NUACHTÁN ELEMENTARY | July 2021
The school year came to an end and with it, all the activities mark the closing of the school year.
The presentation of portfolios of each group highlights the progress in the learning process of our students and the great work done by the teachers. We are very proud of the achievements made in all areas.
One more generation is heading into the next school stage, our sixth graders finished their journey in Elementary and are now ready to face the next challenge.
Congratulations to our dear generation 2015-2021, you have done a great job!
2020-2021 gave us many learnings, was full of new challenges, and great satisfaction to see the objectives accomplished, now with an eye on the great changes that lie ahead we are ready to return to the classrooms knowing that we have the support of the whole community. We appreciate your trust, enjoy the holidays, and see you in August ready to start the 2021-2022 school year with a lot of energy.
Elementary Staff and Teachers
The impact of PYP exhibition on the development of the international-mindedness, critical thinking, and the IB learning profile attributes
By Georgina Pérez
The exhibition takes place in the last year of the PYP (Primary Years Programme) and is the culmination of extensive research that includes collaborative group work, inquiry, social action, and an audience presentation.
A few years ago, a study was conducted investigating the impact of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary School Programme (PYP) on the development of the international-mindedness, critical thinking, and attributes of the IB learning community profile in students.
“The researchers found that the PYP exhibition is a valuable and decisive experience in the lives of the schools, families, and students who participated in it. Participants felt that the exhibition helped to develop critical thinking, international-mindedness, and profile attributes of the IB learning community in students. The reflections of teachers, mentors, parents, and students were central to the continuous improvement of the PYP exhibition experience. It was evident that experienced schools were able to better manage the process to provide students with an optimal experience.
Among the findings found, the choice of theme was a very important part of the exhibition process. Experienced members of school staff were better prepared to help students choose topics with sufficient breadth and depth, link lines of inquiry to topics, and keep their attention focused on action. The well-chosen themes fostered the development of inquiry, critical thinking, and the international mindset.
Concerning reflection and evaluation, reflection was at the heart of the PYP exhibition process of the participating schools. This was incorporated into the exhibition in various ways, either as independent work done outside the classroom or as part of the class. While some students said they found the reflections “boring at first,” they recognized their importance in improving the quality of independent and group work. It is important to note that the reflection was not limited to students. Schools also reflected on how to improve their exhibition processes. Teachers and coordinators will need to make changes to improve learning; they also gave examples of changes made in previous years.
This study showed that the PYP exhibition is a valuable and decisive experience in the life of the schools, families, and students who participated in it. Although the exhibition is based on inquiry, structured support from teachers proved to be a key factor in giving students space and freedom to make decisions and inquire. The reflections of teachers, mentors, parents, and students were central to the continuous improvement of the PYP exposure experience”.
For every IB community, the PYP exhibition is a celebration of learning, and we are filled with joy and pride when it comes time for our presentations, we confirm everything our students, teachers and the community had learned. We share some images from the PYP Exhibition 2021.
References:
The impact of PYP exposure on the development of the international mindset, critical thinking and profile attributes of the IB learning community (2017).
Retrieved from:
https://ibo.org/globalassets/publications/ib-research/pyp/pyp-exhibition-summary-es.pdf
Research summary. Retrieved from:
The importance of resting
By Connie Zamudio
In this summer season where it gets dark later, we find it difficult for children to go to bed early, many times we find students tired in the day, sleepy, and what they tell us is that they went to bed late to sleep.
Most children between the ages of 5 and 12 need 10 to 11 hours of sleep. Some children may need between an hour or so, it all depends on the child.
At this age, difficulties may arise for different reasons when going to sleep. Homework, sports, after-school activities, television, computers, and video games, plus charged family schedules, can be factors that contribute to children not sleeping enough.
In children, lack of sleep can cause irritability or hyperactivity, which make them grumpy and may find it difficult to pay attention in class. Their periods of concentration are shortened, and they do not feel like working.
It is important to have a systematic bedtime routine, especially on the nights leading up to a school day. Be sure to leave enough time before going to bed to allow your child to relax before turning off the light and limit exhilarating amusements like tv, video games, and the internet.
Finally, during the holiday period routines are affected, my recommendation is that at least a week before entering classes you begin to strengthen the sleep routine, and thus it will cost us less both to lie down and to get them up on time.
References:
Why do I need to sleep? Retrieved from:
https://kidshealth.org/es/kids/sleep-esp.html
Personal development and the satisfaction of getting to know each other
By Psic. Gabriela García Santillán
‘Of all possible knowledge, the wisest and most useful is to know yourself‘.
