Three Fundamental Concepts in MYP Liberty Middle School IB MYP Program

Holistic Learning – Get to the Heart of the Matter  Transformative approach to learning  How can you trigger a student to transform  As opposed to coerce them to learn  Give them opportunities to expand/modify their points of view; habits of mind; and worldviews  Human beings are whole – Engage the whole child  Every human needs to grow intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically, artistically, creatively, and spiritually.

Simplify!  Holistic learning has to do with integration  Integrating to simplify…  Its tough at first because of the complexity  Show video (Charlie Rose - Twitter founder)  But you must edit and edit until it is simplified  Schools integrating video  It’s a team effort

Transdisciplinary (Beyond the disciplines) Inquiry  To capture the students mind and to make the lesson effective it needs to be significant, provocative, relevant, engaging, and challenging (that’s i+1)  So connecting the learning to something that means something to them is not only effective it’s easier  Start giving them the tools to self-regulate their own learning  Keep the curiosity alive  Foster a love of learning  Attention to experiential learning – many levels are engaged  Provides a framework for DEVELOPING links between the subject groups and between the subjects and real- world issues – so that students see knowledge as an interrelated whole

Children need to learn about (true curriculum)…  Themselves (self-respect, self-esteem)  Relationships (social literacy, emotional literacy)  Resilience (overcoming difficulties, facing challenges, ensuring long-term success, goals, responsibilities)  Aesthetics  Reverence (for each other, life)

Create a Sense of Community through Shared Experiences  Even plants grow when you give them attention  Sometimes you cant give each student the attention they need but with the CIF techniques it helps the kids give each other the attention (speaking, listening) to create a community of learners  Teach them how to engage with each other with topics they enjoy first before delving into harder issues  Every human needs to grow intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically, artistically, creatively, and spiritually.

Reflection  How is Holistic Learning different from traditional types of learning?  Where do you see holistic learning in your classroom?  How can you make your classroom more holistic?

Intercultural Education – Get yourself connected  Multiple perspectives are better than one  Freedom of biases and narrow feelings and sentiments  Freedom to explore other cultures and perspectives  Story of the 7 Blind Mice  Promotes equality, human rights, and challenges unfair discrimination  Allows one to make ones own choices in full awareness of what is out there

Intercultural Education- Freedom  Know your own culture – sometimes you cant know it if you don’t explore another  Celebrates the uniqueness of the individual and seeks to nurture elements of his/her life  Empathy with those discriminated against  It should be embedded in everything you do in the school; integrated with all subjects  Respects, celebrates, and recognizes the normality of diversity

Intercultural Education - Freedom  We want to encourage the child’s curiosity about cultural and social differences  Positive emotional responses to diversity  Intercultural capacity is more effective if it is done through talking with the child about his thoughts rather than simply telling him/her the right/wrong of the situation  Classroom talk comes in very well for this

Reflection  How have you helped your students connect to each other? What more could you do?  How have you helped your students connect their learning to the outside world? What more could you do?  How have you helped your students consider other perspectives? What more could you do?

Communication – Sharing is Caring  Communication supports understanding and allows student reflection and expression.  The learner profile describes a communicator as someone who can understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language  Mother tongue maintenance and development is considered essential

Communication – Sharing is Caring  Language is integral to exploring and sustaining personal development, cultural identity and intercultural understanding  It is a major medium of social communication, it is tightly linked to cognitive growth as it is the means by which meaning and knowledge is negotiated and constructed.  All MYP teachers are considered language teachers

Reflection  What do you do in your classroom to allow students to communicate to each other more?  What more could you do to promote communication?