Today is a big day for the Elementary School at BISS. 5^th grade is the top level of the PYP (Primary Years Program). At the end of the 5^th grade year, the students take part in the “Exhibition”. It’s the culmination of their elementary school experience. Each student has a stationary exhibit of their work on display, and then the group does a performance using different media, to demonstrate some of what they’ve learned. This year’s main topics were “Peace & Conflict”, and the specific concepts studied were ownership, injustice, inequality, and prejudice.

I went up to BISS for one of the three performances during the day. Other grade levels attended the performances, as well as Grade 5 students from two other International Schools. There was also an evening performance for the parents. The topics studied were not “soft” topics, and it was interesting how the students handled their individual projects, as well as the group performance. Judy provided a song about peace, rehearsing them and teaching them the deaf hand signs to accompany it. It made for a very nice moment at the end of the show. She had spent a lot of time helping them learn their finale, as well as selecting and editing accompaniment music for their performance.

I was impressed with the whole “Exhibition” presentation, and it was well received by the student audiences. Judy had a sub for her regular classes so she could be available for all the daytime performances. She spent a lot of time preparing the sub plans for 7 classes. She also had to attend the evening performance. When she finally got home, around 8:30, she was beat. The only bad coughing fit she experienced that got out of control was during the performance I attended. And to top it off, as she tried to exit the backstage area to deal with the cough, she kicked some of the sound system cords loose. “When it rains, it pours.”