Making PYP Happen at Sias IS
On the afternoon of October 28th, the second Parent Tea of this semester was successfully held in the Multipurpose Room of Sias IS. With the application for IB certification in our school, we hope that more parents will have a deeper understanding of the IB program. Therefore, Ms. Mahdu, Curriculum Coordinator, and Ms. Juliana, PreK teacher, led parents in a workshop to experience the IB program.
After entering the venue, parents first learned about the 6 major IB curriculum themed courses through the 6 posters on Transdisciplinarity; then, the parents saw the recent progress of the topic learning process and the results of each grade, Ms. Juliana, Ms. Suzanna and Ms. Frankee explained to the parents in detail each respective report and answered any questions.
Before the workshop began, Dr. Sam Mills, Head of School, expressed his gratitude to all the parents, Ms. Mahdu, Ms. Juliana and all their colleagues for their efforts to make the workshop run smoothly.
At the beginning of the workshop, Ms. Madhu gave a brief introduction to the origin of the IB curriculum, and then explained the training objectives of the IB curriculum and Sias IS mission, so that parents could see how the two fit together. At the same time, pictures were used to show parents how we teach IB courses on a daily basis, combining the ‘east meets west’ mindset with high-quality talents and a balanced development of mind, body, and spirit.
Then, Ms. Madhu invited parents to do a Gingerbread Man Activity in groups. They discussed and wrote down on the Gingerbread Man poster what they wanted their children to have when they grow up. After the discussion, Ms. Madhu shared with the parents the core competencies of IB learners and the importance of these competencies to be a global citizen/international thinker, which are the competencies and characteristics that parents want their children to have when they grow up.
Ms. Madhu then explained to parents the five ATLs, Approaches to Learning, fundamental skills of IB learners: Thinking Skills, Social Skills, Research Skills, Communication Skills and Self-Management Skills. In IB's educational philosophy, we believe that the process is more important than the result. In the teaching process, the teacher develo.
At the end of the workshop, Ms. Juliana had the parents experience the "paper tower game": each group needed to build a paper tower using the poster board on the table, and when the time is up, the group with the highest paper tower wins. Through this game, parents experienced using ATLs to solve problems and how various skills are developed and improved during the whole process.
Many parents expressed their regrets that they were not able to attend this workshop. We hear you and we’re going to organize more such workshops or activities in the future to help parents gain a better understanding of the IB program.
