First day of May marks the end of the first week of CFE. My day started with grade 6 math, which I do not have any idea about in terms of curriculum since I grew up in Taiwan in elementary school. I was amazed on the difficulty level where the kids already started to learn how to solve equations (for example x/7 – 2 = 4). This topic is in fact covered in grade 8 in BC curriculum, but what amazed me even more was the way teacher deliver the idea of solving these simple equations which they keep track of the process and then “undo” it. For instance, the equation x/7 – 2 = 4 can be thought of as if we start with x, then divide by 7, then minus 2, so the way to “undo” it is to add 2 and times 7, and the majority of the students did get it and was very engaged in the lesson because now the tedious math just feels like wrapping/unwrapping gifts so that students are more motivated to find out. I talked to the math teacher near the end of the class and she explained that the reason why grade 6 is going much more advanced is because there is a huge transition gap between MYP and DP from grade 10 to grade 11; therefore the MYP now tends to accelerate starting from grade 6 (which is the first year of MYP) in order to connect to DP better. From here I can see the great example of backward design which they determine what they need to catch up on by the start of DP program, then track back to see how they can accelerate in earlier grades.
Today I spent much of my time reaching out different teachers (focusing more on math teachers first) to understand more about the school, how a typical IB World School works and also what specifically the teachers are doing so that I can find out what I can produce to the school. I talked to one of the Mandarin teachers (since my mother language is Mandarin), university counselling, and other teachers in math department that I haven’t talked to. The talent show in the last two blocks was a perfect ending for the exciting first week of experience.
Generally speaking, the first week was all about exploring and experiencing the new environment. There seemed to be a huge difference between the public school that I stayed for long practicum and this independent school. This is the first time I have ever stayed in a full IB school (K-12) for such long period, so everything, even the math subject seemed to be really new to me even though I was exposed to some of the IB DP curriculum in UBC. I would say it is really inspiring to see such a small school keeping many academic/extra curricular activities going around. I do hope we can share our initiative and creativity together and bring positive ideas to this lively school.
A short hallway that is along with students for their long journey in St. John’s.