Parvin Peivandi

October 9^th, 2014, IB reflection

In this IB seminar, I find the connection between BC’s art PLOs and the IB’s learning objectives. It was an interesting journey to find out these connections between the BC art curriculum and MYP objectives. Although the class activity provided an opportunity to learn these connections, I explored these connections further in an actual IB classroom setting in St Johns MYP art class. In this class, the art teacher : Sandra Hall handed in her lesson plan with detailed descriptions of the PLOs and IB’s objectives. Her teaching demonstrated the high level of proficiency in IB MYP education with regards to the key concepts and learning objectives in the lesson plan. I observed how IB’s theories and practice came together in her practice to form a uniformed IB teaching experience. At the end of the class, she encouraged students to develop the concept further by inquiry and writing reflective paper about their works.

Parvin Peivandi

October 2^nd, 2014, IB reflection

In this IB seminar, I thought more profoundly about my statement of inquiry and the level that this question occupies in the world. I asked myself Is this a factual question or conceptual question?. Definitely my question is not from a debatable or provocative nature as I have always been interested in self-expression and concepts in my art practice or teaching. I start my inquiry question with how and I ask myself another question in relation to my inquiry question, ”how my inquiry question scaffold objectives that students should strive to achieve?” My original inquiry question is about the identity and relationships and analyzes the big idea of how students understand and engage with the identity in different contexts. I consider this inquiry question as a great question to start with and I aim to develop it further in my lesson plans and practice.

Parvin Peivandi

Sep 25^th 2014, IB reflection

As we are more close to our practicum, we are more focused on our curriculum and lesson plans in IB. In this seminar, I further explored the key concept of the statement of inquiry which is the heart of the IB’s inquiry. How I can make the statement of inquiry for my unit plans? Where should I start? I find how statement of inquiry is shaped by a key concept that I have started my ideas with it. Identity and transformation has been always my interest. By considering the fact that this key concept is connected to another concept which may have other ideas or concept in itself, I thought about related concepts and finally the context in which the concept and related concept find meaning.

Regarding my key concept as the identity, I consider the global contexts. identities and relationships are my inquiries in this global context and I developed my statement of inquiry by considering that “how identities are transformed in different contexts or relationships” How can I teach identities and relationships in IB?. I start my journey from here.

Parvin Peivandi

Sep 17^th, 2014, IB reflection

The difference between understanding and awareness in today’s IB seminar got me reflecting on the classrooms settings that I have been there as a student. As we know, understanding is beyond the awareness and in order to understand some one, one needs to put him/herself in place of others and show empathy, but how much in reality we see this understanding is happening? I think some teachers do not consider the composition of their classes as an important factor in their teaching strategies. They can observe the diverse body of the students and their different needs in order to facilitate their learning. For example by applying the scaffolding techniques or the zone of proximal development they can pair up different abled students with keen students in groups. The students with different needs like ESL students can benefit from this approach and learn the language more easily. More over, more friendship and understanding happens in collaborative works. But as I have seen in most classes, students join those people whom they like most and shape an intercultural group in the classroom. As IB aims to develop intercultural understanding among students, students from different backgrounds should have opportunity to interact with the dominant group in the classroom and learn from them. The majority group also should learn that there are always valuable aspects in other cultures too that they can learn or get awareness of them. This is great that IB has focused on both awareness and understanding in the education.

Parvin Peivandi

IB reflection paper, Sep 11^th,2014

As an international student, I feel more connected to the idea of the international mindedness as one of the learning objectives in IB education. Due to the multicultural nature of the schools in Canada,I think BC’s schools should have more international approach to education . As Harper et.al state in their reading:Beyond food, festivals and flags, multicultural education in Canada is just scratching the surface of some cultures and are summarized in displaying some masks, art forms or food festivals.

As we know every student needs a sense of affirmation that will mirror back from the other individuals in the public sphere. This sense of affirmation brings a self esteem and determination with itself which is necessary in the student’s social emotional learning. This is the reason that why there is so much emphasize in IB education on international mindedness and developing care and respect toward others who are part of our educational cycle.

As we know Exclusion of some students with different cultures and backgrounds from the activities or curriculum, make the educational system imbalanced and in favor of a specific group. If the social justice is not observed at schools, the educational goals remain unsatisfied as a whole. But how far we can go in changing the curriculum? How much opportunity are we given by the educational leaders in Canada?

