PYPX Beyond Classroom Walls

From a group of teachers wanting to have a bigger conversation, grew yesterday's IB.PYP Exhibition sharing day for teachers of four schools across Germany. The conversations were great, sharing ideas of practise past and future. Talking with others rates so highly on my personal PD agenda and yesterday was no exception.

In our PYP classrooms we talk a lot about collaboration and sharing. The exhibition is designed to be a celebration of the learner, an opportunity to take ownership and lead an inquiry from beginning to end; an opportunity to design, construct, plan, develop and present their own unit of inquiry. Last year's exhibition went well, but there remains a lot of scope for improvement. The whys and how-tos of mentoring remain high on our agenda, action, performance and evidence elements are other areas of reinterpretation. For me though, these are not where my mind wonders off to the most.

What does the ideal exhibition look like? There are so many elements of exhibition open to interpretation, each requiring discussion and revisiting each year, one thing seems obvious though, connecting kids across classrooms. In the PYP we talk about making the world a smaller place, helping students to develop an understanding of our world through the lenses of six transdiciplinary themes. Can we truly do this within the confines of a classroom?

My ideal exhibition would have students collaborating with others from across the globe. Sharing in their learning and their approach to change with students beyond the walls of their own classroom. Our discussions yesterday helped me to realise that the initial focus for students would be on action, encouraging students to consider the areas in our world where they would like to help, to affect change. As these conversations continue, opening doors for discussions with others using tools like Edmodo, blogs and Voicethreads students in Europe can begin to share their ideas with students in Asia, the Nordic, Americas and the Pan-Pacific.

Last year our early focus was on moving students from topic to concept. I saw it then and I know it now, these 'topic to concept' discussions were very hard for the kids. They really didn't understand why. A colleague helped me to realise yesterday that by changing our approach the student would take themselves from topic to concept. So my ideal Exhibition would have students connecting with others who care about similar issues. As they connect with each other and talk about the action they can take their conversations will naturally lead them to the underlying concepts.

The combined inquiry will continue individually and together as the students build their knowledge, share their understanding and through their combined actions, affect change together. The ideal exhibition group will consist of students from multiple classrooms across multiple countries. Students will present and talk about their understandings in multiple languages, especially their home languages.

How do you encourage you students to consider other perspectives and collaborate during exhibition?