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In order, to focus on international mindedness and make my learners of PYP 5 more aware about global issues I am excited to coin the idea of PenPal Schools in the upcoming academic year:
https://www.penpalschools.com/
PenPal Schools help IB educators connect with peers from 150 countries to learn together though collaborative projects.
The learners will be able to collaborate on the following topics:
Daily life, food, history, art & literature, global issues and popular culture.
https://go.penpalschools.com/topics
Furthermore, they will reflect on the topics and issues at hand.
Why I believe this is a great strategy to use?
It will allow to breakdown the classroom walls and help the learners learn about the world and their place in it and develop lasting connections and friendships across the globe.
How will you know it is working?
PYP teachers can provide students with personalised feedback by customising assessment criteria ranging from reading comprehension and writing skills to and social and emotional learning.

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As a homeroom teacher for PYP 4, and having an art background, I would want to bring International Mindedness in my learners through ways that define me, since passion certainly brings a great outcome. Moreover, I personally feel, art is the best medium to   to develop International Mindedness in learners, as it is completely open to interpretation, and welcomes diversity.
One of the activities that I would do with my class would definitely include learners engaging with images and artefacts from different contexts, recognising differences in cultures,  understanding their own culture, time, and context, and that of the other people. They can then investigate other cultures and relate them to themselves, finding differences and realising similarities. This way they would develop a sense of the 'OTHER', and a greater understanding of themselves. They would nurture their sense of identity, and empathise with other identities.
Further more, creating art work would make the learners independently arrive at an intercultural understanding.

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Customs, lifestyle, traditions would best define the word ‘Culture’ but it means a lot more than that.

Understanding and respecting different cultures and their norms is the basic step towards becoming internationally minded citizens.

My plan to implement international mindedness in our learners is through ‘Drama and theatre’.

Theatre provides an opportunity to physically, emotionally and viscerally experience another perspective of human existence.

We can make this a long term thing and annually celebrate cultural diversity through Drama and theatre where we can encourage children to come up with different stories, poems, songs, dance etc and perform on it. This would incorporate the sense of teamwork, collaboration and open mindedness among the participants. They can share their ideas and showcase their creativity in whatever aspect possible.

This cannot be achieved without teamwork, I would require permission from the school’s Principal and help from Drama teachers as well as Arts, Music and Language teachers.

The more the learners would collaborate and explore about other cultures, the more solicitous they would become which would eventually reflect their international mindedness.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Embedding International Mindedness

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Farhana Ahmad                 Plans for implementation of IM:                                 Students do need to find their own lives reflected in curriculum, but if what they read and do in school only mirrors their own views of the world, they cannot envision other ways of thinking and being.So here are some plans that I would surely introduce to implement International mindedness among my learners.Documentaries of different cultures can give a wide exposure to learn about them.  The young learners are quite excited to learn through visual medium. The documentaries could be played in native language as well to give them better understanding especially at initial stage.Trip to a museum can also be arranged, where the learners can observe the object of different cultures according to their own interest.Festivals of different cultures could be celebrated to give them better understanding and diversity of the richness that different cultures hold.    

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Farhana Ahmad                 Plans for implementation of IM:                                 Students do need to find their own lives reflected in curriculum, but if what they read and do in school only mirrors their own views of the world, they cannot envision other ways of thinking and being.So here are some plans that I would surely introduce to implement International mindedness among my learners.Documentaries of different cultures can give a wide exposure to learn about them.  The young learners are quite excited to learn through visual medium. The documentaries could be played in native language as well to give them better understanding especially at initial stage.Trip to a museum can also be arranged, where the learners can observe the object of different cultures according to their own interest.Festivals of different cultures could be celebrated to give them better understanding and diversity of the richness that different cultures hold.    

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Embedding International Mindedness:-
When I think of the word "International mindedness" some words that pop up in my mind are; Diversity, perspective, tolerance, understanding, listening, stating, acceptance and unity.
Through the lens of pluralism, my learners are hands-on learners, they are visual and adore colours, for them I have planned this activity:
1) I will make some concentric circles on the board. Assigning each circle a role/place.
2) I will then give 2 sticky notes to each Leaner and ask them to state 2 facts about each of the places mentioned on the circles.
3) At the end each circle will have different perspectives, reflection and thoughts. Further discussion can be generated on the basis of this provocation

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International Mindedness (part 2):  International- mindedness can be achieved with the collaboration of multiple entities like teachers,parents,learners and local community to arrange events on larger scale.Strategies which i would love to use in my school community to embed international-mindedness are :
1-arrange trips to historical places
2-organize events with different themes like Eid, Christmas,Halloween and New year.
Currently i m a subject teacher and i teach two different languages ,Urdu and Arabic.Teaching different languages is the most important and power tool to develop international mindedness.Last year i remember Urdu teachers from our school arranged an event,Shair Ki Shadi (shair means lion and shadi means marriage) yes sounds interesting and little funny and it was the big hit of the year and all our learners enjoyed.These strategies i have mentioned above are long term. Different responses of the learners will show us whether these strategies are working.