Parvin Peivandi

IB reflection paper, September 4^th,2014

The focus on writing reflections in IB education is very close to what artists and life coaches like Julia Cameron emphasize on the daily morning writings. In her book ”The artist’s way” Cameron considers daily writing as a tool for connection to the self and unconscious which lets creativity flows from the inside out.I believe writing about our own work or thought empowers us and improves our critical and analytical learning. Reflective writing as thoughtful consideration of our own thought is a metacognitive skill that supports our learning.

I take benefit of what reflective means in IB education as understanding my strengths and weaknesses,so by reflective writing I aim to polish my ideas and concepts in my lesson plans. I think by writing a series of reflective writings, I will be more prepared for the practicum in actual IB classes.

Parvin Peivandi

IB reflection Paper, August 28^th, 2014, Day 4^th

Visiting the Rennie Collection got me reflecting on the role of artist as a cultural researcher in society. Rodney Graham as an artist is inquiring for his art works all the time very similar to the inquiry that we observe in the IB cohort. He starts from a question, a concept driven question that makes him inspired to go further and investigate different approaches and possibilities in art making. In Graham’s work, I could find the three faces of IB’s processes as inquiry, action and reflection .His works are his responses to the world around him as students in IB education are encouraged to reflect on the world around them.

Visiting Graham’s exhibition at the Rennie collection, I was asking myself how I can improve my student’s creativity and sensibility similar to the artist? How can I teach and develop my lesson plans based on the rigorous nature of IB while not blocking their free expressions? These are some inquiries that I will follow in IB cohort.

Parvin Peivandi

IB reflection paper, August 27^th, 2014, Day 3

The rise of silver surface and data economy in today’s IB’s lecture made me think of our destination as educators. Where are we going? Are we prepared educationally and emotionally well enough to serve the new computer savvy generation? How education in global context happens? Is there any need for teachers in future or future students learn just from the computers?All these questions make me think of our roles as teachers and what we really bring to the table that is necessary for education.

I think what we need in today’s technologically advanced societies is the harmony and connection of the individuals because silver surfaces has affected our human interactions severely and made us disconnected. In my viewpoints teachers’ job is not merely teaching knowledge, but developing care and understanding among students. What we can do is to raise an awareness of the individual and global contexts and problems to find solutions for the different issues in our world.

Increasing sensibility, care, respect and open mindedness which are in the heart of the IB cohort are things that Robots can’t teach.

Parvin Peivandi

IB Reflection paper, August 26^th 2014 Day 2

9-12 Service Learning

The service learning experience got me reflecting on how education has changed over time and shifted to a kind of experience based learning in a community in which both learners and community benefit from the education. This is parallel to what IB education aims for the passionate long life learners who care about their world around. Looking back at the educational system that I went through, I can hardly find traces of the experience based learning in the community. We were studying in closed environments with traditional system of schooling that considered knowledge as a separate entity of the every day life around us. I remember how our different interests and capabilities were neglected and we were like the slave of the books.

I remember once I read in one of the old Persian literature books that a philosopher was traveling in a karevan with group of people and a robber invaded all the luggage including the philosopher’s bag of books. The philosopher was crying that he has lost all his knowledge while a wise man in the group came to him and said the knowledge that can be stolen is not worthy at all! And this advice comes to my mind again that if we want to be effective educators, we need to acquire the true knowledge that is based on the real experiences of the life, otherwise our knowledge is not practical and useful.

Parvin Peivandi

IB Reflection 1, August 25^th 2014

First day in IB seminar, I was impressed by how IB’s emphasizes on the engagement of the students in the personal and social level. In one of the group activities we all took our hands and we were supposed to complete the sentence” My name is…. and I like to…”, I found this activity was really engaging and connected us together. There was a specific concern about the community and communication in the first IB seminar. IB aims to reunite us and teaches us that as educators we need to be strong communicators at first place. The mutual understanding and respect is one of the learning objectives of IB that we were taught in that seminar. It was the first day of a new program for us with new horizon in front of us that invited us to be friend and connected while we learn. I think it was the most important lesson for all of us .