Reflecting on the Personal project showcase

As a community we took time to reflect on the Human library showcase format that we used for Personal projects showcase for the very first time. This evaluation served the purpose of reflecting on common experiences to improve the planning, implementation and running a successful event for all partakers (books, readers and librarian) during future events.

The reason for using the Human library format was to engage in personal, deeper level conversations on mutual topics of interest. We addressed the following questions.

     1. What did you find most enjoyable? Responses included-
Books (students) were very knowledgeable about their topics. Books enjoying telling their stories. The setup where a Book (student) was in a separate place which allowed the full attention of the audience and valued and honored their work. The smaller venues, set up in different classrooms, where everyone had a chance to ask questions and comment the work. It was particularly nice to see year 4 students engaged, clearly starting to think of what they might do.
Readers (parents, teachers, fellow students) were supportive and interested in the stories.
Getting to know some of the students from my child's class a bit better. Also having time to talk to some of the teachers and parents.
I appreciated the last round in the end, with all books present, that allowed seeing everyone's project.

     2. What were some challenges, if any? Responses included-
Books had to tell their 20 minute story 6 times to different audience. One student commented that she felt like a college lecturer and was surprised that this is the way the lectures are done...).
Having mixed feelings about the 20 minute session, not being sure  what would work during that length of time.
Readers wanted to read more books.
Year 5 students wanted to read their classmate stories.
The last round, with all books present, was chaotic and readers tended to chat with each other rather than with books.

     3. What would you do differently next time as a Book/Reader? Responses included-
Pay attention to go to a correct room. The mistake turned out to be a happy one though:)
Learn about the stories and books more thoroughly beforehand.
Try to visit all Books even if during the last "speed" round.

     4. What improvements would you like to see in the set-up of /managing the library? Responses included-
Host the Human library on two days. First for the school community (during/at the end of the school day), second to the families and friends (in the evening) to ease the tension and manage stress of presentations.
Find a way how year 5 students can read their classmate stories.
Have a clear guidelines for the book about the expectations for the presentation.
Review rules for the readers for guidance for the last round.
More noticeable labels on the classrooms.

Personally as a Librarian I have always struggled with the check-out process. This year we tried pre-choosing books which saved a great deal of time during the event but took a considerable amount of librarian's time to manage this type of check-out. Nevertheless it was a worth trial which I will applied during the future events. One area to consider how best to remind the Readers Books they chose.

Overall everyone thought that the Human library format was a huge success and worked well, was engaging and allowed the students to be in the center of the attention and shine. All partakers Books, Readers and the Librarian learned a lot and were happy but exhausted at the end of the event. Some things to consider for the future events are spreading the event onto two days, giving clearer guidelines to Books and Readers to be prepared and confident and find a way for year 5 students to participate as Readers.

MYP Personal projects showcase 2017

I am exited to share the MYP Personal project showcase 2017 event.

Personal project is a cumulative project each student is required to complete during their final year in the MYP. It provides an opportunity to investigate a topic of interest (RESEARCH), produce a creative piece of work (PRODUCT) and reflect on the project process (REPORT) with a specific focus defined by one of the six the global contexts.

Since September Grade 10 students have been engaged in self-led, in-depth study on a topic of interest - a Personal project. During the showcase they shared their products developed based on their project goals, along with their learning journeys to show the new knowledge and understandings of the topic, and their growth as an independent IB learners. This showcase recognized and celebrated year 5 students' efforts over the past 6 months. It offered grade 9 students and families great examples for when you will engage with the Personal Project.

     Although the students’ learning has been largely independent and self-led each student was supported and guided by a project supervisors whom I would like to recognize and applaud for Ms. Beth, Mr. Dan, Ms. Reelika, Ms. Kuhn, Ms. Sandhya, Ms. Triin, Mr. Paulo, Ms. Karolina, Mr. T, Mr. Smith, Ms. Maren and Ms. Anais.

     This year the showcase followed the format of a Human library. Books in this library are human beings and the Books and Readers enter into a personal dialogue. Grade 10 students became Books on their project topic and guests became Readers who borrow a “Book” for a limited period of time to learn and converse on the mutual topic of interest.

We opened the Human library for two sessions-

• afternoon session at the end of the school day for the school community (grade 5 up) ;
• evening session for grade 10 and 9 families, friends and supervisors.

Below are 12 thrilling titles and summaries from year 5 students from the Human library catalog.

     Title: Ragga style in dancing

Summary: Have you ever heard about ragga dance style or dancehall? If you feel like you are interested in dancing or you would like to know more about Jamaican music/dance culture, then this book is just for you. Be ready to let your hips loose!

