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Exploring a Curriculum that is International

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Exploring a Curriculum that is International

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As I reflected on today's excellent session I sketched this out

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30 maps that will make you never look at the world again 

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30 maps that will make you never look at the world again 

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The reason why certain countries look bigger or smaller than others is that of something called the Mercator Projection. Putting a 3D planet on a two-dimensional world map was something of a challenge for early cartographers, and so a Flemish geographer and cartographer named Gerardus Mercator came up with a solution for the most accurate world map. In 1569 he designed an atlas that could be accurately used for navigation purposes, but the downside was that his system distorted the size of objects depending on their position relative to the equator. Because of this, landmasses like Antarctica and Greenland appeared much bigger than they actually are. Though there are around 40 types of map projections, from conical to polyhedral and retroazimuthal depicting the true size maps, this one is still used the most because of its convenience and simplicity. And none of these projections can be titled 'the real world map,' just because they all depict the same Earth through a different lens.

To show how incorrect our understanding of countries by size is, a website called thetruesize.com lets you move landmasses into different locations. Bored Panda has played a bit on world maps with countries, provided by this site, and this is what we found.

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After Seeing These 30 Maps You'll Never Look At The World The Same

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The reason why certain countries looks bigger or smaller than others is because of something called the Mercator Projection. Putting a 3D planet on a two-dimensional map was something of a challenge for early cartographers and so a Flemish geographer and cartographer named Gerardus Mercator came up with a solution.

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Map

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Drag and drop countries around the map to compare their relative size. Is Greenland really as big as all of Africa? You may be surprised at what you find! A great tool for educators.

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Internationally minded reading list and resources

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Internationally minded reading list and resources

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From Katie Day

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International-mindedness - Resourcing the PYP, MYP, & DP

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Created to support a "Resourcing the PYP" session at a PYP Job-Alike, 26 April, 2010, in Singapore. In January 2011 decided to expand to include pages on the MYP and DP.

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Reading list, with international mindedness emphasis...

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Reading list, with international mindedness emphasis...

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From my old old school...

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Third culture kids

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So Where's Home? A Film About Third Culture Kid Identity

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So Where's Home? explores the unique perspectives and identities of Third Culture Kids, people who have spent a significant portion of their childhood overseas. The purpose of this short documentary project is to understand why third culture kids struggle to answer the question of “so where’s home?” and the implications this difficulty has on personal identity.

This project was my final senior thesis project for my film & media studies minor at Georgetown University. 

Special Thanks To:
Interviewees — Rickie Koo, Victoria Perrachon, Jake Wright, Yuko Shimada, Connor Liu, Oliver Silsby, Natalie Muller, Amy Burns, Hanah Lee
Thesis Adviser — Milena Santoro
FMST Georgetown — Caetlin Benson-Allott,  Edward Clark, Bridge Waugh, Bernie Cook

To all the FMST 2012 seniors, other interviewees, friends, and family involved: thanks for all the support over the past semester.

Dedicated To David Heavy

Equipment:
- Canon 7D
- Canon EF Lens 50 mm F/1.4
- Canon EF Lens 28-135mm IS
- Zoom H4N
- Sony UWP-V1 Wireless Lav Mic Kit

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http://www.panthalassa.org/the-trash-isles-an-official-country/

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Global citizenship

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Tim Fransham/Oxfam

A global citizen is someone who is aware of and understands the wider world - and their place in it. They take an active role in their community and work with others to make our planet more peaceful, sustainable and fairer.

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

For Oxfam, global citizenship is all about encouraging young people to develop the knowledge, skills and values they need to engage with the world. And it's about the belief that we can all make a difference.

Education for global citizenship isn't an additional subject - it's a framework for learning, reaching beyond school to the wider community. It can be promoted in class through the existing curriculum or through new initiatives and activities.

BENEFITS OF GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

Global citizenship helps young people to:

Build their own understanding of world events.

Think about their values and what's important to them.

Take learning into the real world.

Challenge ignorance and intolerance.

Get involved in their local, national and global communities.

