C148: Specialist and Supporting Teachers: International Mindedness 2.0

Welcome to the eleventh episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series.  Today, we are focusing on how we can further explore international mindedness in our practice.  This requires some deeper thinking and collaboration to make it happen. 

​In the last episode, we explored how to unpack international mindedness through local and global contexts and projecting across time.  I am hoping that this episode will equally excite you to move forward with making global connections.  

​One thing I’ve been hearing over again by everyone that inspires me is that learning is intentional.  How are you being intentional with international mindedness as a specialist and supporting teacher?  Remember, we are trying in to look at the curriculum through a different lens to get the maximum amount of potential from our learners. 

​Let’s share some stories

Storytelling is one of the ways that we can really get our learners hooked into our content.  It makes the ideas more relatable, because they are required to feel with their hearts, instead of think with their heads.  It’s not so hard, but it requires practice. ​

If we don't share the unique stories, learners might find ones of their own that are not as well-crafted or misleading. 

Let’s learn how to storytell through PZ visible thinking routine: Stories.  

Stories
Consider how accounts of issues, events, people, society, etc. are presented; what has been left out, and how you might want to present the account. 
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• What is the story that is presented? What is the account that is told? 
• What is the untold story? What is left out in the account? What other angles are missing in the account? 
• What is your story? What is the account that you think should be the one told?

Example in Art

​What is the story that is presented? What is the account that is told? 

Let’s engage with an image, video, or piece of music. Ask learners to share that story that is presented from their point of view. 

Then, share the account that is told from the perspective of the artist and the time they were living.  Since artists often respond to social conditions, it should be relatively easy to determine the muse.  
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What is the untold story?  What is left out in the account? What other angles are missing in the account?

Have learners examine the text again and try to determine the hidden story of the text and what it is trying to tell us based on stylistic choices, the lighting, focal point, etc. 

Learners try to interpret the piece of art based on their prior understanding and connect it to issues at the time. They can also connect it with present-day issues and how it reflects the patterns in society.  

To deepen the thinking, they can share what they think is missing from the story.  

• What is not being shared?  
• How does this impact the meaning of the text? 
• What should they add to make it more true to the actual events? 

What is your story? What is the account that you think should be the one told?

Thinking about the text being used, how can we connect it to the story of our learners?  Ask your learners to find connections to their everyday lives.  Find a story that they are willing and feel safe to share with the class. 

Having been in a similar situation with learners, it’s amazing how it just opens up the group and builds bonds.  Allowing learners to share their stories really helps them to see that they are the focus of the curriculum and not an end product of it. 

Reflect back:  when was the last time that you used storytelling in your teaching?  No matter the content area, bringing about connections through stories is a powerful tool that learners respond to easily.  It’s about choosing the right hook and the right story. 

Other Applications

As I am pondering the use of the Stories routine, I am finding several connections to other specialist and supporting roles. 

ICT/ Computer Lab
As learners begin keyboarding the first time, share your personal experience with typing.  For me, it would have been on an electronic typewriter.  My typing teacher would not allow us to use correct film, so we had to perfect the typing assignments. What lesson did this teach me?  How does it impact my life today?  

For one thing, I am able to type regularly without looking at the keyboard.  I can type about 50 words per minute with some errors.  In a world of talk to text features, this is something to celebrate.  What is something that you are learning in a computer lab that is difficult, but you believe it will help you in the end?  How are you feeling about completing it? 

Music
When we explore various genres of music, we can uncover how the blues got its name.  What about this music brings about a sense of melancholy and the desire for the past.  What is our personal connection to music that makes us feel blue.  What genre makes us feel this way?  Any particular song that gets us at the heart? 

Science Lab  
Let’s look at the fifth state of matter and how a young Albert Einstein was ridiculed by his peers so badly that he rescinded his findings all together.  Only 20 years later, there was another team that replicated his procedure and proved that his theory was in fact correct. How might this connect to our world today?  How would you feel if you were mocked on social media for your ideas and everyone in your school knew about it.  How would you deal with this situation?  Would you hide like Albert or would you fight?  What might be the hidden message in this story? 

PE
The stories of team sports and how it brings a group of people together to achieve one goal.  What is the goal of each learner as they play team games?  What is the story that is being shared, hidden, and our personal connection. 

Now that you can see how it is used, consider how it might be adjusted for your next week’s lessons.  What will you change to make it more open-ended?