone: Group B

And we just sent out our invitations on Wednesday inviting everyone to the presentation.  I am really excited to add an extra presentation this year which is a visit to the first and second grade classes.  I think the younger students are really going to enjoy seeing the "older students" showing what they have been doing.  All of the different people, parents, community members, teachers, mentors, and grade level teachers and students received a version of our invitation.  It was made by one of our 5th graders and I think it is an EXCELLENT example of balance in showing all students from each class as well as a little bit of our process.

Sc invitación exposición.2011

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Now, as the students finish their final reflections and evaluations and complete their presentation boards, we are in a FRENZY of creativity!  The halls are covered each day with students working in the halls designing, discussing and developing their presentations!  It's great to see such hands on learning!

And now as we near the end of the cycle of our inquiry, I'm interested in knowing what has been your favorite part of the exhibition inquiry cycle?  Wandering and Wondering, Planning and Preparing, Finding Information, Using Information, Synthesis, Evaluation, Presentation, or Action?  Why did you like that part the best?

Miss Jessica :)

We need your help!

Wow! Exhibition evening is about a week and a half away and all of the students are working hard on using their information and synthesizing what they have learned!  As part of that process, we asked the students to create mascots and titles that we can use on the invitations and posters for the exhibition evening.  Now, we need your help in deciding which pictures and slogans best represent what we have been during the exhibition process.

Take a look at the slide show below and feel free to click on any of the pictures if you would like to see the photo in more detail.  Pay attention to the mascot number that you like and then vote for the TWO photos that you like the best on the right hand side of the blog.

Also, please take a look at the second poll on the right side of the blog and vote for the title that you think sounds the best for the exhibition.

I look forward to seeing what you choose!

Miss Jessica

We are really moving along now! Most students have moved right into our Using Information phase and they are starting to Synthesize everything that they've been learning.  It is AMAZING to watch the students put all of their information together and discuss in their groups what they have been learning.  They are looking back on their questions and their concepts and checking to make sure that they answered their questions the best that they could.

As we move into this final phase, we are encouraging all of the students to take a moment to sit down and reflect on what new information they have learned and what they are going to DO with that new learning.  It's a hard task but we are all positive that the results of their thinking are going to be GREAT!

What do you think, students?  What has been the best NEW piece of information that you have learned in the exhibition?  Was there something that really surprised you?