Pre-conference

Speaker: Dr Glenn Odland

Session overview:

Leadership is increasingly valued as a key dimension of creating strong and inspiring learning communities. Both formally designated and informally committed leaders can contribute to the growth and development of their communities. This pre-conference session will introduce several key variables for sustainable leadership growth, and will emphasize one in particular: the importance of mentorship in strengthening leaders. As well as exploring strategies for finding a suitable mentor, participants will learn how they can become better leaders by offering mentorship to others. Expect a practical and highly participatory approach to addressing this topic.

Speaker: James McDonald

Session overview:

Great schools, and organizations for that matter, do things differently. We also know that great classroom practice includes differentiation. So what does this mean at the level of the school organization? Shouldn’t we be differentiating our schools too? This workshop discusses ideas orginally developed in the business world and adapted to international school environment. Leaders will be provided with different examples of ‘mental models’ and practicial tools to make their school authentically stand out from other schools. As a leader, how can you provide an even better education for students and more stable financial future? How can you match your educational offerings, and the leader’s narrative around these offerings, to inspire your community? These questions and more will be addressed via the session. This workshop could be particularly useful for those going through a strategic planning process and for individuals interested in a fresh lens for viewing their school’s operations and wondering how their school can advance to the proverbial ‘next level’.

Speaker: Mette Miriam Böll

Session overview:

Find out about how the IB is working with leading experts to incorporate the latest thinking on compassion, systems and the needs of our world. The session will focus on developing an initial understanding of compassionate systems framework and how this related to international mindedness, our learner profile attributes and our mission. We'll consider new research and ideas in the field of systems thinking and compassion to enhance what you do What we wish for in our students is the ability not only to think compassionately but also to feel and live compassionately by virtue of an ever-unfolding awareness of our connectedness and interdependence. Since we can never see all of the systems within which our actions unfold, this spirit of genuine curiosity and openness is the real hallmark of a systems thinker, and the cultivated “experience of connectedness and interdependence” is the hallmark of a compassionate systems thinker and a foundation for international mindedness.

Speakers: Sarah Manlove, Edlyn Chao and Heike Schröder

Session overview:

Your work as an IB teacher, coordinator, or school leader involves critical thinking about topics like pedagogy and assessment. But what about education research? In this workshop, we will give you the tools to improve your critical thinking about research and data. For example, how can an educator know whether a particular innovation will work for his or her own students, or whether it’s worth the investment of time and effort? We will teach you just enough about research methodology and statistics to help you discern between fads and true innovations. Further, we will discuss the importance of evidence-based decision-making as an educator, sharing practical tools that both teachers and administrators can start using immediately.

The purposes of this workshop are twofold: to deepen your research literacy (with an emphasis on thinking critically in this domain), and to help you weave empirical self-reflection into every aspect of your work. In doing that, we aim to improve your discernment and decision-making as you face the rapid pace of educational innovation. Go beyond the classroom with us and learn specific strategies for boosting your impact as a research-savvy educator.

Speakers: Dominic Robeau, Chantell Wyten, Jon Halligan, Alan Wrafter and Peter Fidczuk

Session overview:

This pre-conference will seek to explain the framework of the CP, provide examples of its implementation, explore CP packages both provided by the IB and the opportunities available to schools to establish their own, develop an understanding of the authorisation process and how the IB is managing recognition and finally, to encourage the exploration of both the local and global to support the learning and the future career progression of a schools students.

Speakers: Roseline Muchiri and Fiona Clark

Session overview:

The authorization process is an essential component in assuring a school’s successful implementation of the programme(s). This process can be supported through the development of a variety of professional learning communities. This pre-conference is aimed at school leaders and coordinators of interested and candidate schools. It will provide a collaborative space to develop change management strategies and share tools to support schools as they go through the authorization process. Questions for reflection and discussions, examples of documentation and evidence to prepare, and strategies for supporting the school community to participate successfully in this process will be shared throughout the day.

Speakers: Katrin Fox, Margaret Harris and Alan Wrafter

Session overview:

To use the IB school evaluation process as a learning tool to implement and develop the programme in the school, and promote school improvment. The process of, and documentation for, evaluation within the framework of the standards and practices will be explored and discussed. The importance of, and strategies for, involving all stakeholders in the experience will be discussed. Participants will take away with them a toolkit of examples and evidence to use in undertaking their own school’s evaluation and in developing a school improvement plan.

Speakers: Nicole Bien, Sarah Brown, Laura Griffin, Terri Walker and Nikki Welsh

Session overview: 

The PYP transdisciplinary programme remains a developmentally appropriate and powerful way to support young learners’ knowledge, evolving theories, and skills as a connected whole and reflects the significance of their learning and action in the real world. This session will focus on the impact of transdisciplinary learning for the learner, learning and teaching and the learning community and show how schools can ensure that transdisciplinary learning is evident in classroom practice.

Speaker: Veronica Boix Mansilla

Session overview:

International mindedness [IM] has entered international education circles in full force as a key aspiration in contemporary education. IB practitioners appreciate the importance of such shared aim while recognizing the multiplicity of meanings attributed to IM across contexts and regions. How are educators across contexts envisioning the internationally minded student? How can we think about IM as a shared educational aspiration while being mindful of the cultural perspectives that give it meaning? How can we articulate what IM might look like in our particular schools? To respond to these questions this interactive workshop will draw on a novel Portraiture Approach being developed at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education in collaboration with the IB. This approach invites educators to develop rich student portraits and places these at the center of facilitated professional conversations designed to calibrate perspectives of IM. Through interactive experiences this workshop will enable you to (a) become familiar with current research on IM across cultural contexts; (b) experience and reflect about the portraiture approach, and (c) acquire practical tools to use a portraiture approach with teachers, parents, students and other stakeholders in order to nurture international mindedness in their own school contexts.