NEW COUNTRY... NEW ADVENTURES!

ChatGPT doesn't know where Macerata is (LOL)

Hello, everyone!

Wow!!!! it really has been a long time, hasn't it?

If you're still here after all these years, thank you! And if you've just discovered Miss Lucy's Teaching Fun, welcome aboard! Either way, I'm sooooo happy to be writing here again.

But... where have I been?

Well, life happened. Or, to be more precise... teaching happened!

For the past five years, I've been teaching in a couple of international schools. They were amazing experiences that helped me grow professionally, meet wonderful people, and challenge myself every single day. But let's be honest... international schools can be incredibly demanding. They require a huge amount of energy, creativity, flexibility... and time! By the end of the day, the last thing I could think about was sitting down to write a blog post.

Now, a new chapter has begun.

After spending four wonderful years on the beautiful Lake Como, I've moved on to a completely different adventure: teaching in an Italian state primary school.

And, as you can imagine, I've been observing... a lot.

New colleagues, new routines, new challenges, new opportunities... and plenty of ideas! I've filled pages with notes, reflections, little classroom victories, and, of course, a few funny stories along the way.

So yes... new blog posts are definitely coming!

This is actually a fascinating time to be teaching English in Italian primary schools. The new national guidelines are encouraging a much more communicative approach, giving greater importance to listening and speaking from the very first years of school. Music to my ears! 

We'll explore together how these changes can become meaningful classroom practice, with practical activities, games, storytelling, movement, songs... and all the fun that learning English should include.

And finally, there's one more piece of exciting news.

After years of writing every single post in multiple languages (yes... that took forever!), I'm officially retiring from my job as my own translator!

Artificial Intelligence has completely changed the game. Most of you can now translate blog posts instantly on your phones, tablets, or computers. That means I can spend less time translating and much more time doing what I enjoy the most: creating new ideas, sharing classroom experiences, and designing fun resources for teachers and children around the world.

So today we say a grateful goodbye to mihijohablainglés.com and open the door to this brand-new adventure.

I'm excited and, honestly, I can't wait to share everything that's coming next.

Thank you for being here.

Let's make English teaching fun... again!

Love,

Miss Lucy

FROM THE TRANSDISCIPLINARY THEME TO THE CENTRAL IDEA AND ITS LINES OF INQUIRY

In our previous posts we talked about transdisciplinarity, the importance of transdisciplinary themes and how they are conceived within the PYP programme. For this reason today I’d like to show an extract of a real UOI (aka Unit of Inquiry) I had to design for one of my master’s degree’s subject: Methodology of International Education.

Once I had chosen my Transdisciplinary theme, How we organize ourselves -an inquire into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and their impact on the environment-, and the age group, Grade 6, I had to come out with a Central idea.

Such thing is pivotal to developing the planning of the whole unit because it offers a framework to both teachers, for introducing concepts that cross national, cultural and subject borders, and students, by giving them the opportunity to participate to the inquiry bringing in their prior knowledge, practical experiences and diverse personal and cultural prospectives (the so called Agency).

The Central idea I elaborated was linked to social studies and stated: Living things have adapted to their unique environments as well as they have shaped and adjusted them to their survival needs.

From there, teachers must come out with a summative assessment and 2 or 3 lines of inquiry:

1) How we live. Human habitats around the world.(FORM)

2) How the environment influences human choices on living solutions.(CAUSATION)

3) The impact of these living solutions over the environment. (RESPONSIBILITY)

Now, I decided to focus on human beings, but as you might have understood, since the central idea embraces quite a broad perspective on anything, depending on your needs, I would have the possibility to focus the unit on different topics such as habitats and ecosystems, evolution, or even technology. In accordance with the focus, then the 3 lines of inquiry must change in order to adapt contents, learning objectives and assessment criteria to the prescribed curriculum your school has to teach, while the UOI will evolve taking into account the ongoing process of monitoring and documenting students’ participation and inputs.