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So my plan to embed open-mindedness in my learners is that we are going to help our community services.I will collaborate with my school members and my colleagues and we will adopt a school so we can make the education level better or somehow equal.We can arrange a bake sale with different stalls where we can invite people to promote different cuisines and collect money for the sister school.Later we can talk about it with our learners and encourage them to use their thinking skills and let them explore why did we arranged the bake sale?Why is important to help others?What are the chances if they will not get better education?Community service gives students an opportunity to explore academic interests through a real world lense. If a learner is fascinated when he or she learns about recycling in school, for example, they can pick up recyclables from local businesses and take them to a local recycling center to see the impact firsthand. Volunteering during an election can help them learn more about how the government functions, or cleaning up the surroundings can help them learn more about environmental issues.

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So my plan to embed open-mindedness in my learners is that we are going to help our community services.I will collaborate with my school members and my colleagues and we will adopt a school so we can make the education level better or somehow equal.We can arrange a bake sale with different stalls where we can invite people to promote different cuisines and collect money for the sister school.Later we can talk about it with our learners and encourage them to use their thinking skills and let them explore why did we arranged the bake sale?Why is important to help others?What are the chances if they will not get better education?Community service gives students an opportunity to explore academic interests through a real world lense. If a learner is fascinated when he or she learns about recycling in school, for example, they can pick up recyclables from local businesses and take them to a local recycling center to see the impact firsthand. Volunteering during an election can help them learn more about how the government functions, or cleaning up the surroundings can help them learn more about environmental issues.

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For learners story telling in a very strong mode of communication through which we can embed international-mindedness. Read them stories about different cultures talk to them about their food, language, clothes and festivals they celebrate. Discuss the similarities and differences we have. Making a connection with those stories you can further do role play where learners can have hands on experience. Collaboration is the key embed your activity in music and art lesson and create a environment within your class room it will give them more exposure about other communities around them.

Further encourage your learner to connect with the world globally by celebrating international days it will give them an insight of what is happening in the world and also about the global issue, they will feel a sense of responsibility towards their community when they will see the whole world working on the same issues. Like Friendship day, Women’s day, World water day, World health day, International day of peace, earth day, world food day etc. Now these are the long term strategies that can be applied on different grades they will be more open minded and will learn to co-exist.

Here I will share an example of my own class. While working on our TD theme sharing the planet we discussed about how water is important for all living things and how we are wasting water we even discussed the consequences of it. After a week a parent came to me and told me that how her daughter is making a conscious effort at home and telling everyone not to waste water she further added we used to water our garden 2 times in summer and her daughter got so upset about it that we are wasting earths water and make the earth sick. So she reflected upon her learning and took action against it.

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My plan to execute international- mindedness is that we are going to have cultural day every year, to make learners open minded and know about different cultures in Pakistan from where they belong to. The learners are going to dress up according to the culture they belong to. Pakistan has a rich and diverse culture in terms of food, dress, language and religion as well. There are over 15 ethnic groups living in Pakistan. To name a few, Pukhtoons, Punjabis, Sindhi, Balochi, Seraiki, Afghani, Hazaras, Kashmiris, Baltis and many more. Learners belonging from different cultures would represent their culture and tell their school fellow about its language, background, and their specialties. ‘Teamwork makes the dreamwork’ so will be collaborating with everyone at school from principal to teachers’ because they will be participating too. It is a long term strategy, once learners will explore different cultures in Pakistan and be open minded. It will further help us to develop international mindedness when afterward we will be arranging any international events.

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Providing meaningful opportunities to the learners by carrying out Online Global Project.

Idea 1: Global Online Project

I would suggest my personal experience with Andrea and Tony. During summer break, Beaconhouse proposed an online Global Project to all the schools around the globe. This led many Beaconhouse Schools to apply. After the initial grouping, we collaborated with the schools of Sharjah and Karachi, using digital tools. Learners took part in the project named ‘environmental sustainability’, focusing on issues of environmental birds in danger. They took pictures, record videos, shared ideas of developing sustainable habitat for environmental birds. Through this initiative, learners were brought together and communities were united and supported in creating their own network of learning and collaboration. Global learning enhances students’ sense of identity, community, ethics, and perspective and encourages them to:

collaborate respectfully with diverse others.

learn to take responsible action in contemporary global contexts.

evaluate the goals, methods, and consequences of that action.

