The word “mandala” is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. It is loosely translated to mean circle. The mandala appears in all aspects of life including friends, family, and community.
Humanities students have been creating their own mandalas to reflect upon their own identity and what makes them unique as individuals. They have begun generating pictures and symbols to represent their hopes, dreams, beliefs, hobbies, friends, family, and cultural heritage.
The students will spend time examining one another’s modern day mandalas to learn about each other’s wheel of life, exploring and learning more about those around us, as well as begin to understand how the past impacts who we are today.
Welcome to Grade 6 Humanities! The Humanities class is an integration of Language Arts and Social Studies. The units in Social Studies are Becoming Aware of Our Past (Archaeology), Becoming Human, Becoming Settled, and Early Civilizations. In Language Arts, we integrate writing, reading, speaking, and listening with our social studies units.
For the first week or so, we will be dealing with many organizational issues. As a new Middle School student, you may face some challenges coping with a locker, 4-day rotation schedule, tardy bells, and classes scattered across campus. You will also be adjusting to having your own laptop for class and home use, and the new responsibilities added as a result. These are issues we will tackle together.
Below are a few points to help with the coming school year:
6th grade students will soon receive a laptop for school and home use after an orientation period covering the first few weeks of school. Grade 6 is the first grade level at ISB to participate in this amazing opportunity.
Student are required to use a student agenda at the start of the school year, and in a few weeks will be asked to use and electronic calendar. Please keep the student agenda up to date with all assignment. Parents, please check the agenda nightly. If you can, come by now and then to see how your child’s locker looks.
Getting assignments in on time is very important. Students, you don’t want to dig yourself into a hole! Late assignments have a big impact on your grade for class. If you have a problem with a deadline, see your teacher as early as possible. Do not wait until the teacher comes to you.
Students need to bring an independent reading book, school materials, and a positive attitude to class each day. When you have been cleared, this will include a fully charged laptop.
To help you with homework at night, make sure there is a comfortable place to work at home - away from distractions. Also, as a sixth grader, plan on spending at least one hour each night on homework. If you have less homework assigned, used that time to READ! You should never say “I don’t have any homework tonight.”
We are excited about the coming year and look forward to becoming acquainted with you and your family. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. Here’s to a wonderful school year ahead!
A problem hunter-gathers and early farmers faced that we are facing today is having enough food to feed a growing population with a limited amount of resources. We discussed new farming techniques that can produce bigger and better crops, but might have unknown affects. Again, we framed the problem and solution this way:
PALEO Problem: Wild animals & crops gave hunter and gatherers some food, but
NEO Solution: when early farmers bred animals and crops selectively, and took care of them, they ended up with more food.
MP4U - Genetically Modified Food
We have more technology to not only breed but genetically engineer plants & animals to be better for our purposes. We can improve things like size, taste, pest and disease resistance.
What could happen to our world if we engineer new species of plants & animals? How much further should we go? Stop, go not further, or keep going? Explain your thinking.
We have been framing some modern problems that are connected to our study of the Agricultural Revolution this way:
The PALEO (Hunter-Gatherer) PROBLEM:
When many hunter-gatherers crowded in areas near water sources, the wild food supplies in the area became depleted.
The NEO (Farming) SOLUTION:
Gradually supplement and replace food from hunting and gathering by raising your own crops and animals. In short, early farmers had to adapt and drastically change the way they lived.
To link this to a modern problem for us (MP4U) today, we looked at how we balance using land to grow food with other human activities.
MP4U - Land Use: There are more and more people on earth so more and more food is needed. However, there isn’t much empty land left that can be used for farming & a lot of farmland is being taken over for other uses like new buildings, raising more animals, building more roads.
Students brainstormed ideas on how to solve our land issues. As you can see, the ideas run the spectrum from planting seeds at home, building bridges over farmland, build places (houses, stores, etc.) closer together, to growing food on top of buildings.
After brainstorming and sharing, we checked out a discovery channel video about vertical farming.
To quote Mark Twain, “Buy land. They’re not making it anymore.” What do you think? How can we help solve this problem so we are using our land to develop as well as grow food?
One reason why nomads 10,000 years ago settled was due to climate change. The Ice Age was ending, allowing hunter-gatherers to settle in one place and farm.
We have learned that some people like the Tuareg have moved and settled because of climate change. A report in The Guardian predicts that 150 million people will become refugees due to climate change by the year 2050.
Groups like Mr. Dyke’s Green Panthers are trying to create awareness and find sustainable solutions to issues like climate change. Maybe we can do the same by first researching climate refugees. Who are they? Are they located in certain geographic regions? What factors seem to create climate refugees (besides the climate)?
