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Javier Calvo- International Mindedness into the classroom.

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Javier Calvo- International Mindedness into the classroom.

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International Mindedness is in the core of the IB learner. It is a pleasure for our school to learn about it and celebrate it everyday through our activities inside and outside the classroom.

A) Can you make this change alone?
We believe our school is a big town where everyone collaborates and has an impact on education. That is why learning about international mindedness is the responsibility of each one of us, stuff and students, always celebrating inclusivity and difference.

B) Who might you be to collaborate with?
As a teacher of Spanish, I am very close to my French and Chinese colleagues, but although we develope many activities for our department, collaborating with homeroom teachers in Primary and even MYP and IB makes the difference.

C) Is this a short or long term strategy?
Both, clearly there are aspects that can be tackled in the short term but of course learning about international mindness never ends, even after school!

D) How will you know it is working?
When student and teachers always are keen to be critical about how every little aspect can be tackled from different angles and perspectives of life.

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Embedding International Mindedness by Kiran Badhani

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Embedding International Mindedness by Kiran Badhani

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International mindedness is one of the core values promoted by all schools to be international in true sense. For my school it is all about celebrating diversity and bringing out the best from it. I would like to share my action plan to continue promotion of international mindedness.

I believe the I.B  learner profiles are a pre-requisite to developing international mindedness. So, as a foundation for international mindedness we try to bring out along with the transdisciplinary themes, all the learner profiles throughout the year to usher a lasting positive attitudinal change in our students.

A walk around the school and the displays speak more than words. The walls are interactive, with pictures of famous personalities from all around the world, pictures of festivals of different countries, world famous quotes etc. On my school  corridor ceiling, flags of many different countries are hung which is not just attractive and visually appealing but also draws home the point that we value all countries.

Needless to mention the role of technology- it is a part and parcel of education especially in bringing the whole world to the class. Videos, pictures, documentaries are a great tool. Some online platforms like penpal.com are amazing to  help children connect with the other children of the world and interact and learn about their cultures.

Literature, art and music can be explored , folklore of different countries acts like a window portal to understand their culture. Puppet shows, plays,  dolls display can be little ways to reach the heart of children in making them value other cultures and traditions. Students will get to know the uniqueness of the cultures through their art forms and music.
Inviting parents of different countries to talk to students about their culture to bring in more inter-cultural awareness.

Giving students taste of global human commonalities by holding discussions on local and global conflicts, common environmental issues. Schools can express solidarity to comfort countries suffering from natural disasters or human crisis,
it can be through a common message by students, letters or on discussion forums.

Embracing multilingualism by letting students express themselves in a language they want to especially when their understanding is under focus. Providing students to explore other foreign languages by helping a new student, through translation.

The potential of SPORTS cannot be underestimated in bringing out  international mindedness. Sports can wonderfully bind students of all different cultures in a team. Further team building games can be employed which fosters understanding and collaboration.

Issues like conflicts between students and bullying cannot be ignored and should be handled sensitively and resolved seriously through counseling as sometimes they can be linked to racism which is a deterrent to international mindedness.

Social events like Celebrating International Parents Evening. It is an even in my school where all parents are welcome, they come and participate in an international quiz and have a dinner together with other parents. It is aimed at promoting international mindedness in the entire community.

Well if asked whether it is a short term or a long term plan, I would say it is always a long term ongoing plan considering the dynamics of the school environment with the coming in of new students and teachers.

Can I  implement the International
mindedness action plan alone?
Well, I think there are a lots of things which I can do it alone with my students during my teaching lessons and even outside the classroom.
But for a greater outreach and impactful outcome it should be a team work, involving all teachers, teaching assistants, students, and parents.

To see if our international mindedness action plan is working on not;
Teachers can actively look for visible behvioural changes in students. Homeroom teachers can observe the student behaviour relevant to the context and make an anecdotal record.
Teachers can meet fortnightly to discuss their observations. Look for actions taken by the students in and outside classroom which clearly indicate that the action plan is being followed.

