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Session 4 Slides to use with Asynchronous learning  (1)

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How do you keep all of the balls in the air?

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How do you keep all of the balls in the air?

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10 Top Qualities of Great Collaborators 

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10 Top Qualities of Great Collaborators 

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Collaboration
At one time or another, we've all needed to work with others to accomplish a given task or goal. Some of those experiences were great, others not so much. Did you ever stop to wonder why that is so?

Companies can't make forward progress if their employees can't work well together. Time has shown that without successful collaboration, companies are doomed to fail.

Great collaboration starts with the people. So if you want to get ahead in your career, developing these specific characteristics can help ensure that people will always want you on their team:

Great collaborators check their egos at the door. They're more interested in helping everyone achieve the mutual goal than they are about getting credit for any part they play in it. The Three Musketeers' motto, "One for all and all for one!" is totally true.

They give unstintingly of their knowledge, skills, help, and encouragement. In short, whatever the team needs, they find a way to provide as best they can and with a big smile.

They're good at asking the right questions at the right time. Questions that help uncover the missing pieces needed to complete the task. They don't interrogate, they simply follow their natural curiosity.

The best collaborators always express sincere appreciation and thanks for all that you have done. They go out of their way to make sure you know it. They're not shy about expressing this appreciation to the entire team and anyone else who will listen. They always give credit where credit is due.

Most people tolerate someone else's words, waiting impatiently for them to finish so they can make their point. Great collaborators listen raptly to what is being said to make sure they understand the speaker even going to the extent of asking follow-up questions for clarification.

Smart collaborators know that not everything happens as planned, or in a logical sequence. Stuff happens and they go with the flow. They know that bending with the wind helps them survive another day rather than being rigid, fighting the wind and losing a limb.

There are dot-connectors and dot-creators. People who either are deeply expert in something versus people who know how different things work together. Great collaborators can be either - helping creators understand how all their dots connect or helping connectors find all of the right dots.

A team needs to feel safe about sharing their thoughts, ideas, and work. They don't want to be blind-sided, having someone take advantage of them simply because they're not as flamboyant as others. Great connectors help create and maintain that environment of trust so necessary for a team to thrive. They give their trust freely and expect to receive your trust in return.

The best collaborators are semi-obsessed with organization and time management. And while they may not lead the team, they may very well hold the key to deliver it.

Great collaborators don't need much to get them going. There's an inner fire, a passion that keeps them moving forward. Consequently they also tend to be very inspiring to team members and help them remember why they signed up for this gig in the first place.

The best collaborators know that not everyone on the team will like them (or vice versa), no matter how hard they may try. What they have figured out is that mutual respect goes far further.

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10 Top Qualities of a Great Collaborator

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Collaboration At one time or another, we've all needed to work with others to accomplish a given task or goal. Some of those experiences were great, others not so much. Did you ever stop to wonder why that is so? Companies can't make forward progress if their employees can't work well together.

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Everyone has a creative “type”—knowing yours helps you maximize your potential. Take our quiz to discover your type!

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The version of the browser you are using is no longer supported. Please upgrade to a supported browser. Dismiss

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Timeline and what to look for in a PYP classroom

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Timeline and what to look for in a PYP classroom

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2020-2021 5th Grade Team Planning Notes from Meetings - newest added to top all year 2020

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Sample Year Long Team Planning Agenda and Notes

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Sample Year Long Team Planning Agenda and Notes

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Add your reflections after sessions or as you see fit. Think about what you are learning and what you want to remember to follow up with after this workshop.

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Add your reflections after sessions or as you see fit. Think about what you are learning and what you want to remember to follow up with after this workshop.

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"10 ways to promote international-mindedness" blog

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"10 ways to promote international-mindedness" blog

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10 ways to promote international-mindedness | IB Community Blog

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Students in today’s international schools, growing up to be global leaders of the future, will require a remarkable insight into people and cultures across the world, and an unprecedented concern for the well-being of the world community. Around the world, many educational systems are gearing themse…

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With your partner(s) read over the descriptors for your five attributes. Think about how we should model these in this workshop. Think about how your planning sessions with your staff. Write one or two essential agreements that you would like to propose we model during this workshop. 