For most of humanity, humans were nomadic, moving from place to place hunting and gathering. There were enough big animals to hunt and plenty of space and resources for humans. However, as the last ice age came to an end and big animals started to be over hunted, nomads started staying in one place for longer periods of time. Because of this, humans settled down and started to domesticate plants and animals.
Today many of us are giving up a settled way of life for a nomadic lifestyle. We are becoming global nomads. Our families are moving around to new places searching for new opportunities. We have to learn new languages, new foods to eat, and a new environment to live in. All of this can be pretty challenging.
I’ve lived in 12 different homes in five different countries in my life. I have left behind so many memories, friends, family members and places that are truly special to me. In some cases, though, I make temporary connections with people that do not go too deep because I know it’s only a matter of time before I move again in search of better opportunities. I wonder sometimes if I truly have a home.
However, ISB student Omri Schulman says that third culture kids (global nomads) are “more rounded individuals, with a deeper understanding of [our] world.” Many interviews with third culture kids support his thinking.
I feel lucky, almost privileged to have many of the global nomadic experiences I have had. It has helped me understand empathy (putting my self in someone else’s shoes), and forced me to think about how to solve problems in new and different ways because of my experiences. I am able to slow down my pace to enjoy the simple pleasures, but also get caught up in my surroundings. So much so that I feel like, where I am is my home. I know what it is like to be laughed at for mispronouncing a word in a foreign language, but also know the satisfied feeling of finally communicating an idea in another language. In the end, I know I have learned to adapt. Whether I want to be or not, I am a global nomad and citizen at heart.
How about you? Are you a global nomad at heart? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Share your experiences and thinking.
As part of our service learning project, Operation Smile, our class is learning about the causes and effects of living with a cleft lip and cleft palate. We found a very informative article that explains how kids live with cleft lip and cleft palate, what health problems occur, and what doctors can do to help. To learn more about cleft lip and cleft palate please read the article and some of our student blogs that explain the difficulties of living with cleft lip and cleft palate.
Besides becoming more aware of this problem, sixth grade students are also raising money for this worthy cause. This year we are moving our efforts to the global community. Mr. Denby set up a website where friends and family from around the world can donate money. If you think you might be able to help us, please go to our website where you can learn more about Operation Smile and donate money to help put a smile on a face in need.
From November 1st to 3rd, nine students from ISB traveled to Surin to volunteer at an Operation Smile mission. They have shared their story with a video. Please have a look
One powerful way to connect with others regarding operation smile is to share a personal story with them. Below you will find a video about Lulu, a twelve year old boy from China who was abandoned at birth because of his physical deformity. Operation Smile gave him an opportunity to smile with ease.
As the site manager for Monkey Ruins, I have noticed the importance of effective communication. Whether it was explaining where an artifact was found, or discussing possible interpretations, the young archaeologists needed to communicate clearly to move the dig forward.
From the start, the teams of archaeologists needed to problem solve on their feet (literally). They first had to divide the site into a grid so they could keep track of their finds. To ensure success, they needed to talk to one another, giving their thoughts on how to conquer this first task.
As the dig progressed, the archaeologists did a fine job talking with one another. Whether it was asking where an artifact was excavated, giving encouragement, or discussing their initial interpretations about the people who lived at the site, these young archaeologists were able to effectively communicate with one another.
The ability to communicate sticks out in my mind as a memorable experience for me during the dig. I wonder what experience sticks out as the most memorable for members of the Site Monkey Ruins Archaeology Team?
To launch our Archaeology Unit, I asked students this question, “Why study people from the past?” I feel it is an important question for students to think and reflect upon before digging into archaeology. I think it gives students an opportunity to find relevance, and be able to connect the unit to the world around them
Students talked to each other first, and sort of interviewed each other. After that, we had a whole group discussion with one student capturing ideas on the smartboard. After that, students had a chance to clarify their answers in their notebooks before setting out to blog about this question.
One major theme that came out of our discussion is that we can learn from past mistakes. So as we move forward looking at the past, I will need to remember to connect what we are learning to how this can help us now, and into the future.
The word mandala is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean circle. The mandala appears in all aspects of life including friends, family, and community.
Students have been creating their own mandalas to reflect upon their own identity. They have included pictures and symbols that represent their hope, dreams, beliefs, hobbies, friends, family, and cultural heritage.
On their blogs, students are explaining the meaning behind each symbol and picture. To find out more, head to OT’s Student Blogs.
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