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Haley Wang's International - Mindedness Plan

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Haley Wang's International - Mindedness Plan

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a. Background Study Project - Students creating their own infographic regarding the peers' country&culture by exploring and exchanging questions with each other.

b. Exploring Other Countries - Using technology as google globe to explore countries that students are interested around the world.

c. Mystery Guest Program - Invite mystery guests within the community to join the class and interact with the students.

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- Create a well-balanced classroom or school library collection with books from all over the world with diverse characters, settings, and situations. Use https://diversebookfinder.org/ to find thousands of diverse books.

-Celebrate the diversity of your classroom, school, and neighborhood communities by learning about celebrations that people take part in, what people eat, how they speak, what they do for fun, etc... Later extend this globally. Have a school-wide International Day to celebrate different parts of the world with music, dancing and food!

-Collaborate with colleagues to foster an atmosphere of international-mindedness throughout the whole school so it becomes part of the school's culture.

This plan can be done alone but will be more effective when others are a part of it. It is a long-term plan and something that is always evolving and getting better upon reflection of what worked and what didn't. You will know it is working when students become more aware, respectful and empathetic of themselves and others.

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International Mindedness Action Plan - Jennifer Turke

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International Mindedness Action Plan - Jennifer Turke

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-Ensure maps and/or globes are location in every classroom and shared learning space. (encourge teachers to refer to these when applicable)
-Set up spaces to encourage curiosity about the world. (travel corners, curiosity tables, displays, or interactive walls).
- Include a diverse collection of books in classroom, library, and online databases.
- expose learners to both art and music from around the world in specialist classes, homeroom classes, CCA's and school events and gatherings.
- support pen-pal or cultural exchange opportunities
- encourage and support multilingualism by providing opportunities to share learning with activities such as language exchange or international day.
-Use technology - Google earth, NatGeo kids, online libraries such as MyOn

While aspects of this plan can be done alone in my homeroom class, it's better if it is a collaborative effort between learners, teachers, leaders, support staff, parents, and the entire school community.
This is a long term strategy. We will know it is working when the learners take Action.

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My idea for implementing International-Mindedness into the classroom.

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My idea for implementing International-Mindedness into the classroom.

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To implement the International-Mindedness in the classroom, I would organize a "Culture Club." I am thankful to my colleagues who have replied to my idea about creating it. I received support for using flashcards and allowing the students to work in groups. One of the participants said she would do the same activity once a month, but for the whole school.

1. Can you make this change alone?

I won't be able to introduce new ideas to students without parents, colleagues, and principals' support. Firstly, I would prepare the key points and preliminary lesson plan PPT. Then, I would talk to my line manager and the school principal and show my ideas. After that, if I received approval, I would organize a parent meeting to present the idea. If the parents liked the idea, I would cooperate with the scheduler to find time in the students' schedules.

2. Who might you need to collaborate with?

Apart from working with the school principal, colleagues, and parents, I may need to cooperate with colleagues from different states.

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

My idea to implement an International-Mindedness is a long-term one. I believe that the students may need some time to get used to a lesson routine and slowly change their mindset. I think it will take a year or more.

4. How will you know it is working?

Being an experienced teacher allows me to see when the students make some progress. They will reply/answer faster, become more confident, and be more engaging. To see some results, I may need a month or so.

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Embedding International-Mindedness Plan - Jessica Lambert

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Embedding International-Mindedness Plan - Jessica Lambert

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Curriculum

- plan to create opportunities for students to engage with global communities.

- research opportunities for global action

- plan to include a wider range of resources from different cultures and languages in  lessons

-Look at our programme of inquiry and see how far it encourages diversity and international mindedness

-exploring global concerns such as the environment and rights and responsibilites and sustainable development in units of inquiry

Learning Environment

- do a walk around the school looking at the displays to see how far they promote international mindedness and thinking about how and where we can display more languages and cultures.

- create a display where all of the students can post their home countrites on a map and any pictures of information they want to share.

- books and resources

School Events

- Plan opportunities for all members of the community to share their own cultures such as a monthly assembly or a show and tell in class.

Home and wider community

- think about members of the community and how we can get them involved what kind of events could we invite them into school to share their cultures.

*I will need to collaborate with our whole community, teachers, students, parents and the wider community to implement this plan as these will involve the whole school and are long term changes. I think we will know when it is working when their is a change in the school culture.

