Language Usage Checklist for Exhibition-Again

Do you remember when I posted the 'Language Usage Checklist for Exhibition' before? I'm going to post it again, with different checks, of course. It's only few days since then, but I'd like to see my changes? Do you?

Language Usage Checklist for Exhibition

What will discussion sound like in Grade 5?

• We will use English in our groups UNLESS we need to translate the meaning of a word or phrase that needs clarification or elaboration.
• Then we will remember to switch back to English once we have clarified or elaborated our ideas.
• In partners, we will use English.
• When we are thinking solo we can use either English or Korean/Chinese.
• In teams, we will use English for all conversation unless we are clarifying the meaning of something.

Weekly self-assessment for language usage (Put an X next to your answer.)

This week I was able to use English and Korean/Chinese as per the class expectations.

• Yes
• Mostly X
• Not always

The part that was most difficult for me to do was:

• Class discussion X
• Teams in English
• Pairs in English
• Solo in English
• Switch back after using Korean/Chinese

Strategies I used this week:

• I used Korean/Chinese when I:
• Asked a question X
• Expressed an idea X
• Clarified a word X
• Clarified a phrase X
• Elaborated my ideas X
• Took notes
• Worked in a team X
• Worked in a pair X
• Worked alone
• Joked around X
• Had social conversation X
• I used English when I:
• Asked a question X
• Expressed an idea X
• Clarified a word X
• Clarified a phrase X
• Elaborated my ideas X
• Took notes X
• Worked in a team X
• Worked in a pair X
• Worked alone
• Joked around X
• Had social conversation

Look at your goal from last week. Did you accomplish your goal this week? What did you do that helped you accomplish it? or Should you have done to better meet your goal?

Unfortunately, no, because I still use Korean for lot of times than English.

This week I am most proud of:

Reading a book and finding out that I've improved my reading, vocabulary and understanding skills from the start of the year to this week.
Next week my goal is:

Since I couldn't achieve my goal from last week, I think I should work on my first goal again.

http://cdnimages2013.cgdata.com/209606_cgeu-48k-Kb-and-try-harder-9ucg.png

It seems like I hadn't improve much, but I'll try harder next week to be much better than this week!

Who Do You Think You Are?

Do you see the picture above? Yes, they have same appearances, but are they doing same thing, too? No. One is lying on the ground, one is playing with the rope, one looks greedy, and etc. Which one do you think you're most similar with? For me, I think it's the one who's putting his (or her, maybe) arm around the other's shoulder at the right side of the tree. Suyeon might disagree with this(Maybe), but I think I am in my opinion. Unlike others, I think we didn't have even small argument like 'This is better! I don't think so. It is! No!' or something. We're deciding something with 50% of Suyeon's idea and 50% of my idea. We're respecting each others do things together.
Photo: http://www.pipwilson.com/p/blob-tree.html

Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry

In every 6 transdisciplinary themes in every years, there are different central ideas and lines of inquiries. We also made our group's central idea-since we chose our transdisciplinary themes. When I didn't learn how to make the central idea, I thought it would be easy. Well, at least making the lines of inquiries was easy, but the real hard thing was making the central idea. It was hard to show 3 key concepts through one sentence. The central idea and lines of inquiries that our teachers made was cool and hard(well, we sometimes take hard as good, don't we?), but what we made seemed imperfect. But I think this is good enough-it's what Suyeon and I made after long discussion!

P.S:
We made our group name, too. We had many different ideas about that-P.L(Prerequisite Learnings), PLAK(Prerequisite Learning Academies Korea), PLAIK(Prerequisite Learning Academies In Korea), etc. But we finally decided to name our group K.A.I (read as Kai), meaning Korean Academies Issues. Suyeon says it's the name of the bad guy in Kung Fu Panda 3, and she still talks about it whenever I say the word K.A.I.

http://www.pyppewithandy.com/uploads/5/6/0/6/5606677/5808527.gif?119

More Important Thing

Now, what do you think the next thing that students would be most interested at? It's the topic that the groups are going to work on. Suyeon and I had same topics in the survey that our teachers gave(it asked for top 3 topics that we wanted to work on, and it was before the group was decided.): Korean Academies and Colonization(slavery). We decided to choose Korean Academy as our topic. There was one other group that chose the same topic as ours(it doesn't mean that they copied ours or something), and I didn't like having something same as others since I was young. I thought it wasn't unique. That was same for Suyeon, too, so we sort of thought about changing to the other topic, but it was too late for us to change. Now, it's already like this, so I'm going to try my best for my Exhibition Project.