Further Reading: https://globalprojects.beaconhouse.net/?page_id=24815

Link to view the final project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NCLT-l_c98VWwH3MVz2PzEJueI5f3fRc/view?usp=sharing

Idea 2: Cultural Package Exchange: Schools from two different countries exchange a box full of cultural items such as cultural clothes, food and ornaments. Project exhibition of the items received from other countries. Students will make PPT, video about their work in preparing for the package, sending it and reaction when they receive it.

The project encourage students to have a broaden look at the world around them, accept difference by celebrating them and knowing more about them.

Reference: https://iearn.org/cc/space-2/group-477/about

Question and Answers:

1. Can you make this change alone?

Global issues needs across border actions, so collaboration is the basic tool to bring sustainable solutions.

1. Who might you need to collaborate with?

Teachers and learners of schools in national and international set up. In our case, we collaborated with the schools of Sharjah and Karachi.

1. Is this a short-term strategy or a long-term strategy?

It was a short-term strategy and ended when the school reopened after the summer break. If adapted purposefully this project offers a good scope of learning engagement.

1. How will you know it is working?

When the learners are engaged in commenting, suggesting, appreciating in a productive way and enjoying the collaboration, we can assure that our plan yields results.

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These are some of the strategies that I will use with my learners:
Activity 1:
The learners will be collectively shown abstract art paintings and would be eventually asked about what they see and feel about it. Since abstract art can be interpreted in multiple ways, therefore multiple responses will be encouraged to bring forth. Then as a class, the findings will be discussed and the “Similarities” will be compiled under one heading and the “Differences” on the other side, as a second phase of this task, the learners will be asked to discuss the compilation of “Difference” heading. This would help them to respect different perspectives and diversity within their class.
Activity 2:
 The learners will be asked to think of a friend who comes from a different country or different cultural background.
 They could list the similarities and differences between them such as cuisine, cultural events, dresses, language.
 They will paste their responses on the board.
 The class will have a gallery walk and learners will be asked to paste sticky notes if they have anything common with these friends from around the globe.
 This will enable us to find that we all share something in common. Even for the differences, some of the learners may relate to it as well.
 The concept of cultural diversity and respecting differences can be enhanced using this activity.
Activity 3:
A guest speaker will be invited to class. He/She will speak about his experiences and culture. The learners shall be asked to identify one thing, that they have in common with the guest speaker. They can also tell one thing that they like about their culture and would like to practice as well. This would help them respect the differences in culture and the significance of various traditions.
The idea of international mindedness can be introduced in class but to develop this attribute in the learners, the entire school community needs to practice it. Also, the same values should be instilled in learners at home.
These strategies can be used in the long term strategy to ensure, that learners value diversity and differences. This can be even evaluated by observing the interaction of learners with people of different cultural backgrounds within their school community.

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Strategies suggested to Andrea were given according to the age group of kindergarten. Since I am a Homeroom teacher of PYP 3, my learners will be more hands on for the activities in this respect. Activity: “International Day”       Key Concepts:                            Form (What is it like?)  Connection: (How is it connected to other things?)              Reflection: (How do we know?)      I would like to arrange an “International Day” to celebrate cultures of as many countries as we can. Since in our school we don’t have learners form different countries, in all 4 sections of PYP 3, learners will make groups and choose a country of their choice. Tuning in: By using key concept ‘form’ they can define what is international mindedness.   Finding out: Using research skills, learners can look into the history of respective chosen country. They can use safe search engines or visit library as resources. Sorting Out: Investigating further into cultures, food, practices, values, traditions or beliefs by virtually meeting learners from Beaconhouse Newlands Dubai. We can integrate Mathematics by checking the time difference of different countries.                                  Going Further: Learners can choose any graphic organizer. Communication skills can help them make ‘connections’ and find similarities and differences between the countries. Making conclusions: Interacting with people from different countries can help learners view life from a different perspective. When they learn about different cultures, they establish new ways of thinking, approaching and solving problems.                                 Taking Action: Learners will reflect their understanding of diversity in countries by arranging International day.                        This activity will prepare my learners to interact in a global society. It will help them become better communicator. I believe, all this will not be possible alone. I will need help of my senior leadership team to approve the interaction between different schools. I will need to collaborate with IT team to set up the necessary tools and Admin department to facilitate us with the setup of stalls for the International Day.  In this digital age, I am certain this strategy will be long term. Learners are capable of using gadgets for online classes, so once they are in touch with new people, they will be in touch for a long time. They might exchange their Fortnite IDs.             