Develop an argument and voice their opinions.

See that they have power to act and influence the world around them.

What's more, global citizenship inspires and informs teachers and parents, too. But above all, it shows young people that they have a voice. The world may be changing fast, but they can make a positive difference - and help build a fairer, safer and more secure world for everyone.

Active global citizenship

Beyond the classroom, we give young people lots of ways to take action for a better world.

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Tim Fransham/Oxfam A global citizen is someone who is aware of and understands the wider world - and their place in it. They take an active role in their community and work with others to make our planet more peaceful, sustainable and fairer.

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International Mindedness in Practice: Evidence from IB schools

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International Mindedness in Practice: Evidence from IB schools

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Combining Key Concepts and Global Contexts in the MYP as a way to join up learning across subjects in a global way

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In this follow-up to my first post, I'm 'thinking out loud' about key concepts and global contexts in the Middle Years Programme (MYP). As before, I'd like to share strategies for continuing to explore interdisciplinary understanding between these two essential components of the MYP curriculum framework.

Can global contexts inform key concepts?

"[MYP] Key concepts are broad, organizing, powerful ideas that have relevance within and across subjects and disciplines, providing connections that can transfer across time and culture." In other words, key concepts help to establish connection across the eight MYP subject groups.

There are 16 key concepts, 10 of which are unique to a single subject group (see pink rows in the visual below), and 6 are shared by more than one subject group (but never all of eight):

I am wondering if key concepts can do their job of connecting concepts as well as possible when they aren't held in common. If there were to be a 'universal' list, what concepts would be on it?

As discussed in my first blog post, concepts fare best when they are used to address questions, and global contexts are a great source of questions. For example:

Identities and relationships: Can we identify the beliefs and values that describe what it means to be human? What rights and responsibilities do we have towards our own, and other, communities and cultures?

Orientation in space and time: What were the significant turning points in human history and what impact did they have? How are we connected to local and global influences and what effect does this have on our perspectives?

Personal and cultural expression: Can we express our ideas, feelings, beliefs and values through creative expression? Does human expression help us reflect on our understanding of ourselves and others?

Scientific and technical innovation: How have humans used their understanding of scientific principles to adapt their environments to their needs? What impact has human advancement had on communities and environments?

Globalization and sustainability: What are the opportunities and tensions provided by world-interconnectedness? How do decisions in one part of a system impact on humankind and the environment?

Fairness and development: What rights and responsibilities guide the relationships between communities? Do all communities share equal opportunities and power over finite resources?

Perhaps these explorations of global contexts could help us identify a single list of interdisciplinary key concepts that could be shared across all subjects-in the MYP, and perhaps beyond:

Identity - we know who we are and why we believe what we believe

Perspective - we recognise that there exist many alternative beliefs

Interactions - we understand the events, people and cultures that shape us

Development - we see how we try to better ourselves and the impact it has

Systems - we acknowledge the utility and effects of organised civilisation

Responsibility - we consider how we respond to inequality

Big ideas like these could help students grow in their understanding of the human condition (perhaps the most important thing we can teach them) and promote international mindedness?

A unified system might allow also help schools to understand and report on students' conceptual development over time.

To support the connection of concepts across the disciplines, we could:

develop MYP statements of inquiry using one of these interdisciplinary concepts

tie reflections on the impact of the unit to considerations of consistent, shared interdisciplinary questions based on the global context

help students use a journal to document evidence and personal reflection on their understanding of these 6 key concepts is changing as they mature.

At our school, we are exploring how to build a culture of reflective writing/blogging, facilitated in mentor time. It's early days, and we are starting with development of staff understanding for conceptual-based learning. Watch this space!
Adrian von He is happy to be contacted via email (a.vwjervis@bis-school.com) or on LinkedIn. Wrede-Jervis is a Director of Continuum Learning in the Senior Leadership Team at Haimhausen Campus in Bavarian International School e.V., Germany.

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Leveraging concept-based learning in the IB continuum (part 2)

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In this follow-up to my first post, I'm 'thinking out loud' about key concepts and global contexts in the Middle Years Programme (MYP). As before, I'd like to share strategies for continuing to explore interdisciplinary understanding between these two essential components of the MYP curriculum framework.

