Spicewood Prepares to Host the Central Texas PYP Roundtable

Next Saturday, November 3rd, Spicewood will host PYP teachers from all over the state of Texas for a roundtable discussion and workshop on the PYP transdisiplinary skills. Spicewood partnered with Round Rock elementary schools Anderson Mill, Caldwell Heights and Chandler Oaks, as well as with LISD elementaries CC Mason and Grandview Hills, to apply for a grant through Texas IB Schools (TIBS).
We chose to explore the transdisciplinary skills because we believe that the construction of meaning is complimented by the development of skills in authentic learning situations.  Within their learning in the Primary Years Program, students acquire and learn to apply transdisciplinary skills.  These skills are applicable not only within the classroom, but in their lives outside of the school setting.  These skills are not relevant to just one content area, but rather transcend all of them to fully support the our development as a lifelong learner.

The development and application of these skills is relevant and applicable to all areas of curriculum because of their broad and diverse nature. They often act as a link across subject areas and are used as a guide for behavior and communication at Spicewood. The upcoming roundtable will give us the opportunity to explore more deeply how and when we explicitly teach these skills, and where we provide students the opportunities to practice and apply this knowledge.

You can find information regarding the transdisciplinary skills and other PYP components on our website!

5th Grade Examines the Relationship Between Government and Citizens

Central idea: Systems of government organize societies.

Under the transdisciplinary theme How We Organize Ourselves, students explore the roles and responsibilities within different government systems, how citizens impact government and the way in which government impacts society.

During this unit students engage in elections in their classrooms and as a grade level. They create a student led government that then involves students from other grade levels. As school leaders students set agendas, attend meetings, and carry out action in response to feedback from the students they represent.

They undergo a media literacy study that assists them in analyzing and comparing citizen's roles in governments around the world. 

Through this unit students use the thinking skill of application to establish government structures in their classroom and write a personal bill of rights. They also apply the social skills of group decision making and resolving conflict when they campaign, come to consensus and create classroom laws.

While exploring the concepts of responsibility, function, and perspective, students work to synthesize all the learning from previous units, and exemplify this knowledge. Throughout the unit sudents will enagage in language, math, social studies, media literacy and other subject areas to uncover this single big idea related to the relationship between society and government.
In this type of transdisciplinary approach  curriculum and instruction are moved beyond single content-area focuses towards cross-curricular connections.  This approach involves the organization of curriculum and instruction around authentic student questions where concepts and skills are developed through real-world contexts.  Inquiry is at the heart of the transdisciplinary approach as students seek answers to the questions raised by the curriculum and themselves.
This is a powerful unit that has our 5th graders examining the way societies are organized and what that means for them and the world around them! Come check out our student elections on Friday, November 2nd!

IB Around the World

Over 3,000 schools and 141 countries now offer IB programs. Here are some of the reasons the IB is growing in popularity around the world:

The IB Mission Statement
"The IB aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect."  The goals outlined by the IB for its schools really speak to the changing face of our globe and emphasize our need to become respectful, responsible citizens of our world. These ideals stand out as being relevant to our students and their families, we want our students to take their knowledge and use it to make a better, more peaceful world.

High Academic Standards
By centering our learning and exploration around things that are relevant, challenging and engaging-we can inspire our students to take responsibility for their own inquiries and learning. The PYP framework allows us to access the diverse prior knowledge and experience of all our students, we expose our students to different perspectives and questions while building off of what they already know. Using the transdisciplinary themes to organize our learning experiences, we place ideas and concepts into context for learning. These things all provide for a dynamic, interactive learning environment that helps students succeed and excel.

International Minded-ness
The IB provides a framework that allows students to explore concepts on both a local and global level. When we explore traditional topics such as water cycles we instead explore the availability of water as a resource around the world. Who has access? What affects this access? Who owns water? We take content outlined by our state and district standards and extend it to a wide exploration of concepts and big ideas.

Spicewood is proud to be an IB school! If you would like more information, please contact our PYP coordinator at doriane_marvel@roundrockisd..org



(2012). Welcome to the world of ib. IB World, (66), 1.

How The World Works

In the PYP, science is viewed as the exploration of the biological, chemical and physical aspects of the natural world, and the relationships between them. It encourages curiosity and ingenuity and enables the student to develop an understanding of the world. Reflection on science also helps students to develop a sense of responsibility regarding the impact of their actions on themselves, others, and their world. Inquiry is central to this exploration as students construct knowledge and make connections to their own lives. By encouraging hands-on experiences and inquiry, we are able to support students as they engage in the world around them, ask questions, and seek new understandings.
One was we do this is by observing the hatching of chickens. Please enjoy these videos from our latest batch of eggs! Come and visit them in the library today!

Student Led Conferences

This week Spicewood hosted its Spring Conferences in order to share and celebrate the progress of our students.  This is an exciting time for both teachers and students as we have the opportunity to share some of the learning that has taken place over the last several months.
We especially love the format of having students involved because it allows them to take responsibility for what they have achieved and also begin to think about what they still want to know and be able to do. They have the opportunity to share with their families assessments and reflections from their Units of Inquiry as well as books they have been reading, writing pieces, math problem solving and art. Another exciting aspect of the process is seeing the learning environment and imagining what it looks like when teachers are conducting class meetings, problems solving, science experiments, role playing, historical reenactments and all the other things that happen at Spicewood throughout a normal school day.
We want to thank all the families who joined us for these very special celebrations and take our hats off to you for being a partner with us in the education of your child!

5th Grade PYP Exhibition

This past Wednesday, our 5th grade students hosted their Exhibition as the summative project representing their experience in the PYP. The purpose of the project is for the students to demonstrate their cumulative learning while mirroring the process of a PYP Unit of Inquiry. While at Spicewood over 6 years students participate in 36 units of inquiry. Each year grade levels complete one Unit under each transdisciplinary theme, and do 6 of each theme between Kindergarten and 5th grade.
The Exhibition allows students to synthesize their learning of the five Essential Elements of the PYP: knowledge, skills, attitudes, action, and concepts. They do this in groups while conducting inquiry and research on an issue facing our world right now. Groups are mentored by Spicewood teachers and staff, and then presented to the community.

Our students, teachers, and mentors did a wonderful job working together to celebrate this AMAZING achievement.

How We Organize Ourselves

At the heart of PYP's philosophy is a commitment to structured, purposeful inquiry as a vehicle for learning. This exploration and study is done through the transdisciplinary themes.

One of the Themes each grade level explore is: How We Organize Ourselves. This unit delves into systems, cycles, decision-making, the function of organizations and communities, and economic activity.

Here are the central ideas to some of these units:

• There are systems in place help that help us meet our needs and wants-Kindergarten
• People work to  meet personal, financial and societal needs-2nd grade
• The development of human-made systems impacts our communities-4th Grade
• Systems of government organize societies-5th Grade

Above is a picture of 2nd grade students participating in Market Days at the end of their unit on the economy. Students studied consumerism, marketing, production, and taxes before creating a  product to advertise and sell. This is one example of how the transdisciplinary themes support hands-on inquiry of big ideas!