Year-to-Date: 1,5584; October 2023: 57.9; Last Week: 43.3
“Even flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies, Oh, he don’t know, so he chases them away.” – Pearl Jam (1991)
Evenflow is a great song on a great album by a great band. That aside, the title of the song serves as this week’s inspiration.
“The purpose of the flow is to keep on flowing, not looking for a peak or utopia but staying in the flow. It is not a moving up but a continuous flowing; you move up to keep the flow going. There is no possible reason for climbing except the climbing itself; it is a self-communication.” – Mihály Csikszentmihalyi
Flow is the act of being in a state of mind where people put perfect practice to the test of work. It’s a bit different from being in the zone. I’ll explain using running as a reference point. During some workouts, I find myself in the zone where the pads of my feet meet the pavement. There’s a rush of endorphins where I feel like I’m floating on the air rather than running. This sometimes happens; sometimes it doesn’t. Chasing those emotions is not why I run. Flowing whilst running feels different in that there’s almost a lack of emotion. There is just the act of running; sometimes slow and sometimes fast but always keeping one foot in front of the other in motion. It’s the very act that keeps me moving.
Being in a state of flow is easy to imagine and easier to experience whilst participating in movement activities, such as athletics, sports, outdoor pursuits, etc. Being in a state of flow happens at school too. Sometimes it’s loud because students need to verbally rehearse their thoughts before recording them. Oftentimes it’s quiet because students need to be in their own mind to use a new strategy or to synthesize new information. It’s difficult to pinpoint a formula for what flow looks like, sounds, like, and feels like in a school because each combination of students and teachers and learning spaces is different. What I do know is that there have been many moments over the past few weeks that each and every learner has been in a state of flow to produce their best work. Please use the following link to find photographs: G6 W8 in Pictures.
School Events – Important Dates
School photographs have now been rescheduled. In the meantime, please place an order for school uniforms, if necessary.
There will be a Parent-Student PYPX Information Meeting on November 2, 2023. It’s worth your while to attend because there will be a school assembly after that and a house picnic to end the day and start the weekend.
Literacy Summary
As we near the end of the term, students are putting the final touches into their reading and writing work. In reading, students are completing a character analysis in a work of fiction through likable/unlikeable traits, internal/external pressures, settings+mood, and themes+symbols, which will be posted on SeeSaw next week. In writing, students are publishing their personal narratives, which will be posted physically in the learning space and digitally on SeeSaw next week.
Numeracy Summary
Again, the first term is nearly complete and it’s time for assessments. Students took an assessment about ratios: ratios, ratio conversion to a ratio table with equivalent ratios, values or how ratios can also be fractions, visual representations of linear patterns through double number and ordered pairs in graphs. Students will complete a reflective activity posted onto SeeSaw next week.
UoI Summary
We took a deep dive into Exhibition: How We Organise Ourselves. Students identified one, two, or three passions, they imagined real-world problems related to these passions, and they related passions and problems to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Once that initial data collection was complete, students discussed how they could align their interests with others to create working groups. Students thought deeply and critically as they imagined the pros and cons of researching their ideas with others. As part and parcel of the learning process, students will keep a record of their work in a journal. Dates have not yet been firmly set; however, we’re making arrangements to hold the culminating events in late February just before the term break.