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With your partner(s) read over the descriptors for your five attributes. Think about how we should model these in this workshop. Think about how your planning sessions with your staff. Write one or two essential agreements that you would like to propose we model during this workshop. 

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Read over your five learner profile attributes and descriptors. Post images and key words for each attribute. In honor of 9-11, COVID health care workers, teachers, etc, how could you discuss these attributes with students. What images might you share with students?

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Read over your five learner profile attributes and descriptors. Post images and key words for each attribute. In honor of 9-11, COVID health care workers, teachers, etc, how could you discuss these attributes with students. What images might you share with students?

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Task 2: Directions       Read Principles into Practice/Learning community/Leadership/PYP leadership/Nurturing capacity through and with others/Developing formal and informal leadership capacity-pages 29 to the bibliography. Complete the connect, extend, challenge prompts either on a separate document or by clicking on the plus sign in Padlet. You could also opt to film yourself responding. :)

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Task 2: Directions       Read Principles into Practice/Learning community/Leadership/PYP leadership/Nurturing capacity through and with others/Developing formal and informal leadership capacity-pages 29 to the bibliography. Complete the connect, extend, challenge prompts either on a separate document or by clicking on the plus sign in Padlet. You could also opt to film yourself responding. :)

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Task 2: Connect, extend, challenge -use this document in Kami or create your own document. Alternately, you could answer each prompt by clicking on the plus sign in this session and adding your thoughts. 

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Task 2: Connect, extend, challenge -use this document in Kami or create your own document. Alternately, you could answer each prompt by clicking on the plus sign in this session and adding your thoughts. 

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Leading the Learning Bethesda, MD Virtual Karen Perdue

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Goal: To learn more action and agency

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Inquirers-asking questions and learning from each other.
Risk-takers- sharing our ideas and speaking about what we need.
Communicators- verbal and written communication.

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Principled- Show respect
Caring- Be committed to this workshop
Risk-Takers - Cooperate and explore new ideas

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Inquirers - Displaying curiosity and wanting to learn new things
Communicators - Sharing our ideas with others in the group
Reflective - Reflecting on where we are and what our take-aways are

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C. Harris

Thinkers- thinking out of the box
Inquirers- wanting to learn more
Risk-Takers-stepping out of our comfort zone

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10 Ways to Promote IM at HIS

1. Translate the school’s mission and vision statements into all the languages represented in the school

2. Hold an International Day

3. Connect with schools in different countries

4. Conduct a review of the POI to ensure central ideas provide opportunities for deeper conceptual learning on human commonality, diversity and multiple perspectives

5. Expose students to different languages other than Japanese and English by adding an option of language clubs to after school activities

6. Professional development for teachers

7. MYP and DP students can share their service learning experiences with PYP students

8. Variety of guest speakers

9. School wide musical performances can honor different cultures

10. Parent training sessions

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Goal: build leadership capacity

Looks like:

in meetings, using protocols to establish a shared purpose, engage in practitioner inquiry and encourage experimentation with new ideas

informal collaboration happens within and across grade level teams. We don't collaborate only at formal, scheduled times.

modeling inquiry in team and staff meetings

Feels like:

trusting, collaborative relationships

a collegiate, supportive learning community

we embrace divergent thinking! We seek a broad range of views and opinions.

we value process over product

Sounds like:

Teachers sharing best practices

in meetings we talk about the best way to teach a concept not what or when, but how.

Timely, specific, well-constructed feedback to members of the teaching team

Conversations are grounded in IB values and purpose

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Connect: I work at a very small school and all teachers demonstrate a collective ownership and sense of responsibility for all students

Extend: The 7 IB leadership capabilities was new to me

Challenge: With limited time and teachers stretched so thin, how do you create meaningful opportunities for teachers to collaborate and to engage with each other beyond their daily routines and responsibilities other than faculty meetings?