Image for Korean Academy-our topic:

http://res.heraldm.com/phpwas/restmb_jhidxmake.php?idx=5&simg=201508191618136123427_20150819172936_01.jpg

The Group is Decided!

What do you think students want to know most when they start Exhibition? It's the group members. If you get into the group with people who are bossy, stubborn, selfish or whatever, then it's hard to do get through the process of Exhibition. We found out that we can be in the group of two, and my partner was... TA-DA! It's Suyeon! Fortunately, the person that I really hated to be in the same group was not with me, and I am really, really, really, REALLY-satisfied with my group member. We made our own Essential Agreements, and Group Shield. Also, we are going to decide-or can be decided by teacher(I don't know!)-our issue, the topic. The actual Exhibition starts from now on. Let's do our best, friends!

http://image.slidesharecdn.com/medicalerrorsemergencymedicineand-111027084050-phpapp01/95/medical-errors-emergency-medicine-and-21-728.jpg?cb=1319704912

Language Usage Checklist for Exhibition

Language Usage Checklist for Exhibition

I think like this:

What will discussion sound like in Grade 5?

• We will use English in our groups UNLESS we need to translate the meaning of a word or phrase that needs clarification or elaboration.
• Then we will remember to switch back to English once we have clarified or elaborated our ideas.
• In partners, we will use English.
• When we are thinking solo we can use either English or Korean/Chinese.
• In teams, we will use English for all conversation unless we are clarifying the meaning of something.

Weekly self-assessment for language usage (Put an X next to your answer.)

This week I was able to use English and Korean/Chinese as per the class expectations.

• Yes
• Mostly X
• Not always

The part that was most difficult for me to do was:

• Class discussion
• Teams in English
• Pairs in English
• Solo in English
• Switch back after using Korean/Chinese X

Strategies I used this week:

• I used Korean/Chinese when I:
• Asked a question X
• Expressed an idea X
• Clarified a word X
• Clarified a phrase X
• Elaborated my ideas X
• Took notes
• Worked in a team X
• Worked in a pair X
• Worked alone X
• Joked around X
• Had social conversation
• I used English when I:
• Asked a question X
• Expressed an idea X
• Clarified a word X
• Clarified a phrase X
• Elaborated my ideas X
• Took notes X
• Worked in a team X
• Worked in a pair X
• Worked alone X
• Joked around X
• Had social conversation

This week I am most proud of:

I'm proud of the conversations in English that I had every day, and how I managed to understand and respond to others.
Next week my goal is:
I should try to use English than Korean when I can. Sometimes, I just use Korean to say something easier, but actually I could use English to say that.


http://www.beyondwordz.com/translation-images/content/languages.jpg

Transdisciplinary Themes

There are 6 different transdisciplinary themes that we study during whole junior school:
How the World Works-Science
Sharing the Planet-Environment
How we Organize Ourselves-Society
Who We Are-Myself
How We Express Ourselves-Art
Where We Are in Place and Time-History
The transdisciplinary theme that I like the most is 'How the World Works', because scientific facts that we learn during the unit is so cool. It's the only unit that makes me to say 'Cool!' or 'Wow!'. It's really interesting to know the principles of all the phenomenons and find out the answers of questions that I had from years ago, too. Doing experiments and observations are really fun. I'd like to study or find more about this subject when I grow up, too.

http://www.scilogs.com/from_the_lab_bench/files/shutterstock_172355312.jpg

'Nature is Speaking'