Create a ragga dance routine, make a video
and use it to inform and inspire audience about that dance style.

Title: The Young Screenwriter                                                                            Summary: Have you ever wondered what a tough job do screenwriters go through? It's their brains, where the ideas of directors gain adequate and interesting shape. It's their nerves, which go wasted on writing dialogues and describing the settings. It's their passion and will, that make a movie a masterpiece. Screenwriting is art, and not a single good movie has a bad script. In this human library, I, the simple student will share my personal experiences with how screenwriting is done.

Write a quality, 20-40 pages, script.



Title: Humanization of Death

Summary: Have you ever thought how death would look like if it were a human? Is it possible to collect different human beliefs and values in one painting? We will be talking about how the humanized death would look like based on the philosophical, religious and psychological beliefs of people.

To understand trough research, why people are afraid of the concept of death.
How the humanized Death would look like, based on psychological, religious and philosophical beliefs.



Title: Medieval armor and HEMA tournaments                                        Summary: Learn about blacksmith work nowadays and during medieval times. Hear about three aspects of armor: defense, mobility and firepower and learn about HEMA (historical European martial arts) tournaments. See the armor I made.

To show how three aspects of armour can affect the outcome
of a (medieval melee) tournament



Title: People pushing our progress up

Summary: Have you been thinking how the ideas can change world? Do you know who the people who bring these ideas into real life are? Can we meet a new Leonardo Da Vinci nowadays? Interesting? Come and read!

Ideas , technologies and innovations of humanity.

         

      Title: Portrait Photography

Summary: Come see the unique and diverse personalities of the 10th grade shown through portrait photography! The photos were taken this fall at ISE to help me achieve my objective of learning how to use my camera.

To learn the technical aspects of my cannon rebel camera in order to take high quality portraits that reflect the personality of the subject.



Title: Wisdom and Knowledge through the Eyes of the Owl

Summary: We will be learning about creating our own toys, through crocheting. We then make our own owl out of paper cups. Can’t wait to see you there, hoot hoot hooray!

Acquire the skill of crocheting, to become more experienced
in hand made work, to help me to extend and enjoy my creativity.

        

      Title: What is a micro controller

Summary: What is a Micro controller? How to use them? What is programming? If you wonder about these questions my book is good for you :)

How I can program a micro controller

by learning c++ programming language ?

         Title: The Vegan Life

Summary: Explore the world of veganism through recipe ideas, learning about the lifestyle, and an opportunity to relish some vegan food.

To research about healthy, eco-friendly, and vegan diets/foods and video making,
creating blogs/websites in order to produce a website with nutritious and vegan cooking videos
for people that would like to follow a healthy diet and reduce their carbon footprint.

         Title: Clothing and fashion design

Summary: This book is about how to design and manufacture a few pieces of clothing connected together by a the look, aesthetics and specific theme (music album).

What are the possibilities of implying Abstract Expressionism into fashion?

  

      Title: Electrical motors

Summary: This book is about the electrical motors, how they work and are built. I built my own to use this motor control for turning a solar panel.

Electrical motor turning a solar panel.

Title: Animated music video

Summary: Come and learn how to animate a music video digitally.

I was truly blown away with the diversity of the projects, the knowledge and expertise students demonstrated of their project topics. An evaluation to reflect on common experiences to improve the planning, implementation and running a successful future events for all the parttakers (books, readers, and librarian) will follow soon.

InSPIRing Conversations reflection

Spires of Prague photo: Dianne McKenzie

I did it! I lead a very successful conversation at the School Librarian Connection conference in Prague over the last weekend. I was sharing our school Human Library experiences. The presentation was very well received inspiring other librarians and teacher to apply this method at their schools and libraries. Right from the beginning I saw the light being turned on in the audience's minds making connections to their libraries and events, on how to host a Human library at their schools. I hope I spread the concept of Human library, a way to share our stories and learn from each other well forward.

Making connections.

Many colleagues approached me asking about the Human library as they were unable to attend the session but had heard good reviews and comments. I gave mini presentations and led personal conversations about the Human library throughout the conference weekend. I am very pleased that my presentation was reference during the following days.

Sharing ideas.