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Funny video showing the experiences of English language learners

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This page hosts the materials for my breakout session during the Department of Education 50th Anniversary Conference: International Education and Globalisation.

The format was a twenty-minute introduction to my dissertation, the IMaGE of an International School, followed by twenty minutes for interaction. How can we visualise and exemplify the school-controlled factors that contribute to the development of international mindedness and global engagement ( IMaGE) in our students?
Some key points:

All schools are, to some extent, international schools. Unless they really try not to be. But within the growing, changing field, there are many flavours of school. The idea was to try to capture this in a visual way.

International mindedness is a complex issue that is hard to explain (especially across languages/cultures). Other more concrete phrases, such as intercultural (or global) competence might better show the outcomes or practices.

We must not conflate qualities with goodness. Using the scales on the rubrics used in this project we are looking for degrees of various qualities as a way to capture the IMaGE of the school, not measure it in terms of ranking.

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Presentation Resources

Try it out: School IMaGES

As a quick though experiment, what IMaGEs would you predict for the following types of schools?

A large, established, diverse international school (such as IS Geneva)

A national 'plus' school (local student body, mostly local teachers, IB curriculum)

A school in a national setting with a large proportion of migrant children (e.g. refugees in a London state school, but using National Curriculum)

A British International School vs a British International School: same type of school, same location overseas, same student demographics, contrasting ethos.

What is the IMaGE of your own school?

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Practical resources for schools:
Also of interest:
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It was a very rewarding experience - different from hosting sessions at the IBAP Conference, EdTech Team or in-house PD for sure. The audience at the University was diverse in its interests, from researchers and professors to teachers, school leaders and accreditation organisation representatives, and the opportunity to bridge research and practice was stimulating. I hope to be able to continue the discussions and perhaps take the research to a higher level.

References used in or relevant to the presentation
A full list of references can be found in the dissertation.

Bunnell, T., 2008. International education and the "second phase": a framework for conceptualizing its nature and for the future assessment of its effectiveness. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 38(4), pp.415-426.

Cambridge, J., 2003. Identifying the Globalist and Internationalist Missions of International Schools. International Schools Journal, 22(2), pp.54-58.

Cambridge, J. & Carthew, C., 2015. Schools Self-Evaluating Their International Values: A Case Study. In Hayden, M., Levy, J. & Thompson, J. (6th Edition, online). The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education. pp. 283-288. London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Cambridge, J. & Thompson, J., 2001. Internationalism, international-mindedness, multiculturalism and globalisation as concepts in defining international schools. Unpublished paper.

Fertig, M., 2007. International school accreditation: Between a rock and a hard place? Journal of Research in International Education, 6(3), pp.333-348.

Fertig, M., 2015. Quality Assurance in National and International Schools: Accreditation, Authorization and Inspection. In Hayden, M., Levy, J. & Thompson, J. (7th Edition). The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education. pp. 447-457.

Hayden, M., 2011. Transnational spaces of education: the growth of the international school sector. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 9(2), pp.211-224.

Hayden, M., Levy, J. & Thompson, J. (Eds), 2015. The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education. (7th Edition). London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Hayden, M. & Thompson, J., 1995. International Schools and International Education: a relationship reviewed. Oxford Review of Education, 21(3), pp.327-345.

Haywood, T., 2007. A simple typology of international-mindedness and its implications for education. In Hayden, M., Levy, J. & Thompson, J. (6th Edition, online). The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education. pp. 79-89. London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Hett, E.J., 1991. The development of an instrument to measure global-mindedness, San Diego, USA: University of San Diego Press.

Hill, I., 2000. Internationally-minded schools. The International Schools Journal, 20(1), p.24.

Hill, I., 2006. Student types, school types and their combined influence on the development of intercultural understanding. Journal of Research in International Education, 5(1), pp.5-33.

