The last day of the workshop. The group has gelled together well and we now all know where to get the best coffee and how to find our way around. I get so much value out of speaking to other teachers, find out what they do and how they do it.

In this session we had some very useful conversations about different ways of reporting. We compared different reporting software and ways of writing reports.

In the morning Danielle Veilleux came along, she is the IB MYP curriculum and assessment manager for arts, individuals and societies and MYP Projects.

We looked at a sample of student work, marked it and then standardised our results. I must say the Teacher Support Material is very useful. You can find it on the OCC, under “general comments”.

MYP projects & service

 

• Community project is optional, but compulsory if you stop in MYP 4.
• Community project is very useful to feed into the MYP Personal Project though.

Group discussions about community service, there are (again) so many different ways of implementing this. If it’s done well, it’s a whole school, coordinated approach which is meaningful and student driven. If not done well, it becomes a tick-the-boxes arrangement from which jaded kids can opt out easily.

From Principles into practice:

Good practices developed by schools with successful MYP service programmes include:

• high levels of student involvement in planning for action that helps students demonstrate learning outcomes authentic connections with the curriculum
• regular and varied opportunities for self-directed student reflection, using student-chosen media and methods (art, music, a brief narrative, conversations, blogs, photographs, drama, or other methods
• that engage creative thinking) consideration of ethical issues that arise from engaging in service activities, including responsibility
• for acting with personal and institutional integrity guided practice in critical reflection, including models and strategies that help students create
• meaning from their experience in service activities, as well as meaningful feedback from peers, teachers and other adults
• emphasis on the quality of service, rather than on a system of counting hours devoted to service activities
• diverse opportunities for service with others throughout the programme, which can include learning
• about important issues, informing others, engaging in advocacy, organizing and taking individual and collaborative action
• clear understanding of the principles of mutual exchange, along with sustainable activities and relationships.

What is an action plan?

“Steps and information that the student defines in order to complete the investigation. The plan might include stages such as: identifying sub-questions; defining methods to be used in the investigation; defining sources of information; a plan for the main stages for the investigation that can summarize the above information. There is flexibility in the process, and students can revise their plans depending on their findings during the investigation.”

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