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 .