Have you ever seen videos named 'Nature is Speaking' before? It's series of videos that is made in nature's perspective. After watching these videos, I felt like the nature(forest, ocean, ice, etc.) was warning to me. Warning, that it's only people who gets harm by their polluting, not the nature. Especially, the phrase that comes out at the last part of all the video really stuck to my mind. 'Nature doesn't need people. People need nature'. True, isn't it? Nature will continue forever, though humans extinct. As it's mentioned before, since we get harm if we pollute, so what should we do? I think like this:
Forest:less deforestation
Ocean:less water polluting
Sky:less air pollution
Ice:slow global warming
...
is what we need to provide to nature. Finding out what nature is suffering for, and stopping it. Wouldn't it be better to stop doing what they don't like than doing what they like?

http://img06.deviantart.net/0df6/i/2010/218/3/3/mother_earth_by_josephine101.jpg

The 6 types of Bilingual

Bilingualism means you are good at 2 languages. The picture below says about 6 levels of developing bilingualism.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQPqmHGRZuwzOerQNO3txhtpTIyQU58X-FD75WP_h_CKt1TF0uzarlPu3UyMLDBjJlLwSy7YMV4-reeEXLepCRKfppiv3hxRxvnEUsr7VxObAMetUXEHomZLr-QiRK5VOT32zIKPEEBEZ/s1600/bilingualism.png
First, you are not good at any of the two languages. Second, you are good at one language(which is most likely to be your mother-tongue language), but not good at the other language. Third, you can communicate in both languages, but you are still better at one language than the other one. Fourth, you are good at the both languages equally. Fifth, it's similar to the fourth one, but you are more developed than before. Last, you are so proficient at both two languages that people can't even find out what's the first language.

My level is 3, because communication is possible in two languages, but I'd like to use Korean(which is my first language) if I'm chatting with someone. Maybe everyone would want to reach level 6, but I want myself to be in level 5. It's because I want my mother-tongue language to have some sort of self-esteem(?). Reading many books, trying to listen and have conversations with native Americans would help me developing my English skills.

What's your level?

Actions that I've Taken

What do you think an 'Action' means? It's like showing your ideas and thoughts through your behavior. There are 4 types of actions. It's research, direct, indirect and advocacy. I'm going to write about actions that I took. The biggest action that I remember is making a key decoration. In Grade 4, we learned about endangered animals. I made key decoration that has a picture of musk deer to tell my classmates that musk deer is one of the endangered animals. What do you think this belongs to? Look at the 'Types of Actions' below:

Types of Actions:

Research:
Finding out about the problem more, so that you can access to it easily.
Example: Using an internet to find about poverty.
Direct:
You're taking actions by yourself;not through anything.
Example: Going to the ghetto and giving foods and supplies to people.
Indirect:
You are not going to the place that the problem is happening now, but you are helping them in other way.
Example: Donating 30,000 won each month for poor people.
Advocacy:
Telling people and get their awareness about the problem.
Example: Making posters and giving speeches about poverty.

Yes, it's Advocacy, since I tried to tell people that musk deers are endangered animals. What about you taking actions now? It's as simple and easy as making a key decoration!

Exhibition Overnight Experience

           Do you remember that I said there would be an Exhibition Overnight Experience in the last post? Since we couldn't bring electronics to the EOE (it's the word that I just made that stands for Exhibition Overnight Experience), we couldn't post blogs yesterday. But here comes-TA DA!! The explanation about whole EOE!

           Of course, if we talk about really tiny unimportant details, it might be over 10 pages. So I'm about to talk about my most memorable moments. There were 3 most memorable moments; eating pizza, 'Catch It If You Can', and 'Communication Activities'. First, for 'eating pizza', I'd have to say that we were super excited to eat our precious pizzas. 4 was the maximum number of pieces that one person could take, but I was still hungry though I put 4 pieces in my tummy (I couldn't understand friends saying 'I'm full! Can't eat anymore!' after eating 2 pieces!). Second, 'Catch It If You Can' was an activity that we had to make a launcher and the catcher in 2 minutes of planning and 15 minutes of making with limited materials. The purpose of this game was to launch and put as many pingpong balls as you can into the catcher. Our group's catcher was the best of all the groups, I'd say, but the launcher was horrible. Believe me. It was horrible. So we didn't even expect the first prize to come to our group. Because our pingpong ball always:

• went in.
• was not proper.

