Hi! How are you doing today? Hopefully, very well. Thanks for visiting this website. Normally I write about traveling and mindset coaching, but today I am going to give you a little sneak peek into my life as a PYP Educator. Not sure if you are familiar with IB education, so I’ll just give you a quick explanation first before I’ll share the outcome of a fun literacy learning experience with you.
A bit about the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization)
As a primary years educator at an IB World School, we follow the PYP curriculum. This means we create 6 Units of Inquiry for one academic year centered around 6 Transdisciplinary Themes. These Transdisciplinary Themes are the same for all the grade levels and all PYP schools around the world:
Each grade level at each different PYP school around the world gets to design their own Unit of Inquiry under these 6 umbrellas. At the school where I currently work, I chose ‘Me & My Mindset’ (Who We Are), ‘The History of Me’ (Where We Are In Place And Time) and ‘Little People, Big Dreams’ (How We Express Ourselves) as the first three Units of Inquiry of this school year for my grade 3 learners. When I design these frameworks, I always make sure that we take ‘something’ from each unit with us to the next. It helps the learners to make connections, and these connections create exciting opportunities to transfer their new gained knowledge and understandings to a variety of situations. After learning about ‘the power of mindset choices’ during the first Unit of Inquiry, the learners took the concept of mindset with them to the second and third Unit of Inquiry with ease. They kept making connections regarding mindset in their own lives as well as in the lives of their family members and famous people from their home country and the past. At the moment, we just started the third Unit of Inquiry (Little People, Big Dreams) and my grade 3 learners LOVE exploring different ways of expressing ourselves, as well as learning about the lives of famous artists. All famous artists were little kids once, and they all have an interesting story to tell about their journey to fame. They all started as little people with a big dream.
Collaborative Writing Activity: TPR Storytelling
When you are able to create a sudden flow in your classroom in which you and your learners constantly make connections between the central ideas, key concepts, ATL (approaches to learning) skills and learner profile attributes you have been learning about together, it kind of feels like magic. It’s like it is Christmas every day. I’ll try to give you an idea about what I’m talking (writing) about by sharing a learning experience we did today. It was a collaborative writing activity in the style of TPR Storytelling. I have lot of English Language Learners in my class (about 80%), and this method helps them grow their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills a lot. What I truly love about TPRS is the fact that I, as an educator, ‘ask the story’. Through constantly asking questions, the learners are involved in the creation and interaction of the story.
I started our learning experience by writing this on the whiteboard:
Once upon a time, there was a _____________
I told the learners: “Today, we are going to make a story together. I will ask for your ideas about who is in it and what they do. All you need to do is listen to me when I am talking and I will listen to you when you are talking. I will let you know when you can share your thoughts. So, let’s start: Once upon a time, there was a __________. Well, who or what was there?
I wrote down all the ideas of the learners and together we decided which idea we would pick. We decided to go with: Once upon a time, there was a little reindeer with a BIG dream. I asked the learners if there was anything else special about the little reindeer with the BIG dream.
Note: In TPRS, repetition is very important. At some point, the learners will be even able to retell the story by heart. It helps so much in building confidence in speaking, listening to, reading and writing in -in this case- English.
They came up with many, many ideas and I wrote them all down. The learners agreed on the fact that the little reindeer with the BIG dream had cute little shiny nose (great moment to talk about the power of adjectives). That was enough information about his looks, the learners said. I asked them about the BIG dream. What was the BIG dream of the little reindeer with the shiny nose? The learners said that the little reindeer with the shiny nose and the BIG dream really, really, really wanted to join Santa’s reindeer team one day. I asked the learners what the problem was. Why hadn’t he joined the team yet? They said: He was too little and not strong enough.
The thinking and the talking and the asking and the writing continued for a long, long time. At some point they decided it was a good moment to finish the story. I asked the learners what we could do with our written words. A couple of them wanted to copy the story and write it in their journal, others wanted to create a play, a few boys planned to create a video on CapCut and one girl asked if we (she and I) could write the story in a document on Canva and add some decorations.
