iics spark: inspiring teachers

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INTRODUCTION

“It is many small insights coming together that bring big ideas into the world.”

Scott Berkum One of the biggest challenges in education is meeting the needs of all students. It is truly the central question we struggle with almost daily. Research in psychology and education has demonstrated what effective teachers have always instinctively known, that learning is a very personal, autonomous process. Every learner brings a different combination of strengths, prior experience, interests, skills and attitudes to school. From its history of strong student-teacher relationships and focus on community as well as its forward-thinking approach, IICS has connected with the movement towards personalizing learning, its key focus being on the student as an active participant in the learning process: not just at the receiving end, but in all aspects of the process, from planning to assessment.

“Innovation on some level is evolution, not revolution. It’s the idea of taking something and making it better. It’s about deepening and enriching….”

Chris Lehman This professional learning journal seeks to document the explorations of IICS faculty into how to meet the needs of more students more deeply and more effectively. It is hoped that readers will connect with the ideas and add to the learning, that they can be a spark of inspiration or encouragement to educators everywhere who are quietly changing the way they teach. This is real innovation in education, researching through action and feedback, from all involved, to find better ways to do things for the benefit of our children.

Jane Thompson, Head of School

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CONTENTS Introduction 1 Professional Learning Communities at IICS 3 Sparks 4

• Mindfulness in the Classroom 5

• Creating a Culture of Independent Reading 8

• Personalizing Documentation to Transform Thinking and Inspire Self-Directed Learners

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• Modular Learning in Grade 10 Science and MYP Math 27

• Content- and Language-Integrated Learning 30

• Exploring Movement and Play in the Lower Primary Classroom 32

• Outdoor Learning 36

• Exploring Personalizing Learning in grade Six Maths 41

• Assessing Technology Within the Classroom 45

• Teaching in Shared Spaces 51

External Professional Development Courses and conferences attended 2015-16 55 Individual Academic Achievements 61

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Professional Learning Communities at IICS

“Improvement of teaching is a collective rather than an individual enterprise.”

Susan Rosenholtz We are in our second year of using a Professional Learning Community structure for a significant part of our in-school allotted time for professional and school development. Our PLCs are self-forming, around topics of shared interest or expertise within a broad remit of personalizing learning for students. No specific criteria are given regarding the nature of the outcomes, but the teams from the previous year identified the following as the main features of the PLCs that were most successful and rewarding. These were shared at the start:

• outcomes and focus were relevant to classroom practice and could be applied immediately;

• clear goals were identified and agreements about expectations for collaboration and communication were set at the beginning;

• teams consisted of members who were genuinely passionate and motivated about the topic.

The PLCs had approximately 8 sessions of 90 minutes allotted school time over 6 months – many spent much more of their own time. The deadline, The ‘Festival of Learning,’ where the results had to be presented in a form shareable with others, was late March. A snapshot of the impact and experiences of the PLC teams is documented in this journal. Many of the projects are ongoing and the staff members involved are eager to continue as well as encourage more converts and skeptics to join their explorations.

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Festival of Learning 2016

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Mindfulness in the Classroom

Meral Soguksu, Ian Penrose, Charaine Poutasi & Liz Hurford

“Of what use is it that we can travel to the Moon, if we can’t cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?”

Thomas Merton

Documented by Meral Soguksu On a daily basis many adults struggle to remain calm and present in the moment, multitasking and dealing with increasingly hectic daily routines. As a Primary Learning Support teacher at IICS, I regularly encounter children who also find it hard to focus and pay attention to the present. After conversations with colleagues who had similar observations, we decided to try and find some appropriate tools to help ourselves and our students. One of my colleagues suggested mindfulness, and immediately I felt drawn to the practice having heard of it before but not being aware of what it actually meant. As a team we then set out to explore mindfulness and how we could incorporate it into our lives and at school. Research The first thing we decided to do was to take an online course for adults on Mindfulness through Monash University. We decided to do this as it seemed that we needed to initiate mindful practice ourselves before we could start to think about how to implement it at school. This free online course is very practical and takes 3 hours per week over 6 weeks. The course gives a very concise overview of what mindfulness is and the science behind it. There are examples of mindful meditations to practice as well as forums for sharing thoughts and experiences and captivating videos. The guided meditations and the self-paced nature of the course make it a worthwhile experience. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/mindfulness-wellbeing-performance

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Practice Meanwhile, we started to look at practical ways that we could implement mindful practice at school. Research presentations by Daniel Goleman gave us ideas for how to practice “belly breathing” with early years children. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scqFHGI_nZE As mindfulness is about directing our attention inwards, working on noticing when you breathe is one way to start working on awareness. We practiced our belly breathing using “breathing buddies,” stuffed animals that we placed on our tummies to observe the movement they made as we exhaled and inhaled while deeply concentrating on becoming aware of our breathing. We also started to trial the Smiling Mind site and free app with our students. http://smilingmind.com.au/my-smiling-mind/ This site is a free sign up and has many guided meditations and activities to work through online. The site allows you to choose the age group you work with, has audio files to download, and shows how you and your students are progressing with a history tab, achievements, personal evaluations, etc. Another website we used that has similar mindful practices for children is Go Noodle. This site also has exercises that are designed to help children focus in a fun and hands-on way. https://www.gonoodle.com/ Mindfulness is purposefully paying attention, in the present moment, in a non-judgemental way. Mindfulness meditation practices are not at all strange rituals but are in fact readily and easily integrated into everyday life. We therefore decided to incorporate mindful eating, mindful colouring and mindful walks into our practices as good practical ways to focus our attention and open ourselves to sensation and experience. All of these practices require students to focus on sensations, how things around them look, feel, smell, taste or sound. Mindful listening exercises with a gong or bell were also incorporated into the school day by some teachers.

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Impact Observing the early years students during “breathing buddies” exercises in the initial stages of practice and after the first few weeks demonstrated that children over time were able to sustain focus for longer and progressively extended periods of time from 3 minutes initially building up to 10 minutes. Furthermore, older children were beginning to show a greater understanding of self and started differentiating emotions (what we like/dislike) from feelings (how we respond to our emotions). Many of these children expressed pleasure after the practices and talked about a sense of calm and wellbeing. Conclusions and next steps

We have been really excited about the impact of this work on our students and also the high level of interest from our colleagues from all parts of the school. The primary team has already started to implement many of the practices and some of our colleagues have requested that we visit their classes and demonstrate some of the practices to the students.

We continue to find new ways to explore how to practice with children. Blowing bubbles or making pinwheels, for example, are fun ways to introduce mindful breathing to young learners. Finally we hope to have a scheduled time each day allocated for mindfulness practice. As a result of our presentation at the recent CEESA conference, we have been invited to present at an upcoming mindfulness conference in Ljublana, Slovenia. Further recommended reading and links to organisations

Books by Ellen Langer, a long-time proponent of mindfulness as a vital life skill, are inspiring reads both personally and professionally:

Mindfulness, Ellen J Langer 1989 The Power of Mindful Learning, Ellen J Langer 1997 Organisations https://mindfulnessinschools.org/ Comments and Feedback Meral Soguksu – [email protected]

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Creating a Culture of Independent Reading

Dave Johnson, Kevin Rempel, Lauren Grahame, Breda Hayes, Amanda Bond, Jen Ribachonek,

Jacob Ramirez & Serife Lumsden

With a firm belief in the fundamental importance of reading for academic success, enabling life-long learning and personal enrichment, this PLC explored what practical strategies can impact our students’ reading habits and create a strong culture of reading at IICS.

“Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st C will need to read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to do their jobs, act as citizens and conduct their personal lives. They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn. They will need literacy to feed their imaginations, so they can create the world of the future.”

International Reading Association (Moore et al1999) Given that reading is so important to success at every level, it would seem an important priority to focus on how we as a school can support students in becoming habitual and eager readers. The beautifully-crafted speech written by Neil Gaiman (Guardian article: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming) presents a compelling argument for enabling children to read for pleasure—and to allow them to choose what they read. Research into reading habits demonstrates that choice, interest and motivation are highly related: “Surveys internationally suggest most children are more likely to read for pleasure if they can choose their own books” (Gambrell 1996).

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“ To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you’re on the road to reading everything. And reading is a key…. “

Neil Gaiman The team defined the features of the ideal culture of reading as:

• reading is valued by staff, students, and families; • reading is prioritized as a way of living – time is allotted in and outside of school; • reading choices are driven by personal interests; • reading habits are modeled; • reading is visibly shared through meaningful and authentic ways, and • reading is celebrated.

The PLC discussed the opportunities and barriers to children reading independently and conducted a survey of students and teachers at IICS to explore this in our own context. As part of ‘Love Reading Week’ they established a daily DEAR time; responses to this initiative were recorded in the survey. They also explored other resources and practice that might support students becoming avid readers and build a culture of independent reading at IICS. They found the work of Donalyn Miller and Susan Kelley especially helpful in identifying specific habits common to lifelong readers and how teachers can help students develop them.

“Research shows that lifelong readers share key habits”

Donalyn Miller, Susan Kelley

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Acting ideas from students and teachers helped them organize themselves into smaller groups based on common genre interests as another way to share reading recommendations.

The PLC experimented with new ways to develop these habits including: Speed Book chats Students prepared a short elevator pitch for their favorite book and moved round the circle sharing their review with each new partner. Assembly Book talks As part of the regular assembly agenda one or two students presented a compelling ‘sales pitch’ for a book they had read and wanted to share. Community reading vine Parents, teachers, local staff, grandparents, friends and students were encouraged to bring in photos of themselves reading their current book. The pictures were displayed as part of an IICS reading vine which grew around the main entrance as photos were added.

“ Once you’ve visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.”

Neil Gaiman

Genre Specific Book Chat

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Outcomes There have been a number of indicators of success of this project including increased borrowing from the library, the emergence of staff book groups, the success of the grades 5 & 6 ‘satellite library,’ and student feedback: The results of the reading survey—reflecting research in this field—identified that the key reason for participants (both teachers and students) not reading was lack of time. The survey also indicated a high level of support for the idea of having DEAR time as part of the school schedule (76.9%). Interestingly, a comparison of MAP scores between two grade 8 classes – one which participated in a DEAR style independent reading program and one that did not – shows a greater level of progress for the former group. This does not provide proof of efficacy of course but certainly validates the practice as worthy of further exploration. These findings prompted a discussion with the school leadership team about how this could be implemented for the next school year. Ideas about how this time can be made as effective as possible were discussed, including ensuring that time for discussion of the reading was included, that effort was made to communicate why this practice can be valuable, and that support and training were provided to all staff involved.

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It was agreed that both secondary and primary would trial a DEAR program twice per week, worked out within their individual schedules. If you only have time to read one article to inspire yourself as a facilitator of lifelong readers: Reading For Pleasure - A Door to Success Staff members already hooked on reading might like to check out the following books:

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Further resources to support reading: http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/creating-readers/creating-reading-culture/ reading -pleasure-door-success https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/

Comments and Feedback Lauren Grahame – [email protected] Dave Johnson – [email protected]

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Personalising Documentation to

Transform Thinking and Inspire Self-Directed

Learners Greta Hazlett, Anna Murray, Duane Smith &

Erika Chapman

Documented by Greta Hazlett Perhaps the word “documentation” carries with it a collective teacher groan, a stigma of hours logged in at home and teachers wondering how valuable it was for the intended audience. We are left reflecting: did the documentation achieve its purpose - did it illuminate our theories about our students’ understanding? There is nothing worse for a teacher than an enormously time-consuming task that actually reveals very little about students. Our PLC set about to further dissect and eventually personalize the various ways in which we were collecting evidence of student learning. This path of self reflection and change led us to a wider understanding of the term “documentation”; maybe for the time being the terms “Visible Learning” or “Illuminating Understanding” would better illustrate our growing purpose as a PLC. Through each piece of evidence we collect, we are uncovering deeper layers of understanding about our learners in order to better develop our growing image of the child. Concurrently, our journey allowed us to find greater meaning in the driving force of good documentation. We have walked away with a clearer understanding of why we should put our effort into personalizing documentation as a team. We have found inspiration as our documentation proved to better reflect our learners and help transform the thinking of all parties involved as we learn alongside one another. It has allowed us to better observe, listen and question so that we can better connect with our learners.

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We invite you to learn alongside us in our learning journey as a PLC. As our tools have become more personalized, our students have become much more self directed to take

part in their own documentation and share their thinking with others. This transformation has been key to supporting our children in deeper inquiry cycles, personalized learning and meaningful work as a global citizen. We asked, how do you make the process of collecting evidence of learning more efficient, effective and relevant? You start small and chew vigorously! We hope to illuminate your thinking about the purpose in personalizing documentation so that it can become a more natural part of

your classroom daily routines. Earl and Hannay (2011) suggest that through rigorous use of evidence of student learning for teaching, educators are becoming ‘knowledge leaders’ pushing our understanding of teaching and learning to the frontiers of innovation. At Istanbul International Community School we promote Play Based Learning from EY 3 to Grade 1. Our students engage in a range of learning opportunities that are created to meet their needs, interests and motivation to learn about themselves and their world. In order for our educators to build up an image of the child as students engaged in both student- and teacher-negotiated learning experiences, we also inquired into ways to make documentation more efficient, authentic and part of our daily routine. Meeting with our administration team allowed us to make some significant changes to our timetables to make Play-Based Learning part of our daily routine from EY3 to Grade 1. We also began reviewing paper forms of play observations and updating these to Google Forms to make documentation more efficient and organised as the starting point to upgrade and enhance current systems we use to document and share student learning.

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We already had our class websites and had begun exploring a range of different blogging apps to allow children to acknowledge and document their own play experiences. We were hearing all these messages about the importance of capturing student thinking and theory building as an additional component towards strengthening the image of the child. Was this something we as educators had considered as part of our approach to documentation? Rinaldi (2001) described documentation somewhat paradoxically as ‘visible listening’ - using notes, slides, videos and so on to reconstruct children’s learning paths and processes. We found that through the PLC we were slowly beginning to get a feel for how the documentation worked best for us as a team and how we could be more efficient. We were personalizing documentation for ourselves and wanted an approach that put learning at the centre and provided an authentic record for dialogue, reflection and analysis. It also meant a review of what we currently had on the table, culling back and bringing forward additional forms and texts of documentation. We reviewed our Google Forms for play observations and we realized that we wanted something that was more effective in making our curriculum standards more apparent and visible. We were certainly able to generate an image of the child; however, how was this being tracked against our written curriculum?