Transdisciplinary themes: a new way of teaching and learning

As we’ve already saw in the previous post, the IB framework establishes 6 big themes whose main characteristic is to be mouldable to any age and cultural background.

from SCRIBD

The Transdisciplinary Themes of the PYP Curriculum are at the core of its educational philosophy. These themes go beyond subject-specific knowledge and play a pivotal role in shaping the holistic development of students. Here are some key characteristics that define these themes:

 1. Encapsulation of Shared Commonalities: these themes serve as universal touchpoints that resonate with people across different cultures and backgrounds. They emphasize our shared human experiences, fostering empathy and understanding among students.

 2. Indication of Complexity and Connectedness: by highlighting the intricate interplay of various aspects of the human condition on a global scale these themes make our students unerstand that real-world issues are often multifaceted and interconnected, encouraging them to think critically and make meaningful connections.

 3. Engagement in Real-World Dialogues: by exploring into these themes, students are chllenged to explore and discuss real global issues motivating students to become active participants in addressing real challenges faced by the world.

 4. Authentic Embeddedness of Subject Areas: the Transdisciplinary Themes break down the traditional silos of subject-based learning. They enable a seamless integration of different disciplines, promoting a more holistic and comprehensive understanding of concepts.

5. Contribution to the Uniqueness of the PYP: these themes differentiate the PYP from conventional educational approaches, emphasizing a broader, more inclusive, and globally relevant perspective on learning.

Incorporating these characteristics into the curriculum not only enriches the educational experience but also prepares students to become well-rounded, socially conscious individuals capable of addressing the complexities of the modern world.

*this post has been written with the help of AI

Quiero leerlo en español

Wait… did Maths just become English?" 🤯

One of the terms that parents often hear when their children join the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) is transdisciplinary learning. It sounds like one of those complicated educational buzzwords... but in reality, it's surprisingly simple.

It means that learning goes beyond individual subjects.

Children don't learn Maths from 9 to 10, English from 10 to 11 and then completely forget about Maths. Instead, they explore big ideas through different lenses, using each subject as a tool to better understand the world around them.

And this is where the magic happens.

I'll never forget a moment during my years as a Grade 3 homeroom teacher in an international school in Madrid.

That week's Unit of Inquiry belonged to the transdisciplinary theme Who We Are, and in English we were talking about healthy eating.

Rather than using the outdated food pyramid, we were introducing students to the Healthy Plate model: half the plate filled with vegetables, one quarter with protein and one quarter with carbohydrates.

I had already introduced the concept during our English lessons.

Later that day, I walked back into the classroom after the Maths lesson.

The Maths teacher had been explaining fractions, and the whiteboard was still full of circles divided into halves.

One of the beautiful things about transdisciplinary teaching is that you don't erase the board just because another subject is coming next. You start from what is already there.

So that's exactly what I did.

I pointed to the circle already divided into two equal parts and said:

"Remember our Healthy Plate?"

Then I drew one more line, dividing one of the halves into two equal pieces.

Suddenly, the diagram became our healthy plate.

Half vegetables.

One quarter protein.

One quarter carbohydrates.

And then... it happened.

You know that moment when you can almost hear twenty-five little brains making the same connection at exactly the same time?

Click.

Fractions were no longer just something from Maths.

Healthy eating was no longer just vocabulary from English.

The two ideas became one.

That was the exact moment I truly understood the power of transdisciplinary learning.

This doesn't mean that subjects disappear. Quite the opposite.

The PYP still includes six subject areas:

• Language
• Mathematics
• Science
• Social Studies
• Arts
• Personal, Social and Physical Education (PSPE)

The difference is that these subjects are not taught as isolated boxes. Instead, teachers work collaboratively to connect them through six Transdisciplinary Themes, giving learning purpose and making it meaningful.

Those six themes are:

🌍 Who We Are

🗺️ Where We Are in Place and Time

🎨 How We Express Ourselves

⚙️ How the World Works

🏛️ How We Organise Ourselves

🌱 Sharing the Planet

Rather than asking, "What page are we on in the textbook?", the PYP asks a much more powerful question:

"How can today's learning help children make sense of the world?"

