Conference Special 50years.ibo.org | @iborganization
CELEBRATING CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE CLASSROOM
Editor’s letter
Welcome to the IB Global Conference, San Diego 2018
As educators, you teach students that cultural differences are to be celebrated and respected. This helps them become tolerant and understanding of the multitudes of cultures and people they will interact with in school and later in life. But, by also encouraging students to acknowledge their own differences and individuality, educators can provide a more successful student-centred learning model, as Devin Vodicka, an IB educator in California, explains. Find out more on page 4. We will also discuss the concept of STEAM – or the integration of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics in education. Many IB students use STEAM to combine their scientific and creative thinking to solve real-world problems. Find out how your students can use their skills to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges on page 8.
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his year’s theme – ‘Shaping the Future’ – brings together IB educators from North, Central and South America, as well as many countries across the rest of the world. It’s your chance to join in four days of inspiring and thought-provoking events, and to hear incredible stories from our featured speakers and breakout presenters. This conference is the perfect professional development opportunity for heads of schools, coordinators, teachers, and district and school board officials to promote best practices in the IB Americas region.
Each year the IB hosts several conferences. The next IB Global Conference will take place in October 2018, in Vienna, Austria. For more information on upcoming events, please visit www.ibo.org
International Baccalaureate ® | Baccalaureate International ® | Bachillerato Internacional ®
Sophie-Marie Odum, Editor Follow me on Twitter: @Sophie_Marie_O COVER PHOTO: GIOVANNI GAGLIARDI/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
You’ll discover new ideas to further develop your IB programme. You’ll learn from IB practitioners. You’ll reflect on your own practice. And you’ll return to your school with inspiration and renewed energy.
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IB World Editor Sophie-Marie Odum Acting Editor Dominic Bliss IB Editors Jane Wynn, Freddie Oomkens Managing Editor Steph Wilkinson Production Editor Ilana Harris Designer Sandra Marques Picture Editor Dominique Campbell Printed by Stephens & George
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Contents
4-7 CULTURAL DIVERSITY How educators can help their students shine academically by embracing cultural differences
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8-9 #GENERATIONIB How can we capture IB students’ unique approaches to problem-solving and share them with the world? #generationIB
12 Read more stories online
10-11 STEAM IB students combine science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics to address realworld issues 12-14 MEET THE SPEAKERS Our keynote speakers explore new learning approaches for the 21st century
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You can read more IB World features and community stories online at blogs.ibo.org. If you would like to contribute feature ideas or tell us about your inspiring community projects, please Tweet us @iborganization. Please note that all submissions are subject to editing.
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PHOTOS: A ROOM WITH VIEWS, J. WEST, F. ROBERTS, D. MOORE, PANTHER MEDIA, E. WOLVOVITZ, HERO, MONKEY BUSINESS, VIEW/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; ADOBE STOCK; ISTOCK; SHUTTERSTOCK; SIMON STANMORE; DON BOOMER
July 2018
THE CLASSROOM OF MANY CULTURES Cultural diversity in schools should be seen as a huge advantage, providing opportunities for students to personalize their learning experience
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ne of the IB’s greatest strengths is the cultural diversity of its students. With close to 5,000 IB World Schools, its
classrooms buzz with the richness of many different cultures, races, religions and languages, which foster a wealth of academic and artistic ideas. 4
One educator who particularly appreciates this diversity is Devin Vodicka who is an IB educator and superintendent, and
COVER STORY
“Place students in the driving seat”
Celebrating diversity isn’t just about race, but all students’ cultural differences
a keynote speaker at this conference. Born and raised in northern California to a Czech father and a Dutch mother, Vodicka had an upbringing often typical of a first-generation American, where his family life was culturally very different from his school life. “I was raised in a small town where we were the only family with Czech and
Dutch connections,” he explains. “My family experience was very different from that of my school friends: we would celebrate different holidays to everyone in school, I ate different food and my grandparents would send me unusual clothes from Czechoslovakia. I had this feeling I was unique. But then I would come into school and the teachers would essentially ignore my 5
differences because they were rooted in this factory method of teaching.” Vodicka quickly started to feel his teachers weren’t treating him as an individual. “I’ve since done research on this, and it’s a common experience for students who feel they’re from a different cultural background than the one that is dominant in their school. In many cases, such students withdraw or disengage from school because they don’t feel valued as an individual.” Vodicka suggests that schools should embrace the cultural diversity of their students and encourage them to understand their own cultural backgrounds in order to learn more about themselves. Students should also be taught that their cultural differences are their “strengths, interests and values”. “Every learner should be seen as capable and full of possibility,” he adds. “As educators, we should celebrate their uniqueness. You will