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It was about discovering a new way of observing - a shift in the role of the teacher from an emphasis on teaching to an emphasis on ‘the’ learning: teacher learning about themselves as teachers as well as teacher learning about children (Loris Malaguzzi).

Our team generated our goals:

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What is Good Documentation? Documentation should, on the one hand, provide educators with the ‘evidence’ to provide timely, specific and descriptive feedback to move learning forward. On the other hand, it allows educators to go one step further, to help students self-assess, to “become directly involved in the learning process, acting as the ‘critical connector’ between assessment and improvement” (Earl, 2007). As a team we have concluded that documentation should not only be connected to our initial goals but should also move both student and teacher understanding of the learning process. We also noticed through our own journey that documentation was allowing us to: ● enable teachers to become more connected with the written curriculum as a more

practical and portable understanding of our written objectives; ● create the bridge between the noticings of learning to the interpretations of

thinking that can be used to inform planning by including student experiences and their perspectives;

● maximise and anchor our scope and sequence documents that are used to track student learning for reflection, reporting and collaboration as a process for educators to co-plan further with children and their families, and

● assist educators to organise data and to make learning more transparent with all involved in order to inform next steps for each child, helping to find meaning in what children do and what they experience.

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Inviting Feedback and allowing for Multiple Perspectives Good documentation aims to incorporate the perspectives of all stakeholders in our community. Each comment, learning journey and blog post that is shared brings us closer to our goal of making learning more visible and inclusive in the Early Years. Turner and Krechevsky, in their Reggio Emilia-inspired article Who are the Teachers? Who are the Learners?, speak of documentation as an integral component in creating awareness that we learn from and with one another. That is what these tools have done for us: they have broadened the scope of our classroom to include the wider community through which we learn together.

Student responses to a question raised by a member of the IICS community

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Feedback, comments and shared wonderings are welcomed from all parties and are acknowledged, responded to and discussed in group sharing sessions. Documentation acts as a starting point for further enriched discussion. What is observed

by the teacher and teaching assistant can be elaborated on, challenged and clarified by the student or group involved. The learning journeys and blog posts generated during the documentation process scaffold conversations that raise awareness of both group and individual learning. Reflection and next steps in learning naturally emerge when the time is taken to incorporate the voice and perspectives of all parties. When documentation is shared in this way it is transferred from the private to the public domain. The effect of this is far-reaching and has the potential for students to reach more complex understandings than those possible in isolation.

Making the Written Curriculum Visible What do we do with all the evidence that is collected? Who and what are we gathering all of this evidence for?

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This question required much discussion in the beginning, and answering it together helped to clarify our purpose and approach to documentation. As a group of educators we were motivated by the idea that these tools could assist in making our curriculum an integral and visible part of our daily practice. Evidence for Learning allowed us to input our curriculum frameworks and subsequently produce progress and coverage grids that give a clear overview of the curriculum areas that have been documented. Documentation and Inquiry Inquiry based learning and personalized learning allow us to put the learners’ interests at the heart of their learning, creating self-directed students. As children become more self directed, documentation takes on a key role in tracking the diversification of roles students adopt during their inquiries. Our PLC asked, what if we could track better this complex process as learners shift roles during the inquiry cycle (i.e. team leader, hypothesizer, presenter, teacher, recorder, investigator)? With such documentation teachers would be able to scaffold the inquiry more strategically at integral moments to help students succeed in their roles, use technology to reflect on their roles and, in turn, develop greater self-directed learners during inquiry. As Cheryl Walker and Bruce M. Shore note in their article “Understanding Classroom Roles in Inquiry Education”: “A better understanding of role diversification in the classroom can provide teachers with additional information about individual student progress.”

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We began exploring the tools that we were using to see if there was a way to track the roles students were taking on during their personal inquiries. We found a fit in our tool Evidence for Learning. We added tags to the learners (i.e. #recorder, #investigator, #hypothesizer, #question poser, #presenter) so that we could track which member in the group took on which role. Through the tags and observations we could track how these roles had shifted over time. We could use the data to better reflect with students about the success of their role, or stop a group to question what they might need to feel more successful within the role. The tracking tool provided insight into the very active role/s students take in their inquiries, as well as tracking their deeper and significant growth as an inquiry learner.

Parent Involvement Learning occurs best when we create a relationship-driven learning environment, when students, teachers and parents are able to learn alongside each other to understand the importance of what we are doing. Through our class websites, student blogs and ePortfolios, teachers and parents feel that the link between home and school has been strengthened. These connections have not only allowed us to understand our learners better, it has allowed us to enrich our learning environments with learning experiences that are of greater meaning and relevance to our learners.

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Table from How does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years

Documentation highlights the process of learning for the parents and the student engagements during the task. It sets the scene for the child’s interests and motivations and allows room for further complex questions that can provide transformative thinking. Our websites, ePortfolios, Student Blogs and observations allow parents the opportunity to dig deeper and further into their child’s interests and engagements in order to learn alongside their child at home and at school. As suggested by Carlina Rinaldi, documentation is a way of listening to children, helping us to learn about children during the course of their experiences and to make this learning visible to others for interpretation (Rinaldi, 2004).

This is a website post from an Early Years 5 student’s mother in which she commented on how her child’s measurement learning in school linked to other areas of interest at home. This comment also helped teachers during Play-Based Learning planning sessions to add further ideas to play spaces planned in their garden. Having all parties involved greatly strengthened the student’s understanding about measurement as well as helped sustain his interest in the topic.

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“I know it's a lot of work to keep up the ePortfolios, but I really appreciate how accountable and invested it makes everyone—parent, teacher and child. When I have doubts or questions about my children's personal or academic development, I go to the eportfolio first, and it gives me more depth and perspective. Thank you.” Anna Dillon, Early Years 5 parent Summary - Our shared understanding We believe our key to success was the gradual release and introduction of the tools required to make documentation an authentic part of the teaching and learning process. A regular opportunity to meet and reflect on the impact of documentation on the teaching and learning allowed for further refinement, growth and improvement. As educators we did become more adept in the use of documentation. It has become embedded and acknowledged as an attitude towards knowing and understanding teaching and learning. Knowing our students and how they think further contributed to an understanding of how they and others learn. This transformational change moves the focus away from the product and “becomes an approach of knowing, making it possible for the adult to be and know together with the child” (Turner and Wilson, 2010), so that the students’ interests, thinking and understanding drive instruction. We look forward to writing further about our progress in the very near future and developing further how documentation serves as a ‘memory’ of what went on in the learning environment.

