International School of Indiana

International School of Indiana

Arrive 7:45

Brief conversation with Mr. Reynolds about ISI and IB. He mentioned that this week was a strange week and not the best for observations due to many students being out on their annual exchanges. Each year students due exchanges in Quebec, Costa Rica and Spain depending on their language and year of school.

8:00 Language B (students and teachers are out on exchanges this week.)

5 students in class.

Sub - Spoke with teacher regarding IB at ISI. She went over some phase 1 exams and we discussed the Criterion A-D of the assessment. The classroom had posters for each unit studied with the inquiry questions and statement of inquiry on the walls in the target language. Students were working on a reading and answering questions. This conversation helped with my understanding of how IB works in a language acquisition class.

9:05 - History Class

Students working on projects relating to the American Civil War. They have been working on the project for several class periods. All projects have a central inquiry/research question of their notes. I wonder if this is intentional by the teacher or if students are at the point where inquiry is so ingrained into their learning they naturally put the questions to guide their thinking? (After talking to students, teacher gave them guiding questions for the project.)

Very surprised at the "look" of the classroom. It does not look like a traditional classroom. (Small to minimal use of whiteboards/no projector). Students are one to one with MacBooks. I'm curious to see what instruction would look like in this class.

Side conversations between students and teacher about World War II. Teacher talks about what's the war is called in Russia. They talk about different perspectives on the same issues. I really like this idea - How can I incorporate the idea of teaching the same content through multiple lenses in my own classes?

Conversation with student in her first year at ISI.

Came from the Caribbean/French School. When asked about her experiences here at ISI she mentioned how much she loves it. She says the teachers are caring and support her in her learning. This echoes a lot of what I heard at Shortridge High School from students.

MYP Coordinator

I spent about an hour talking with Marithe, the MYP Coordinator about IB at ISI. It was a very insightful conversation related to all that IB encompasses. Since she teaching immersion humanities as well, I took that opportunity to ask her about my inquiry question of how students inquire at lower levels of language B acquisition. We talked about how it really depends on where the student is at developmentally and how she really believes it can be possible, but it is “all in the design of the lesson”. She echoed a lot of what the research stated about inquiry in lower levels of language; if the support and scaffolding is there, students can achieve it. She also reiterated the steps of “inquiry, action, reflection” and that students can follow this process if they are supported and taught how to maneuver through it.

Departure 12:00 pm

Reflection

Even though the day was short due to classes not being a normal schedule, my day at ISI was very insightful. I feel that what I thought IB classes would look like through my course work at Butler was seen at ISI. Every classroom had the unit questions and statements of inquiry posted for students to see and refer back to, students were collaborating, and teachers were there to help students manage their own learning.

My conversations with Mr. Reynolds (principal) and Marithe Benavente- Llamas (MYP Coordinator) was extraordinarily helpful in clearing up some of the fogginess I have had about what IB looks like. I feel that will all my field observations, I'm glad ISI was last. It was a good culminating visit where I was able to see IB being implemented how I imagined it would be.

One thing that Mrs. Benavente-Llamas mentioned that I will continue to remember moving forward is that all schools who are IB are on their own journey to implementation. Some are further along than other and each school has their own way of making it work when working with their shareholders.

Mr. Reynolds mentioned a lot of changes the IBO are trying to implement. He said that when ISI started IB was a framework that schools would work around and no it is more aligned to a prescribed way of doing things that schools must aligned themselves with. It makes me wonder how much individuality schools lose because of this and how it may affect the schools sense of identity and community?