Hill, I., 2015. The history and development of international-mindedness. In Hayden, M., Levy, J. & Thompson, J. (7th Edition, online). The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education. pp. 20-34. London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.

International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), 2012a. What is international mindedness? [Online]. IB Answers. Available at:

International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), 2012b. What is global engagement? [Online]. IB Answers.

International Schools Association (ISA), 2011. Internationalism in Schools - a Self-Study Guide, [Online] Available at: http://isaschools.org/portfolio-view/internationalism-in-schools-a-self-study-guide/.

Lowe, J., 1998. International and comparative education. The International Schools Journal, 17(2), p.18.

Marshall, H., 2007. The Global Education Terminology Debate: Exploring Some of the Issues. In Hayden, M., Levy, J. & Thompson, J. (6th Edition, online). The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education. pp. 108-121. United Kingdom: Routledge.

Murphy, E., 2012. International School Accreditation: Who Needs It? In Hayden, M. & Thompson, J. International Education, Principles and Practice [Online]. p.212-223. London: Kogan Page.

Nikel, J. & Lowe, J., 2010. Talking of fabric: a multi‐dimensional model of quality in education. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 40(5), pp.589-605.

Singh, M. & Qi, J., 2013. 21st century international mindedness: An exploratory study of its conceptualisation and assessment, University of Western Sydney.

Shields, R., 2015. Measurement and Isomorphism in International Education. In Hayden, M., Levy, J. & Thompson, J., 2015. The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education. (7th Edition). London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd. pp.477-487.

Skelton, M., 2007. International mindedness and the Brain: The Difficulties of" Becoming. The SAGE handbook of research in international education, pp.379-389.

Skelton, M., 2013. International-mindedness: Martin Skelton examines definitions and issues. International School Magazine, 15(2), pp.13-14.

Yamato, Y., 2003. Education in the market place: Hong Kong's international schools and their modes of operation, Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong.

Yemini, M., 2012. Internationalization assessment in schools: Theoretical contributions and practical implications. Journal of Research in International Education, 11(2), pp.152-164.

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Shortlink: is.gd/taylorimage This page hosts the materials for my breakout session during the Department of Education 50th Anniversary Conference: International Education and Globalisation. The format was a twenty-minute introduction to my dissertation, the IMaGE of an International School, followed by twenty minutes for interaction.

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https://www.issev.de/mission-vision

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I show this short video to my design students and PP students often. Covers assumptions, needing to understand a different culture, empathy, listening to perspectives etc....

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Another nice resource

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Stories and lessons for growing minds

We are a free multimedia platform for educators and students. Through our immersive storytelling and curricula, we aim to plant seeds of empathy, interconnectedness, and a sacred relationship with our planet. Use our award-winning films, photo essays, and essays to learn about social, cultural, and environmental issues from individuals and communities worldwide. For grades 3-12, our stories and lessons encourage students to broaden their perspectives and worldviews while fostering universal human values and respect for the living world. We aim to bring universal values into the lives of educators and students.

Experience Our Storytelling

Watch this short video to learn more about the stories we tell.

Student Winners and Finalists: The Environment Is in You

In what ways is climate change impacting the place where you live?

In this contest, students documented the fragility, hope, and future of our planet's ecosystem due to climate change. Inspired by four environmental writers-Linda Hogan, Robert Hass, Wendell Berry, and Dara McAnulty-students explored changes to local systems, how the environment shapes our identity, and how our actions and awareness today can impact the future.

View Winners and Finalists

Feature

These five shorts films follows five Native American communities who are restoring their traditional land management practices.

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Essay

How might stories act as keys allowing us access to challenge, examine, uproot, and illumine our habits and fears?

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Feature

This feature shares the stories of four Indigenous communities in California who are working to revitalize their languages and cultures in order to pass them on to the next generation.

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"This film has historic relevancy. I can see myself using it to encourage students to think about the value of the space program and how it speaks to the American Spirit and how we are often looking forward in our progress. This film begs to be used as an exploration of what it means to be a global citizen, how students can learn from people not like themselves, and what actions students can take in their everyday lives to make the world a better place."