then see much higher levels of engagement from students, and commitment to the learning process. I think this is essential, but it requires a shift in our teaching practices.” Vodicka now lives in Oceanside, California, and works for a Silicon Valley-based network of schools called AltSchool. He stresses that cultural diversity is not simply about race, religion and nationality. There are still huge variations within mono-cultural school
groups. The class might be entirely African American, for example, or entirely Caucasian, yet there might be enormous variations in the students’ socio-economic backgrounds, the sports they play or the music they listen to. These cultural differences should also be celebrated, he says. Ultimately, by embracing cultural diversity, educators will value their students much more as individuals. “There is no average student,” Vodicka
“By embracing cultural diversity, educators will value their students more”
Sharing knowledge of their own culture inspires students
Cultural lessons bring students together We asked IB World Schools to offer advice on how they embrace cultural diversity in the classroom Marion Halberg teaches at Dobbs Ferry High School (pictured right), an IB World School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, USA. Her current 12th grade class includes students born in 11 different countries. The languages they speak in their own homes range
from English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Mandarin to Russian, Bulgarian, Japanese, Albanian, Croatian, Georgian, Korean, Swahili and Gujarati. “The greatest advantage to working in a school as diverse as ours is that it reflects more accurately the real world,” she says. “Students learn to appreciate differences and become more openminded because they are able to understand things from different perspectives.”
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Marion has advice for other IB educators with students from many cultural backgrounds: “Don’t be afraid to encourage all your students to participate, and don’t be afraid of change. Students bring their own unique and individual perspectives to each course, and to the school. That’s really important.” Silke Neumann is an IB coordinator at a state school called Felix-KleinGymnasium, in Göttingen, Germany. In response to the huge number of refugees
COVER STORY stresses. “By valuing individuality, we can shift to a more student-centred model of learning.” Student-centred learning tailors education to each individual learner. To explain the concept, Vodicka says: “It’s like shifting from riding on a train to driving a car. On a train you have someone else setting the schedule and destination, but in a car there are multiple routes you can choose from – to some extent you get to set the pace.” He says student-centred learning is a much more active way of learning: “Students are in the driving seat. And that’s what matters.”
arriving in Germany recently from North Africa and the Middle East, her school is offering places to young refugees on its IB Diploma Programme (DP). “We will build a welcoming culture that enables refugees to take part in the education system and be active members of society,” she says.
Her school runs ‘integration’ classes, preparing students from more than 20 countries for future academic study in the IB programme, as well as everyday life in Germany. “For teachers, the work in the integration group can be demanding,” Neumann adds. “It requires cultural openness on many levels and means interacting with students who suffer from varying degrees of trauma.” Sizi Botsime is an English teacher at Naseem International School in Riffa, Bahrain, with students from many different cultural
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“A school as diverse as ours reflects more accurately the real world” backgrounds. She says teachers need to inculcate in their students the values of tolerance and respect. “Teachers should make these values their daily mantra,” she says. “They can encourage students to be inquisitive about the similarities and differences in each other’s cultures and explain how prejudices can lead to conflict.”
THIS IS #gener Get your students involved in #generationIB to devise solutions to some of humanity’s greatest challenges and share them with our global community
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s part of the IB’s 50th anniversary celebrations, we are inviting students from all four IB programmes to join an online collaborative event called #generationIB, which will showcase their innovative solutions to some of the planet’s biggest challenges. The IB is connecting with
renowned alumni to grow ideas for the themes that will shape the #generationIB event. And we’re promoting the best solutions to a global audience, showcasing them to leaders from business, academia and government.
eracy Education and lit #educationIB ea Hot topics in this ar d an include technology n, io at its impact on educ cess ac g, in rn lea ng lifelo ills to education and sk for the future.
Citizenship and responsibility #citizenshipIB This wide-ranging topic covers global communities, migration, conflict, freedom of speech, responsibility of the press, fake news and the use and abuse of social media.
How will it work? Teachers should encourage students to create a team. This can be either within their own school groups or, even better, with students from other IB World Schools.