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For further information please view these Early Years Videos: http://www.svetlananekrasova.com/ - /categoriesofplay/

http://www.svetlananekrasova.com/ - /water/ Comments and Feedback Greta Hazlett – [email protected] Duane Smith – [email protected] Anna Murray – [email protected]

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Modular Learning in Grade 10 Science and MYP Math

Omer Kipmen, Tim Trotter, Neeru Jain, Jaima Holland, Tim Wotherspoon, Elaine Claerhout, James Meyer,

Alex Alford & Darrick Couts 2015-2016 has been an exciting year in the IICS Secondary School science department. Over the past years the science teachers had noticed that student performance in Grades 10, 11 and 12 varied immensely, with high-flying students greedily consuming more knowledge while the course material seemed to run away from those who were struggling. With such a variety of ability levels in any given class, it was becoming extremely challenging and rather impractical for teachers to deliver lessons at an appropriate difficulty level for all students in the class at the same time. A new approach was needed to meet the needs of all students. With this in mind, the science department began work in early 2015 on developing a modular system of curriculum delivery. Rather than running traditional semester-based science courses, the teachers developed multiple three-week modules, each of which could be studied independently by students. Each module included the basic content and skills that needed to be covered in the unit together with extension work for those who completed the required tasks more quickly. Theoretically, students would be able to take the assessment tasks when they were ready, particularly tests and written assignments, and the teacher would be able to circulate and work with students on an individual basis throughout the lessons. It would also be possible for students who completed modules very quickly to work on other modules (from a different science) in the remaining time, which would allow them to experience units in all three of the main science subjects rather than just taking a semester each of two of them.

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The advantages of running the modular system were varied. Students were able to work at their own pace throughout each module; therefore, there were far fewer instances, if any, of students sitting in a classroom not understanding whatever was being delivered by the teacher. Additionally, as students were making choices within each module, it was easier to hold them accountable for the work they were doing, and there were fewer excuses available for poor performance. Finally, as students were flipping between sciences from module to module, by the time they had completed the first semester they had experienced two modules from two different sciences and were, therefore, able to make more informed choices for their DP courses at that point. As with all educational initiatives, however, together with the advantages came challenges. Firstly, the amount of work needed to create the modules so that students could work in a self-directed way was always going to be difficult for the teachers, particularly as the intention was certainly not to have all students working quietly at their computers without any peer interaction. Modules could not just result in the mindless content guzzling that so many online courses seem to become. Secondly, teachers soon realized just how challenging it was mentally and physically to have to be aware of the progress being made by up to fifteen students in a class, all of whom were at different stages of the module. Finally, the self-paced nature of the modules resulted in challenges setting up and running assessments. These were the challenges that the IICS science team wrestled with throughout their PLC work during the 2015-2016 academic year. Discussions in PLC time together with ongoing reflective practice in the classroom have certainly raised awareness in the science department of the potential benefits and challenges that the delivery of modular learning entails. The key learning points that the team has shared include:

• Modules need to be longer to accommodate all the interruptions in class time that life in a busy Secondary School inevitably results in.

• Students both enjoy and need collaborative work as part of the learning process. • Generally, students who lack effective study skills are the ones who seem to

struggle with modular learning. However, it is keeping them accountable and helping them to develop more independence.

• Generally, students who have done well in this system would probably do well in any system.

• Clear objectives shared at the beginning of the module are imperative to the success of a module.

• Progress checks are an imperative part of a module to make it successful.

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Most international school teachers face the daunting challenge of huge differences in academic ability levels and linguistic competence in any given classroom, and the modular approach has the potential to offer a method of curriculum delivery that may alleviate the seemingly impossible requirements of differentiating for such a diverse student body. The IICS science teachers have been taking this challenge head on throughout the year and their learning from this year puts the department in good stead to continue such work in future years. The next steps are likely to involve gathering student feedback on the experience, pushing some modular learning into Grade 9 where appropriate, and sharing the learning with other departments also interested in such an approach. Meeting the needs of all learners is the challenge that has been set; an effective, carefully considered delivery of thoughtfully designed science modules seems to have a lot of potential to help us meet this challenge.

“You work by yourself but you also get the interaction with the teacher when you need it and you can ask questions…I feel like Grade 7’s might struggle with it because they’re used to working with a teacher. Suddenly changing it to individual studying might be very hard for them.”

Sophie Krafft, Gr 10 Student

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Content and Language Integrated Learning

Hina Hashmi & Tina Bui CLIL – What is it? CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated learning. The CLIL framework emphasizes mainstream teachers as both subject specialists and language facilitators. The methodology of CLIL is focuses on the learning of a language through the acquisition of subject-specific content. A considerable body of case studies and short-term research show CLIL to have a myriad of positive outcomes, namely within linguistic and academic contexts. CLIL students tend to be more enthusiastic and motivated than students within a traditional second language programme. As a consequence of this CLIL students also tend to do better in both first and second language competence exams than students within a more traditional system. We often find ourselves as educators discussing the central importance of language as a key to accessing the curriculum and experiencing success (no surprise) and the particular focus on this of the IB MYP and DP programs. How do we know it is effective? There is much research supporting the effectiveness of this approach. A good one to read if you are interested is Christiane Dalton-Puffer’s Discourse in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classrooms.( Vol. 20. John Benjamins Publishing, 2007).

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Is it relevant to IICS students? Approximately 80% of IICS students are non-native speakers of English What does it look like in practice?

Additional Resources The British Council - https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-teens/resources/clil New Inspirationfile://localhost/- http/::www.macmillaninspiration.com : new:resources: web-projects Oxford University Press - https://elt.oup.com/elt/students/networkitaly/ clil/ Network_2_CUL_Lesson s.pdf One Stop English - http://www.onestopenglish.com/clil/ Universita degli Studi di Foggia - http://www.unifg.it/sites/default/files/ allegatiparagrafo/20-01-2014/coyle _hood_marsh_clil_toolkit _pp_ 48-73.pdf

Technique # 1: Word Jumble

Draw a 3 x 3 grid on the board. Elicit one vowel from your students - put it in the middle box. Then, get 8 consonants from them. Now, they have to make as many words as they can, using the letters. For example: day, say, mat, lad, sad stay, play, lady etc. Vary it with 2 vowels, 7 consonants. Technique #2: Right or Wrong? This is a true or false activity. Prepare a grid with five boxes by five boxes. Write in some true statements/correct spellings or sums, to spell out a sentence. Then fill the other boxes with false statements or wrong spellings/sums. The students have to shade in the true items and correct the false ones. Check they are right - does their shading spell out the sentence? It's easy to show most letters of the alphabet. Do this as whole class and explain the spelling rules as you correct them.

Technique #3: Story column

Draw two columns on the board, headed adjectives and nouns. Elicit some noun phrases from the pupils e.g. 'An interesting game' and write them up. Then, ask the students to make more combinations. The stranger, the better! Ask them to justify their choices. Technique #4:

Box of words In a bag/ box, put lots of words in it. Go around the class: each student has to take a word, read it, make a sentence out of it, or give the definition if written out on board, peers can correct the sentences and/or make suggestions for improvement. This can be used to practise basic English with beginners, or with key words or new vocabulary for more advanced classes. Or, if you've been studying a novel or a play, your words can be based on that.