Michael Dunn, Director of College Counseling at Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center

Stories Exploring Climate Change

Celebrating Student Artwork: New Student Gallery

Encourage thoughtful and meaningful conversations in the classroom with our student gallery. Use the gallery as a tool to foster curiosity, observation skills, and perspective-taking.

The gallery encourages students to learn from each other's perspectives. How are students witnessing and engaging with the world in new ways since the start of Covid-19? Search by theme, previous Global Oneness Project contests, or from locations around the world. The gallery is accompanied by an image analysis activity, including a Visible Thinking Routine from Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

View Student Gallery

Receive our newsletter to learn about new stories and companion lesson plans.

Who Is Using Our Materials

Our materials provide opportunities for an interdisciplinary approach to learning across disciplines from social sciences and humanities to environmental sciences. Education stakeholders, including K-12 educators, university professors, librarians, tech/media specialists, parents, and students are using our materials in multiple learning environments.

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“These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.”

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Taiye Selasi: Don't ask where I'm from, ask where I'm a local | TED

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IM is understanding that everyone is different, but we are all in this together

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This week one of my grade classes discussed empathy, then used this to come up with a class mission. It links a lot to international mindedness (as empathy does in general)

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Great discussion starter

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David Livermore's book

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http://bsix12.com/east-meets-west/

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A fun activity focussed on exploring different parts of our identity

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I recently took over some ESOL classes to do an activity of the Power of Visual Communication . We started off by celebrating the students language skills and talking about the benefits they have of...

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Looking at different perspectives through art

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From Project Zero: " How might perspective-taking help students understand a work of art more deeply? Using the See-Wonder-Connect Thinking Routine, participants will explore Pablo Picasso's Family of Saltimbanques and connect this painting with others from the same period. Creative writing prompts will encourage perspective-taking and help participants construct their own imaginative interpretations of these complex works of art. The course will conclude by reflecting on the shared experience and considering applications for practice in the classroom."

Final Thoughts : I probably would have never given much thought to this painting, so I appreciated having a long time to look at it to really absorb and then question what I was seeing. Having a lot of time to really think about the characters and how they were feeling and what exactly was happening was also very interesting. I don't think I am very articulate or good at storytelling, but this really brought out a lot of creative ideas. Although I enjoyed it, I definitely would want to relate this activity more to global issues.

We start out activity by writing everything we saw in this image, Although we didn't do a '(to be honest I may have just walked past this painting if I was in a gallery by myself, so I was surprised about how much was going on in the image. It definitely made me more aware that I do that, and gave me a little bit of guilt, which will make me absorb more when walking around a gallery... I am definitely guilty of charging through a gallery, and just spending time with the artworks that appeal to me) see, think, wonder' activity for this part, from doing those regularly I could definitely see that my notes fell into those categories!

We shared what we saw with the group. People definitely bought their own feelings and experiences in through their observations (with people having completely different interpretations of the characters, mood etc).

We then did a 'think, pair, share ' activity where we firstly wrote down as many questions as we had, we then shared with a partner and finally we all gave one question out to to the group.

The questions ranged in everything from the characters emotions, their roles and their locations, through to the artist's intentions and questions about the painting itself, (you may notice it has been re-worked a lot..and Picasso forgot one of the characters legs...) . We mostly discussed the characters and their roles within the group.

We learnt a little more about the context of the painting - Picasso was living next to a circus in Paris and would often go there three to four nights a week, he was in the middle of is rose period and also the harlequin is thought of as a self-portrait.

We then stood up and took on the physicality of one of the characters

We sat down, and using some prompts, brainstormed about the character

We then imaged that this was just a snapshot in a story and were prompted to write either what happened before or after that story

We then shared out....and then ran out of time!

I would really like to do the same activity, but with photographs. I can see Facing History and Ourselves doing a similar activity to look at stereotypes, as well as a tool for empathy. Using perspective taking is a fantastic tool for building empathy and understanding.

Imagine doing the same activity with the following images:

Second Chance Greyhound Prison Training.
(I had to sneak this in - this is the charity we adopted my greyhound through - and also prison reform is super important to me...posts coming about that soonish!)