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Building International Mindedness
1. Incorporate Restorative Circles into PD standards and routines, to allow co-workers to gain empathy for one another and to learn about each others' cultures.
2. Invite artists and educators from the area with a global perspective to share their experiences in Houston and their cultures.
3. Plan with other IB schools with diverse backgrounds, to share ideas on how to expose students and staff to multiple approaches to learning invovling culture.
4. Model incorporating various cultural traditions into instruction, as well as provide resources in subject matters from underrepresented populations.
5. Review teaching practices from around the world, including the use of IB's Mini-PDs that focus on schools worldwide.
6. Schedule events like "Coffee, Tea and PYP" for parents at different times of the day to encourage the particpation of the staff, to help increase the staff's understanding of our population as well as to help parents and community members learn how IB PYP benefits the entire community.
7. Support Project Based Learning PD, with grade levels or subject content teams, that encourages encounters with the many different populations that live within Houston - to experience what we want the students to experience, and to build a greater sense of how International Mindedness is exemplified in our role as citizens.
8. Share recollections, video memoirs, etc of community members who have made a difference in their community and have PD engaged in finding the similiarities and differences, to help deepen the understanding that we are all facing the same challenges.
9. Encourage participation in service organizations that focus on local and global issues, to help connect the idea that we share a common goal.
10. Provide opportunities to the community to participate and engage with different cultures- perhaps an International Festival with representatives from different countries sharing cultural products with familes as part of an engaging evening.

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Topic: Developing Teacher and Student Leadership Capacity

Looks like:
*teachers organizing learning around student inquiry
*students organizing themselves within groups to answer their own lines of inquiry
*happens across content areas and grade levels
*teacher and students working to ensure students' demonstrate knowledge in the classroom

Feels like:
*a 'nontraditional' classroom - desk organized to promote cooperative learning
*student choice regarding what to learn and what questions to ask evidenced by authentic task products

Sounds like:
*students working together in groups while the Teacher as probative questions meant to expand student understand
*students using academic language as well as demonstrating understanding of key concepts in their explanations of their inquiries
*students and teachers using the Learner Profiles to describe how they discovered their answers

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This post is an excerpt from a post entitled " Don't lock me into 8 key concepts" by Shannon O'Dwyer. The full post explains concepts in a nutshell and why concept-driven teaching is both easy and hard. This excerpt provides an insight into how teachers can make it happen. Concepts in a Nutshell
Concepts are over-arching mental constructs that students need to make sense of the content we teach. Conceptual understanding enables students to apply facts and skills to the world around them. By starting with concepts, we create a curriculum that's worthy of our students' time and effort. The concepts that drive the PYP are timeless (factual examples change, but not the core understanding), universal (so students can apply understandings across cultures, situations and disciplines) and abstract (so students engage in higher order thinking to grapple with central ideas).

By helping students achieve conceptual understanding, we ensure that they can take facts and skills, and do something with them beyond this moment, this lesson and this classroom. I have seen plenty of students who can accurately convert between metres & centimetres but are unable to choose an appropriate length of skipping rope for a 3-person playground game. These students had mastered a mathematical skill in isolation, but not yet developed a conceptual understanding of length.
Why concept-driven teaching is hard
It's just so messy. Concept-driven learning is an iterative process of constantly pulling apart ideas, putting them back together, re-applying them to different situations, finding ways to correct misconceptions and enabling each child to make meaning in their own way. It would be a lot easier to say, "Here's what you need to know, practise that, now you get a sticker." The problem is that you'd have to add, "Good luck applying that to your life". Factual knowledge is easy to teach because it is simple, procedural and locked in situ. But unless your students intend to live forever in their 4th Grade classroom, that knowledge is utterly useless to them.
"How can I make it happen?"
Questions
Use teacher and student questions as a springboard for deep, conceptual dialogue. Sort, unpack and challenge students' questions. Discuss open vs. closed questions, abstract vs. concrete questions, fat vs. thin questions (ie 1 answer or many). Keep asking probing questions (such as How do you know..?/reflection) to prevent shallow understanding.

Problematic Knowledge
Design resources and situations that are problematic. Perhaps the facts do not add up, or there are pieces of information missing. This challenges students to search for connections, inferences and transference to make sense of the inquiry. Anything that is non-linear, with multiple solutions and multiple interpretations helps our students build the flexibility of thinking to grapple with complexity, change and abstraction.