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My plan to implement international mindedness in my classroom/school is as follows

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My plan to implement international mindedness in my classroom/school is as follows

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1) The students will make a project of their own culture and country with their peers

2) Learning about students personal experience and comparing their experience to other students around the world

3) Start a collaborative projects with schools from other country, this will enable the students to experience the culture,language and tradition of the school and the country

4) The students will investigate about their own culture and country.

5) Encourage the students to use technology to learn about different culture,tradition,religion and languages

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International-Mindedness in the Classroom and School (Jay Cargill)

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International-Mindedness in the Classroom and School (Jay Cargill)

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Working in an international school can be an advantage for this endeavor. The student population already creates a level of international-mindedness. I try to use the students as a resource when trying to get them to think globally, by giving them the time and opportunity to share their experiences, beliefs, histories, etc.

Activities to Support International-mindedness
- Map skills: students plot locations on a large world map where they are from, where they have visited, where stories or current world events take place, etc.; this year we discovered the online game Globle, which is like Wordle, except players guess countries and a color-coded distance indicator tells how close to the correct country they are. Students enjoy playing a game to learn world geography.

- Global economy: as part of our study on trade, students study imports and exports from various countries around the world. We always begin with the country we are in and then students choose another country to research and report on. It's always fun doing our "country of origin survey" where we check out our clothing, shoe, backpack, and electronics labels to see where they were manufactures. We use color-coded dots on our big map to track where product-types are coming from.

- International food fair: (in non-covid times) we have a school-wide culture event. Families and communities come together to share food from their home countries. It's a great way to bring people together.

- Taking Action: part of our studies is to look for ways students can take action to affect a global issue. Sometimes the action is a very local level (e.g., students in our Grade 4 team raised awareness on water conservation by canvassing the upper school students to try water saving tips and tricks at home, such as offsetting toilet basin requirements by putting a filled water bottle into the basin to reduce the amount of water per flush.). Sometimes the action affects a wider, global issue. When news stories of Ukrainian children refugees reached our community, students put together a fund-raiser to send a donation to the International Red Cross efforts.

- Character analysis: Bring stories into the curriculum that have characters who represent different cultures across the globe. A character study can give students insight about different belief systems, government structures, family relations, living conditions, etc. around the world.

Can you make this change alone?
Some activities are simple enough to be tried independently while activities like a culture fair would require collaboration throughout the school.

Who might you need to collaborate with?
Parents or parent groups are a good resource and/or collaboration partners. If one was part of a teaching team, it would be a benefit to share the activities and the planning with the team. For school-wide endeavors (like a culture fair), a committee of involved staff and administrators would be needed.

Is this a short-term strategy or a long-term strategy?
I think all activities, even those that are short lived (i.e., part of a unit or a single day for the culture fair) would be part of a long term strategy to keep international-mindedness alive throughout the year.

How will you know it is working?
There would be evidence posted in classrooms, on bulletin boards, included in parent newsletters and/or school communication.

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Ideas for embedding International-mindedness 

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Ideas for embedding International-mindedness 

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Can you make this change alone?
I cannot and will not.

All stakeholders in my school community are to join in this mission. The school will recognise the nationalities our children possess and celebrate that by posting a printed map where every birth place of them is marked by a pin with their pictures on it.

Who might you need to collaborate with?
All the school's management, staff, parents and students are to join, as mentioned above. The school will then hold open sessions to all participants, in which we will show videos of ill-mannered people abroad for children to point and laugh at, but later on to draw conclusion on the cultural awareness around the globe.

Children will then work together to design posters to introduce about the community where they come from, and what the expectations might be in those communities, including behaviours, social norms, or customs etc.

Is this a short-term strategy or a long-term strategy?
Short-term purpose is to keep the classroom decorated with meaningful cultural elements and symbols.

In the long-term, children will develop empathy and respect towards different cultures and communities.

How will you know it is working?
The proof of product will show as children present their own projects. Moreover, the willingness to participate and help with other children's projects is a great measurement of empathy. All in all, international-mindedness is a concept which should be enforced across all subjects and activities at the school.