Overall this was a good activity for me, as it helped me slow down my thinking and really try to understand the different characters and their relationships from the images. The activity was great, but it definitely would have appealed to me more if it was related to global issues or social justice.
What other images would you do this activity with? Send me your ideas!
Links to routine: "Step Inside: Perceive, Know about, Care about"

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From Project Zero: " How might perspective-taking help students understand a work of art more deeply? Using the See-Wonder-Connect Thinking Routine, participants will explore Pablo Picasso's Family of Saltimbanques and connect this painting with others from the same period. Creative writing prompts will encourage perspective-taking and help participants construct their own imaginative interpretations of these complex works of art.

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Back history month, different perspectives 

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Back history month, different perspectives 

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A newsletter I wrote when in America

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Perspective taking

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Lots of great resources here

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

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Teaching strategies. Lots to do with identity and perspective

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Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students.

We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.

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Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students. We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.

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Organization that focuses on the individuals role in creating history. They do lots about bias, stereotypes, unconscious bias...and have a lot of free Pd

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"I believe in the power of Facing History."

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Facing History & Ourselves
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Facing History & Ourselves is more than our name. It is an active and continuous process that calls on each of us to connect the choices of the past to those we face today. To build a more just and equitable future, we must face our history in all its complexity, Are you ready to face history with us?

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Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.

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See front pages from around the world

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Every morning, more than 800 newspapers from around the world electronically submit their front pages to the Newseum to be part of Today's Front Pages online exhibit.

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cultural differences model

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Please select a country in the dropdown menu below to see the values for the 6 dimensions. After a first country has been selected, a second and even a third country can be chosen to be able to see a comparison of their scores.

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Please select a country in the dropdown menu below to see the values for the 6 dimensions. After a first country has been selected, a second and even a third country can be chosen to be able to see a comparison of their scores.

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News story to me, my community and the world: through exploring Dandora!

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From Project Zero: "The Global Lens project is creating a curriculum that aims to educate for global competence. Working in close collaboration with teachers in Boston and Washington, DC, we are exploring how quality interdisciplinary study of global issues and deep engagement with global media can develop young people's global competence. Come hear about this new project and where our thinking is taking us."

Most of the session was focussed on an activity where we looked at the photograph below...which also happens to be what I took most notes on and will share with you here.

Pausing in the rain, a woman working as a trash picker at Nairobi's Dandora dump, which spills into households of one million people living in nearby slums, wishes she had more time to look at the books she sometimes comes across. She even likes the industrial parts catalogs. "It gives me something else to do in the day besides picking [trash]," she said. Image by Micah Albert. Kenya, 2012
When first looking at this photograph I thought it was a painting. Something about the soft tones and the lighting makes it look almost beautiful. It's only when you look deeper and find out more about the context that the ugliness is revealed.

We reflected on a picture about the Dandora trash problem in Kenya following different layers of implication to uncover a global perspective of the issue at hand. Only through slow looking and purposeful conscious perspective taking we can develop global competence. By developing global competence in ourselves we can create learning experiences for our students to develop global competence themselves. This was the perfect image for this activity, because at first it seems like a problem so far away that it is almost other worldly - only when you look at the story to you do you start to think more about the direct impact your actions have on places like this. It would be a great opening activity for a unit using the IB's Global Context Globalization and Sustainability, and a good opening lesson for a unit looking at recycling and waste.

Micah Albert has some other photographs which could also be used for this activity:

Other useful resources for exploring Dandora/Kenya and/or landfills/dumps:
All schools do units about recycling and waste, but they often don't look at the human stories involved - this activity and a focus on Dandora could be a great way to help students connect to this issue on an emotional level.

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From Project Zero: "The Global Lens project is creating a curriculum that aims to educate for global competence. Working in close collaboration with teachers in Boston and Washington, DC, we are exploring how quality interdisciplinary study of global issues and deep engagement with global media can develop young people's global competence.