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Strategies suggested to Andrea were given according to the age group of kindergarten. Since I am a Homeroom teacher of PYP 3, my learners will be more hands on for the activities in this respect. Activity: “International Day”       Key Concepts:                            Form (What is it like?)  Connection: (How is it connected to other things?)              Reflection: (How do we know?)      I would like to arrange an “International Day” to celebrate cultures of as many countries as we can. Since in our school we don’t have learners form different countries, in all 4 sections of PYP 3, learners will make groups and choose a country of their choice. Tuning in: By using key concept ‘form’ they can define what is international mindedness.   Finding out: Using research skills, learners can look into the history of respective chosen country. They can use safe search engines or visit library as resources. Sorting Out: Investigating further into cultures, food, practices, values, traditions or beliefs by virtually meeting learners from Beaconhouse Newlands Dubai. We can integrate Mathematics by checking the time difference of different countries.                                  Going Further: Learners can choose any graphic organizer. Communication skills can help them make ‘connections’ and find similarities and differences between the countries. Making conclusions: Interacting with people from different countries can help learners view life from a different perspective. When they learn about different cultures, they establish new ways of thinking, approaching and solving problems.                                 Taking Action: Learners will reflect their understanding of diversity in countries by arranging International day.                        This activity will prepare my learners to interact in a global society. It will help them become better communicator. I believe, all this will not be possible alone. I will need help of my senior leadership team to approve the interaction between different schools. I will need to collaborate with IT team to set up the necessary tools and Admin department to facilitate us with the setup of stalls for the International Day.  In this digital age, I am certain this strategy will be long term. Learners are capable of using gadgets for online classes, so once they are in touch with new people, they will be in touch for a long time. They might exchange their Fortnite IDs.             

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I think I will know that my my long term strategy is working when the young minds start collaborating on international issues to maintain peace in the world.

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Part 2 Embedding International Mindedness:

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Part 2 Embedding International Mindedness:

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As I am currently teaching in IB school Beaconhouse Newlands Lahore which supports international mindedness with diverse cultural activities being arranged and celebrated occasionally. We welcome students all over the world as number of Chinese students are currently studying in our school. In these difficult times of pandemic when everyone is considering them responsible for this outbreak COVID 19 virus. As we support International mindedness and to show empathy we recently celebrated Chinese New Year. We also celebrate other globally celebrated events such as Halloween, New Year, Christmas etc.
In fostering global awareness, we need to create opportunities for students to explore their role and their understanding of global issues outside the classroom context. This can happen in the form of trips within the host city or country and internationally, as well as through targeted and relevant extra-curricular offerings that promote leadership and an international consciousness. It is through educational experiences, along with the proper guidance of IB facilitators that students can develop a sense of international-mindedness, which gives them competences to exercise influence on problems facing the world.

How we can embed International mindedness in our classroom?

1.We can embed international mindedness with our classroom plans and routines in fol different ways:-
2.Encourage and support students to explore multiple perspectives.
3.Share their own experiences, interests and viewpoints with students.
4.Use artifacts, quotes or pictures to bring subjects to life. 5.Discuss difficult topics such as national identity or local and global conflicts.
6.Show respect and kindness to all community members. 7.International mindedness must reflect in curriculum construction, assessment, standards and benchmarks. 8.Language learning is a tool to overcome cultural barriers, exposure to multiple languages can be incorporated into the program and curriculum in many creative ways.

Can you make this change alone?

To make this change we need to be aware of the happenings around the world. I cannot make the change alone as I have need to collaborate with the rest of the school and my colleagues to bring proper system in place in which International mindedness is being fostered and this can only happen through our effective class environments and the environment of the school and with collaboration with the parents, especially who have come from abroad.

Is this a long term strategy or a short term strategy and how will you know it is working?

To foster international mindedness we need a long term plan, this should be the pedagogy of the school. Furthermore, you know how it is working we can see our children to have an idea how it is working we observe our children by welcoming other children from different countries on board and when they welcome their ideas and show acceptance and tolerance towards their culture, that’s when you know they are coexisting and coexisting in peace.

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This is an amazing resource to promote international mindedness in our young souls.

