2 minute read

ISB X OurLand

At International School Bangkok, it is essential for students to recognize the relationship between what they learn in class and real-life world experiences. Service trips embody wellness, care, gratitude, global-mindedness, and being value-driven. They provide opportunities for students to immerse themselves in character building, comfort stretching, and applied-learning experiences.

One of our new partnerships for middle school field trips this year included a Thai NGO that works to educate students about the issues of deforestation, human-animal conflict, and establishing safe and protected habitat areas and green corridors for flora and fauna to flourish.

Our Grade 7 group actively participated in reforestation efforts by seeding plants on ISB sponsored land donated to OurLand through an all-school fundraiser called Jumping For Elephants. These pieces of land will help create an essential green corridor connection from the adjacent national park to a river source that will, in turn, reduce wildlife deaths and reforest land and reduce carbon footprints.

Students learned to meditate in nature on this trip with the silent nature walk exercise. Students safely walked one by one through a stretch of forest with the simple instructions to be still, stop, listen and take in what they saw around them. They later stood in distanced rows facing a stretch of trees, performing deep breathing exercises, allowing them to experience the peace and tranquility of their surroundings fully. They learned how to identify various insects and plants through the excellent guides at OurLand and simply experienced nature. Students gained a new and respectful understanding of their responsibility to work towards protecting wildlife and creating sustainable solutions to affect change, awareness, and education in their peers and futures.

As part of the trip, students were told to leave all digital devices at home and have a complete digital detox. Not only did this create a necessary break from technology, but it encouraged students from all backgrounds and friend groups to interact and socialize. By the end of the trips, we saw many new friendships had developed.

Even though our teachers shifted from virtual learning to hybrid learning to everyone back in person, their professional development and dedication to their ongoing growth never wavered.

This year, professional development focused on creating ways for every student to access their learning by constructing opportunities and removing barriers. We spoke specifically about how we take a translanguaging stance to support all students in using all of the languages in their repertoire to access learning.

Teams spoke explicitly about how students develop their digital competencies and work toward mastering the ISTE standards (International Society for Technology in Education) through integrated, project-based, and inquiry-based learning. Teachers and teams collaborated to design meaningful opportunities for students to find problems, design solutions, test those solutions, and iterate to improve. These learning activities not only stressed our academic standards but promoted student voice and choice and built upon our Values and Attributes.

At International School Bangkok, we are proud to be able to hire the best educators in the world. They are true professionals who genuinely care for their students and are dedicated learners themselves.

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