Finishing Making the PYP Happen: Implementing Agency.

I am finishing up my course called Making the PYP Happen: Implementing Agency.  I learned a lot about using different applications.  Below is my last entry as to what I learned and what I thought about the workshop.

• Identify which of the PYP teacher capabilities you have selected.

As a learning support teacher, I will select teaching approaches, resources, technologies, learning experiences and assessments that are inclusive and effective for diverse students.

• Consider what success in these areas might look like and what approaches you could use to continue learning post workshop.

To demonstrate success, I will encourage teachers to use accommodations not only for learning support students but also for any student in the classroom who may want to try the different approach.  This could be graphic organizers, tactile objects to help focus (ex. silly putty), using manipulatives to understand a concept, frequent breaks from deep concentation, sitting on something besides a normal chair while studying, demonstrating a concept in a home language rather than the school language, choice in form of assessment, and to some extent, listening to audio while reading a text. These are just some ideas but this can be adjusted and added to for student diversity.

I also have a goal this year of teaching students self-advocacy for their learning differences by helping them understand their IEP goals.  For the older students I want them to understand and be able to explain their learning differences.

• Consider what evidence would demonstrate your growth as a PYP educator.

Evidence will be seen in my ability to collaborate with the students' core and specials teachers in order to help them with differentiation for diversity. 

Along with answering these questions, I want to share some of the fun things I was able to create as a result of this workshop. 

I made my own display of the IB Learner profile:

I learned to design my classroom which is really handy since I am moving to new room this next week as well as one for a class activity.

I learned to use the activity of Compass Points. 

North=Need to Know

East=What I am Excited About

South=Strategies I learned that I will be using

Worries= What worries me about what I am learning

I learned to make a poster to demonstrate what Agency means in the PYP

Finally, I made a mind map to demonstrate all the different factors of the Primary Years Program.  I really went into detail with this because I needed to organize all of this in my mind. 

https://mm.tt/1353513556?t=9ksWBTLKD6

We did other activities but I thought these would be fun to share. 

Catching Up and IB Training

I know it has been ages since I posted.  I sort of even forgot about blogging.  I started this blog before I attempted to get my Master of Arts in Teaching Special Education.  One of my last post was to tell you all about the Tabitha Centers.
Since my last post which was on the 10th and 11th  Tabitha Centers, I have seen by daughter become a member of the Mission, Evangelical Free Church of America, that runs the Tabitha Centers.  She is the communication person and helps to create items that the girls can sell to people. It is exciting to see the ministry grow. (The photos in this blog are all taken by Emily Hochstetler and have to do with the Tabitha Centers.) There are now over 200 Tabitha Centers in Kinshasa.
I on the other hand, have completed my MAT.  I taught for a year at the American School of Kinshasa (TASOK) in their Middle Years Program as an English and Individuals and Societies teacher.  It was very challenging and I wanted to teach a second year just to conquer the challenge but this great opportunity came along where I could be the Primary Years Program Learning Support teacher.  I get to do the job I trained for!  I am thoroughly enjoying it.
I am now taking a course to understand the International Bachelorette (IB) Primary Years Program (PYP). This was my first week of training and we have been learning about the IB PYP  and the learner profile which was also very big in the Middle Years Program (MYP).  The program really stresses teaching students to be internationally minded and to be inquirers.  As I think about this, I have raised four children internationally but it is still easy to get caught up in our own way of doing things and not understand others.  The goal of the IB program is to help students become open to understanding other people's world view.
I am growing to really like the concept of students being inquirers.  I have always seen children have such curious minds and have seen where school can actually squelch the curiosity.  The goal with inquiry is to encourage children to ask questions and explore.  I like the fact that children are given hands on opportunities to find out about issues and facts in the world around them.  For example the third grade began exploring Right to clean water and how the Congo River is being polluted.  This led to them exploring the fish of the Congo River.  They have studied the anatomy of the fish and are comparing the basic anatomy to the hundreds of species in the Congo River.  They have even made contact with an ichthyologist from America who is specifically studying fish of the lower Congo River.
Caring is another profile I appreciate. This is something that is growing in the TASOK community. For example, the fourth grade in our school were exploring China this past unit while the fifth grade were exploring human rights.  When the 5th grade presented the Right to Citizenship and how children in the DRC are not all given this right, the 4th grade made the connection with children in the era of China that they were reading about.
Next post may be on my next week of this PYP Workshop or it may be on the differences between the old syllabus shock versus online school stress of getting lost on the internet.

Celebrating another Tabitha Center Graduation 

Photos by Emily Hochstetler

Two seamstresses modeling their products