Changes over time

The year 3-6 students have been looking at how things have changed over time. What were they like 50 years ago, what are they like now, and what do we think they will be like in 50 years time? And how have or will these changes affect how we interact with other people?

This adds depth and complexity to thinking, while learning some research skills and having a chance to use creative thinking and imagination to predict the future.

The year 1&2 group are looking at 'belonging to a group' this week. How does it feel when they are not included in a group? We will practice using empathy to discuss how others might feel if they are not included, and to think of possible solutions to help with these feelings.

Parents of year 3-6 Quest students - please remember to fill in the feedback form that was emailed out to help us plan for Term 2 timetabling.

This is the last week of term 1. We have a break for Easter and school holidays.
Have a happy holiday.

Intensities / sensitivities / overexcitabilities

This week we have a parent meeting on Wednesday night - 7-8.30pm in the staffroom. I will be talking about overexcitabilities (sensitivities or intensities) that are often, but not always, part of life with a gifted child. All welcome - no charge.

So I will look a little at this with the kids this week as well. It helps if they are aware that sometimes their intense feelings, thoughts and actions are 'normal'. If the children have some coping mechanisms to deal with these intensities then they can cope better if the intensities / sensitivities are having a negative impact on their life.

Empathy

We will be looking at empathy this week. In the past few weeks we have touched on individuality and having differing opinions - learning to accept others for who they are and to understand that people may feel differently to us and that's ok. 
This week we will look at what empathy is - understanding feelings from another person's perspective. We touched on that a little when looking at opinions previously. Children were asked, in groups, to imagine they were someone else and to try to put themselves in that person's shoes to imagine what they would be feeling.

I like this definition of empathy:
"Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the "heart" of another."

I think if we can encourage empathy then children will be more able to understand ideas / feelings from others' points of view - and wouldn't that make the world a better place if everyone can be a little more understanding of each other!

They will also have the chance to carry on with their chosen inquiry project looking at the effect changes over time has on people and communities. 

Inquiry

We are delving more into a class inquiry this week - looking at statistics with the bike track, and

how/if this change has affected people in our community.

Inquiry learning is child-centred. Children will learn to ask questions and find answers. A good start for an inquiry is a good question - open-ended (has no right or wrong answer) and higher-order (requires critical thinking, problem-solving and/or transfer of learning).

We have a class inquiry that we are looking at to reinforce the basic skills needed - formulating good questions, researching using reputable sources, recording information /ideas, and finally sharing our findings. This will take us several weeks. Some children may choose to branch off into their own inquiry.

This type of learning is fantastic for our gifted children as it gives them ownership over their learning. Some however will and do struggle with the amount of choice - their minds will see endless possibilities and not know where to start, or they may start and then overthink and doubt their choice of topic.  Some will start one thing and rush it to get on to their next idea. I want to help children to take their time to have more depth to their learning, to push themselves 'beyond the known'. So that is why I am guiding this more at the moment, to build up skills and confidence for those who need it, so that in time they will feel able to make their own choices, and to encourage those fast learners to slow down and delve deeper so that they will learn more and challenge themselves along the way.

PARENT NIGHT:
On Wednesday 5th April 7-8.30pm in the staffroom I will be talking about intensities/ sensitivities/ over-excitabilities in gifted people. I gave this same talk about three-four  years ago so some of you may have heard it before - apologies. It seems like there is a need to understand more about these intensities that so many of our children (and some of us too!) experience. No charge - a chance to come and mingle and chat with other parents as well if you want to stay afterwards.

Changes over time

This week we will be looking at changes to our community over time - how has this and will this affect the people who live in our community?
Children will be asked to predict what changes may happen in the future for a chance to use their imagination.
We will start by looking at the bike track - how has this impacted on people in our community?

If any parents / grandparents have information / photos about our community 50 years ago we would love to hear from you!

Different opinions

This week we are looking at differences of opinions in communities. We will look at ideas from other people's point of view to help us understand others more and hopefully learn some tolerance and acceptance of others.

The year 1&2 group are looking at similarities and differences  with each other, and talking about feelings to try to help them be more understanding of others.

A few lucky year 5&6 children went to the Nanogirl Science Show on Monday - well worth going to if you ever get a chance. Apparently they are hoping to bring a show to the North Shore later in the year. There is a free video of her 2016 show on youtube if anyone is interested  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkInHz4UoFc

Our Community

Our Community - What's important to us

We have started to think about what a community means to us - it is just the people, or the places, activities or a combination? There was a lot of good discussion as children debated various ideas. We began thinking out what is important to us in our school community - what kind of people, places , activities make our school community special for us? What do we value?

This week we will continue this and expand our thinking to our wider community. The aim is for all Quest groups to collaborate to create a video that shows what matters to us in our community.

We will then expand further to look at communities around the world - are they all the same? What are the similarities and differences to our community? This will give students some good lines of inquiry if they wish to look in detail at a part of our community, or further afield and research communities in different countries. Over the coming weeks we will also look at changes over time and see how changes affect our relationships with each other and with our environment in our communities.