Reflections on my first week of IB PYP training:
Being an Assistant teacher for the last 5 years, across different grades, gave me a lot of understanding of how the young minds work and how they evolve over a period of time. This academic year, I became a home room educator for grade 3 in a school in India. Our school moved from the traditional curriculums to IB PYP curriculum in 2021.
A lot of our learning happened on the job as the new methods of teaching and learning were implemented. All of us had to learn a lot of new things and unlearn a lot of old ideas and methods. There is a saying that "Change is the only constant thing in life" and for a lot of us, the change was both, a welcome one for some and unwelcoming for some others. It gave a fresh opportunities to learn and grow in the present day world where things move fast, and of course learning among the young one is faster while some were still critical about the change and skeptical if it would work.
The first week of my online IB PYP training has been and eye opener. I realised that there is so much more to learn than what I had imagined. It made me think and realise that there so much more to learning and upgrading my skills as a teacher.
Here are some of my insights about the Module 1 of the training program:
Developing Global Citizens Through the IB Learner Forum:
The focus on IB learner profiles as means of developing global citizens was indeed enlightening. Each attribute of the learner profile is thought evoking and takes me back to the classroom where I keep reflecting on how my day was and how I tried to integrate each of the attributes through classroom activities and discussions, where students sometimes struggle to express their ideas and thoughts and sometimes, it comes out in creative aspects. I aim at integrating my new learning in the classroom to help students become more confident and think out of the box.
Embedding International Mindedness:
One of the important cornerstones of IB learning is creating a generation of young people who appreciate other people for who they are - their culture, religion, country of origin and come up with collective solutions to universal problems. As the world around us becomes more complex, understanding our histories and awareness of people from other parts of the world becomes extremely important. In the next decade, these learners will inherit the world we all live in. Therefore, it is important that they learn well to collaborate, understand and learn to make connections to make a better future. From this training, I was able to come with so many different ideas that could be implemented in our schools and collaborations among schools from other countries will be so much more helpful.
The Role of Language:
As an educator in school where 4 different languages are taught and language support is given to students from other countries/ cultures (Special ESL/ Hindi), this part was really exciting for me. It was interesting to read about all my cohorts opinions and learn about some of the practices that are followed in their schools. Languages are more than just for communication. They give us an identity and help us understand other people, cultures and appreciate their perspectives. As a person who studied all her life in India and grew up learning 4 languages (English, Hindi, Punjabi and understandable Spanish), I could relate to so many contexts. The appreciation for languages can open so many doors of an inclusive mindset and opportunities.
This week of learning on this forum as been quite exciting and I am looking forward to add to my existing understanding of the profession that I chose 6 years ago. The insights that I have gained here are have deepened my curiosity and inspired me to think more about implementing good practices among my students.
Shipra Jindal
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