Primary Years Programme

In this session, participants will be introduced to the ideas and strategies of teaching for understanding. Planning a course usually leads us to consider our aims, objectives, assessments, and the knowledge we wish our students to learn. Clarifying these ideas will help us prepare a more meaningful experience for our students.

It is not enough to talk about other countries and cultures. A new world and new thinking requires that we interact with others from diverse backgrounds. When teachers participate in short-term international immersion experiences, they bring to their classrooms a richness that cannot be found in books.

The session will detail techniques for a multi-faceted approach to building the IB in your local school, community, and state. Included will be techniques for approaching state departments of education, organizations of university presidents, chief academic officers, and state legislators.

This session will provide information on how to implement a community read in an IB World school based on a similar program at Baker Middle School. Presenters will discuss the positive impact a community read can have on raising awareness of global issues, uniting students, staff, and community members, and encouraging action.

In this session, participants will experience and learn how to utilize an easily accessible method to stimulate internationally-minded thinking in their schools. The method uses visual imagery drawn from a variety of sources and is designed to help participants engage in novel forms of thinking about the problems and issues facing the population of the world today.

In order for schools to encourage students to develop new ways of thinking for a new world, the faculty must first address the necessary change in school culture to create a sucessful IB programme. School improvement requires that teachers change what they think, say, and do. This workshop promotes the use of the IB Learner Profile as a means to develop a professional working community.

In this session, participants will understand teacher-leader development through established business protocol, professional learning communities, and collaborative planning.

A paradigm shift in the use of the key concepts at Mark Twain Elementary School enabled students to take ownership of the process of authentic inquiry and generate greater understanding of the central idea. Presenters will share the challenges and benefits from this change.

Join practitioners from Wildwood World Magnet School as they share their recent experience teaching attributes of the IB Learner Profile to students through children’s literature. Students learned through books by identifying attributes that the story characters personify through their actions.

Summit School District is on the journey to become a fully authorized IB district with all schools implementing the PYP, MYP, and/or Diploma Programme.