Technique #5: Editor

This is a variation of true and false. Instead of a straightforward Tor F, put a mistake, or a piece of false information in each sentence, which students must find and correct. Or produce a report on something the class has studied with mistakes in it. Very adaptable and can be used at every level. Technique #6:

Compare and contrast Give two pictures/ words/ video clips and ask the students to make comparisons between them. E.g., Harry Potter and Gandalf, Mona Lisa and Medusa, 2 famous sportsmen or women, someone from the distant past and someone contemporary, or cats and dogs, etc.

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Exploring Movement and Play in the Lower Primary

Classroom Robin Hinkley, Natasha Witte, Monique Sweep &

Taylor Unger

Putting the heart back into learning… (and the lungs, legs, arms, too!)

Observing the steady impact on young learners of spending more time in front of screens and much less time being active outdoors, as part of their professional learning IICS teachers decided to explore what they could do to redress this apparent growing imbalance. Research Starting with research, they found overwhelming numbers of articles supporting the connection between movement and learning.

“Evidence from imaging sources, anatomical studies, and clinical data shows that moderate exercise enhances cognitive processing. It also increases the number of brain cells. And as a bonus, it can reduce childhood obesity. Schools that do not implement a solid physical activity program are shortchanging student brains and their potential for academic performance. Movement activities should become as important as so-called “book work.” We need to better allocate resources to harness the hidden power of movement, activities, and sports. This attitude has become more and more prevalent among scientists who study the brain. It's time for educators to catch on.”

Eric Jensen, Movement and Learning

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Practice Wishing to be active learners themselves the team decided to spend more time exploring practice rather than theory.

The PLC team explored, observed and tested creative ways to involve movement and play in everyday learning. They created short videos to demonstrate the activities and reflect on their learning, accessible via thinglink: https://youtu.be/97MubGyccaA Outcomes The time and scope of this exploration did not allow for thorough quantifying of impact on student learning, but informal observations of staff members suggest that increasing the playful and physical elements of learning tasks has positive impacts on students’ motivation and engagement with them. In addition it was noted that in these activities, students not normally enthusiastic or pro-active seemed to thrive, thus allowing more students to be successful. The teachers also noted that the students seemed more energized but focused and relaxed during and after these more physically active sessions.

“I already knew that movement and play were

important for grades 1-3 and so does everyone else, and I didn’t

want to research…. I wanted to play”

Robin Hinkley – Gr 3 Teacher

“ Can we do this every time!” -- Yasemin

Spelling Graffiti

Ti Rakau – Traditional New Zealand Maori movement

Students practicing their spellings on unusual or unorthodox surfaces outside

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Their work has initiated some important conversations with IICS educators about capitalizing on the potential of movement and play to inspire greater learning and well being for our children. It deeply connects with the work also being explored in the Mindfulness PLC and of course the philosophy of play-based learning being so successfully implemented in the Early Years at IICS. https://www.thinglink.com/scene/762411311236644864

Comments and Feedback Robin Hinkley – [email protected]

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Further reading for the extra keen as recommended by the PLC team: http://evolution.binghamton.edu/evos/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/Pellegrini02.pdf http://www.journalofplay.org/sites/www.journalofplay.org/files/pdf-articles/3-4-article-gray-decline-of-play.pdf http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104013/chapters/Movement-and-Learning.aspx

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Outdoor Learning Michelle Dirlik & Rebecca Richardson

With the idea that our children benefit from greater connection with the outdoors and nature firmly embedded, supported by personal observations as well as vast bodies of literature from education and psychology, the PLC focus was to explore how to implement this in practice. Practical inspiration The Waldkinder program, offered at the Inter-community school Zurich, was presented a few years ago at a CEESA conference attended by some of our Early Years team and motivated us to explore the possibilities of the outdoors.

Professional Development Day at Forest School of Worthing, UK, inspired by the work of Martin Pace, promoting the importance of engaging children with nature and allowing outdoor play to be child led, only entering into flora, fauna and tool use if it is extending the child’s interest. Again, Martin Pace proposes a simple approach with minimal equipment.

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Via the Istanbul Early Years Network we connected with ‘Small Hands,’ a school doing great work exploring outdoor education. We also attended a weekend workshop led by Regina Kruse-Ozcelik, the founder of the school, learning various activities that can engage children with their environment. We asked advice on the Facebook Group ‘Forest Education Initiative’ about training and setting up and received plenty of encouragement: “Check out the woodland learning pathways on the owlscotland website http://owlscotland.org/.../FCS_WL_models_tables_2_June. It outlines a range of different training available in Scotland for woodland learning. Also check out sites like teaching in nature too by Scottish natural heritage. You do not need forest school qualification to take children out to the woods. What you do need are the basic things like first aid, a good knowledge of dynamic risk assessment and of the learning opportunities presented by the site you are using. Plus a great deal of energy, enthusiasm and eagerness to learn with the children about the world around you and how that connects to the learning you are doing in the classroom. Good luck! Message me if you would like further information or contacts in Scotland!“ Sally, York We had no excuse but to get started! We scoped out an area that was close enough to the school so that we did not have to walk a long way, that was shielded so it had a natural, forest feel, and was also a safe area to let the children explore freely. Fired with enthusiasm we met with our school gardener and facility manager; after much complicated sign language and broken Turkish, six bales of straw arrived, and a little later, a wonderful shelter was built.

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We did order some equipment (buckets, tarps, pencils, clipboards) to leave in the outdoor area, but this was not needed for us to get started. Hisar Campus children have now streamlined running from the bus, going to the toilet and then spending every last second in the outdoors. What started as 1 hour and 45 minutes in the outdoors, we can now sustain 3 whole hours of blissful outdoor play. The time disappears and I have never known such hungry children afterwards!

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At the Marmara campus, two-hour sessions were used. Sometimes during play-based learning time, on some occasions time was allocated during the day, especially when it was something that linked to the unit (shelters or materials, for example). We are also lucky in that the area is easily accessible to us, so on some occasions, smaller groups of children ask if they can go up to the area. We deliberately tried to keep this programme separate from play-based learning, for the purpose of the PLC and evaluating outcomes and impacts, but naturally the link to play-based learning is there. We found that Marmara students, who are outdoors in a natural environment every day, saw it as an extension of their play-based learning time, and when teacher-directed tasks were given, were able to focus straight away, without the need for having to run and explore independently first. Though of course, sometimes this is what they wanted to do. We have been able to weave many links back to important unit understandings, such as: exploring waste, decomposing, composting, properties of materials, and shelter building. The fairy house building made many links to the curriculum including Maths (photo) using a stick to measure. Students then moved houses that were too far apart, link to the unit on materials by considering the properties of what they were using - “We need stronger sticks” – spatial awareness - the students

built the hospital much larger than the houses and said this was because all of the hospitals they have seen are big buildings. When attempting to build a teepee, students learned through experience that the ground can affect a shelter and its location. They tried to build the teepee in two areas but found both were unsuitable as they were unable to dig into the ground to secure the sticks. Therefore, they had to go with their third choice of location, where the ground was softer.