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Is my session from the last PZ conference. Included looking at a news story students were not familiar with and exploring different perspectives

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Created by the British museum. Activity, get students to pick 10 objects that show their persona history, or their countries history. Would these 100 be different made by others? https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx

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See news papers from around the world, explore How the news is reported differently

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Newspaper Map | find and translate all newspapers in the world

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Many microagressions are direct opposites of being IM! (Example ‘you are just good at math cos you are asian’)

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Funny take on IM

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Great short TED Talk

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"There's a flip side to everything," the saying goes, and in 2 minutes, Derek Sivers shows this is true in a few ways you might not expect.

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An activity I did at the end of our Chinese cultural exchange, grade 8s

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I was lucky enough to be chosen as a chaperone for a school trip to China. We took 20 Grade 8 and 9 students, who were all learning Chinese, to Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.
I took so many photos - here are just a few:

During our first week we stayed at Shanghai High School. The students attended classes throughout the week and we all stayed in dorms. We ate the amazing school food and got to learn lots about the education system in China. During one weekend the students stayed with host families and we were taken on an adventure with some of the Chinese Teachers. This was a really wonderful opportunity, as it gave us an authentic experience.

A short while later many of the students visited us in Atlanta. Chinese students stayed with their host families and we had one of the teachers stay with us. Most of the time students just shadowed their buddies, but we also had a few opportunities to come together as a group - including for a session I ran on stereotypes, assumptions and understanding different cultures. This session included both students from our school and SHHS.

Below is the presentation I used for the students and beneath that is a breakdown and reflection of the activities, with a few extra photographs! (You can see in the presentation that in the last slides I added in the students responses)

We started off the session with a Kahoot I created, called 'Where in the world? China or the USA?". Here I purposefully chose some images to confuse students! This was a good opening activity to get the students to be a bit more flexible.

During the next section I used the thinking routine - where students walk around adding their thoughts to some prompts, and then add further thoughts to their peers' ideas. Many people do this in silence, but I often think the oral discussion which happens when doing this activity is very valuable (and especially important as many of our students, and obviously SHHS' have English as a second language!)
Here students had several venn diagrams, with one side being 'America' and the other side being 'China'. They had venn diagrams for; food, city life, education, entertainment and family life. I had all the students work together, but it may have also been interesting to have had the groups work individually or give each school different color pens, as it would help us understand who wrote what (both schools made many of the same assumptions about each other) - however, most of this information came out in the group discussion which followed after.

Much discussion actually happened while students were filling in the venn diagrams - but we also came together as a group after.

The next activity was a I Used to Think, Now I think - here students wrote both responses on a post-it note and added it to the board. I would like to have students brainstorm ideas about the country they are visiting before going and then reflect on those later - however as this was a single lesson, students were allowed to look back to before the trip or the start of the class for their 'I used to think' answer.

To end off the session I gave students the prompt "Why is it important to experience and appreciate another culture?". Students answered this through PollEverywhere, which showed all the responses on the board and also turned them into a live word cloud. I was super impressed with their thoughtful and mature responses, as well as how articulate the students were.

Some of my favorite responses:

"To know I am tiny but the world is huge."

"Because that's when we start to know what the world really is and how we can make it better together"

"To see the world from a different perspective"

"It's important to experience other cultures so we put ourselves in other situations and learn from them. So we can understand people and ourselves."

"We are living in a time that people in the whole world are connected with each other. Experiencing and understanding a different culture can help us make the world a better place together, a world with less wars and conflicts, so everyone can be better off"

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I've added the responses from the last two activities into the last slides of the presentation at the top of this post.
Taking part in this Chinese exchange was truly inspiring - This exchange is organized by our Chinese teacher Jie Wu. She has given me so much 'food for thought', as well as so much delicious Chinese food! My teaching is better because of her influence. Hopefully we will collaborate more together in the next school year (watch this space!)

Here are some other unit/lesson ideas I had from our trip:

What is Weird? A look at the things we think are normal about our culture, that others may find unusual, (for example; the food we eat). Also links to this TED Talk: Weird, or just Different?

