Students want to learn. Teachers want to teach. Parents want the best for their kids. Administrators want to ensure that everyone is happy and satisfied. All key stakeholders in a school system come in with good intentions. However, due to mismatches in resources and capabilities, demotivation sets in and people start to stray from the path of good intention.
IB helps align all key stakeholders back on the right path. IB provides frameworks that aligns everyone goals in primary and secondary schools. This alignment is encapsulated in IB’s mission statement. The essence of the mission is to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring global citizens that can empathize with one another. At the end, this will drive global peace and advance the human race.
Altruism… utopia… super-duper stretch goal? Maybe, but you can’t blame IB for trying and trying is what they are doing and doing well. As of December 2021, over 5,400 schools in 159 different countries are offering the IB program and the total number of schools keep growing. It seems that school leaders are voting with their feet as to what is the best for their students.
The key enabler for a successful IB program is in their teachers. However, the teaching techniques of traditional schools where information is force-fed to students have changed to conceptual teaching. IB uses concepts to teach skills. Learning is driven by a big idea. Students are encouraged to use or apply what they are learning in activities and projects that can span several teaching subjects and be based on real-world situations. This is a good way to get depth of knowledge.
A good IB teacher for MYP (Middle Years Program), DP (Diploma Program) or CP (Career Program) should be a subject matter expert and mentor. This person should be internationally minded or better yet, have international experience in the subject(s) that they are teaching. Teachers will need to guide students to find information and answers so that they (students) can build self-esteem and understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses.
And now I chime in… 😊 Many people have told me that my experiences are quite broad. It’s not everyday that you will encounter a person who has been a Financial Analyst, Software Engineer, Business Developer and Human Resource Recruiter. Each of these job title can be an entire career by itself. However, due to my life situations and curious nature, I was able to spend significant time at each role to understand what it takes to get in, what are the specific trials and tribulations and what it takes to do well.
To bring all of these experiences and to couple them with 4 years as an educator, I believe I make a great candidate to mentor and guide eager students that really want to know more about the outside world and how to apply what they are currently learning. An IB educator must be able to think holistically but act pragmatically. The only way to ensure that students know you can do the former is through experience sharing. As an educator, you can’t BS your way through this one or the students and even parents will see right through it.
For the latter, an educator should stay on top of current events and knowledge in their subject area(s). They must be passionate about what they are teaching. For me, my interests are in business and technologies and everything in between. You can witness this passion in my social media activities or just have a friendly chat with me. I love to share what I know and get great pleasure when others can benefit, even in some small way, from this knowledge.
To encapsulate my understanding of IB MYP, I am putting together a handbook for a fictious school. This project allows me to understand how IB works holistically and where I fit. If you like to know more about how I can manage, mentor and guide your students and help your organization to be the best that they can be, Let’s Talk!
