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As an international teacher, it is highly likely that you will be teaching English as a second or even third foreign language. In many international schools, we find ourselves with a beautiful broth of multiple languages and cultures within our classrooms. And, we deliver our inquiry-based framework to the children in English. For many others, we are teaching in a host country, to a class full of native speakers from our host country and, again, part of our repertoire is to teach those children to not only speak in English but also to learn in English.

Language therefore becomes more than simply a means of conversation. We are teaching a language, about language and through language and we do all of this with that authentic, inquiry-based approach that we truly believe in.  In this article, I will be sharing a recent video from a conversation I had live on Facebook with grade 4 teacher, Maria Vidal. ( @bilingualising on Instagram) [caption id="attachment_2738"...

Concepts vs. Topics: Let's Get clear.

In Module 1, Lesson 2 of my online professional development course, Essentials for Inquiry: Getting Started with Student-Led Inquiry, I dive into bringing inquiry teachers an understanding all about conceptual teaching and learning. As an inquiry teacher, it's that important to have this fundamental understanding right from the beginning because we approach our teaching through a transdisciplinary lens, and it is through those concepts that the children are able to make their meaning far more enduring, transferring this understanding across disciplines, time and place. As we plan conceptual learning experiences for and with the students, we want their learning to have this authenticity and the scope for expansion as they begin to make those rich connections, forming meaning for themselves. In this article, I'm delighted to be sharing teacher-author, Misty Paterson, as she helps to uncover the difference between concepts and topics.  The...

The early years in the IB PYP can be a whole new experience for teachers new to student-led inquiry. It is a beautiful mix of play-based exploration,  guiding invitations leading to inquiry and  provoking wonder all led by the children's natural curiosity.

I do not profess to be an expert with this age-group. Having never taught in an early years classroom, it amazes me when I see creative early years teachers working their magic and bringing the elements of the PYP seamlessly into practice with our youngest learners.

Common Challenges

I often hear from early years teacher-facilitators that their challenges include questioning and developing this skill with the children.  Such struggles include:

• How do I get the children to ask meaningful questions?
• How can we use thinking strategies with such young children?
• They can't  read or write, how do I plan for inquiries?
• They're too young to ask good questions.

Perhaps you can relate to one or a few? Well, I am...

What is mindfulness exactly? And why would we need mindfulness in the classroom? According to Wikipedia, mindfulness is:

• a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
• the quality of being aware or conscious of something

Research. The ability to help ourselves to find an answer to a question or the solution to a problem.

This potential to find answers for ourselves is a skill that  includes the ability to decide specifically what we want to know, to find information about a topic, evaluate that information,  analyse and interpret the information  and then put it all together in a way that brings us answers and solutions for ourselves. This is a skill that we want our students to develop.

Developing research skills includes explicit teaching of the skill, leading to implicit practice. This resource does exactly that with task cards targeting the research sub-skills.[/caption] The research sub- skills that our IB PYP students need, right from the earliest years include:

• Observing
• Formulating questions
• Media literacy
• Sourcing data
• Evaluating sources
• Analysing & interpreting data
• Synthesising
• Reflecting
• Presenting

We want to ensure that the children's research inquiries are...

When it comes to being an inquiry teacher and an IB PYP teacher, there are a bazillion articles and blog posts and podcasts and books telling us what we can do: become an effective facilitator, research new curriculum,changes to practices, to assessment etc. etc. and on and on,  all while making sure we follow through with the latest buzz words -this is all well and good and no doubt valuable. But sometimes it becomes, and I'm speaking from personal experience, totally and utterly overwhelming.  Well, to add a variation to the theme,  I'm here today to tell you what you DONT have to do! :) Ready? Here goes. You DON'T HAVE TO.......

1. Give Feedback Daily

But how will I know if they are meeting the objectives? How will I know they understood the concepts? What if they are falling behind?  These are a few of the questions that I used to ask myself back in the days when I was rushing around in a stressed out state, trying to ensure that I had enough evidence of...

There is partnership of thinking taking place at this stage of inquiry. It goes beyond setting the scene of the inquiry and triggering background knowledge. We are dipping into the possibilities, inviting our students to connect what they know with what they want to know and with what excites them. This requires our creativity with linking this opening learning experience to the concepts we will explore in such a way that will excite, engage, invite wonder and spark curiosity. This is where the magic begins and the student-led inquiries stem. This is the art of the provocation.

But what exactly does it mean? What is this thing we call "a provocation"? These synonyms from the definition of the noun (provocation) from  the Oxford English Dictionary are  indicators of what we are aiming for:

I played around with the title of this article, largely because the job of an IB PYP teacher never looks the same from teacher to teacher. I tried, ' The Role of ....", then, " The Job of.." and finally settled on the above because basically job refers to the content  and role refers to the context . Our role and job, I felt,  can look quite different depending on the grade level, whereas being brings our own uniqueness to the role which amplifies the job. Make sense? I may be putting too much thought into it. Ha!

Anyway, the most common queries I receive from teachers new to student-led inquiry and the IB PYP is that they are seeking clarity as to how their job ( the content)  may differ from their previous teaching positions and what their new role ( the context) , will look like.

Well, rather than simply providing a list like a job description, I created points that summarise what happens as we make that shift from the traditional classroom teacher, to that...

To get straight to the point: mindfulness belongs in the classroom. As an IB PYP teacher, I approach teaching through a philosophy that centres on the child and the development of the whole child. This philosophy resonates with my own beliefs for educating our children to become avid questioners with the skills and strategies and confidence to try to find out for themselves. I nurture a sense of wonder and a strong belief in self. With this sense of self, I have to understand how to develop this awareness of self within the children and how I can guide them towards understanding who they are as unique individuals and also as learners. Mindfulness has been added to the updated IB PYP Approaches to Learning Skills. Specifically, you can now find it under the skill of Self-Management.  In order to best serve the children, I first needed to understand exactly what this "mindfulness" thing was.

I'm lucky to be a part of our close-knit community of international inquiry teachers on...

Well, let's talk (again) about student agency and how to increase it within your classroom. Keeping in mind that it is far more than flexible seating and independently gathering resources, and more about giving the children voice, choice and action in their own learning, I'm heading straight to student engagement and developing independent inquiry. And there's a FREE sample for you too.

Student Engagement: So, What Does It Really Mean?

Student engagement is a challenge that each of us has encountered at some point within every year. It’s a lot to expect children to devote their full attention to school for eight hours straight. It is natural that they will lose focus at times, but there are strategies we can use to help them to increase this Self-Mangement skill of maintaining their focus.  It’s also important to remember that engagement also involves interest, curiosity, and motivation. Are you familiar with Phillip Schlechty's five levels of engagement? His...