Maccy Ds and CocaCola! - How global companies tap into local traditions to market themselves around the world (I saw McDonalds advertising on the rickshaws in Beijing (image above) and CocaCola on Chinese lanterns along the old canals! We also stopped in a McDonalds while I waited for some new glasses to be made, and saw the ways they had adapted their menu, (the FoodNetwork has more info about there here.)

How do people see us around the world? Often we look at why we have a bias/make assumptions/believe certain stereotypes, but do we know how others perceive us or the assumptions they make about us? I definitely knew many of the British stereotypes Americans had before moving here (though I didn't realize how often they think we eat fish and chips), but what stereotypes exist in other places about me?

Selling ourselves around the world. We all know that the Chinese food we eat abroad is not really similar to authentic Chinese food - in fact many of the regulars on my Chinese take-away menu back home, do not appear on any in America. An interesting exploration could be looking at Chinoiserie, which is western art and antiques using Chinese styles (including many objects that were made in China for a foreign market).

How can we use innovation to help us redesign our cities? We went to visit theBeijing Museum of Urban Planning...the title sounds pretty dull, but it was probably one of my favorite places we visited! We learnt how the city was designed on a grid and why. We looked at the new commutable areas that are being built outside of Beijing - often with almost-utopian views (for example, rules related to how far a library and park can be from each person!). Although Beijing has problems with pollution and over-crowding the museum showed us some of the many forward thinking ways they are tackling these issues.

What do tourists buy? There are whole industries made up of creating and selling 'tourist tat'. So many gifts/souvenirs you buy abroad would never be seen in someone's house from that country. How many people born and raised in New York have mini statue of liberties in their house? How many people from Margate suck on a piece of rock regularly? How many people in China have some of the posters/keychains/other touristy things I bought in their homes? I think this could be a great unit, and could have students look at some of the photography of Martin Parr. Students could also look at why we bring home souvenirs (could also link to a discussion on why we need photographs to document our trips, instead of just memories!)

This was a great opportunity for me, as I tend to only ever visit France (where my mum lives) and England (where the rest of my family live). Although I am slowly exploring more and more of America, I definitely want to see more of the world. On the top of the list of Japan and Mexico. Where else should I visit? What has been your most inspiring vacation?

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Exploring Different Cultures and Diversity

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I was lucky enough to be chosen as a chaperone for a school trip to China. We took 20 Grade 8 and 9 students, who were all learning Chinese, to Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. I took so many photos - here are just a few: During our first week we stayed at Shanghai High School.

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Link between IB Learner Profiles and IM is key.

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Link between IB Learner Profiles and IM is key.

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We explored this in design, to create a definition of the IB Designer. Lots of cross over with IMand empathy

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I wanted to share a quick activity I did with my Grade 6-8 students recently. The theme through my Design class is 'How can we use design to make the world a better place?'. We cover a lot of...

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Developing citizens of the world in relation to culture, language and learning to live together

Building and reinforcing students' sense of identity and cultural awareness

Fostering students' recognition and development of universal human values

Stimulating curiosity and inquiry in order to foster a spirit of discovery and enjoyment of learning

Equipping students with the skills to learn and acquire knowledge, individually or collaboratively, and to apply these skills and knowledge accordingly across a broad range of areas

Providing international content while responding to local requirements and interests

Encouraging diversity and flexibility in teaching methods

Providing appropriate forms of assessment and international benchmarking.

This is similar, but not identical, to the way international education is defined by other sources. On Wikipedia, for example, the first definition offered is:

The second definition is the one the the IB would share, suggesting that international education is a:

"...comprehensive approach to education that intentionally prepares students to be active and engaged participants in an interconnected world."

There is clearly a distinction in the definition of what international education really is.

What are your thoughts on the true nature of international education?

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International education - How do you define "international education"?

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Developing citizens of the world in relation to culture, language and learning to live together Building and reinforcing students' sense of identity and cultural awareness Fostering students' recognition and development of universal human values Stimulating curiosity and inquiry in order to foster a spirit of discovery and enjoyment of learning

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Project Zero