Inquire
Every day! Make sure you devote enough time for students to actuallydo the learning and construct the understanding. They need ample time for wondering, trying, tinkering, playing, researching and coming to conclusions. Don't step away. Be a participant who says, "Why did you...?", "What would happen if...?"

IntegrateWork with single-subject teachers to develop integrated thinking. Students should take their understandings from class to class, exploring concepts through different content and perspectives (eg symphony orchestras and bus timetables both build an understanding of systems). Try to keep concepts at the core of your planning meetings, to avoid creating shallow, thematic units. Avoid throwing together "linked activities". If the students are studying Ancient Greece, don't immediately say, "Let's make pots!". Perhaps the most important concept is "legacies" and students investigate the influence of the golden ratio on both Art and Mathematics. While studying natural disasters, let students make paper mache volcanoes at home. In class, explore the concept of "impact" on geography, individual lives and communities. How do artists help communities remember and heal after a natural disaster?"

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To read the full post, visit Shannon's blog here.

Shannon is a PYP educator, whose passions include curriculum design, literacy and ESOL practices, enrichment and technology integration. Shannon loves working in PYP classrooms, where each day is filled with the questions, problems and discoveries of young minds. She blogs at shannonodwyer.com and tweets @S_ODwyer.

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This post is an excerpt from a post entitled " Don't lock me into 8 key concepts" by Shannon O'Dwyer. The full post explains concepts in a nutshell and why concept-driven teaching is both easy and hard. This excerpt provides an insight into how teachers can make it happen.

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CBL expert Julie Harris Stern (author of Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding) speaks about the importance of fostering deep conceptual understanding in the 21st century.

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Read PYP:From Principles into practice/The learner/The Early learner/Approaches to learning in the early years.

Read From principles into practice/Learning and Teaching/Approaches to Learning. Watch the Teaching thinking skills video from IB.

After reading add to the Padlet-I use to think, but now I think….

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Read the following
PIP-Learning and Teaching
A transdisciplinary programme of inquiry/Developing a transdisciplinary programme
Transdisciplinary Learning/The characteristics of the PYP framework
Take field notes on your reading. Divide your paper into two sides. On one side record notes. On the other side, record questions your have, things you agree with and things you might not agree with.

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Decide who will read the PYP Principles into practice/teaching and learning/concepts section
and who will read the blog and watch the video.
Take notes as you read.
Share the big ideas with each other.
Go to the jamboard-either group 1 or group 2
Create a diamond ranking of the key points to consider about Concept based learning.

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Concepts Optional Task (If you have time)

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Concepts Optional Task (If you have time)

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With your team, complete the following:

Look at your schools’ POI and Central Ideas.

Choose one Central idea to share with your team as a critical friend.  OR as a team write one central idea together now- for an area you teach at your school.

Analyze your CI.

1. Does the Central Idea include concepts and offer opportunities for conceptual understandings across multiple subject areas-math, ELA, science, SS, the arts

(It does not need to extend to all subjects, but start thinking about one or two extensions-math might be a focus?

Does it provide for expanding on human commonalities/international mindedness?

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I used to think that teaching the ATL's was something that was difficult. It was hard to have children reflect on their skill development and make connections to the learner profile.
Now I think that students can easily do this on a daily basis. By referring to these skills and the learner profile regularly, students are making more connections to the learning.

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I used to think that ATLs had to be explicitly planned and taught. Early in the year, a teacher might focus on reflection and social skills to help develop students' capacity in those areas since they are skills that can be leveraged throughout the year. Now I think that there are also opportunities to teach these skills implicitly and authentically. The ATLs are illustrative of effective teacher moves and can help us understand what makes a teacher effective or where a teacher might want to add to their repertoire.

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I used to think that the ATLs connected to each unit were identified by the teacher prior to the unit.
Now I think teachers and students can work together to choose with ATLs to focus on. Teachers can use informal assessment and students can self-assess to differentiate in order to support the development of ATLs.