-William Shakespeare-
Recalling what has been done in the psychopedagogy classes, we can realize that we worked on raising awareness of the importance of knowing each other through the identification and management of emotions or the expression of thoughts.
Strategies focused on understanding what assertiveness is and thus favoring decision-making in situations that students face, identifying their tastes, their desires, or even what they do not like, were also provided. Recognizing in their environment what kind of people or situations make them feel better or not through living with people who are related to our values. In addition to promoting our understanding of the context in which we are participants during our lives.
The students mentioned that…
“if we do not know who we are, who will do it?”, “When we know each other we learn to accept ourselves as we are”, “knowing each other implies identifying what we do and what we cannot do”, “knowing each other helps us to have more security in ourselves”.
Through some of the reflections that were raised above, we can recognize that our beloved Elementary students continue to reflect clues focused on the motivation they have to value themselves from the concept they are building of themselves. In addition, they continue to discover their strengths and areas of opportunity, raise awareness of what they can change or plan to achieve the goals they want, get to know each other better, and feel satisfied and fulfilled.
Self-knowledge is key in personal development, so it helps our students to find their greatest motivations and plan their actions towards what they want to accomplish.
Some strategies that allow us to promote self-knowledge are:
- Write a journal: Write descriptively the actions of the day to achieve the management of our emotions, in addition to providing the reading of the written can provide us with feedback on how we are.
- Classification of our virtues and areas of opportunity: It allows us to detect from our actions how we are.
- Identifying our passions: Generating a list will help motivate us to meet our goals and focus on what makes us happy.
- Wheel of life: Technique of personal development that consists of making a circle and choosing 10 areas of life that you want to change or improve. It also allows us to reflect on our personal and social priorities.
- Practice Mindfulness: focused on improving self-awareness and attentional capacity to learn to be in the present without judgments, with acceptance, appreciation, and openness to new experiences.
References
Vidal, J. (2017). An explanation of psychological self-knowledge. Topics, Journal of Philosophy, (54), 353-392.
https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v0i54.858
Recommendations during the holiday period and back to school
Psic. Gabriela García Santillán
The oliday period is a long-awaited moment for our Celta community. Sometimes continuing with the routine (getting up early, keeping a specific schedule, doing homework, sports activities, and falling asleep) is usually more flexible in that period.
We value and recognize the great effort that our students have during the 2020-2021 school year to try to comply with what is due and required so that the holiday period becomes a time of enjoyment and relaxation.
It is important that, as far as possible, some habits are preserved so that upon return, the change is not so abrupt or difficult to process.
To continue favoring the transition from the holiday period to the daily routine, we can carry out a series of guidelines during this summer:
- Maintain the same basic rules of behavior that have been operating the rest of the year: put and /or remove the table, make the bed, pick up your toys, etc.
- Maintain, as far as possible, the same mealtimes, hygiene, and sleeping habits throughout the summer.
- Generate a schedule to play electronic games (tablets, consoles, etc.) The frequency will depend on the agreements that each family has established.
- Promote different games that involve interacting with other children to promote social relationships.
- Encourage physical activity in open places (parks, beach, countryside) with the established care measures.
- Dedicate time to strengthen social relationships (family, friends) that sometimes the school routine keeps us in a certain daily rhythm that prevents us, many times, from dedicating quality time to the little ones. This holiday will allow a moment of leisure with the family, and greater attention will be paid to each of the members.
- Establish a daily work routine, to maintain the habit and settle the knowledge acquired during the course, for example, performing tasks related to the stimulation of the basic skills necessary for learning (attention, memory, planning) as well as reinforcement of the academic aspects seen throughout the course without exceeding 30 minutes.
- Come back one, two, or three days before. In this way, we will have a few days to re-habituate ourselves to our house, unpack the suitcases of the holidays, fill the fridge, with no rush.
- Two days before the end of the holiday process begin to return to schedules so that the sleep rhythms get used to.
- During the holiday period and the return to the next school year, it will be important to continue taking care of ourselves to carry out sports activities or physical-spiritual self-care that make us experience fullness, relaxation, and balance.
On behalf of all of us, we wish you a HAPPY HOLIDAY! Enjoy every moment together and I assure you that we will be very excited to see you very soon.
PYP IN THE CLASSROOM
The third graders carried out an activity that made them reflect and become aware of the rights of people with different abilities. After watching a video, students made a painting using only their feet and mouth.
During the last week of classes, the school year closures were carried out with the presentation of electronic portfolios in each of the Elementary groups. These presentations have a little bit of all the work done during the units of inquiry.
Congratulations to teachers and students for the work done!
Dates to remember
• AUGUST 30th – Back to School