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Ideas for Embedding International Mindedness

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Ideas for Embedding International Mindedness

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One way to do this that I have been a part of at a couple of schools where I’ve worked is to regularly hold “culture weeks”. One or two weeks each month, students and staff from a particular country would share information about their country and culture with the rest of the school through presentations, teaching some basic language, playing traditional games, wearing traditional clothing, etc. Then on Friday, the students, staff and parents from that country would provide some traditional food and/or beverages at the end of the day for everyone to sample. This was a fun, easy way for the students to learn about the cultural background of their classmates.

Another activity that I have been a part of is an “International Food Festival”. This was the biggest event of the year at one of my previous schools and hundreds of people from both the school and the surrounding community would attend every year. Our students, staff and parents would prepare traditional dishes from their home countries and there were dozens of booths serving this food, as well as artisans giving demonstrations and selling their work. We had music, games and dance performances, as well.

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At the start of the year

When getting to know the children and their families at the beginning of the year, take time to  find out about the different cultural backgrounds of the children in the class. Can discuss similarities and differences

Create with the children and “All about Me’ display including the information about the children - pictures, flags, map, languages spoken etc

Throughout the year

Meaningfully acknowledge cultural important festivals and celebrations and encourage participation from the school community, could be online or in person.

Encourage children to bring in home language books, if they have them.

Community Picnic - families can be encouraged to share their culture by getting together in year groups and sharing traditional foods.

United Nations Mother Tongue Day - we celebrated this in our school in February. It was a great day and within our class the children were so excited to share their home language/languages.

Collaboration

For in class activities this would involve my year group.

For the whole school activities, this would involve planning with different stages and management.

How will you know if its working

Reflections from children, staff and school community and asking for their comments and suggestions

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Creating  International Mindedness in all Children

This would not be limited to a single activity, but rather a live and interactive teaching strategy used the entire school year.

Have a designated wall space titled: “I SEE strength in others and myself, I THINK  of others, I WONDER what I can do to respect others and spread kindness in this class and in this world?”. I would begin using the first day in school.

1.)Display a picture of every child in your classroom with space to share about themselves as well as a space to receive reflection and feedback from the rest of the class. Establish that this will be a ‘live’ discussion and reflection tool throughout the school year.

2.)Have every child reflect on their own diversity and strengths and offer them suggestions as to how to present and teach their uniqueness to the rest of the class. Display “individual presentations next to students' pictures (even just pictures of students presenting).

3.)After presenting, allow the rest of the class time to give specific feedback. Encourage the class to continue to “message’ and share connections by adding notes, art, pics, etc. to each other's designated wall space.

4.)After allowing all students to share, I would move outside of the classroom by adding a section called “My Community”, “My Country”, and finally “My World”. The process would be the same, but the format would change appropriately…this moves into COLLABORATING WITH OTHERS.

5.)I would invite community members to share the history, traditions, and uniqueness of our community. Instead of having a space in the classroom, we could share and continue to connect with the member(s) of the community through field trips, electronically, or even letters. This would continue to grow as we connect with other classrooms in the country and finally other classrooms in countries throughout the world. As we connected we would take time to celebrate with each other by interacting in some of the same traditions or celebrations new to our class.

6.) Finally by the end of the year, we will have established connections and hopefully close relationships in our own class, community, and truly around the world.

I will know if this is working by the students' engagement both at the beginning and end of the school year. By having a designated space and place to establish expectations from the beginning, I could monitor the feedback to ensure it is appropriate and shows true reflection from the students. To know if I truly created International Mindedness, I would follow up with students the following year and find out if they maintained or continued connecting with the relationships we established throughout the prior year.

