Slice of Life #24 - Building Resilience

Today's slice of life is dedicated to our integrated curriculum unit #Resilience.
The focus for my slice today, is ways in which you can build resilience.
According to the American Psychological society there are 10 ways to build resilience :-

1. Make connections. 

2. Avoid seeing problems as problems

3. Accept that change is a good thing

4. Make goals and move towards them

5. Look for opportunities of self discovery

6. Take action

7. Nurture a positive view of yourself

8. Keep things in perspective

9. Be hopeful

Finally, and most importantly take care of yourself. 

Last year during SOL, I happened to showcase two amazing people who show #Resilience, this is their stories ...

I tell my class that my art skills are not strong. I am so envious of people who can just pick up a piece of paper and pen and create a masterpiece. When I was in middle school, in art class we had a elderly teacher who was German with a very strong accent who had definite ideas about what a piece of art should look like. She nurtured students with "talent", and the rest of us were left to muddle through the curriculum. Needless to say, I was not inspired. 

So, it was with great interest, that I read a news story last year about a lady (Pip Taylor) who had developed an amazing ability to draw after suffering a brain injury. She suffered serious bruising to her brain when she tripped and fell on some stairs. The brain is such an amazing organ; so much so that when your brain receives trauma another part of the brain "takes over". 

This story provided a connection to another video that I had seen a few years ago. The video highlighted the talents of a young man named Stephen Wiltshire, an artistic savant who draws from memory. His sister described that "drawing for Stephen is like air and water for us. He cannot live without it." "Every aspect of what he sees comes alive on paper, watching the ink on paper is like fine embroidery". 
Stephens motto " Do the best you can and never stop".
Truly an amazing, inspirational young man. 









Sources
Pip Taylor
Getty Images - Building ideas
American Psychological Association

Slice of Life #23 - List makers

Today's slice is dedicated to lists. Making a list about your passion, your things to do, shopping, wish list,  or just simply that you felt as if you needed to write a list. 

I do have a confession, yes I am a list- aholic. I cannot function unless I have a list, whether it be for home or school, I need that giant sticky note to make my life complete. It is not so much that I love list making, rather that I juggle so many balls in life that I simply would forget to complete things otherwise. 

This whole idea of lists, got me thinking and searching for examples of lists related to my passion:-

1. In Twitter, a list is a group of users. You can create your own lists or join others.
2. In HTML computer programming an unordered list has bullet points, an ordered list is numbered.
3. Each year, the MIT Technology review creates lists for 10 breakthrough technologies. 
4. In 2015, Magic Leap (virtual reality 3d technology) was listed as number 1. 
5. The Bionic eye was at the top of the list for technological inventions in 2013.






Graphic Source - Michaelangelo's Shopping list for dinner

Slice of Life #22 - Ode To Procrastination

For today's slice, I thought that I would write an Ode to Procrastination. As I write I'm sitting at home working on a proposal for my doctoral dissertation. On Monday my advisor will arrive in Kuala Lumpur, after travelling from Boone, Iowa, and will be spending a week with me.  Dr. Walrod is a human dynamo, pro-active, intelligent, caring and nurturing. She keeps me accountable and honest. 

I have another 10 pages of research to add before she arrives, however, I wanted to share a little secret, even though I appear organised I do tend to procrastinate, especially if I need to complete a  task I'm not interested in or have trouble engaging with. I set myself small goals, 40 minutes research, 10 minutes break. I tidy my work area, clear the desk, even dust the desk. I check grades, add grades, anything but work on what I should be doing. 

Procrastination is such an amazing word. According to Etymology Online, it stems from Latin procrastinatus, past participle of procrastinare "to put off till tomorrow; defer, delay".

  

Ode to Procrastination

Relaxing, knowing I have time

Counting the days to complete a task

Preferring to do anything else

Looking at due dates, buying time

Leaving the task to the last minute

Enveloped in stress

Vowing to never procrastinate again!
Proposal completed

Graphic Source

Slice of Life #21 - #Resilience with Virtual Technology.

As my class knows, I have a passion for technology, any pilot programmes, new gadgets or just ideas usually are implemented in my classroom. Last week, an interesting article appeared on my desktop, the notion of virtual reality for a father to witness his third child's birth. 

I couldn't help but make connections to the ISKL Community. Living as expatriates in our community offers amazing opportunities in life, but often, families can be separated by distance.

Many of my students have parents who often travel for business; my husband is usually away from Kuala Lumpur for 2 - 3 weeks of the month. Missing important events, band concerts, parent conferences and plays, however, we know that in the long run we have a common goal and even though at times absences can be difficult it tends to make the homecomings that much sweeter. 

Not only does virtual technology offer opportunities to lessen the distance, it also allows people to experience new adventures. Using technology, Samsung opened a Dive Store in the middle of Australia, where there is no access to the sea. What people experienced with their technology is amazing. 

Enjoy the journey.

Slice of Life #20 - Welcome Ji Li, Jiang author of "The Red Scarf Girl"

This week our 6'ers (as well as faculty) have had the distinct pleasure of welcoming and listening to the life story of the author Ji Li, Jiang.

Her memoir is the true story of a family's determination to stay together during one of the most terrifying era in China's history - The Cultural revolution.

As a 12 year old, Ji Li had an extremely happy life and dreamed of one day attending a prestigious acting school, only to have her whole world turned upside down. Ji Li recounted her story to an auditorium of 6th graders who were visibly affected by the issues and atrocities that Ji Li was forced to face and eventually overcome. 

At the end of the Cultural Revolution Ji Li had the chance to leave China and immigrated to the United States, she arrived with no money, could not speak English and did not have a job. She found a job as household help with a family.Through this the family were interested in her plight, and often asked her to recount stories from her childhood. They urged her to write a memoir, and thus The Red Scarf girl was created.

We were honored and humbled to listen to Ji Li's amazing story.

Slice of Life #19 - What is #Resilience?

Todays slice honours our grade 6 students, their enthusiasm, and inquiring minds.

Over the past few weeks , all of our Grade 6 students have been gaining knowledge and understanding through an integrated Humanities, Science & Social Studies Unit - #Resilience . Students are grouped into #Resilience  Communities  and use Essential questions as a guiding lens  to explore; 

• What does resilience look like?
• How do we create a culture of prevention?
• How does interdependence create a sustainable future?

The challenge for the groups is to create a proposal to persuade representatives of the UNISDR to fund disaster preparedness.

In Science and Math students have been learning about the Ring of Fire, plate tectonics, earthquakes, analysing data and applying mean, medium and mode. 
In humanities we have been focusing on the Disaster Preparedness Cycle plus economic, social and environmental factors that affect communities prone to disasters. 

I like the fact that students are making connections, and are excited about the ways in which Humanities, Science and Math concepts can be integrated. 

I'm very proud that they have risen to the challenge!

Today in class we completed our second socratic seminar on our exemplar country Japan. All the 6'ers were well informed, articulate and showed their knowledge and understanding of the process. Bravo!

 Enjoy.

   View of the classroom during discussions. 

A students laptop screen with sticky notes written during the seminar ( Thank you Sasha) 
Graphic Source

Slice of Life #18- The Color Purple #Resilience

#Resilience the color purple strong and proud

Nestled between the hues of read and blue

Purple worn by emperors, and dignitaries

Sensitive, compassionate, understanding of others 

Graphic Source