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My plan is to celebrate Earth Day in collaboration with international learners, in connection with the transdisciplinary theme ‘Sharing the planet’. To implement this plan, first I need to collaborate with my team (coordinator, Head mistress and principal). Then we’re going to write an official e-mail to the school head and get registered. Once paired and we get connected to the partner class, we’ll work out a way to execute the plan. Learners will setup essential agreements before this virtual meeting.

For Kindergarten learners, it would be really exciting to exchange their views with learners from a different community. They can share their perspective on why do we celebrate this day? They can reflect on the problems of our planet and talk about the actions that we need to take to make it a better place to live. They can discuss ways to save our natural resources and how to reduce, recycle and reuse. They can discuss about their roles and responsibility towards the environment. Through this collaboration they will be developing their ATL skills along with international-mindedness. It will be a short term strategy but its impact on their life is definitely going to be for long term.

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My plan to implement International -mindedness is that we are going to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Learners will prepare different performances with their drama and music teacher. As we have a Chinese language teacher in our school who could help in writing different famous Chinese quotes and ask Early years learners to make lanterns for the decoration. As Chinese food is also very famous in Pakistan and we will arrange stalls for our guests to enjoy rich and scrumptious Chinese food. Different forums could be used where learners could share their points of view about international mindedness. .
It's a short -term strategy but learners could plan to celebrate festivals of different countries. This will work when learners are going to celebrate the festival of the country which they dont like or may be dont know much about. As an inclusive school we are making them open-minded from the very early levels, they are very careful about their words and actions .

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International-mindedness is about intercultural understanding and respect

So, we can arrange cultural festivals. In which we can display different food stalls, game stalls and role plays activities, as to give them understanding of diverse cultures. (form)

This way we can initiate the discussion to strengthen their communication skills and we can tell learners how people are connected to each other and what is our responsibility towards them. We should be open minded to accept and appreciate every individual’s opinions.  (key concept: function, responsibility)

We can integrate it with arts by making fans and lanterns.

Math integration by asking them how many lantern and fans each group made or How many more fans the girls made then boys. (problem sums)

We can arrange multicultural sports events to promote international mindedness sports events.

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For my young learners there are quite a few things that I have planned. I feel little minds work best when they are engaged, exciting and learning while still at work.
I plan to have a food week with my learners where they will be introduced to a new food/cuisine from a different culture and part of the world. Food is an immediate introduction to a whole different taste and culture thus reflecting different perspectives, lifestyles and choices. I will engage my learners in an age appropriate, completely supervised activity where they will take part in making any dish from another culture.

I also plan to introduce my learners to a new language. Introduction to another language is associated with open mindedness and helps to understand diversity in various forms.

I also intend to display learning in different languages in the classroom so that it will help my learners to understand what diversity means and also to accept the understanding of differences between each other .

i have also thought of taking the learners on a school walk and introducing them to staff coming from different communities and working there. Aim is to encourage the learners to speak to them, ask questions and reflect on the commonalities between each other.
For making the change possible, this has to be a collaborative effort. it needs a team of learners, learning community and the support of teachers of course.
To embed our learners with international minded we need to work on a long-term strategy. International mindedness is a positive characteristic and instill the understanding of accepting different beliefs, perspectives, appreciating differences and respecting each other with dignity. It aims to prepare lifelong learners, who are citizens of the world and take ownership of the guardianship of this planet.

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For my young learners there are quite a few things that I have planned . I feel little minds work best when they are engaged, exciting and learning while still at work.
I plan to have a food week with my learners where they will be introduced  to a new food/cuisine from a different culture and part of the world. Food is an immediate introduction to a whole different taste and culture thus reflecting different perspectives, lifestyles and choices. I will engage my learners in an age appropriate, completely supervised activity where they will take part in making any dish from another culture.

I also plan to introduce my learners to a new language . Introduction to another language is associated with open mindedness and helps to understand diversity in various forms.

I also intend to display learning in different languages in the classroom so that it will help my learners to understand what diversity means and also to accept the understanding of differences between each other .

i have also thought of taking the learners on a school walk and introducing them to staff coming from different communities and working there.Aim is to encourage the learners to speak to them, ask questions and reflect on the commonalities between each other.
For making the change possible , this has to be a collaborative effort. it needs a team of learners, learning community and the support of teachers of course.
To embed our learners with international minded we need to work on a long term strategy. International mindedness is a positive characteristics and instill the understanding of accepting different beliefs, perspectives, appreciating differences and respecting each other with dignity. It aims to prepare lifelong learners , who are citizens of the world and take ownership of the guardianship of this planet.