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Students choose a project from one of the following five themes below:
Social justice and equality #equality IB Students who are passionate about hu man rights can explore ra cial equality, gender eq uality, LGBTQI+, economic opportunities and the distribution of wealt h.
Environment and humanity #environmentIB Budding environmentalists can find solutions to climate change, energy, pollution, recycling and sustainable living. 8
an d Health althIB h # n e nutritio t to tackle a lo There’s fo o d reas of in the a able in , susta poverty duction, o food pr ealth, h a ment l xercise, e r a ,e healthc nd obesity. na nutritio
#GENERATIONIB
rationIB 3
Students identify an issue related to their chosen theme. Is there an issue they feel passionate about? Do they live in a society which is already dealing with the issue? Is it effective, or do they think it can be done better? What world-changing ideas could they come up with to work towards solving this issue?
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Students can share their work and ideas any time from now until 21 September 2018, to be in with a chance of having their work featured on our website and social media channels from 24-28 September. We would like them to post photos and videos of their team in action (finding solutions to these global issues) on Twitter, Instagram or Periscope. They should share sketches, texts and other creations that demonstrate their ideas. We’d love to see their ideas develop during the week, showing how they work with each other in creative ways. Top tips Students can use #generationIB to recruit for their team across the IB’s
global community of schools. By using #generationIB and the hashtag of their chosen theme with all their posts, they will get maximum coverage in the IB community and beyond. They should always include pictures and tag their location. Location tags allow us to create a map of 9
the student work taking place as it happens. After featuring on our media platforms, we’ll share the best ideas at our IB Global Conference in Vienna, Austria, in October, 2018 to a global audience of more than 1,500 heads of school and educators. For more info, visit ibo.org/50years/ this-is-generationib
WHERE ART MEETS SCIENCE How the teaching framework STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) is giving students a broader outlook on the world at IB World Schools
The logarithmic spiral of the nautilus shell beautifully demonstrates the golden ratio 10
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TEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics is well known, but now educators are seeing the benefit of adding art into this mix. STEAM is the teaching framework that encourages interdisciplinary learning by combining the study of science with the study of the arts. The idea for STEAM was developed in 2006 by American educator Georgette Yakman. In recent years it has gained traction at many IB World Schools across the United States as they recognize the importance of interdisciplinary teaching. Andrew Mayes is Diploma Programme (DP) curriculum manager for design technology and computer science at the IB. He says the most obvious example of STEAM teaching is in the areas of design technology or product design. Virtually
STEAM all of the world’s most successful commercial products combine STEAM elements: the car you drive, the machine that serves your coffee, the smartphone in your hand… they are all STEAM in action. He uses the example of the Apple MacBook laptop, which relies on technology for its software, engineering for its hardware, and art for its design. STEAM can be found in many other areas of academic study. “Students might look at music as a form of mathematical expression,” says Mayes. “Or the golden ratio [pictured left] and how that presents itself in art, nature and architecture.” He also points to a field of study called bio-mimicry where human design imitates elements of nature: the hooked seed of the burdock plant, for example, which inspired Velcro fasteners, or the sandpaper
texture of a shark’s skin, which inspired a swimsuit. One IB World School embracing STEAM is Whitby School, in Greenwich, Connecticut. Here, sixth grade students explored how science connects to music. “Students were challenged to create and play their own instruments,” explains Nicole Haver, the school’s Middle Years Programme (MYP) coordinator. “This experiment helped them learn how sound is made, and how an instrument’s shape can change its pitch.” Mayes says the advantage of STEAM is that it gives students a broader outlook on the world. “There are some pretty big problems in the world at the moment, but by combining disciplines, students get a deeper insight. Connecting science and mathematics with art and design, in a real-world context, makes their learning much richer.”
STEAM takes student to the movies One former IB student who has applied his STEAM skills expertly is Harsh Agrawal, originally from Rairangpur, in eastern India. Encouraged by his IB World School to study art alongside maths and physics, he won a scholarship to the
Savannah College of Art and Design, in Savannah, Georgia. Within a year, he had completed work experience with the likes of Microsoft and NASA. After graduating, he then started working in visual effects for Pixar, on movies such as Coco and Toy Story 4.
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Harsh appreciates how his IB education helped him. “It exposed me to the art world,” he says. “It allowed me to paint and be creative. It was an experimental and practical approach compared to the traditional syllabus approach in India.”