And honestly... once you've seen twenty-five children make those connections in real time, it's very hard to go back to teaching subjects as completely separate worlds.

 

From remembering to creating: guiding our students through Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy

Hi there! 👋

Today I’m going to introduce something that school teachers are already familiar with, for sure, but… as the old Latin saying goes, repetita iuvant! 😉

Sometimes, revisiting well-known concepts and looking at them through practical examples is exactly what we need to make ideas clearer, more meaningful and easier to apply in our everyday teaching practice.

So today, let’s talk about a powerful tool that can help us design learning experiences that truly support our students’ thinking journey: Bloom’s Taxonomy. 🌱

In our previous post about cooperative learning, we talked about Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) — those powerful thinking skills that allow our students to analyse, evaluate and create — often compared with Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS), which are connected to remembering and understanding information.

But here’s the important thing: both are essential! 💡

They are all part of one of the most famous tools in education: Bloom’s Taxonomy.

📚The six levels of the pyramid represent the different steps our learners go through as they build knowledge:

🔹 Remembering
Recalling facts, information and previously learned skills.

🔹 Understanding
Explaining, describing, comparing and making sense of information.

🔹 Applying
Using knowledge in new situations and real-life contexts.

🔹 Analyzing
Exploring information, identifying patterns and making connections.

🔹 Evaluating
Expressing opinions, making judgements and supporting ideas with evidence.

🔹 Creating
Designing, inventing and producing something new.

✨ Why is Bloom’s Taxonomy such a valuable tool when planning learning experiences?

Because learning is not just about collecting information. In fact, meaningful learning happens when students are gradually supported in moving from “I know this” to “I can use this, I can question it, I can create something with it.”

This is closely connected to Bruner’s scaffolding theory: as teachers, we build the right supports at the right time, accompanying our students step by step until they can become more independent learners.

For example, imagine introducing the topic of historical sources to a Grade 3 class. A possible learning journey could look like this:

📌 REMEMBERING activities

• Sharing what students already know about the past.

• Learning the definition of “historical source”.

• Identifying different types of sources and examples.

📌 UNDERSTANDING activities

• Classifying sources according to their type.

• Creating diagrams or organisers to describe their characteristics.

📌 APPLYING activities

• Bringing historical objects from home.

• Interviewing parents, grandparents or members of the school community to discover how objects were used in the past.

📌 ANALYZING activities

• Describing a source in detail: what it was used for, where it came from, why it was important, how it compares to modern versions.

• Looking for similarities and differences between objects brought by classmates.

• Creating mind maps about historical sources.

📌 EVALUATING activities

• Discussing which sources are the most valuable for historians and explaining why.

• Interpreting the meaning of a source within its historical context.

📌 CREATING activities

• Designing a presentation about the sources investigated.

• Creating a timeline showing how objects have changed over time.

• Building a classroom museum. 🏛️

The beautiful thing about Bloom’s Taxonomy is that it can be applied to any subject and any topic. Whether we are exploring science, history, languages or mathematics, this framework helps us design learning experiences that go beyond memorisation.

And there is another important connection: the development of these thinking skills is deeply linked to the development of competences. If we think of competence as the combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and emotions that learners use in real situations, we immediately see why the top of the pyramid — analysing, evaluating and creating — is so important.

🌟 For this reason, understanding and applying Bloom’s Taxonomy is a powerful skill for every teacher. It is not only useful in IB contexts; it is a universal tool to help our students become curious, independent and lifelong learners.

Because the goal is not simply for children to remember more…

…it is for them to think more. 💭✨

Quiero leer este post en español

Cooperative Learning... but make it simple!

How can we implement cooperative learning in the classroom without adding even more to our workload?

The good news is... we absolutely can! 💛

With the right structures and routines, cooperative learning doesn't have to mean extra planning or complicated group activities. In fact, it can become one of the most effective—and manageable—parts of your teaching practice.