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Challenges

• The journey (for the Hisar students and staff) • Creating a waterproof space • Storage of materials (wind, rain and overzealous cleaning staff) • Managing lunches • Parent resistance to children being outside in cold and wet weather

Outcomes

• Level of engagement and commitment • Huge sense of wonder • The lack of a need for adult provocation • The children feel responsible for the area • Children are making natural connections to what they have learned in the

classroom • Creativity and imagination

Next steps We are excited to continue with this initiative and develop it further – we hope to be hearing the scratch of tiny feet before too long…..(chickens!) Further reading http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/apr/21/outdoor-learning-forest-school-revolution https://www.amazon.com/Love-Forest-School-Transforming-Experiences/dp/1472906071?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0 Resources http://www.muddyfaces.co.uk/ http://creativestarlearning.co.uk/ Amendment: Becca visited Reflections Nursery run by Martin Pace for a PD session after hearing him speak in Zurich http://www.reflectionsnurseries.co.uk/ Comments and Feedback Rebecca Richardson – [email protected] Michelle Dirlik – [email protected]

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Exploring Personalizing Learning in Grade Six Math

Navaz Khory & Ayse Ozgun Grade 6 teachers experimented with a modular learning structure this year to provide a more personalized approach to support and extend Math learning. The PLC team explored how this might work in practice for Grade 6 students, drawing from the secondary Math teachers already trying this in secondary classes. The aim was to provide a learning experience increasingly tailored to the individual learning needs and preferences of the students. How It Worked This year Grade 6 used flexible groupings to help address individual student needs. The entire grade was split into three groups based on abilities. The groups were flexible and allowed for students to move between them when needed. Small groups, pairs and individual learning pods were developed and students could modify and determine their own pace and level. Each class delivered math units through modules, allowing students to work more independently and have access to a multitude of resources. The modules were created by the teacher and involved resources such as the IB Math Textbook, Mathletics, Khan Academy and various websites. Students provided proof of consolidated concept proficiency by completing a set number of questions correctly.

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Modules were uploaded by the teacher to Google Classroom. Students access the modules as needed and complete the necessary requirements. The modules addressed multiple learning styles by having a variety of resources for each lesson, such as a teacher lesson, videos, interactive websites or static pages, to name a few. Using this structure teachers are able to work with students much more freely on a personalized level. Students needing little or no support can work with the flipped classroom system. Students requiring scaffolding can be taught and monitored in a more personalized manner. Outcomes for Students Students were surveyed on how this style of teaching impacted their learning.

As can be seen in the chart above, there are a multitude of preferences when looking at instructional methods, and Math Modules allowed teachers to provide students with many different resources to access the curriculum. The responses also showed the students had a chance to not only develop their math skills but also their Approaches to Learning and independence.

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One student said: “It is very good and lets us know which part of the curriculum we are on and also everybody works at their own pace.” Another student reported: “Math modules has helped me develop my ATL's by helping me organize my work and improve my organization skills. I developed my time management skills because the math modules helped me see what I needed to get done and how/when to get it done.” Impact on MAP Tests Impact on the MAP is very hard to determine as this was the first trial of this type of teaching. Also next year in Grade 7 the students will not be grouped in this way. So tracking MAP scores of this class won’t return reliable information. However, should we teach in leveled pods of grade 5 and 6 next year with the idea to track student progress in MAP, some correlations may be able to be made. Views of Teachers on impact The combination of flexible groupings and modular learning allowed the Grade 6 students to receive a more personalized math curriculum. All students had greater access to teachers, including the higher learners who sometimes do not get as much time in mixed-level groupings. Overall, this allowed teachers to address individual student needs and cover curriculum in greater depth than before. Challenges and Limitations Challenge mainly lay in ensuring there were a variety of resources available to keep the learning fresh and the students motivated. The simplicity of the typical lesson could easily become routine or too repetitive if the resources used were not changed regularly.

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Resources https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T0X5oqQ2rDVA4dy4C7MxfEFlp79v0jr2UEhzil-sPAU/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kXYDkM6RIapdAy2ip4UCUp8XV2yIUUq31dZIyXWEYrg/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kuQCECIfdaIFxLGqU9nUVZCKYPLwkcZvbdesl9-Qkec/edit Comments and Feedback Navaz Khory – [email protected] Ayse Ozgun – [email protected]

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Assessing Technology Within the Classroom

Claire Wachowiak, Brycen Davis, Alex Varennes & Pia Joyner

Documented by Claire Wachowiak

Technology is Everywhere In today’s world, technology has become a part of the fabric of everyday life. It is easy to believe that just because students are familiar with technology they know how to use it well. Although students might have developed some useful strategies, these do not necessarily equate with mastery. In order for students to use technology effectively to reach their curricular goals, they need to accomplish specific technical skills. As a result, we have begun to create rubrics that focus exclusively on these skills. The aim is to make the skills and the steps towards mastery of them clear and visible to both teachers and students. The rubrics provide guidelines to help ensure that students and teachers understand the technical expectations of the various tools and also offer a simple and straightforward method of assessment.

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Why Rubrics? Assessing technology skills within the classroom can be a challenging task. A rubric simplifies this process and allows for multiple approaches such as self and peer assessment – especially as the outcomes are often concrete and easy to demonstrate. It is difficult to know how students need to develop and progress in technical skills for teachers who are not well versed in technology. For instance, how does assessment of a video created by a fourth grader differ from that of a student in grade eight? Rubrics allow both teachers and students access to agreed-upon, consistent guidelines of quality work and effectiveness when using technology. They can see the skills they will need to master at different times within their academic careers. In short, rubrics support students by

• consistently and clearly stating expectations across grade levels and teachers; • clarifying skills needed—no room for guessing; • acting as guidelines for both teachers and students; • giving students the ability to self reflect; • validating the final grade and grading process by creating transparent

expectations, and • enabling students to progress independently as the next steps for them are

identified and made accessible.

What: Because we wanted to write the rubrics, we understood that a technology scope and sequence would help guide us in terms of grade level expectations. Claire Wachowiak, our Primary Technology Integration Specialist, spearheaded the effort to create one for IICS. By looking at several sources, including the ISTE standards, Wachowiak wrote the initial technology scope and sequence for IICS.

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Thus far, we have created three rubrics: using a blog, creating a video and keyboarding skills. Each rubric has two styles: a Google Form and a printable version. Brycen Davis, our Secondary Technology Integration Specialist, had the idea for creating the rubric as a Google Form. He believes that if the student completes the same rubric through Google Forms, we can better track student progress as he or she moves from grade to grade. Additionally, we can see the wider results and look into which areas we might need to focus on as a Technology Department. Here’s how we approached the first one: A Secondary Story: EAL Last year Alex Varennes, a Secondary Language Acquisition Teacher, and Claire Wachowiak set up blogs for the English Language Acquisition students. The main purpose was for students to track and reflect on their reading choices, as well as encourage peer- and self-assessment of oral / written language production. Since this group of students had already been blogging consistently for over a year, we asked them to complete the blog rubric as a pilot group.

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As you will see below, 60% found the blog clear and easy to use as well as useful when setting goals; 40% did not. As a result, we streamlined the rubric and shortened the overall length.

After students gave feedback on the initial rubric, the students then used the rubrics to help write SMART goals to further their writing goals:

‘To write more detail on my blog posts every week, for example the page of the book, if it has a series and giving a rating, etc.’

‘Giving useful and positive comments to 3 or more people's blog posts every week.’