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Unpacking Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry

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Unpacking Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry

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4th Grade How the world works Provocation 2021

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I used to think IB Methods of Teaching were in conflict with District and State expectations
But now I know the district and State expectations are the equivalent of the bare minimum of IB Approaches to Learning.

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Rick's Saturday reflection: ATLs and Transdiciplinary

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Rick's Saturday reflection: ATLs and Transdiciplinary

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I really like Karen's idea of finding a picture for each LOI and then having teachers reflect on those pictures as a way to help them think through the central idea and if it really captures the ideas in the unit.

Also, really like the idea of printing out some of the tables from the ATL section of the Learning and Teaching handbook and using that as a starting point for reflection in curriculum meetings with PYP teachers.

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Guidance for programme development planning for evaluation

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Programme Development Plan Notes: Sample

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Programme Development Plan Notes: Sample

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The 4 C's Thinking Routine

Webinar: Toddle - getting to grips with central ideas
Blog

Connection: I've struggled to support PYP teachers with central ideas. They are similar to the Statement of Inquiry in MYP but the Statement of Inquiry is usually subject specific...the transdisciplinary aspect of a CI has been hard for me to get a grasp on so it's been difficult to support teachers in that.

Challenge: I agree that a central idea is important but the article makes it seem like having a central idea means everything else flows. While that's true from a written curriculum perspective, I know that the reality and challenge that manifests with the taught curriculum can make it feel like the CI is only one piece of the puzzle.

Concepts: the article and webinar both mention the idea that an effective CI is two concepts in a relationship with a strong verb. That is super helpful, clear and something I can bring back to my school and build on.

Changes: The webinar and text suggest that "there is no one right way" to build a central idea. I've been going into it (and some of the teachers at my school) feel like there is a "right" central idea. They'll look to me or the principal for assurance that they have the "right one". While there are a few non-negotiables with central ideas, there is also not a one-way to do it. I think that's a change we need to embrace at my school and something I need to live in my meetings with teachers.

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I front-loaded all resources I had about the self-study and evaluation process at our very first meeting. I brought in my inquiry board which helped in adding a familiar element to the process - something that most teachers could relate to (image 1) . With my sign-up sheets ready, I asked teachers to sign up for an area of interest and growth for them or the school. Choice is a huge motivator - allowing the option of what standard to focus on w as one o f the earl y successes. (Image 4 )

One conscious choice I made was to include the email from the regional office, the rationale for this is in the salutation the email is addressed to the school! I thought it prudent to create a feeling of ownership and transparency for all stakeholders. My goal was to get the message across that this was not my process or that of a selected few, but it was ours.

Working with a large team with varied backgrounds, it was vital to reconcile viewpoints and develop a shared understanding going into the pr ocess. We did this using the default rating provided in the program evaluation guiding document - ing, Demonstrating, Developing and Emerging . Designed as a bonding exercise for newly-formed committees, groups were asked to apply the same rating on four unrelated scenarios. The goal was to generate a list of ke ywords associated with each rating to be referred to once evidence had been gathered for rating. ( Image 5 )
Going further into multiple perspectives Reviewing the evidence and Drawing conclusions
Evidence took many forms, and the task at hand now was how to compile this evidence into an accessible and uniform format. Earlier when researching best practices involving student portfolios, I had come across Portraits of learning: Comprehensive assessment through E-portfoli by Savita Malik, Alycia Shada , Ruth Cox, Maggie Beers and Mary Beth Love. Ideally, the self-study process is a self-assessment, and building portfolios is one of the more progressive assessment methods proposed by the IB. I recommended compiling a portfolio as an end product - a portrait of learning , similar to one a student would create in the course of a unit of inquiry . We used Google slides to build the portfolios of evidence and justifications as compiled by the teams. With Google slides, the portfolios were living docu ments that could be shared and appraised by the school community.
Reflecting and Developing the Action Plan
This very intuitive process is meant to inform the school's future actions. The program action plan should ideally be revised based on the findings of this exercise. It is essential to recognise that the self-study is also an opportunity to identify successes and celebrate them, not merely develop a to-do list. ' Stop-Start-Continue ' is a process widely used to provide quality feedback. We used this to develop new action items (Start & Stop) and reassure our current efforts (Continue). This process is a variation of a feedback mechanism called the SKS ((  (S),   (K), and   (S)) form developed by Phil Daniels, then a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University.