A student volunteer creates a community mural in Detroit, Michigan
The world in their hands Our keynote speakers explain why young people hold the power to shape the future – they just have to be given the right tools 12
MEET THE SPEAKERS Former IB student Mason Ji has worked at the United Nations since 2013, focusing on the issues of nuclear disarmament, climate change and human rights. From 2015 to 2016 he served as a White House ambassador for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Later this year, he is moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he will attend law school. Living the IB mission “Given the pace of technological development, the political polarization across the world, and the perception of how hatred fuels global conflicts, we need some new energy to bring people together. My hope is that young
to give them the resources to do this, and an IB education is one incredibly powerful way of doing so. Taking others with you, no matter what kind of service you’re doing, is critical. If a person can inspire just one other person to take action, then that chain effect can in turn affect so many more. I hope to broaden people’s definitions of what service is about. Service can be done in any field, as long as you conduct your activities with the greater purpose in mind. Someone in the technology sector, for instance, could offer service to a broader community by dedicating his or her technological innovation to improving
“Young people can change the future – we need to give them the resources to do this” people will provide this injection of energy. I’ve spoken to young people around the world, and I’m continually surprised at how many ideas they have on solving the most pressing problems confronting their local communities – whether that’s in Baltimore in the US or in refugee camps in Syria. I’m convinced young people hold the power to change the future. We need
people’s lives, and inspire others in the technological sphere to do the same. I will draw on my own experiences as someone who took a leap of faith when I was 18 years old to work at the United Nations. Putting yourself out there, keeping your eyes and ears open and not being afraid to do something wholly unfamiliar can result in transformative experiences.” 13
Field trips prompt students to ask questions
Clint Smith is a writer, teacher and PhD student. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review and The New Republic. He has also delivered two popular TED Talks: The Danger of Silence and How to Raise a Black Son in America. His debut collection of poems, Counting Descent, was published in 2016. A former high school English teacher, he is currently studying for a PhD in the sociology of education at Harvard University. He lives in Washington DC. Teaching beyond the text: putting your pedagogy in conversation with the world “I believe it is very important to make sure that the pedagogy in our classrooms is in conversation with the real lives and histories of the students we work with.
MEET THE SPEAKERS Devin Vodicka has worked as a teacher, principal, district administrator and superintendent, winning many awards for his work in education. He has been invited to the White House nine times, both in recognition of his achievements and to assist the US Department of Education. He currently lives in Oceanside, California, and works for a Silicon Valley-based network of schools called AltSchool, which is preparing to expand into a growing community of private, charter and public schools.
Studying history gives context to today’s social, cultural and political landscapes
So often our students are given the task of examining the world without being given the tools to examine the contexts that shaped how the world has come to be. As a result, our students aren’t concerned with history, which means they misunderstand why our social, cultural and political landscapes look the way they do today. If our students are truly to be part of building a better world and shaping the future, we must not be afraid to use our classrooms as spaces to honestly interrogate its problems.”
Transforming learning together “To shift to a learnercentred model of teaching and learning, educators can explore the learner differences within their classroom. I will share
my experiences with conference participants and provide glimpses into the future of whole-child, personalized learning. School leaders strive to create personalized learning environments, but they don’t always have the tools, resources or support to make it happen. I will discuss how we implemented diverse, personalized, learnercentred environments for students at the Vista Unified School District and at AltSchool. In doing so, we explored how to move the focus from challenge to possibility, the importance of valuing cultural diversity in the classroom (see page 4-7), the role of technology in education, and creating transformational change.”
“I will provide glimpses into the future of whole-child personalized learning”
A vibrant learner-centred environment 14
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The IB and Tes launch hub for teachers to share best classroom practice. The IB has formed a partnership with Tes, the largest online teaching community in the world, to launch a resource-sharing hub designed for IB teachers. The aim of our two organizations is to improve worldwide classroom practice and learning outcomes. IB educators can join today for free and share best practice, ideas and inspiration with fellow IB professionals on the Tes Resources platform. Users can easily upload, search for, and download resources within a few clicks.
Benefits for IB educators:
Find classroom resources using familiar IB terminology
Build a reputation for sharing resources that work in your own classrooms
Search and download resources which have worked in your peers’ classrooms
For more information, visit tinyurl.com/ib-tes
Download classroom resources unit planners, exemplars, lesson plans, workbooks and inspiring ideas