Resnik News from Mrs. Wammes
Posted on 01/21/2022
IB Corner-January 2022
International Mindedness
A great big thank you to those families that invited us along to celebrate with
them these last few months on the family FlipGrid. We met some families, baked
cookies, opened presents and decorated gingerbread houses right alongside
you. We learned about Advent and being thankful. We learned some German,
Italian and Swiss traditions. Most importantly, you helped teach our students at
Resnik that “All Families Have a Story to Tell” and that “We All Celebrate
Differently”. Hopefully, we can continue to add to that family FlipGrid in future
years to learn about other wonderful family traditions. An important part of
teaching international mindedness is to understand that different does not mean
bad- it just means different. We learn so much when we are open-minded
enough to learn from each other. Your help and perspective was so appreciated!
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Building the Future
If you were to walk the main hallways of Resnik this year, you would see robots
and gears decorating the walls. The idea of “Building the Future” has helped us
explore setting goals, the characteristics of being successful, and the action we
need to take to make a difference in our community. The idea of “making sure all
of our gears are working together” has helped us learn how to work together and
problem solve if a gear gets “stuck”. These visuals and conversations are
helping students grow in the learner profile traits that we emphasize here at
Resnik. They are helping students become more knowledgeable, balanced,
reflective, open-minded, caring and principled. They are helping students
become better communicators, risk-takers, inquirers and thinkers. All together as
students grow in these learner profile traits, they will become more confident,
lifelong learners that take action to create a better and more peaceful
world. That is what an International Baccalaureate (IB) education is all about.
Taking action? What does that mean for an elementary school child? Here at
Resnik "taking action" means that students internalize something they have
learned in the classroom and they are doing something with that new
knowledge. Maybe they are starting a rock collection after learning about types
of rocks or teaching younger siblings at home how to read. Maybe their behavior
has changed and they are using their words to communicate versus melting
down when they are frustrated. Maybe they want to do something like pick up
the trash they notice in the parking lot because they learned about habitats that
are being destroyed. Maybe they want to stop doing something like not using
straws at restaurants to cut down on plastic usage.
We want to celebrate student action, but we don’t always see it. That is where
we need your help!
If you notice that your child is taking action and you believe it is because of
something they have learned in school, please tell us. We want to recognize
your child on announcements and add their action to our action wall at
school. We want our students to see that by taking action they are using “the
gears” they are being given and making a difference in the world around
them. As always, we appreciate your support!
You may tell us about your child’s action by emailing Lori Wammes, the IB coordinator at [email protected] or notifying your child's teacher.