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The self-study - A collaborative journey to evidence learning

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I front-loaded all resources I had about the self-study and evaluation process at our very first meeting. I brought in my inquiry board which helped in adding a familiar element to the process - something that most teachers could relate to (image 1) .

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Your school has gone through authorization and received an official report. What's next? This article explores how one school has used the authorization report to create a clear and actionable 3-year timeline that is shared and reviewed with the learning community.
As PYP practitioners we are constantly striving to grow and learn. For schools, the process of accreditation and evaluation presents itself as an opportunity to receive precise feedback on where we have come from and the directions we should take moving forward. So, after submitting paperwork, welcoming the visitation team and receiving our formal report...what's next?

I began working at American Pacific International School the year after their evaluation visit. Within my first month, I received our formal report that outlined the strengths and areas of need the visitors saw. Using the provided template, I moved forward with making our 5-year action plan, but after completing it I was still at a loss. How could I share all this information with my school community in a way that was clear and concise? I wanted an action plan that could be shared with the entire learning community without overwhelming them. After attending the Role of the Coordinator training, my workshop facilitator gave me the advice to create a personal three-year plan, but I still struggled with a format that would communicate the IB Programme standards and practices that would be accessible to my entire school community.

I decided to create my own method for how to sort, simplify and present our yearly goals to my team. As a PYP teacher and learner, I am very visual and learn best through hands-on experiences. I began by cutting apart our action plan and separating the standards that needed to be addressed. I did my best to physically group standards with a similar theme and gave each group a heading.

I then divided these groups among my three-year timeline trying to put similar goals together (see image below).

I used the headings to create concept-based yearly goals which are expressed similarly to a central idea. Our three-year timeline goals became:

2017-2018: The APIS community and leadership will work to collaboratively align our programme of inquiry with grade level curriculum standards, and we will plan for and support integrated transdisciplinary learning.

2018-2019: The APIS community and leadership will work to ensure that learning and teaching utilizes resources to promote differentiated, constructivist and inquiry-based instruction.

2019-2020: The APIS community will work to design assessments that support understanding of the PYP essential elements, grade level curriculum standards and individual student needs.

By having our yearly goals structured as a central idea, I have found planning professional development to be far easier and more goal-oriented. We can unpack the big concepts and focus our attention on specific actions we can take to improve.

I began by sharing the 2017-2018 goal with my staff and asking them to highlight the areas that were confusing or where they would like more development. They also wrote goal statements including one way they could personally help the school meet the goal and one way administration could support them. As a community, we are now familiar with the expectations of the IB and feel a sense of ownership about working towards meeting our goal, and we review which standards are addressed during our weekly professional development.

We also check in regularly on our progress towards meeting the goal and brainstorm action steps, including future professional development sessions, which would be helpful. Our action plan is now a living, breathing part of our school community. Students and parents see goals posted on the walls, teachers are active participants in reaching the standards and administrators are held responsible for providing the support we need moving forward.
Cynthia Blackburn is a PYP coordinator currently working at American Pacific International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She has worked with the Primary Years Programme for five years in various teaching and leadership roles. She is passionate about helping her school to be knowledgeable about the PYP and aligned with Programme standards and practices. You can follow her on Twitter @MsCindyPYP.

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Your school has gone through authorization and received an official report. What's next? This article explores how one school has used the authorization report to create a clear and actionable 3-year timeline that is shared and reviewed with the learning community. As PYP practitioners we are constantly striving to grow and learn.

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Here are a number of statements that may or may not apply to you. There are no right or wrong answers, so just answer honestly, considering how you compare to most people. At the end, you'll get a score that reflects how passionate and persevering you see yourself to be.

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Want to know how gritty you are? Find out by using the Grit Scale.

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Read the IB community blog, What inclusion looks like in our school.