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International Mindedness Plan (Jason Shute)

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International Mindedness Plan (Jason Shute)

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To assist with developing international mindedness in our school, I would like to host bi-weekly international visitors via Skype.  This will be accomplished with the assistance of the Happy World Foundation.  In my part 1 post, I mentioned utilizing the program previously during a unit on South America.  The Happy World program connects schools with virtual visitors from roughly 150 countries around the world.  Students have the opportunity to interact with their guest in a question and answer format in an effort to determine the global location of the visitor.  In the process, students expand their global knowledge as they indirectly learn about the culture, customs, food, holidays, climate, government, and occupations of the host country.  This is all conducted under the veil of trying to determine the individual's whereabouts.  Once the location is determined, the visitor then shares some of the challenges and successes faced by students in the region.  Students are able to identify similarities in the family structure, educational setting, and the recreational activities of their peers around the world.  Following the visit, students will make an entry in their passport (student journal) that highlights what they learned from the session, any challenges faced by the residents, how student experiences in the country compare to our own, and how a student would react to visiting our school.

As a culminating activity, students will spend the final grading period researching one of the challenges of a country we "visited" during the year.  They will provide a presentation at the Global Awareness Fair outlining the challenge, how the challenge has been addressed, potential solutions moving forward, and outcomes if the challenge is not addressed.

I am also going to have to steal Johan's Travel Corner suggestion.  I would like to see it implemented as a display in the front of the school, complete with student artifacts from their travels.  All items would be on loan for the school year.  Student pictures would be incorporated along with a brief description for both.  I feel like using this as a way of greeting our stakeholders when they visit the school demonstrates our commitment to exploring the benefits of a global mindset.

This is definitely a long-term commitment that will require both administrative, parental, and faculty support.   In addition, the cooperation and commitment from the volunteers at Happy World Foundation will be necessary.  The Happy World visits could probably take place in multiple grade levels, but I feel the Global Awareness Fair should probably be exclusive to our sixth grade students as a final project before heading to middle school.  One way we will be able to identify the success of the program will be how younger students respond to the opportunity to view the projects at the fair.  Excitement and engagement from those students regarding the projects indicates the program effectively creating interest and while developing a broader understanding of our role as global citizens.

Here is a link to the Happy World Foundation website for any of you who are interested in the program.

https://happyworldfoundation.us/

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Happy World Foundation Inc - Promoting global citizenship in schools & communities worldwide

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Apply for our annual Global Ambassadors Leadership Institute

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Laila Aly  International Mindedness                     Plan of Action

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Laila Aly  International Mindedness                     Plan of Action

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Since I will be joining a new school in Giza Egypt, the plan can be simultaneously put into action & celebrated per grade level & as whole school events. The school is an IB accredited international English school with ~1 class/grade. Students will be predominantly Egyptian with English speaking Egyptian teachers & a few expats. A rather homogeneous community with similar class/background. The differences will be from family backgrounds, exposure & experience.

We need to put into consideration that due to the 2 yrs COVID situation, a lot would have had less exposure even to relatives & family friends so the plan needs to be slow &/or adjusted as the worldwide/national situation becomes clearer.

The long term plan/timeline:

1.My class/school: Introduce the class to their classmates as a community & note the similarities/differences between them

2.My school/My community;  Arrange a visit or invite a government school (underprivileged children) so children are introduced to a different section/class. This will also promote caring and should have at the time/follow up action. ( like arranging games or activities & having the parents volunteer to prepare a meal & giveaways)

3.My community/Egypt: Introduce in class different communities living in Egypt: rural areas-city-desert/oasis-slums ( pictures/videos/ items)

4.My Governerates/ Egypt: Introduce classes to different governorates: North/coastal – south/Nubia/- Suez canal/red sea – River valley… (guest speakers-pictures/videos/ items)

5.Egypt: Have an “I Love Egypt“ day with costumes-dances- dishes chosen by groups in class as a collaborative activity & invite the parents.

6.Egypt/Africa: Introduce students to Africa as their continent & assign an African project: Choose a country & research about it. Read folk stories from these different countries. (drama)

7.Egypt/Arab World: Introduce the Arab world & its countries. Listen to different songs, concentrate on the dialects, accents and national costumes. Have parents come in to talk about a country they have traveled to & bring in souvenirs or pictures.

8.The World: Introduce the big wide world. Hit on different continents. Are there common things within the countries of each continent? What language(s) do people speak? Where would you like to visit? Move to? Why?

9.Host an International Day where children & parents celebrate diversity with costumes, food, dances, music… from different countries.

