Adelle's Blog

The Reflection Of The Grade 5 Exhibition

Day 1: On Thursday, may 28^th, 2009, we had the 1^st day of our exhibition. I wasn’t very nervous actually, because I knew that today was only for the littler kids, gr 3 and bellow. But, even then, I knew that I would have to be a risk taker if I wanted to be able to answer the questions.

When we first got to school, we rehearsed the first and second session of the presentation sessions of the PYP exhibition. I was the M.C, and our group presented Minsoo’s presentation. Minsoo’s presentation was a keynote about the gemstone cutting/polishing process. Even though it was Minsoo’s presentation, we each got a slide to say aloud because it was a group effort. We already practiced yesterday, but Mrs. T and Mr. Hugo made us practice again today anyway.

After we practiced twice, maybe three times, it was 9 O’clock and Miss Mida and Miss Kathryn officially opened the exhibition. They gave a little short speech and Atta treated us with a song on the piano. Then we had to get to work.

The first class to come was the Pre K. They were so cute! We led them to our booth and we let them touch the gemstones. They also looked at the pictures of the gemstones. Minsoo was in charge of the little kids that spoke Korean. One of the kids asked me if the gemstones were edible. Actually, he said “Ku boleh makan ini?” while pointing at a gemstone. So cute!

Then the K1 and K2 came. They asked loved holding the gemstones! The girls really enjoyed looking at the pictures of the gemstones at Pasar Rawa Bening. Again, Minsoo talked to the Korean kids so that it would be easier to manage all the kids and their teachers.

After a while the grade 1 and 2 came. They some questions but were still quite shy. Then it was time for session 1, the real thing, not just a practice. I have to admit, I was a little nervous, especially since my brother came to watch and he can be very critical when he wants to be.

During the presentations, they didn’t ask many questions. The most was 3, in the G.E.M.S presentation. The questions were asked by grade 2. I was surprised that the grade 2 could ask such questions. In my mind, so far, the grade 2 had the highest rank of questions.

Then we went back to the booths. We stayed at the booths for a little longer, while the grade 1 and 2’s stayed and looked at the booths. They also asked us a few questions that they didn’t have a chance to ask before.

Finally we had lunch. We didn’t really have that much time to have lunch, so I stayed around the exhibition area and went on my laptop to do a little more research. I had a little snack, of course, but not much.

After lunch, we were told to stay by our booths for a little longer, just until 12:30 came around and we would have to have the second session. About 10 minutes later, the grade 3’s came. Mrs. T then told us that we were starting the second session early.

My friends stayed at the booth, but because I am the M.C, I had to go. I told my friends ‘Sorry, but I have to go. Please manage the booth without me for a while.’. Session 2 was very boring. The grade threes didn’t ask a lot of questions at all! When the second session was over, I knew one thing for sure. Grade two is still in the first rank.

After the second session, the exhibition was over. Mr. Hugo and Mrs. T told us to come back to class. Then they told us to write this report. Next time, I hope that the grade 4, 6 and 7s will beat the grade twos in the question rankings. I also hope that I will be more of a risk taker.

Day 2: On Friday, May 29^th, 2009, we had our second day of the exhibition. The exhibition started at 8:30 so we had time to print out the brochures that we made the day before. They had to be printed out in black and white, though, because ‘it would have been too expensive if it was in color’ (statement from Ms. Imelda, gr 5 and gr 4). We then gathered all the things that we needed and headed off to the Bamboo Court. Then we set up our laptops and journals. We even put our 500-word report on top of our journals for anyone to read. Our team, G.E.M.S were selling our gemstones, so we put those up, too. After everything on the table was set up, we checked out booth to see if anything was crooked or falling, and if it was, set it straight. We divided the brochures so that we all had some to give out.

Then day two of the grade 5 exhibition was officially opened. I knew that today was going to be harder than the first day, so I was very nervous. I had to try to be more knowledgeable than yesterday because if I couldn’t answer gr 2 and 3’s questions, than how on earth was I going to answer grade 4, 6 and 7’s questions? It’s not possible. So, quickly, before the first class came, I browsed through my Journal. Then I knew I was as ready as I’d ever be.

The first class to come was the grade 4 class. There were quite a lot of students from grade 4 coming to the exhibition, but we had to almost literally drag some of the students to come to our booth. Mostly girls came, because they wanted to hold and touch the gemstones.

Soon after the grade 4 came and grade 6 came to our exhibition, and almost as soon as they came, it was time for the first session. The people participating in the first session went into the ballet studio for session 1. I was the M.C, so I had to leave for longer than the rest of my teammates. The order of the presentations was different. Mrs. T changed what we would be presenting the day before, so that in the first session there was also the interactive quiz by Zaky and the Google Sketchup by Isfan.

There were slightly more questions this time, because I think the grade 4 already had a chance to brainstorm them before or something, but the grade two still asked the most questions so far. The interactive quiz was probably the most popular among the grade 4 and 6 students; especially since if they got the questions right, they got candy! Grade 4 got most of the questions right. “They know everything! Don’t pick the grade fours”, was something a grade six student said. I actually agreed with him. If they kept on picking the grade fours, all the candy would be finished by the end of the first session!

