Over the last two weeks, our grade level content teams have collaborated to:
I am excited for our team, as we get ready for the November 8th Launching the IB Middle Year Programme (MYP). Remember, the unit planner is comprise of three section: Inquiry, Action, and Reflection. We have completed a draft of the inquiry section of the unit planner. The action section is where the district's scope and sequence comes into play, the learning process takes place, and resources are identified. We will reflect on the unit before, during, and after the implementation of the unit because it is a working document. Continue to implement the learner profile in your daily lessons. Our students are doing a great job acclimating to the IB vocabulary. Please share the video below with your students if you have not already do so.
15 Comments
In preparation for developing the MYP unit, please look at the slideshow below to get familiar with the vocabulary and the components of the unit planner. Please note the pages associated with your specific content area in the subject guides. The subject guides are available on the blog under teacher resources and physical copies are in my office.As we continue our emphasis on open-mindedness, please visit Primary Source (http://www.primarysource.org/for-teachers/guides ), a free website that provides teacher-created, classroom-ready activities designed around key primary sources, including written documents, artifacts, audio clips, visual evidence and much more. Each set of sources includes key questions, objectives, and a background essay to help you teach the activities with confidence and infuse more global content into your subject area. These activities shed light on topics that are often misunderstood and give voice to under-represented groups and their histories. These rich, easy-to-use classroom ideas can bring an international perspective to any grade level or subject area.
Thanks to all the teachers that recognized your students for last month’s learner profile: caring Ashianna Hayes- Ms. White Jaqueline Mencias-Garcia- Ms. Calhoun Ja’Kentae Jenkins- Ms. Ridley Jada Jackson- Ms. Ridley Tabias Cudgar- Ms. Jones Priceless Williams- Dr. Davis Kameron Clark- Ms. Pettway Makayla Davis- Mr. C. Howard Myriane Smith- Ms. Parker Maliyah Gordon- Ms. Carter Tacorra McGriff- Ms. Williams Jala Rowe- Ms. Edwards Please share how you are teaching open-mindedness in your classroom. If you have any questions about MYP, do not hesitate to email me or reply on this blog. Your question(s) may benefit someone else. This month’s learner profile is open-minded. Here are some ways that you can incorporate open-mindedness in your lessons.
Source: Social Studies and the Young Learner 25 (2), pp. 18–22 ©2012 National Council for the Social Studies. http://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/yl/2502/250218.pdf Share your ideas for teaching open-mindedness. If you have any questions about MYP, do not hesitate to email me or reply on this blog. Your question(s) may benefit someone else.
Our goal is to create a cultured IB community that focuses helping our students become responsible, service oriented, respectful, compassionate, and international minded individuals. We will accomplish this goal if we focus on the 4Cs (Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration). Share one thing that you are currently doing at King Middle, based on the 4Cs, to create a cultured IB community.
We will continue our focus on the learner profile of Caring. If you have any questions about MYP, do not hesitate to email me or reply on this blog. Your question(s) may benefit someone else. This week we looked at a video that demonstrate what an IB middle year programme (MYP) classroom looks like. We noted that many of the strategies and ideas of the MYP classroom aligns directly with many of the things we are currently doing in our classrooms: Standard Based, SEL, PBIS, Quality Work Board, Collaborative Grouping, Student Centered, and Display of Authentic Student Work. We then talked about how MYP will affect the curriculum. Our goal is to shift our teaching to building conceptual understanding for our students. We will achieve this with the MYP unit planning process. If you have ever worked with Concept Based Units or Thematic Units, then you may get a general understanding of the MYP unit planning. We looked at some basic vocabulary: 1) Key Concepts which is the big idea (total of 16), 2) Related Concepts which are prescribed and content related, and 3) Global Context which are the lens in which we will teach content. Remember, our goal is to enable our students to relate to the content thereby decreasing discipline and increasing engagement.
