Episodes
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Welcome to the second transdisciplinary challenge!
In this challenge, we are going to examine the connection between the themes with your program of inquiry (POI). We will do this by analyzing how our content standards are connected with the concept families in the theme descriptors.
This challenge will have a differentiated task based on where you are on your PYP journey. Are you ready to dive into this challenge?
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
In this challenge, we are going to explore understanding and unpacking the transdisciplinary theme descriptors. It took me a long time to realize the importance of them, because my teams never talked about them. We didn’t make the themes a part of our unit planning, so they never got taught.
About my 10th year in the PYP, I wondered what would happen if I taught the students the meaning of the descriptors, so they could understand the bigger picture of the unit, Then, I began digging into the descriptors themselves and realized that they were families of concepts that were separated by semicolons.
Stay with us to learn about how to unpack the themes to get the most out of them.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
Missing episodes?
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Welcome to the first transdisciplinary challenge. We are delving into what transdisciplinary looks and feels like in our classrooms through the use of PicCollage. Join us!
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
Welcome to our new series on transdisciplinary learning!
Now that we’ve had a chance to look back and apply our thinking, it’s time to challenge ourselves again. You heard me...we are returning to where we started and creating a five session challenge! These episodes will help us to sharpen our skill set and reflect on how we can improve our transdisciplinary practice.
The challenge will have two parts to differentiate based on where you are on your PYP journey.
Part A: we will review the big ideas of each part of transdisciplinary learning, so everyone is on the same page. If you already have a solid understanding of that part of transdisciplinary learning, then feel free to skip it and go straight to the challenge.Part B: we will complete a challenge and post it in on Twitter @thinkchat2020 or Linkedin @Lu Gerlach https://www.linkedin.com/in/lu-gerlach-9721991a8/
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/
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Welcome to the third and final episode of our application series. If you haven’t had a chance to apply your learning of the learner profile and international mindedness, I’d suggest you do so before moving forward. It’s a great chance for you to synthesize and apply your understanding of the big ideas to your school/ unit context. This is our ultimate goal with any professional development to make meaningful application to what we are already doing.
As we know, agency and action take up a lot of space in our practice within the PYP. They shape everything we do, so we need to take time to apply their role into our practice.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/
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It's time to apply our learning!
In this episode, we will look at our practice of building international mindedness in our classroom and schools and make tangible goals to make the practice come to life in our learning setting!
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
Welcome to our application series! What is the application series? It’s a time to reflect on all of the learning we have shared so far, reflect on our practice, and make concrete goals for the future.
Application and reflection are at the heart of the PYP. They help us to see where we’ve come and where we need to still go on our journey. It’s important for us to own our truth and not compare our journey to someone else’s. We don’t see their challenges, just their successes. Remember that as you apply your learning.
Our first few episodes began with an inquiry challenge that focused on our role and needs as an educator. This was a fun way to evaluate our journey so far and set the stage for new learning ahead. This helped to lay the foundation to learn about agency, action, the learner profile attributes, and international mindedness.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
This episode, we are going to discuss the deeper connections we make when building relationships founded on international mindedness.
When we think about building relationships that lead to international mindedness, we naturally connect to building school culture. They support each other in building lasting relationships of trust where understanding happens. It’s difficult to lay a strong culture when community members lack trust in each other.
We will explore how to break down the barriers with other community members that think differently than ourselves.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
In this episode, we will explore the power of a school mission statement in creating culture and shaping the learning and teaching. We will examine the IB mission statement and craft or tweak our own using simple scaffolded steps. There will be an unorthodox example shared to help you think broader about your mission statement.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
Now that we’ve received some ways to incorporate international mindedness into our daily practice, how will we use them? Let’s go back to our agency continuum to gauge where we are in the process.