I am so glad that the School Librarian Connections organisation, a renowned company based in Hong Kong decided to host their conference in Europe (for the very first time!) bringing together a diverse group of librarians, teachers and educators for shared learning. The pre-conference workshops were lead by the notorious library experts in their respective fields. John Royce presenting on academic writing, citation and referencing. Katie Day on illuminating research: making the invisible visible in the research process. And last but not least Dianne McKenzie presenting on understanding and working with Information literacy /Approaches to Learning skills. As a MYP candidate school librarian and the MYP Coordinator it was highly useful discussing and studying this topic, seeing how the librarians are the key players in implementing the skills into teaching and learning. Being able to have conversations with these experts who are actually real, warm and funny people was one of my greatest takeaways, not to mention all other wonderful librarians and teachers I met during this conference. Having a face connected to a name that one turns for advice on the ECIS librarians forum or who's blog one is following for ideas and latest advances was a wonderful opportunity.

I truly recommend you signing up for a professional development conference. Not only signing up but also presenting. You make a difference!

InSPIRing Conversations

I am very excited to lead a conversation at the InSPIRing Converations Conference organized by the School Librarian Connections in Prague next week.
My conversation "Don't judge a book by the cover -The  Human Library" shares our experience of hosting a Human Library at the International School of Estonia for the lower school students. I will be a book on loan titled "Human library-what, why, how: running a successful living library in lower school" telling a story about our challenges and successes hopefully inspiring others to give this exciting learning format a try.

The Human Library works exactly as a normal library – readers come and borrow a “Book” for a limited period of time. After reading it they return the Book to the library. There is one difference: the Books in the library are human beings, and the Books and readers enter into a personal dialogue. The aim of a Human Library is to start a conversation that can challenge stereotypes and prejudice through personal dialogue. The Human Library is a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.

This sound intriguing and pretty big... for the lower school.

I was challenged to make this format work for the younger readers. I defined the Human Library for the young readers as a verbal heritage tool, a way to share our stories, culture, hobbies, interests, skills in a real face to face situation, to learn from each other and about each other.

I am glad about the opportunity to share our experiences and at the same time learning from my colleagues and fellow librarians.

The very first ISE Human Library during sport themed "Healthy Mind in Healthy Body"  Book Week, school year 2013-2014

Human Library during the Book Week "We All Speak Music" dedicated to music, school year 2014-2015

Human Library hosted during Science week, school year 2015-2016

Besides sharing our experiences I am looking forward to learning from my colleagues and fellow librarians. As a MYP Coordinator and librarian I am very excited about the opportunity of participating in the "Understanding and working with Information Literacy skills /the Approaches to Learning in a library context." workshop lead by Dianne McKenzie.
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Happy New Year!

Welcome back everyone, students, teachers and parents, the librarian... and blogger. It has been a while.
As my first post I wish to share the collage of the previous school year's library fun. Take a moment, enjoy and join in!

Lower school fun

Upper school labourers

The "Four Musketeers" (boys from 2015-16 graduating class) bottom left will be duly missed in the learning commons.

Human library held during the science week.

Annual Book Week Healthy Mind in Healthy Body

It is here! Started with an energizing, and ever popular Book Night, featuring many new and traditional events related to books reading and this year exercise.

This year the annual book week "Healthy Mind in Healthy Body" is dedicated to sports, training, exercise, healthy lifestyle and Olympics. During the week through various events we will exercise our learning-reading muscles (brains), do exercise, play, create, and also learn about new and interesting things.
In addition to the Book Week all time favourites like Book Night, Mother tongue readings, Teddy Bear picnic and Character parade we are introducing new events of Human library and Reading marathon fund raiser. We will host a book sale and visit Tallinn Central Library Foreign language department nearby to take a look at their collection of sport and health books and join in sport related activities e.g. book yoga, sport quiz and board games.

We started a week of adventure, fantasy, learning and sharing our knowledge and experiences with each other through reading, listening and sharing great stories and books.

The first story "Puff the Magic Dragon" was told by MSP Handbell choir and PYP Ensemble led by Ms. Karolina. 

It is a bitter-sweet story of imagination, great friendship and adventure in a childhood make-believe world. It is a story of getting older and taking one’s place in grown-up world. But it is also about remembering and sharing your memories and stories with your loved ones. This is what our Book Week is all about. I encourage you to keep living and sharing your life stories.

Next our Director Ms. Naglee announced the theme of 2014 Book Week  “Healthy mind in healthy body”. The year 2014 is dedicated to movement, exercise and sport in Estonia, Winter Olympics are currently held, and so is our Book week committed to sport, Olympics and healthy lifestyle.

The second story to illustrate the theme of 2014 Book Week was told by Reception and Grade 1 students with their sporty song and dance number “We can can be sporty kids”.

Book Week continued with a new Human Library event.

Learn more whats happening by visiting ISE Annual Book Week webpage.