‘To write at least 2 blogs that spoke about an ENGLISH book, each month.’

‘I will practice my writing skills using some topic and my opinion every week between now and end of the semester; to put more images and videos inside the blog so it has more information.’

‘I want to understand how to use an in-text citation for the pictures that I used in my blog post. My target is that for 8/10 blog posts I would include citation.’

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Looking Ahead: Understanding that the Technology Scope and Sequence is a working document, we will continue to revisit these rubrics to support teachers and students. The Technology Team will put together a bank of exemplars for each rubric, accessible through the New Literacies website. Additionally, the Technology Team will create online tutorials or modules to assist staff and students who arrive late in the year or need some extra assistance. For next year, the technology team will meet to integrate the Scope and Sequence into the Three Year plan. Printable Rubrics for teachers to access are located on the New Literacies website: Video Production Rubric (printable) Blog Rubric (printable) Keyboarding Rubric (printable) Comments and Feedback Claire Wachowiak – [email protected] Brycen Davis – [email protected]

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Teaching in Shared Spaces

Heath Fontes & Marc Favre An initial exploration into the implications for practice and planning for the increased use of shared spaces allowed by the new school building. Observing the benefits of Heath and Dave’s collaborative approach to teaching grade 8 English in practice as well as planning and the importance of well-designed activities in making shared-space activities work, this PLC aimed to identify some key areas for consideration in ensuring teachers and students are supported in optimizing the possibilities of this opportunity. Over a series of weeks they experimented with different approaches to organizing students, teachers and resources.

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Thoughts from IICS teachers The PLC conducted a survey to gain some insight into the general thoughts of teachers regarding the use of shared spaces. There were 38 responses in total. Approximately 70% of respondents were cautiously to enthusiastically looking forward to the opportunities of having the possibility to work in shared spaces in collaboration with others. The benefits affirmed, in order of significance:

• Working with other colleagues and learning from them 73% • Getting more peer feedback 65% • Starting new professional discussions sparked by having a more open school

environment 65%

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Other comments included - teaching and learning being more visible throughout the school, enabling the alignment of curricula and more chance to work with Marc Favre. Main concerns shared were:

• Noise issues 75% • Distraction of students 69% • Loss of control of teaching environment 38%

Comments articulated concerns about being able to have consistent and respectful agreements about behavior and management of the spaces and time and possibility to set up materials and equipment. Staff members were keen to have some quiet more private spaces in which to work and worried about having to work more with Marc Favre J 79% of respondents felt they were ready to make the transition, but all but 5% would welcome some practical training. Final recommendations Open and honest communication between teaching teams 84%

• Assessment and classroom management systems to be agreed upon and equally implemented by all teaching members 74%

• Adequate collaborative planning time must be allocated for teaching teams 68% • All students to be considered ‘ours’ not mine\yours for all purposes except for

assessment and reporting 53% • Practical professional development 95%

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Additional articles: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/collaborative-team-teaching-challenges-rewards-marisa-kaplan Research paper - - Smith, Thomas J. "Designing Learning Environments To Promote Student Learning: Ergonomics In All But Name." Work 44.(2013): 39. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 23 Sept. 2015 This report introduces evidence for the conclusion that a common theme underlies almost all proposed solutions for improving the performance of K-12 students, namely their reliance on the design of educational system environments, features and operations. Methods and Results: Two categories of design factors impacting such performance are addressed: (1) 9 factors reliably shown to have a strong influence - namely environmental design of classroom and building facilities, longer exposure to learning, cooperative learning designs, early childhood education, teaching quality, nutritional adequacy, participation in physical activity, good physical fitness. Comments and Feedback Heath Fontes – [email protected] Marc Favre – [email protected]

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External Professional Development

July 2015 Lindamood Bell - Seeing Stars Program (for reading and spelling) Natasha Witte

Three days of training focused on visualizing and symbolic imagery related to decoding (reading) and spelling. Great conference, highly recommend as we send many students to their clinics in the UK, US and Asia. We also do own the Seeing Stars kit.

July 2015 Second revalidation of registration of librarianship Amanda Bond- Self-funded

Three year professional development journal showing 40 key events over 11 bodies of knowledge.

July 2015 Scholastic Reading Summit Lauren Grahame

One-day, professional-learning conference, designed to inspire educators with a fresh view of independent reading strategies for their school communities. Held annually in 6 different locations in the U.S. Great keynote speakers such as Donalyn Miller.

August 2015

Connect 21 Camp: Becoming a 21st Century Teacher, Leader, and School Jaima Holland, Patricia Hermes, Carl Kirkpatrick, Jen Ribachonek, Tim Trotter

Disappointing conference ……. There were nuggets of wisdom but they came from workshops disguised by a misleading title….and the best one came from Tim Trotter who articulated perfectly what many of us have been feeling for years…”Everything is a sometimes tool.” Thanks, Tim.

September 2015

Board Governance Training Jane Thompson

Clear, useful. Very glad I went.

September

2015 Principals & AC/AD Meeting Joe Lumsden, Paul Perron

Necessary for CEESA AC/AD’s. Gets the year straightened out.

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September 2015

inThinking – TOK Jacob Ramirez

Three days of foundational work necessary for beginning instruction for Theory of Knowledge. Ric Sims and Richard van de Lagamaat offered thorough insights into the assessment process and daily strategies to maximize the true TOK experience. Great stuff.

September 2015

Education for Social Innovation in CEESA Kevin Rempel, Brycen Davis, Brenda St.George

This was a year long, online module with Taking it Global. Networking and resources we each got out of this was worthwhile and speaking at the CEESA conference as a part of this group did make us realize how much we had accomplished throughout the year. G6 Exhibition has had a few new elements added due to the course.

October

2015 4th IAAAC Conference Paul Perron – Self-funded

An incredible place to learn and share. Best AD Conference going.

October

2015 CEESA Admissions Conference Suzy Gurkan, Jennifer Gokmen, Sezai Kara

October

2015 CEESA Business Managers Conference Icten Kucukyumuk

October

2015 Practical Pedagogies conference Thomas Sheard

Very inspiring key note speech by Ewan McIntosh. The PD was focused on practical, in the class applications from a variety of teachers and consultants. Participants could tailor their experience by signing up to subject/interest specific workshops (Similar to CEESA conference). The event will take place again next year on a grander scale Link I would rate this 4 out of 5 due to 1 or 2 presenters falling short of my expectations.

October 2015

Language acquisition: Delivering the MYP Curriculum Malin Falkestrom

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November 2015

Networking with Admissions Cherie Mobasheri

Vital annual conference to keep up to date on univ. admissions / testing/strategies / international trends AND a super fair -- one p.m. for admission reps to browse our schools; second p.m. for us to browse universities. Useful sessions -- great job alike opportunity.

November 2015

DP CAS Patricia Hermes

The Transformative Power of Experiential Learning. The workshop provided an excellent opportunity to connect with experienced CAS Coordinators and share best practices. The workshop leader was a highly-respected CAS leader.

November 2015

IB Language B Cat. 2 workshop Kim Cavender

Assessment and Unit planning for MYP

September

2015 Mindfulness for wellbeing and peak performance Charaine, Ian, Meral, Liz H

Mindfulness 6 week free course through futurelearn. This was very informative and even amusing at times.