10.Have a Show & Tell: bring in an item from your travels & talk about it ( most children would have traveled as this is a private school. If not they can bring in something from their travels in Egypt)

11.Have an International Games Day organized by parents when children can come & play different games from around the world.

12. Ask a travel agency to come & give a presentation about different travel destinations around the world & have a project creating a poster to promote one of these destinations. (or visit a website like https://www.travelzoo.com/)

13.Students can join a pen-pal website https://www.penpalschools.com/  (or any such websites to promote: international mindedness- reading-writing-social skills-writing/correspondence etiquette-responsibility-open mindedness…

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This of course will be a long term plan That will remain ongoing but for a new school this plan will be followed for all levels until it is staggered as classes are promoted.

This will require a parents workshop/post to familiarize parents with the goal & ask for their commitment & help.

The school needs to reach out to the  whole community for help & connect children to the outside world.

Assessing to see how effective the plan is would be a bit tricky but it will be mainly through ongoing observation: following their reaction to different classmates ( background – ethnicity- looks…) or their reactions/observations/comments when introduced to novel experiences & different people or cultures.

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Embedding International Mindedness in the Classroom

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Embedding International Mindedness in the Classroom

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When starting our year and getting to know each other as fellow students and peers and before inviting anyone to our classroom to speak on their background, heritage, and culture, I think it would be most important to do a KWL (What we know, What we want to know, What we Learned) chart. With the KWL chart, I think each section could serve as a short term strategy but as a whole, serve as a long term strategy throughout the year.

It's essential to find out what our students already know about their backgrounds. I have a feeling this part could take a while as students are getting familiar with each other's backgrounds. It could be a great starting point to find out where the students lack knowledge.

As the students know that family members and other members of the community could be visiting and speaking, this could serve as a great motivation to come up with a great list of what the students want to know. Not only are they able to inquire about their own past but other students as well. After completing that list of what the students want to know, it will serve as a great starting point for the teacher to figure out who they could ask to come and share with the class. Starting out with family members would be the first step. Their knowledge is essential. This could help their own children and the other students in the class find more knowledge of where they came from and part of the culture of their community.

I would also extend an invitation to family members to come back throughout the school year to help teach holidays, traditions, and customs as applicable to the calendar year. Getting to celebrate another culture's holiday and traditions can help make for a great memory, get to know their classmate's culture better, and serve as a great learning experience.

If there's a lack of parents who are able to share and talk with the class, finding someone in the community is able and willing to talk with the class would be my backup plan. Getting together with the local public library on resources would be my first place to search. Talking with my fellow teachers and IB coordinator at school would also be helpful as they may have had experience inviting others in to speak.

Another backup plan for the students to gain that knowledge of what they want to learn and the possibility of speakers not making personal appearances due to COVID or other reasons, a video call/meeting would also be an excellent setup.

Before having that person speak (whether it's a community or family member) have students write letters to those speaking about what they want to know and are inquiring. This really pushes the W section of the KWL chart.

After my students have had the experience of learning from a guest speaker from the community or family, my students will be able to connect with the L section of the KWL. As a follow up to their letter of inquiry, I would have my students write a thank you note as well as tell what they were able to learn from that speaker.

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Ways to embed International Mindedness in the classroom & community

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Ways to embed International Mindedness in the classroom & community

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To embed international mindedness, students need to master local and global challenges of today and the future. Students can only do this if they have a deep understanding of who they truly are.

In the classroom, Social-Emotional Learning activities can help hone these skills. A restorative circle is a great way for students to self-reflect. Prompts can be open-ended questions like: "what do you think makes a good friend?" or "If you could learn one language what would it be and why?" When students are actively listening to their classmates, they can show empathy. Once this has been established, students will be able to confidently share their unique backgrounds.

A great way to incorporate International Mindedness is through food. An event I feel would be unique but empowering is to book the canteen for a morning and ask parents /guardians and cook a traditional meal for the class with their children. This can be done at any time of the school year and will foster inquiry. Families can also dress up, and a transdisciplinary lesson can occur with the Art teacher to make traditional decorations. For example, there are so many ways to cook rice - and some practical skills will be taught too.

