A Great Time to be in Education!

With Dr Penland, Mr Petrey, and Mr Wendling currently in Canada and the US for recruiting, my meeting schedule has lightened somewhat. This has enabled me to spend more time in the classrooms - in the last two days I have been in 20 different middle school classes. I have observed so much learning and so much enjoyment and engagement in these classes! Here's some of what I have observed:

• Grade 8 students creating stop animation movies in Design Tech - displaying real inquiry
• Grade 6 students writing short stories and sharing these with their peers - examples of great thinkers and communicators
• Grade 7 and 8 students learning the finer points of volleyball - a great example of being balanced
• Grade 6 students performing in a guitar ensemble - another example of balance and also of being knowledgeable and taking risks
• Grade 6 students participating in drama activities involving lots of movement and risk taking
• Grade 7 students researching the countries of South America - demonstrating very open-minded attitudes
• Grade 6, 7, and 8 students studying the language and cultures of Korea, China, and Spanish speaking nations in their world language classes - students have been taking risks, communicating, inquiring, open-minded and principled
• Students enjoying the stories of the Bible and learning the value of prayer - thinking students who are balanced and caring
• Grade 7 students engaging with books and taking their online AR quizzes - communicating their knowledge
• Grade 7 students taking a Science test, while the grade 6 students were learning all about heat and conduction - students being knowledgeable, inquirers, and risk-takers
• Grade 8 boys working an interdisciplinary assessment that involves researching North Korea in Humanities and writing the report in their English class - this has really challenged the students to be inquirers, open-minded, caring, principled, and balanced in their views and preconceptions

After a visit to each class I have the same thought - Wow! Our students are learning so much and in so many different and exciting ways. Whether you are a student, a teacher, or an administrator, this really is a wonderful time to be involved in education!

How do you teach students to be Principled?

The IB Learner Profile consists of 10 attributes that students should develop through attending IB schools. Some of these attributes deal with intellectual domain, while others deal with the affective domain. One of the affective attributes is Principled.

This means that we want our students to develop into citizens who are honest and virtuous - but how do we teach this? One way is to engage our students in debate about real-life examples of principled actions, as we as those actions that may not be so principled, like the ones at the following link:

10 News photos that took retouching too far

Our students will be faced with many choices in life so it is important that they are given opportunities to discuss and debate the decisions of others with relation to how principled these decisions have been and how they may relate to the students' own experiences. We cannot and should not underestimate the importance of real-life relevance for improved student engagement and outcomes.

Thinking vs Memorizing

An interesting viewpoint on how intelligence is changing.



What do you think?

Are you Balanced

At yesterday's MS assembly Ms Postema's homeroom explored the IB Learner Profile Balanced and encouraged us to think about our lifestyle and ways that we can ensure balance in our lives. This is not always an easy thing to accomplish, but it is certainly something that we should always be aware of and constantly strive for.

If you do a Google search for "balanced lifestyle" you will find in excess of 1, 790, 000 sites that offer all sorts of advice on how to live a balanced life and the benefits of being balanced. It is harder to find ways to determine whether or not your current lifestyle is balanced. One of the sites (http://www.wikihow.com/Have-a-Balanced-Lifestyle) contained the following quote:

If you live a balanced life you will find joy in almost everything you do. Some a bit more than others but your happiness will originate from inside of you and not from external sources.

I think this is a pretty good indicator of a balanced lifestyle - your are happy and content rather than searching for happiness from external sources.

One of the major benefits of leading a balanced lifestyle is that when challenges arise we are better equipped to deal with them - we have the physical energy and stamina to take on the challenge, we have the emotional stability to handle the challenge in a calm and rational way, we have the social skills and network to seek help from peers and friends, we have the spiritual grounding to pause and reflect before acting, and we have the academic knowledge to approach the challenge in an intelligent and thoughtful manner.

Students face just as many, although different, challenges than we adults, so it vital that we help students to lead a balanced lifestyle to better equip them to deal with these challenges when they arise. Holistic Education is so much more than academics and is imperative as we collaborate with our students and help them develop the skills necessary for success in the 21st century.