So you want to create change in the world, and to do that, you know you need to tell a story.
One great way to tell a story and capture the hearts and minds of people far and wide is to use beautiful imagery.
Sometimes we can download and use photos that we find online – for example, if you are using Canva – they have a huge library of photos that are free to use. This is called “stock” photography / or “stock” images.
Sometimes though, we need to take our own photos.
If you are taking your own photos, these 4 simple steps will help you take better photos!
During this live lesson, we will tell a historical story and try to represent this using pictures and simple sentences.
From these pictorial representations, we will recall the story and turn this story into a piece of nonfiction writing. Students will then use this piece of knowledge to demonstrate their understanding of a historical time and use this resource to pass on the knowledge to other children and adults within their community.
This will be a very fun and fascinating lesson which will include a retelling of historical events whilst using key vocabulary and new language. The lesson will also involve an independent task where the children will enhance their knowledge of the report writing structure.
As teachers, we want to develop a culture of well-informed knowledge before children commit to putting pen to paper.
This resource is all about researching the facts behind climate change or any of their own topics that the children are focusing on.
This resource will allow children to generate compelling questions that will lead to interesting answers which then require the students to gather research and statistics from several sources.
These well-researched facts will allow our students to compose an article that a newspaper or news outlet may wish to pick up and run.If the article is good enough, persuasive enough, and includes the details behind the story, then the reward will be that a newspaper or news outlet will pick up the story and run with it.
Writing an article to send out to the world can be a daunting task. The first step is to understand the basic structure and then gather the information you need to make it credible. Once your students have gathered the statistics and the details behind their story, It is time for them to compose an article which they will then distribute.Ask your students to follow the template called ‘Collecting the Facts’, and then use my example to compose their own article. Once complete, they will then send out to various news outlets locally, nationally, and even internationally. It’s empowerment on overload!
Finding out how your child is feeling can be a difficult conversation to have. Many times we simply ask the wrong questions or don’t give the child an avenue to be able to express themselves.
Sometimes words are not the answer, but this simple colour chart provides parents with a wonderful daily check-in, where children can simply point to express how they are feeling.
From that, parents can record the response and spot patterns that may be emerging. Maybe every Thursday your child points to a certain zone, that tells you that something significant is happening on that day that may need further exploration.
This simple daily check-in allows an emotional communication gateway to take place where everyone gets to express how they are feeling and why.
Dr Mark Williams is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Author, International Speaker and Facilitator. He is the Director of Rethinking the Brain. Join us on this informative session on how the brain works and how we learn!
Understanding how our brains learn is essential for parents and teachers.
In the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in our understanding of the human brain, how it develops and learns and how best to teach students.
It is an extremely exciting time with the advent of modern technology we can now see inside the brains of people while they are thinking, learning and feeling. It has resulted in some amazing new discoveries about how our brain works and how it changes throughout our lives.
These new findings allow us to understand each other better than ever before. This means that many of the older ideas and strategies around learning and memory have been shown to be incorrect and recent findings paint a very different picture of the human brain and its capacity to learn.
This is an opportunity to learn about our new understanding of the brain and adapt your teaching practices to incorporate many of these findings into your own teaching strategies.
We will discuss many of the recent findings and the new concepts and ideas around the neuroscience of learning.
About Mark: Mark runs programs for schools, parents, businesses, and individuals on the neuroscience of learning, the neuroscience of emotions, and the impact of modern technologies (like smartphones) on our brain. Learning outcomes, resilience, curiosity, tolerance, and emotional intelligence are all declining whilst stress, anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising. Money and technology alone are not the answer to innovative practices in our schools, workplaces, and society. We need a significant shift in our understanding.
Mark is available to work with schools through a rigorous evidence based approach to enhance learning and leadership.
During this lesson, we will work creatively to design a poster to help save the world.
We will watch several videos together and then using the inspiration from these, we will design a poster that will help other people understand the importance of taking care of the planet.
Once the poster is ready, we will place it in the street, in a library or in a shop window to help other people understand that there is no planet B! You will need paper, pencils and colours and your creativity for this lesson!
A dedicated group of students at the RISSE Xperiential School in Maharastra, a state in North Western India, are taking local change to the next level!
After attending a live lesson on Designing a Poster to Change the World presented by Upschool’s Gavin McCormack – they were inspired to go one step further.
“We had a brainstorming session with the students, as to what they would like to do to make an impact and take this poster making session further”. RISSE Principal Meghaa Ahuja said.
The students came up with different ideas, and they decided on the painting of the pillars, “because it would stay forever”.
“Their messages will be visible to parents, other students, teachers and visitors to our school for years to come”, Principal Ahuja explained.
RISSE Xperiential School truly understands the importance of empowering children and allowing them to explore all of their ideas, even if they may be from left field!
Upschool teacher Gavin McCormack was elated with the students action taking.
“I’m feeling blessed to do this kind of work, it makes me so happy”, was his response to learning of the project.
“Small actions like this will have a big impact tomorrow”, he said.
We asked Mrs Ahuja what is next?
“We are so happy to raise students who will make this world a better place”, Mrs Ahuja said.
“They feel proud that their art work is leaving an impression on the minds of children from other grades, parents and visitors”
“Other students are finding a wall in their community to paint. They don’t want to stop and are using painting as a means to spread awareness and make a difference”.
“They feel empowered and confident that their actions can make an impact”.
Well done, RISSE Xperiential School, you truly are a team of Change Makers!