As a reminder, the agency continuum has four phases:
Teacher-driven: teacher is doing all the work and thinkingModeled: teacher provides all of the activities and the students do itGuided: the teacher provides the topic and the students design the process and productLearner-driven: the learner chooses the topic and decides on the process and productIn this episode, we will take a few moments to think where we are and where we'd like to be with international mindedness. We will examine different ways we can demonstrate agency when developing international mindedness and make goals for the next phase of the school year.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/
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The second layer of the foundation in our PYP house is international mindedness. It helps to cement our school culture with building relationships with each other and others around the world. How do we do this in a practical way on a daily basis? I believe it is about how you lay out the physical space and intentionally planning international mindedness into our unit. Here are some examples of how to do this.
using multilingual and multicultural textsbringing families into the unit of inquiryreflecting regularly with scenarios
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
Building international mindedness in ourselves and in our learners takes time, because it is a process that can't be rushed. Through multiple years of exposure, students begin to better understand cultural differences, ways of doing things, and belief systems. They may not always agree with varying viewpoints, but they are able to demonstrate respect.
In this episode, we will examine personal experiences with international mindedness and how we can further build it with the help of the learner profile attributes. We will use the attributes to support learnind and understanding with the six transdisciplinary themes.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
The number one mistake I made as a new coordinator was building the curriculum framework first. If you are a coordinator, please heed the call. Do not follow in my footsteps, because it cost me at least six months and polarized my staff. Here’s what I’d do instead.
If I had to do it all over again, I would ignore the pressure from my school leadership to begin building the curriculum framework and focus on building a new school culture. Remember, the foundation of our PYP house is the learner profile.
culturevisionlanguage
I would focus instead on creating a shared...Join this episode to learn how to establish these foundational practices in your school program.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
There is no magical tool to stop undesired behavior, just love for your students. When you don’t like your students, they know.
How to build relationships with our students that are meaningful and real, so they will share more ownership of the learning experience.How to create learner profile driven behavior goals to get students back on the right track. How to reflect on our behavior in order to own our past mistakes and make next steps in alignment with the learner profile.
This episode, we will examine ways to guide behavior using the learner profile attributes. We will explore:For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/
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Now that we’ve established the learner profile in our school community, we can take the next step of explicitly teaching it in our units of inquiry. Let’s take a look at how we can wrap the attributes around the content areas to make it more meaningful.
Attributes in literacyAttributes in science and social studiesAttributes in mathFor a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/
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Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and friends. For many Canadians and Americans around the world, today is a special day we celebrate to honor our past and reflect on our many blessings. Canadians celebrate their holiday on the 2nd Monday in October and Americans on the last Thursday in November. I would be remiss on this particular Thanksgiving to take a moment to share my gratitude for my relationships and plentiful opportunities to grow in the PYP. You can too!
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You’ve unpacked the learner profile attributes, now what? Do you just use them whenever time permits or can you plan with them in mind? In my personal observation over the past twelve years, I’ve noticed that most PYP teachers use them as behavior attributes. So our challenge is to look at the learner profile in a new light and try to consider them as a teaching tool. Here are some examples in relation to learning spaces.
learning spaceslibrary spacescommunal spacesFor a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/
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The learner profile attributes are one of the tools you can use to get students to make transdisciplinary connections with your content. In this episode, we will look at the ways to maximize the attributes in your daily practice.
Unpack the attributes by connecting the attribute descriptor with the concepts in the transdisciplinary theme and content. Use the wall of fame to frame practical understanding of individuals who emulate the attribute of focus.Create learning goals based on the attributes and allow students to drive this process.Reflect regularly on learning through the lens of the attributes.There are endless ways to use the learner profile attributes in your daily teaching practice. For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/
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The learner profile attributes are sometimes overlooked or misunderstood in our units of inquiry. Some people look at them as a list of character traits to be a better human. This is partially true, but they are more than that. They are thought processes that lead to deeper action.
In this episode, we will examine the relationship between the learner profile attributes and action within/ action beyond.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ -
The PYP curriculum framework can be compared to the structure of a house. There are many different layers that make it withstand the test of time.
the foundation, floor,vertical beams and wallsdifferent levels/floorsroof and attic
The layers:Together, this house holds of up the PYP program together to create learning that is dynamic and real.
For a written blog post and other resources, visit: https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ - Show more
