Excited about Curiousity?

I have asked all of my students to write about a time when they were curious about something, a time they were caring, or a time they took a risk, and because I believe that what I am asking them to do is important, I have decided to write a paragraph or two as well.

I am a very curious person. I am always asking myself questions in my head and I love getting to the bottom of something. I think the world is such a fascinating and mysterious place, that I can't believe it is so difficult to get you to be curious. So I am curious about how to make middle school students curious and excited about the world, life and learning.

I know that younger students are very animated and excited to try new things, ask questions, and explore different ideas, but middle school students tend to be much more quiet and bored by school. How can we change this? I have been curious about this idea for some time now, but recently I have really been thinking about. Every night before I fall asleep, I try and think about it for a few minutes.

I think back to when I was in school and remember how boring school was and how I wasn't interested in almost anything, but I was always curious. I always had questions and did a lot of reading and listening to music. I spoke to my dad a lot about the world and politics. I have always been interested in how people interact.

So I guess, my main questions is- How can we get you to look at yourself, find what you are interested in and help you to start learning about it too? Any ideas? Can you help me?

Grammar and The Learner Profile

One of the assessments for our new Grammar Unit will be a major edit to a piece of writing based on the IB Learner Profile. I have listed the descriptions of all ten profiles here. You can find them at anytime, by clicking on the tab IB Learner Profile at the top of this blog.

Don't worry too much, right now, about understanding exactly what all the descriptors mean. Truly understanding the profiles is a task we will be working on for the whole year. For now, I want you to take a look at just three: Inquirer, Risk Taker, and Caring.

Yesterday in class, we began to look at some basic ideas about the profiles:

1.) Being an inquirer means that you are curious about life and try to learn about it. It means that when you see or hear about something that is interesting to you, you do things to help you know more about it: do internet research, ask someone, read a book or magazine article about it, watch a video, etc.

2.) Being a caring person means that you show respect and compassion to others. It also means that you try to make a positive difference for other people, animals, or places.

3.) Being a risk taker means that you try new things and explore new situations. Risk takers are brave and don’t worry about embarrassing themselves or doing things the wrong way, they just want to have new experiences.

Please choose one of the following questions and leave a short answer here in the comments. After you have done that, you can begin writing your longer piece on your blog.
1. Describe the last time that you were curious about something. What did you do about it?

2. Describe a time when you were a caring person. What was the situation, and what did you do to try and make the situation better?

3. Describe a time when you were a risk taker. What new thing did you try? How did it turn out in the end?

If you are a teacher or a student sent here by your teacher, please add your answers to the comments, so we can have a nice list of experiences to learn from.