March and April were the two busiest months for the fifth graders at AIS. Our school follows the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program for the elementary school curriculum, and grade five is the last year in this program. As a culmination of everything the students have done in the PYP there is an exhibition towards the end of the year. The exhibition is supposed to be completely student driven, with the kids deciding the theme, what kind of projects they want to do, and how they want to present their projects. This was the first year we've done Exhibition at AIS because fifth grade had previously been part of the middle school. It was definitely a huge challenge, but overall the kids really stepped up and did a great job. We picked the theme "Though we're young we can reach out to the world in which we live, with caring hearts and understanding there is so much we can give", which is a lyric from our school song. Each student group researched a problem they saw in the school, Kuwaiti, or world community and then created a project to help solve that problem. My class' projects included helping handicapped people, anti-bullying campaigns, reusable water bottle promotion, anti-smoking, healthy foods, helping a children's hospice, helping the workers in Kuwait, and saving penguins. Below you can see pictures of students at the actual exhibition with their projects, where they presented the work they did in a format of their choice.
We spent literally over a hundred hours on this project, and it was exciting to see it all come together at the end. We already have a ton of ideas as to how to do better for next year, but there is definitely a feeling of relief having completed the project for this year. And when you need to celebrate, it's time to attend another ball! The Australia and New Zealand Association of Kuwait (ANZAK) hosted a spring ball at the Hilton, and I had a ton of fun dress shopping, attending with friends and dancing the night away.
There is exactly one month of school left now, and I'm getting excited to head back to Minnesota! There are no big events coming up in the next month, but I'm sure it will be crazy busy trying to fit all the last things in at school and then cleaning and packing up my classroom and apartment for the summer. It's hard to believe the year is already coming to an end, but I'm looking forward to a nice long break. :) It's good to be a teacher!
