My first MYP IDU

So, next year, I will be leaving the comforts of elementary school and stepping into the grown-up world of Middle School. In my new role, I will be in the elementary school as a resource to oversee ICT integration in the classroom. The other half of my job is teaching Technology in the middle school.  There willl be no shortage of new acronyms to learn, I'm sure.  (Middle Years Program, Interdisciplinary Unit btw...)
So, in the past, the DT teacher started the year with a project that had students design a postage stamp. He would walk the kids together through the design cycle as they worked their way through each step.
I thought it would be fun to have them work on a business card instead. It would have a cool logo and they could pass it out to friends when they were done. But what would they put on it... student? Boring!  They are really just beginning to create identities for themselves.  So, I am going to have them do a business card for themselves as they see themselves in the future.

Each autumn, everyone starts the year having kids write about themselves, right?  What they like and don't like etc... Instead, I thought we could get them to tell us about how they imagine themselves in the future. It would be more interesting and more likely to get the kids to really think. The information we get out of it may turn out to be more useful in helping us understand our kids better.

So, I got together with the English and Drama teachers and the librarian, we put together a project where the kids will start the year writing about how they imagine themselves 17 years in the future--in time for their high school reunion!  They will develop their characters through a series of writing assignments.  In library/English, they were already planning a pretty long unit about biographies. Now, they will introduce it with a shorter one about autobiographies.  In drama, they will work on improvisation techniques and further develop their characters.  I will be running them through the design cycle as they set up digital, on-line portfolios and create their business cards.

So in the 3rd week of school, we will host a 10 year high school reunion party for our current grade 6 students, complete with long stem glasses and shrimp dip.  I think the business cards will be a nice prop to help get dialogue rolling.

Of course, we will film the whole thing. It should be a blast!