Research has consistently shown that cooperative learning helps children develop higher-order thinking skills, leading to deeper, more meaningful learning.

This idea is rooted in Vygotsky's theory, which tells us that children learn best through interaction. Whether they're learning from their teacher or from a more knowledgeable peer, meaningful conversations help them construct understanding together.

That's why cooperative learning has become such an important part of today's competency-based classrooms.

Buuut...

✨ What does effective cooperative learning actually look like?

I'm sure we're all aware that it's so much more than simply putting children into groups! Here's the list of the key ingredients for successful cooperative learning:

🤝 Mixed-ability groups where every child brings different strengths, ideas, and knowledge to the table. Together, they create something that's richer than what they could have achieved alone.

💬 Meaningful communication as children discuss, question, explain, and support one another. These conversations are where real learning happens.

⭐ Individual accountability because every child has an important role to play and is responsible for contributing to the group's success.

⚖️ Equal participation so every voice is heard and every learner has the opportunity to be actively involved.

🧩 Shared decision-making as children work together, solve problems, and make choices as a team.

👥 Face-to-face interaction, building not only knowledge but also confidence, empathy, and collaboration skills.

When all of these elements come together, cooperative learning becomes so much more than group work—it becomes a powerful learning experience for every child. 💛

The 5 basic structures and the skills 

✨ So... how can we actually bring cooperative learning into our classrooms?

By now, we know that this approach can develop so many important skills—but the big question is: where do we start? 💭

Take note of this name: Dr Spencer Kagan. ⭐

This psychologist and pioneer in the cooperative learning movement dedicated his work to helping teachers create more interactive and collaborative lessons, where children become not only more knowledgeable learners, but also more caring and cooperative ones.

His solution? Cooperative structures.

Dr Kagan designed more than 200 structures that can be easily integrated into our lessons without having to completely change our planning or rewrite our activities from scratch. 🙌

I personally use some of them depending on my teaching goals, and I can truly say that they are incredibly powerful tools. They encourage reflection, dialogue, active participation—and, most importantly, they motivate children to get involved in any subject we are exploring.

Some Kagan's stuctures

to Kagan, there are 5 essential structures that every teacher should learn first:

🤝 Rally Robin / Rally Table
Students work in pairs and take turns sharing answers, ideas, or solutions to a question or problem.

⏰ Timed Pair Share
One student shares their ideas for a set amount of time while their partner listens. Then they swap roles and, if desired, share their thoughts with the class.

🔄 Round Robin / Round Table
Students take turns contributing ideas or answers within their team, making sure everyone has a voice.

🧩 Rally Coach
Partners solve problems together: one student works while the other observes, supports, checks, and encourages.

🙋 Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up
Students move around the classroom, find a partner, and share or discuss a task using one of the previous structures.

My students use these structures very often, and I can honestly say that they lead to 100% participation. Even the quieter children feel more confident sharing their ideas, attention increases, and learning becomes much more meaningful. 💛

So don't be afraid to try them!

Once you see the impact they can have in your classroom, you won't want to go back. ✨

--> Quiero leer este post en castellano

Summer homework? Graded readers, brain teasers, crosswords, and more

Hi there! 

I'd like to share with you in a quick post the summer 'homework' I suggested for my students this year. Besides the classic graded readers to practice reading comprehension, I thought that some puzzle/quizz/riddle book might be, not only entertaining, but also a good way for connecting the different areas of knowledge (English, Natural and Social Sciences, Maths, etc.) in order to enhance significative learning and the 4 language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking).

So... here's some of the books I selected for primary school students starting from National Geographic, which has some good ones:

     

      

Then, I thought about brain teasers, which are useful for learning how to think outside the box. They usually come with the age of the children they are designed for. However, since they are for native speakers, I would pick a level below your child's age if yours is not. Also I would choose the paperback version which usually comes with pictures and illustrations.

       

         

From Usborne, as suggested by my friend Marine, who is an independent book seller you can get in touch with from her FB Page Kidibook:

 

   

HAVE FUN!