We will continue our focus on the learner profile of Caring. Please share your ideas of how to infuse the caring learner profile in your content area by using the comment section of this post. If you have any questions about MYP, do not hesitate to email me or reply on this blog. Your question(s) may benefit someone else. This week we began the implementation of the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile with a focus on caring. We identified specific characteristics of caring in our faculty meeting on Tuesday. Mr. Brown posed the question: what does caring look like from the teacher’s perspective, and what does caring look like from the student’s perspective? We agreed that our behavior should provide support for students who struggle in the classroom, and listen to our students. We should show compassion and empathy to our students. During the lesson, we should give students wait time so students can process their thoughts. Consequently, we expect for students to listen to each other, provide peer-help, and show interest in each other’s well-being. Ejike John states “Sometimes all it takes is for you to be there. Your presence alone can go a long way.” Let our presence be a model for caring. Find ways to infuse ideals of caring throughout the day.
New to the blog this week is the Teacher Resource Tab. Please take the time to look at the teacher fact sheet. It provides a brief overview of the Middle Year Programme (MYP), and the impact it will have on your classroom. If you have any questions about MYP, do not hesitate to email me or reply on this blog. Your question(s) may benefit someone else. Will my child have to apply to be part of the program?
No, if your child attends King MS or Jackson HS, your child will automatically be enrolled in the MYP. All of our students are part of the program. Every student at King Middle is part of the MYP. My child is not in the gifted program. Will the MYP be too hard? In the MYP we stress academic rigor, to be sure. We know that all students live up to or down to expectations. So we expect a lot. Still, teachers will continue to differentiate their instruction so that every child can succeed. We never want to leave a child behind. How does the MYP work? As teachers, the first thing we do is organize your student's sequence of lessons. We also plan using the same guidelines from sixth to tenth grades. We want to create an intelligent flow of instruction. Then we design concept based units to deliver instruction in meaningful chunks. Each unit includes an emphasis on one of our three big concepts, holistic education, communication skills, and internationalism. So is the IB a set of classes that my child will take? No, the MYP is a philosophy, or approach to the organization of curriculum, and guiding concepts. King MS and Jackson HS teachers use the five lenses to view our subjects. We expect quality work and thoughtful reflection, and we help the students archive their achievements in portfolios. We hope that the IB experience will help kids acquire the needed skills to function well in the world and make it a better place. What else do I need to know about the MYP? We often talk about the "student profile." This refers to a list of the characteristics we help you to foster in your students. The qualities include being principled, open-minded, caring, balanced, inquiring, and knowledgeable. We try to encourage kids to be thinkers, communicators and risk-takers. We want to set them up to be lifelong learners. What will be different at King MS? Your student will engage in rigorous inquiry lessons that teaches them how to think and problem solve. Your students will learn how to use the IB rubrics (grading descriptors) and begin to study a world language. In the 8th grade they participate in a community project. They will investigate a topic of their own. Parents and King MS teachers will come in to celebrate their achievements. Each student who meet all the MYP requirements will receive the MYP certificate at the end of 10th grade. How can I support my child (or children) in the MYP? Your interest in school work is always a great motivator for your students. Continue to help them to grow academically and socially. Encourage academic honesty. (Googling a subject, cutting, pasting, and changing a word or two is not writing, as we all know.) Talk about our environment, international affairs, international understanding, and cultural awareness, as you continue to build your children's knowledge and pride in our home culture. Listen to how your children are changing as thinkers. The middle years are very exciting. Don't ask, "How was school?" Ask questions that start with "Tell me about...", "Suppose you could...", "Can you elaborate on...?", or perhaps "What do you think about....?" Show interest in your children's higher level thinking skills. Your kids will step up to new realms when we as teachers, and you as parents value their intellectual capacity and sense of personal integrity. What is the future of the IB in the Jackson Cluster? We are pleased to be part of a K to 12 continuum. It enhances our schools and the neighborhood itself when all of us become part of one team. Shared planning, neighborhood events, school games and academic teams create unity of purpose and a sense of family. Our family is your family. As we build community here in Atlanta, Georgia, we can get a glimpse of a better world for the future. Our goal is to help all of our students become contributing members of the greater family of man. We see them entering adulthood with confidence in their skills, faith in their intellectual abilities, kindness in their hearts, and the courage to go out and be great stewards for the planet and her people. |
AuthorShevan Howard Archives
February 2018
|