November

2015 IB 'Teaching and Learning' Deniz Yaylim, Cendrine Mansat, Sandi Klein, Tuana Zerunyan

November

2015 Category 3 Workshops in Biology: Focus on IA Hina Hashmi

Workshop focussed on the new style of IA as a result of syllabus change including ideas for practical and moderation

November

2015 Adaptive Schools Leadership Seminar Tracy Arnold

December

2015 Evaluating Your MYP Dave Johnson

Workshop focused on preparing for our coming MYP evaluation in terms of meeting requirements, reporting to the IB, and managing collaborative self-study.

December 2015

Virginia Rojas ESL workshop Kim Cavender- Self-funded

Teaching & Assessing English Learners Using A Standards-Based Curriculum. Very practical ideas and examples of authentic assessments.

December 2015

Annual Conference Elizabeth Moore

January 2016

Teaching and Learning, Category 2 Hannah Qualls

Good overview of strategies. Great hands on practice with fellow teachers. Not very in depth on any topic, though.

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January

2016 Learning Support Job-ALike Wylla Waters Jen Ribachonek (self-funded)

January 2016

Making the PYP Happen Taylor Unger

January 2016

History Category 2 Dana Abizaid

Workshop was a godsend considering the new curriculum in History. Presenter was experienced and professional. Ideas amongst 30 teachers present were useful regarding planning and instruction. Good to report that IICS Humanities stacks up well against other schools in Europe and that it appears our teachers have much more freedom to explore the best ways to engage students. This is indicative of the trust and support here at our school. And it is essential.

February

2016 Learning Technology Exchange Network (LTEN) Brycen Davis, Claire Wachowiak,

The LTEN conference has grown over the past 4 years from 20 members to over 300...however, many of the speakers and participants present in Turkish only. We continue to offer challenging topics that encourage discussion and workshops around new techniques for teaching technology but we will need more Turkish speakers to go for full effect.

March 2016

History of Mathematics Navaz Khory

The ATM workshop was a great workshop focused on Maths. It was a 4 day workshop of which I attended 3 days. There are many options for workshop topics and most were very helpful.

Librarian Job alike

Pre conference Amanda Bond Dina Abizaid

Amanda was the co-organiser and co presenter of this day. Focus on the library as place of personalised learning

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March 2016

Annual Conference, Istanbul All teaching faculty & Assistants

Chris Pultz - Co-presented. Made a number of CEESA contacts to help expand the audience for our students’ writing. Greta Hazzlett, Duane Smith & Anna Murray - Co-presented and contributed to the overall focus on Documentation in the Early Year as the ‘practical approach’ connected to the ‘big picture’ presented by Anne van Dam. Duane Smith & EY team - Created strong links with EY international educators and administrators by hosting the full day EY Job-Alike, setting the scene and tone for the EY community (and something that we should consider for the next CEESA conference).. This group decided on key topics for further consideration through facebook, Job-Alike in Prague (November) and CEESA 2017. Charaine Poutasi, Meral Soguksu, Ian Peand Liz - Co-presented on Mindfulness: Made contact with groups and other interested parties. Contacted for further presentations in the next academic year at Mindfulness conference.. TBC Brycen Davis - Co-presented in Social Innovation where we showcased much of the activities our school has created for the benefit of refugees. I got the most out of the Mary Ward session that discussed the power of mentorship and self-directed learning.

Outdoor Learning Course

March 2016

Hay-bale Gardens Regina Kruse-Özçelik

EY’s team: Duane, Deniz, Michelle,Charaine, Greta,Seda,Andrea,Judith

Outdoor Learning Course

May 2016

Making an Earth Oven

Duane, Charaine,Greta,Judith, Seda, Jane

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April 2016

DP Coordinator Level 2 Workshop Omer Kipmen

May 2016 Physical and health education: Delivering the MYP curriculum Anna Ramirez, Stew Dean

May 2016

Lindamood Bell Visualising and Verbalizing Meral Soguksu

2 day workshop. The theory behind the practice is solid. Children who have weak comprehension need to work on building concept imagery through sensory and cognitive anchors. The programme itself is quite prescriptive and rigid.

MAY 2016 Unlocking the World Kim Cavender - Substantial self-funding

Training to certify mainstream teachers in ESL. Fantastic program and very applicable for add on certifications.

July 2016

World Music Drumming, LEVEL 1 Hannah Qualls

July 2016 Scholastic Reading Summit Lauren Grahame

Keynote speaker Global Teachers Prize winner Nancie Atwell and breakout sessions by reading gurus such as Donalyn Miller.

August 2016

Language acquisition Category 3: Assessment in the MYP Alex Varennes

Angela Steinmann leading a PYP workshop in Dubai

Navaz Khory sharing her learning from ATM Conference with IICS Colleagues

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Professional Achievements! Congratulations to the following who achieved their masters this year:

Angela Steinman MA International Education Bath University Amanda Bond MA Specialising in Teacher

Librarianship Charles Sturt University

Kevin Burns MEd in International Counseling Lehigh University, Bethlehem PA Neslihan Taslak MA in International Business Istanbul University

Brave souls in progress:

Hina Hashmi MEd Leading Teaching & Learning University of Dundee Tracy Arnold PhD Global Leadership Lamar University Andrea Spackman MA Elementary Education George Mason University Seda Alakus MA in Public Relations and Publicity Marissa Meyer MA TESOL (Teaching English to

Speakers of Other Languages) University of Nebraska

Neslihan Taslak MA in International Business Istanbul University Thomas Sheard MA Geography Education - (Currently,

writing dissertation) University College London/ Institute of Education

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PLCs whose work is not yet documented:

• Developing an identifiable IICS School Culture: Ben Maldonado, Wylla Waters, Carl Kirkpatrick, Andy Russell, Stew Dean

• Maximising meaningful out-of-class learning opportunities both locally and globally: Patricia Hermes, Luis Castro, Tom Sheard, Kim Cavender, Hulya Kaplangi, Sara Jacobs, Mira Modly, Gary Percoval, Elizabeth Moore, Jen Gokmen

• Rubric building to make skill learning transparent/visible thinking: Tyler Spackman, Andrea Spackman, Hannah Qualls

• Building student capacity/curriculum opportunities to design and create in 3D: Ash Esmail, Nicola Pryor

• Developing a House System at IICS: Anna Ramirez, Louise McQuade, Shannon Mahoney, Jenny Dabinett

• Using IT creatively to enhance assessments and share with parents and the wider community: Sandi Klein

• Developing a culture of writing and publishing (writing for authentic purposes): Paul Perron, Dana Abizaid, Chris Pultz, Tony Hurst

• Using tech resources to impact students' listening and speaking skills: Deniz Yaylim, Tuana Zerunyan, Cendrine Mansat, Claudine LeGof, Canan Ozgun, Lima Anjum

• Exploring 'Evidence for Learning' app session: Judith Kingsbury, Tracy Arnold • Exploring the Flipped Classroom – Personalizing Language Learning: Randa

Bakkar, Malin Falkestrom & Lucia Marmolejo

iics spark: inspiring teachers

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