Another event would be to invite middle schoolers to teach some of their traditional games to the primary grades. Students will be able to work together and practice their sportsmanship. A skill that some students weren't always able to develop during Covid. Older students will be able to hone their leadership skills in a hands-on way.

Ideas such as these cant be implemented alone and collaboration would be needed from the principal, teachers, parents, and senior management. These events are long-term strategies, as safety and logistics will need to be planned well. It will work when students can apply a growth mindset both inside the classroom and in other scenarios. Students will be able to self - reflect on these events through journaling and giving specific examples. Surveys can be conducted to obtain feedback.

Julia Markus

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At the beginning of the school year:
As part of our 'Getting to know you' sessions, students will share where they are from (home countries, culture, background, favourite food, etc.) After these conversations, students will create an A5 poster that represents them. They can include their country's flag, images that represent their culture, colours that represent them and/or their culture. Once complete these posters would form our 'This is us..' or 'Our school community.." school mural.

If you have a large section of wall, you could use tiles or create something more permanent that would reflect the different identities within your school.

During the school year:
Festivals and special events could be celebrated as a whole school. Parents and the extended school community could participate. Each special event (Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali, Vesak, Chirstmas, etc.) will have a dedicated day across the school where students dress in related traditional clothes/colours and activities are done in classrooms. There would be opportunities at lunch time/class time for students to engage in activities (e.g. watching the Lion Dance, creating a Ketuput, having their hands painted with Henna, etc.) There are also presentations where students have the opportunity to inquire into the event and discover the significance of it. This helps with promoting appreciation, understanding and empathy.

At our school, we have Multicultural/International Day. This is where parents come together with other parents of the same cultural/country background and create a market simulation, where each country is represented by stalls/stands. They make food, create activities, dress up in traditional clothes and colours, display information, images, etc. They run activities within classrooms (e.g. Cultural dancing, reading stories, running a session that promotes student awareness about cultures). Students across the school have the opportunity to visit each stall, try different foods, wear different costumes, listen to different types of music, learn dances. They also have an opportunity to engage with parents, asking questions and inquiring further into each culture. When students return to the classroom, they reflect on the knowledge they have gained, making connections with what they already knew and conduct their own inquiries into questions they have.

Embedding International-Mindedness cannot be achieved alone. It should be done as a whole -school initiative with the support of the Leadership Team. Collaboration across the school is required, depending on the scale of the activity. A committee can be set up, including teachers across the grades and leadership. It would be a long-term strategy, that could be built upon as the events roll out. It would require multi-level collaboration and planning to make these events a success. It would also need to be carried out each year for continuity and engagement.

You will know that it is working, by student, staff and parent reflections. This is a good way to gauge whether something is effective or not and whether the message is getting through or does the strategy need to change. Reflections are good  way to guide your own practice.

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Embedding International-Mindedness at Zhuhai International School (Stephanus Johannes Molier)

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Embedding International-Mindedness at Zhuhai International School (Stephanus Johannes Molier)

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A major benefit of ZIS is that we strive to be an inclusive school. We respect all backgrounds, cultures, and languages, while we also celebrate our diversity by doing a few events that promote international-mindedness.

Our Year 9’s arranged an International Day where we had different stalls that showcased all the different nationalities that we have at our school. The students participated in traditional dances, face painting, food, and drink sampling as well as enjoyed the unique “attractions” that each country has to offer. This was a memorable celebration and brought our school together in harmony.

We also had a Book Month, where parents of students came in and read to the kids in their native languages. We had parents read in Korean, Afrikaans, Japanese, Polish, English, and French. The students were engaged throughout and there were even students that attended the readings even though they couldn’t speak any of those languages. This showed us that the students were interested in learning more languages.

To further promote international-mindedness, our school can do the following:

·      Celebrate popular western and Chinese festivals. This will teach the students about famous festivals that are celebrated around the world. In some classes, we celebrated Earth Day, Book Day, and St Patrick’s Day, but these weren’t school-wide events, and more students need this exposure.

·      Cultural Exchanges: In a post-Covid world, students can travel to other countries on a cultural or language exchange and this will help our students to become familiar with countries other than those that they are familiar with, and they can even become more international-minded, as they can learn a new language whilst being abroad for a few weeks. This experience will help the students to be completely immersed in another culture.