(you might needs glasses to read the story, so I’ve also added the text in a bigger size below)
The little Reindeer with the BIG Dream
Once upon a time, there was a little reindeer. The little reindeer had a cute little shiny nose and a BIG dream. He really, really, really wanted to join Santa’s reindeer team one day. There was just one problem. He was too little and not strong enough.
One evening, he went for a walk in the park near his house. His head and his shoulders were hanging down. He was in a bad, bad, bad mood. He thought about his dream and that made him feel very, very, very sad. He said to himself:
“My dream is too big and I am too little. My dream will never, ever, ever come true.”
Suddenly, a robin landed on the little reindeer’s head. He had heard what the little reindeer had said. The robin wanted to encourage the little reindeer and whispered this beautiful poem in his ear:
“Little reindeer, don’t feel blue
You can make your big dream come true
Say out loud what you want to achieve
You are what you believe
Learn to understand the steps you need to take
It is like building the layers of a beautiful cake
Start building a strong foundation
It will be the start of your creation
Make a detailed plan
And tell yourself: Yes, I can!
So Reindeer, don’t feel blue
You can make your dream come true”
The little reindeer’s eyes started to shine brighter than the brightest star in the sky that night. He knew the robin was right. If he did not believe in himself, who would? If he did not take action, who would? He learned to understand that life does not just happen. If you want something, you need to push yourself to start. When things get rough, you should not give up, but keep believing in yourself.
The robin inspired the little reindeer that night to take the first steps in the right direction of his dream. The little reindeer now knew what to do: He wrote a letter to Santa and asked if he could join the Reindeer Academy. Santa wrote back that the little reindeer was more than welcome, unless he was willing to fully commit to train his navigation skills and to improve his endurance, strength and flexibility.
After 4 years of intensive training, the little reindeer wasn’t that little anymore. He had grown his muscles and his mindset and believed more than ever in his own abilities. The confidence looked so good on him and his pretty red nose shone brighter than ever. Santa had noticed his growth and went over to the Reindeer Academy to announce the new members of his Reindeer Crew: “I hereby proudly present the names of my new Reindeer Crew Members. The are: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and (drumroll….) the little reindeer who joined our Reindeer Academy 4 years ago and who is not so little anymore: Rudolph!”
Rudolph could not be happier. He realized that all the effort he had put into making his dream come true, had paid off. He did it! Right at that moment, he noticed a robin flying through the window. The robin landed on Rudolph’s head. Rudolph said: “Thank you, dear robin. You inspired me to take action insetead of waiting for life to happen. That was the most valuable lesson I have ever learned. If you want something, you just need to get started. No one else is responsible for making positive changes in your life. Just you.” The robin whispered another poem in his ear:
“Because you felt blue
You were ready to make your dreams come true
Before we can enjoy the view fromt the highest mountain peak
We need to start at the bottom and focus on what we seek
The climb is never easy, but with the right mindset and flow
We learn to embrace the journey and feel how it helps us grow
You knew what to do when you felt blue
Recognizing your struggle helped you to make your dream come true”
While this is the end of the story about the reindeer, it can be the start of your story. What is is that you don‘t feel happy about? What would you like to see or do differently in you life? Get inspired by the reindeer and the robin and take action today. Change will happen if you start making different choices. It‘s that simple. You are responsible for how your life is like, so you better shape it the way you want. You got this! Make your dreams come true!
I believe in magic! There’s magic in my class every single day. We make it happen together and the sparks light up my heart! I’m such a huge fan of inquiry-based, concept-based and skill-based learning and it’s amazing to see my little people with their BIG dreams grow as lifelong learners. Every single one of them at their own pace and in their own way. We embrace our different wants and needs, because it’s (like Pete the Cat says) alllll good.
Big hugs!
Annette
PS: If you are interested in learning more about how to raise children with a growth mindset, you can order my book on the Brave New Books website (when you’re based in the Netherlands) or on Amazon (worldwide):
The book is also available in Dutch and can be ordered from the same webshops as the English version.
The Flying Dutch Family 
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