Completely understanding the transdisciplinary program and being about to teach students to understand.

My initial challenge is understanding the program and how to effectively apply the different aspects…

1) Excited: I love the idea of beginning with a celebration of students own cultural attributes, and then encouraging them to explore and appreciate others’ similarities and differences. I would be especially excited about the idea of using technology to gain access to a broad range of guest speakers in international areas. 

2) Worrisome: money, time, respect for personal privacy 

3) Need to Know: students’ families level of comfort with sharing their culture/values. That the neighborhood where our families live will respect and appreciate this expansion. That our families will remain safe. 

4) Stance/Suggestion for moving forward: Possibly speak with or send out an interest survey to gauge student/family support for this project. 

1) Excited: I would be thrilled to welcome students sharing of their own artifacts, stories, pictures etc. in a respectful, thoughtful, conversation provoking method. The idea of explicitly teaching that differences and diversity are norms is enticing! Our school does display pictures and signs in various languages already, but perhaps we could improve this a bit, or make the signs and pictures student created. 

2) Worrisome: While I welcome the opportunity for discourse, I recognize that sometimes difficult conversations can arise as we share these items and talk about various cultures/development. I would be hopeful that parents appreciate the conversation, and possibly participate. I would worry that they take offense or we cause conflict.

3) Need to Know: More specifics about what this could look like at our school. The hope that all teachers/classes would buy in and participate. 

4) Stance/Suggestion for moving forward: Begin small, but begin nonetheless. See how our school community responds. 

 

1) Excited: Yes, Please! Let’s get our parents and community more involved! Let’s learn from each other! Let’s teach our families that they are valued and appreciated! 

2) Worrisome: Limited support from community/families

3) Need to Know: I would like to know more about our district’s, and our school administration’s, approach to introducing the concept of becoming an IB school to the families and community we serve. For example, I know that our school has a group of community members, school staff, and parents that makes decisions regarding school initiatives. I also know that while over 70% of our student population is from a Spanish speaking household, we have no Spanish speaking parents on this committee. 

4) Stance/Suggestion for moving forward: Recruit/involve some of our students’ families in developing what this should like at our school. Determine what they are comfortable with, and what level of commitment they will have. Promote this plan within the community and with neighborhood businesses. Build partnerships that value diversity. 

W- Something that I consider to be a downside is the possibility of generational stereotypes being exposed.

N- Having the knowledge of the cultures represented in the classroom would be helpful.

S- A suggestion for moving forward would be to have the students do a project that begins with them working on learning about their culture at home and making a video or visual display with family then present information at school to peers.

Excited - Being multilingual opens you up to the international community. International mindedness. schools in the study considered international-mindedness as a journey rather than an end point.

Worrisome - Making Provisions for language learning. It sends the message to the learning community that language is crucial to deepening understanding of one’s own and others’ cultures, and alternative and multiple perspectives. What if the community or families do not believe this?

Need to know - Are there preferred languages that school should be teaching?

Suggestion moving forward - In the article, it says, inviting speakers and visitors to share with the learning community can be equally beneficial and can have a powerful impact on learners. How about connecting IB students to one another? Possibly connecting IB schools across the globe. 

Comment below with your reflection.

1) Excited:  I love that we are looking at each student as an individual and not as a data point within this.  I love that we are able to move towards looking at the whole child and seeing where their strengths lie and where they are needing some extra support while also being able to embrace their own unique perspectives and cultural diversities within our classrooms and buildings.

2) Worrisome: the support from the district with a new superintendent, board members that are up for election and have different agendas to push onto schools, the time that this needs in regards to the many new initiatives pushed out on us each year, respecting everyone’s privacy

3) Need to Know:  How much do our parents and community members truly know and understand with the prospect of becoming an IB school?  Has this truly been shared in a forum that our school's parents will all understand, especially with families that cannot read or write at all in their native language.  Will the families still feel safe with so much information or aspects of their different cultures shared?  How will this help our students when many of them truly struggle with learning and are not on grade level?

4) Stance/Suggestion for moving forward: Will need more time and support to fully understand what this will entail for the building and how the district will actually support this.  What will we do to ensure all of our families know that this is what they want for the future of our school and the students.

 

Excited:  This could mean that it is more meaningful professional development that actually helps us to learn more about what we are doing in our classroom.

Worrisome:  This would make for more work for the building to develop not only MYP but also PYP as the building goes from PK-8 which already makes for a challenge in planning trainings that are meaningful across grade levels and curriculum.

Need to know:  What all this entails

Stance:  What can we do that is best for everyone involved to have meaningful professional development that will not seem redundant and not apply to what we are actually doing in the classroom.

Excited: to actually be able to possibly change how we look at the languages that our students are already speaking and what can we do to actually challenge them already

Worrisome:  The students are not being leveled currently by native speakers of Spanish, all students receive the same level of instruction in Spanish 

Need to know:  What can we do to make this better for everyone involved, could we change the language offered

Stance:  Spanish may not be the answer to what our students need, we may actually need to consider a different approach when it comes to teaching foreign languages to our students

Excited: to learn more about the PYP framework

Worrisome:  The time that this will take to implement into classrooms with district initiatives

Need to know:  What can we actually do to make this better for everyone

Stance:  Not sure how this will work in a building doing both PYP and MYP, staff by in to another new program change

Beginning to understand how this is something that will be grown over multiple years and not just we have to be fully implemented in the first year.
2. What has concerned you?
How long it will take to create new units of inquiry and how much freedom we will have with creating the things that we need to do.
3. What has inspired you?

To be able to create more interdisciplinary units of instruction and be able to find concepts to teach my third graders that will actually interest them in learning more.

Explanation- The social skills category is that of learning how to work with others while also self regulating their own behaviors to ensure that they are successful in their learning.  This can be done through social skills categories, but ultimately with their social and emotional intelligences.

Sub skills

Strategies for learning and teaching

Synthesizing and interpreting

Evaluating and communicating

Strategies:
Plan transdisciplinary and subject-specific inquiries in which students can develop, apply and reflect on their research skills.

Provide a range of tools for students to organize their research so that all stages are documented.

Model academic integrity by providing proper citations and references for materials and ideas that are shared with students.

Collaborate with, for example, the librarian and technology specialists support students to build research skills and to learn how to identify reliable sources of information.

Generations,

 Traditions,

 Survival,

 Communities, 

Genetics,
Shamira, Vince, Dana

                   

Where we are in place and time

Homes and journeys, orientation in place and time, relationship between and interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations from local and global perspectives

The resources that are present in environments will impact the health and economics of an area.

Environmental resources determine the economic and physical health of a region and its inhabitants.