·      The possibility to learn a 3rd language:
Give the students an option to study another language at school. We have Korean and Japanese students in our school, and this will give them a wonderful opportunity to learn their own language in an international setting. On a personal note, I will prefer if my son can learn Spanish, as this is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

Can I make this change alone?

I can celebrate festivals on my own, but this won’t give the school a chance to become international-minded. The rest will fall on the shoulders of the Principals and parents.

Who do I need to collaborate with?

Festivals:

The PYP homeroom and specialist teachers can work together to create cross-curricular themes related to the festivals.

Cultural / Language Exchange Trips:

This will need to be arranged with the Principals and parents of our school. There should be a plan in place and an estimated budget that should be agreed upon by parents and the school alike.

Third Language in School:

The main person who can approve this is our PYP principal. He can work closely with the Literature Coordinator to see where we can fit this in our daily schedule.

Are these Long / Short Term Strategies?

All of these are long-term strategies and could take a while to implement, as there is a lot of strategic planning involved.

How do you know that this is working?

Festivals: When all the teachers collaborate to create a wonderful, festive event that the students can enjoy and learn from.

Cultural / Language Exchange Trips: When the students return to present their findings and share their experiences of the trips they took.

Third Language:

When this gets implemented into our curriculum and teachers have the resources to successfully teach a third language. We will also see success when students sign up for a third language.

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Plan of things I could implement in THE classroom or school to embed international-mindedness.

First, I want to allow children to develop themselves in the classroom. They can begin to investigate something personal to them, such as their family's tradition, history, and values. So that students can learn to respect all aspects of their identity, such as their language, family, and traditions. It can help them understand themselves, because we cannot understand others until we understand ourselves.

Second, we might also start a discussion among students to teach them how to listen to others and perceive things from their point of view. Students can improve their understanding of the reasons for other people's actions, giving them a better perspective in any situation.

Third, they must improve their language skills. Language has also become a key component of international mindedness since it strengthens our view of reality, allows us to think in different ways, and provides multiple solutions to the same problem.

We'll need to collaborate with other teachers, the PYP coordinator, and students to put these plans into action, since when we work together, we can achieve more. Students participate in our plans to ensure that they goes effectively. These strategies could be a long-term strategy to implement in the classroom in order to encourage students to think internationally-minded. Students' activities in every setting can be used to ensure that these plans are performing well.

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Plan of things I can implement in my classroom or school to embed international-mindedness.    JenAnn Eilertsen               

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Plan of things I can implement in my classroom or school to embed international-mindedness.    JenAnn Eilertsen               

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Travel Corner:  This could be implemented easily by the teacher but could also be an idea to be shared with grade level teams.

In my classroom:

The class started off the school year discussing where students are from by placing their homelands on a map. This acted as a visual and a way to share diversity within the classroom. The travel corner would be a great extension of this activity.  The travels could be added to the map throughout the year after each major holiday. Students could share their experiences and facts learned.  Cross curricular activities could be embedded by reading folktales or short stories from the countries the students traveled to, while comparing and contrasting classic well known stories the students know.

How do I know it is working?  Student engagement, noticings and connections, inquiry questions from students with a drive to find the answers

Inquiries of Global Human Similarities:  This can be implemented easily by the teacher and shared with grade level teams, technology teachers, librarians and other specialists.

Start with a guiding question that will spark students interest.

Some examples:   Is education important?  What is waste?  What makes a good house?

Once a guiding question has been asked, allow students optimal time to explore the question using age appropropriate websites.  Compare and contrast the information they found with information from other countries.  Introduce multiple compare and contrast strategies and allow students to choose what works best for them.

How do I know it is working?  Students are engaged, asking and answering questions, comparing and contrasting

Explore other Countries:  Can be implemented easily by any teacher.

Use Google Earth. 360cities, GeoGuessr and identify similarities and differences between their own regions and others.

I did this when I moved to Egypt from the U.S.  Students were very interested to know why the houses in Egypt were not made from wood like the ones in the U.S.  This simple activity sparked many different discussions and inquiries.

How do I know it is working?   When students engage to create their own wonderings.