The first session didn’t last very long, so after it was completed, Mrs. T came to me and told me that we were doing session 2 right away because she didn’t want the grade 4’s and 6’s to miss the second session, which was supposed to start around 12 O’clock. So, before the second session started I went to my booth and told my teammates that I had to leave again for session two -my friends were not presenting- and they had to run the booth without me for a little while longer. While I was there, I was surprised to see that they had already sold quite a lot of gemstones. I was quite happy because the money is going to be donated to a school event -my idea as I am in the student council.

After that I went back to the ballet studio to start the admittedly early second session. This time, there were only a few kids from grade 4 – the others were probably at the booths - and there were a lot more grade 6 students; although only Mr. Rick and a couple others asked the questions, the others stayed quiet. Quieter than usual, actually. The grade 6’s are usually very loud, if I do say so myself, especially at lunchtime. The grade 6 were also shy when we asked them if they wanted to try Leo’s mining game that he made using the beta version of GameSalad. It was actually a really fun game, but only two or three people agreed to try it. A shame, really.

After Carl’s movie about Gunung Pongkor, session two was over. The grade 6 and 4 stayed a little while longer while my teammates and I took turns having snack. Now, snack consisted with getting a drink and maybe a sandwich or something and eating/drinking at the table while waiting for kids to come to our booth and sometimes inviting them over.

Then, the grade 4 and 6 left to go back to their classrooms. While they were gone, my teammates and I took a well-deserved break. While on our break, Mrs. T helpfully informed me that we would be doing the first and second session all over again, for the grade sevens. When hearing this, I just barely suppressed a sigh. Thought it was over. Oh well. After that I headed back to my break. Everything was relaxing for a moment…then the grade 7’s came.

As soon as Minsoo told me that she saw the grade sevens coming, we went back to work. Minsoo and I grabbed as much brochures as we could take and the boys, Fernan and Andra, set up their laptops, getting ready to show the grade 7’s their presentations. Then Minsoo and I started handing out brochures to everyone we saw while saying ‘Please visit G.E.M.S!’ over and over again. In English, Indonesian, even (for Minsoo) in Korean. Sure enough, pretty soon our booth was filled with people listening to presentations and others looking at the gemstones.

Then it was time for the second session of the first session. The grade 7’s piled into the room and sat down, waiting. I was really nervous because the grade 7’s were the highest level of students so I thought that they would have the highest level of questions, but they only asked questions because I reminded them that so far, grade two asked the highest rank of questions and I knew they wouldn’t like to be ranked behind the grade 2’s.

Surprisingly, their questions weren’t very different from those of grade 4, how shameful is that?! But I’m sure that they had better questions inside of them and they were just shy. Still, they weren’t nearly as participative as the grades below them.

This session was shamefully quick. Well, at least they asked a couple of questions at the booths. Straight after the second session of the first session, we had lunch. A real lunch, not just eating at our tables.

After eating our lunch, we were asked to come back to our classroom. Mr. Hugo told us that we were not going to do the second session of the second session, and we were all relieved. For about two seconds. Then Mr. Hugo said that the reason we were not doing the second session of the second session was because we had to perform a V.I.P performance, session 1 and session 2 in the same performance for Ibu Indah, Miss Elizabeth, Mr. John and possibly others. This wasn’t planned so it gave us a big shock! For the next half hour we were preparing for the V.I.P performance. We did things like print more brochures, getting our presentations ready, and practicing our lines.

Finally, Mrs. T and Mr. Hugo told us it was time, so we brought our laptops and anything else we needed to the ballet studio and put the others on our table. We went inside the ballet studio and prepared everything. Soon after Miss Mida and Miss Kathryn joined us and we were told to start. In the middle of our second presentation by the MAE group, Mr. John arrived. He sat down and told us to continue.

By our third performance by my group, G.E.M.S, Ibu Indah and Miss Elizabeth had arrived. After the mathematical inquiry by ‘World Of Copper’, Leo showed us the game that he made in GameSalad. Ibu Indah and Miss Elizabeth were invited to try. After they finished playing the game, Mr. John loudly –like, really loudly- exclaimed, “Who wants to play ‘Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader?’” Everyone, well, almost everyone, shouted ‘Me, me!’. So that is how Zaky’s interactive educational quiz turned into a game of ‘Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader?’. Mrs. T even filmed the whole thing on her camera. Ibu Indah said “If you can beat us than we will get your class 3 boxes of doughnuts by Monday and I will say that I am not smarter than a 5^th grader.” Then, guess what? We won! So on Monday We’re getting doughnuts, and Ibu Indah and Miss Elizabeth both looked into the camera and said “I am not smarter than a 5^th grader”. Then, to top it all off, we each got a free can of Pokari Sweat! The perfect ending to a very busy day!

-Adellea