Student Run Conferences and The Van Gogh Museum

Today in the Middle Years Program at ISA there were student run conferences. This was an entire day devoted to the students presenting to their parents what they have learned thus far in their classes. Each class presented the information differently, however the 8th grade presentations that I sat in to watch put their work in folders to go through with their parents. While students were in their conferences with their parents, I was able to go through some of the portfolios, to see exactly what they had been doing in each class throughout the year. In the portfolios are 8 pieces of work showing different classes and different types of learning. Each "ticket," which showed what assignment they were submitting, asked them to analyze what type of work the project was showing, their thought process, and what they learned from it. Besides utilizing higher level thinking in the actual assignments, students worked on their presentation skills- and their parents were a tough audience. Their work was amazing. One math assignment blew me away in particular, although I could barely comprehend it. In the assignment the student tested and explained why there could not be giant tarantulas. In it she showed the different volume and mass formulas then compared that using the actual measurements of a tarantula to explain why it would be impossible for the legs to hold up more mass, etc. It was very cool and way over my head as far as the math equations go. Another really interesting assignment was an English/ History assignment where the students were given a photograph from WWII. They were not told when, who, or what the picture was showing, instead they had to write a journal or diary entry as that person. They made up their life, what the picture was showing, and the story before and after that scene (historically accurate of course). This was an assignment that incorporated both analysis, content knowledge, and creativity- everything that the IB curriculum brings to education, and everything an assignment should be. I put this assignment in my mental arsenal of assignments to use for later. Because the students and teachers were in these conferences all day and we were intruding on their presentations, we were able to take the rest of the day off.

We decided to go into Amsterdam to visit the Van Gogh Museum, something that I have wanted to see for a long time. Van Gogh has always been one of my favorite painters and to be able to see the majority of his work was amazing. We saw many of his famous pieces such as the sunflowers, irises, self-portraits, and landscapes. There was also a traveling collection of Picasso's early work from Paris from 1900-1907 (when he was 19 to 26 years old). These pictures were very interesting because they were nothing like the abstract work he was later known for. All of these paintings were absolutely amazing to see, especially seeing Van Gogh's work in the place that he spent most of his life.