Secondary Newsletter No. 14

Dear Parents,
This newsletter contains a section on learning how to research, learning three forms of Art in the MYP, learning how to choreograph and execute movements and learning how to provide meaningful service to others.

The long, hard road towards competent research
The last couple of weeks have seen MYP Year 1 & 2 students receive specific, tailored research lessons with myself and their respective teachers using both subscription databases and Internet-based search engines and websites. Mrs. Erickson’s Grade 6s, Mr. Ingram’s Grade 7s, Mr. Collins’ and Mr. Gokalp’s Grade 6s,  and Mr. Mrs. Cermen’s Grade 6s all have been given direct lessons on some fundamentals of digital research covering advanced searching, Boolean logic tools, alternative keyword/term generation, narrowing initial search results to better match research needs, the differences between databases and regular WWW sources, citations and more.

The simple truth is, however, that while our learners have been using digital technologies most of their lives and been growing up in an increasingly digital world, this absolutely does not translate into seamless research skills and processes just because they are occurring in that digital realm. It was sobering to see the majority of students struggle with various parts of the overall process. To be sure, there were a lot of positive developments (using controlled vocabularies and thesauruses to create alternative searches, recognizing the location of the MLA citations, and quickly finding the main idea of the results were just a few of the highlights). I felt both relief and concern over how the process would go without the availability of myself and the other teachers to assist students in navigating the frequent challenges and confusion. However, that is part of learning isn’t it? Trial and error, diving right in, experimentation, or whatever you want to call it.

It was imperative that students understand that frustrations in research are completely normal and to be expected. I related to them the reality of the sport of baseball; if you make an out in baseball 70% of the time, that means you were successful 30% of the time, and that would be good enough to get you into the Hall of Fame. I wanted them to know that even the greatest hitter in the history of the game never was successful more than 37% of the time (in other words, they failed 63% of the time, and that is the best the game has ever seen).

No one is an expert researcher the first time or has a totally smooth research process from start to finish. Stumbling blocks do not get in the way of the process but instead are a PART of the process. Students also slowly but surely realized that this will always be an evolving process and that should not expect to be experts immediately.

We will continue to work on the research process this year and the following year and the following year….it really never stops. Check out the BIS Library Resources page for a list of our resources and subscriptions (we have added 2 new, high quality, differentiated databases from international powerhouse publisher GaleCengage that we will be rolling out quite soon to partner our other4 subscription resources).

https://sites.google.com/baliis.net/libraryresources/home

Mr. Marshall – Head Librarian

MYP Arts Exhibition
Student in Grades 6-9 showcased their creativity, talent and learning in each of the three Arts subjects – Drama, Music and Visual Art. The Exhibition was well-attended by parents and teachers with the quality of performance very high for a culminating activity for the first rotation of arts in 2018/19.

MYP PE Gymnastics Unit
This week saw the completion of the Volleyball unit in the MYP and the start of Gymnastics. Students from Gr 6-10 will be developing movement skills, balance and spatial awareness as they learn rolls, cartwheels, round offs, group and individual balances, and vaulting. Their culminating assessment task is to choreograph a small group movement routine incorporating these skills with the addition of any dance, martial arts or sporting movements. The photos below are group balances from the Gr 10’s and Gr 8’s first classes.

Mr. Sutherland

MYP Service as Action

Students in Grades 6-10 have signed up for their Service as Action activities and have begun recording their goals and learning outcomes on ManageBac. There is a vast range of projects which focus on providing meaningful service in some way. These projects will be ongoing into Term 3.

Enjoy your long weekend everyone!

Ross Ferris
Secondary Principal