You know why? Because it always rolled, not flied. Anyway, miracle came to us. We don't know why, don't tell me 'How come?'... We got the first prize with the other group (the one that I knew for sure)! Third, one of the 'Communication Activities' was like a 'Broken Telephone'. I was one of the volunteers, and all 7 of us (volunteers) went out of the room and was asked to sing. We didn't know what's going on, and we sang. Soon, we came into the room by one by one. Our task was to pass the message that you heard from the person before you to the next person. According to my memory, I believe that I heard 'They went to hotel, and they stayed for dinner. The tomato was in the salad, and at last they ate garlic.' And I passed exact same words to the next person. The tomato turned into ketchup somewhere, and at last it became Charlic(?). And the very first message was totally different from the one I heard!
              I think this Exhibition Overnight Experience was something like a guidebook or a warning about exhibition. This superb guidebook helped me choosing the topic easily by teaching more about each unit, told me how to solve conflicts between group members and what to do or not. By EOE, I think I became more comfortable and prepared for Exhibition.
 

Second Day of Exhibition

           Ah, the second day of 63 days! Nothing really happened today related to Exhibition, so I'm going to write about one of the attitudes. Commitment. Do you think that commitment will be an important attitude for us to have during Exhibition (and the other times of our life)? Well, for me, yes. Certainly.
           Do you know what kind of person I really hate to do a group work with? It is a person who is lazy, not paying attention and not doing what they're supposed to do. But most importantly, a person who gives up easily because it's hard and challenging. Now, to organize the definition of commitment, it means we try hard, not give up though there is a problem and be concentrated on one thing. Yeah, it's pretty different from the characteristics that 'person-who-I-hate' has. Commitment will help us when we meet a problem or take something hard. Also, we would be focused on tasks than things we want to do when we have commitment. For these reasons, I think commitment is an important attitude that we should have during Exhibition.

P.S: We're doing a Exhibition Overnight Experience tomorrow. I'm so excited and curious about it! Yeah!!!!



Digital image. SoftPMO. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Exhibition Started!

At last, Exhibition started. Today was the first day of the Exhibition and we learned about what are the expectations of the blogging during Exhibition. We should post blog everyday from now on for nine weeks, and it should be about what you did on that day related to the Exhibition. It's like diary, and you reflect on your actions that day. I'm so excited about what's going to be happening in the Exhibition, and I'm also worried about whether I have courage and attitudes to solve problems or not. We also got Exhibition Booklet, and I think it'll be a great guidebook that informs us about Exhibition.

                                       

Digital image. 10 Steps to Starting a Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Exhibition-Compass Points

                                        
In our school, at nearly end of Grade 5, students prepare for Exhibition. Since exhibition is an event that all the Junior School students waited from grade 1 to grade 5, there are Excitements and also worrisome, for it's an important event in whole Junior School. According to the older students who have experiences with all parts of exhibition, Exhibition is an interesting subject and also a bunch of stresses. If I organize my thoughts about exhibition by the 'Compass Points' strategy, I could say my perspective toward exhibition is like this:

Need to know:

• How to co-operate with group members
• Informations about the process

Worrisome:

• Various conflicts that we would face during exhibition
• The stresses we would have when we do our works
• Being teammates with people who are lazy, loud, stubborn, etc.

Excited:

• Presenting at last, and showing the audiences that I am different from the ones who have small voices as ants and don't have confidences. (It's not show-off)
• Being glad when I find an information that I wanted to, but was hard.
• Going on a field trip that we planned!

Suggestions for Moving Forward:

• I think it's like organizing our whole informations that we gained during Junior School and going deeper in learning.
• It will help us preparing for Middle school and it's like a symbol of graduating Junior School.

Gender Inequality-Mind Map

             Mind map helps us organizing our thoughts and connecting things. Also, if we have a problem, we can solve it by drawing a mind map. This mind map is about gender inequality.

            I decided that the first thing that we should get rid of is 'prejudice and stereotype' box. Then 'Things happening by gender inequality' box will disappear automatically, and people, who have new perspectives toward gender, will change the box 'Things that influence our ideas'. Also, getting rid of 'Prejudice and stereotype' would abolish the 'Culture' box, too.