Read PYP: From principles into practice/Learning Community/A community of learners/A PYP learning community/Sharing responsibility for learning, health and wellbeing

PYP: From principles into practice/Learning Community/A community of learners/Further reading/The PYP stance on student grouping

Go to the Jamboard and reflect on what you will start, stop and continuing doing in your setting.

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This article explores how Primary Years Programme (PYP) students took ownership of the Model United Nations (MUN) experience with their 'How we organize ourselves' unit. Inspired and empowered by the senior students and seeing their leadership in the MUN events, PYP students planned and hosted their first ever inter school MUN.
An exciting idea germinated in the PYP classroom through the discussions emerging from inquiries into the unit How we organize ourselves. Student leaders, who were actively engaged in participating in and hosting Model United Nations (MUN) conferences, gave birth to the first ever Primary Singapore International School (SIS) MUN at our school.

'MUN-ing' has been a part of our school character strengthening through the IDEALS* of Internationalism, Democracy, Leadership and Service, and the attributes of the IB learner profile. For their unit of inquiry with the central idea People create organizations to solve problems and support human endeavor, our grade 6 students had been taking part in our school MUNs as observers and conducting intra-class Mock MUN sessions over the last two years. They enjoyed their learning engagements thoroughly and though it was never a requirement or a norm, they decided to take this experience one notch higher and plan and implement an innovative event. Even though this would be their first experience with a primary MUN, they took on the challenge to be the organizer and host, and invited their peers from grade 5 to become the actual delegates. Thus, the culture of student leadership that was already a part of the school ethos enabled learners to take charge of their own learning and make important decisions about the same.

The primary SISMUN was planned as an inter-school conference. With the guidance of the senior school students and adult mentors, the students planned it modestly, keeping the spirit of the PYP at the core of the issues. The pedagogical leadership team helped them choose committees to ensure that the issues were from local (Lok Sabha) to regional (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) to global (UNICEF and UNHCR). Similarly, the issues would find resonance in their learning from the themes of Who we are (child labour), Sharing the planet and Where we are in place and time (migration due to war), How we organize ourselves (common currency) and How we express ourselves (arts education), thereby blending and synthesizing components of the PYP curriculum.

The Primary SISMUN was held in April 2017 with participation from 4 other primary IB World Schools from Mumbai and Pune. The conviction of the students, backed by the willingness of the pedagogical leadership team, inspired other schools from the network and beyond to participate in this event.

Our grade 6 students put on an impressive opening ceremony and more importantly displayed confidence and conviction as members of the Organizing Committee. We had a Skype interaction with a young CEO from India, selected as one of the top 50 youth initiative based solutions for sustainability by the UN for his startup company, Tyrelessly. Our delegates from grade 5 adeptly debated, discussed and resolved issues with professional ease and maturity. This also resulted in some exciting press coverage.

We were delighted to see our PYP students' achievement in terms of thinking and communication skills, confidence and enthusiasm and being open-minded and courageous, and we hope that they continue to apply their knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills, attitudes and attributes to take meaningful action that will make a difference to the world we live in. Above all, this experience created a domino effect of inspiration and agency in the school community, during the PYP exhibition, and in the planning of the coming year's edition of the Primary SISMUN.

In its mission statement, the IB aims to "develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect." The Primary SIS Model United Nations became an effective platform for students to put this mission into practice.

*Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service
Abhimanyu Das Gupta has been an IB practitioner since the last 13 years and has had extensive experience in the PYP at the Pathways School, Aravali, as a home room teacher, grade level coordinator, PYP coordinator and as the Primary School Coordinator. He has been heading the primary division at the Singapore International School, Mumbai since 2014 , inspiring his colleagues to promote learner agency and thereby, empower students. His passion for teaching and learning is evident in the practices he inspires in the learning community. He strives to promote inquiry-based learning for the students and by the students. You can follow him on Twitter

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How a culture of student leadership can foster learner agency

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This article explores how Primary Years Programme (PYP) students took ownership of the Model United Nations (MUN) experience with their 'How we organize ourselves' unit. Inspired and empowered by the senior students and seeing their leadership in the MUN events, PYP students planned and hosted their first ever inter school MUN.