Our Parents Took Over the Screen Instead of Our Students

Our Parents Took Over the Screen Instead of Our Students

We held our PYP Parent Workshop online this year, which we enjoy organizing every year.

Our parents had the opportunity to empathize with our students in front of the screen. They participated in a number of activities in order to recognize the education system of our school. The activities covering how questioning is done in distance education, the web tools that we use to make learning visible, and the IB learner profiles and learning approaches have been quite enjoyable.

We have shown that activities performed with group studies, which are a must for our face-to-face education, can also be done effectively in the online process. Our parents who used online study rooms for group activities during the workshop experienced how we included our little students in the processes.  

Parents started our workshop with a Preliminary Assessment and a question reagrding what they know about PYP. Later, they read IB profile definitions. By matching various verses with our daily life, they saw how the verses are connected with real life in this modern age, inviting us to investigate and question, suggesting us to be thoughtful, open-minded, knowledgeable and communicating. They realized that all the profiles are linked, indeed. During the study, parents examined what they should do more and what they should do less as parents to support our students' learning approaches, i.e. ATL skills. In our Alternating Thinking activity, they experienced how interdisciplinary theme and conceptual learning has a place in our planning.. We asked our parents what profile and skill they used the most during the workshop. The day ended with our Exit Card activity.

Parents and teachers have greatly enjoyed working together. Taking place of the students, our parents stated that this important experience will strengthen their communication with their children.