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Everyone has a different point of what it means to be neighborly. As a child, I was taught by my parents that being neighborly meant giving up your seat to an elderly person or pregnant woman. We made casseroles for people that were sick. We knew our physical neighbors and broke bread (have meals) together. This is kindness, but I think it means more to be neighborly. To be honest, I think most of what I learned about being a neighbor was taught to me by Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. It was a daily show that talked about being kind to everyone, resolving our feelings correctly, and loving ourselves. When his show was being attacked by critics and looking for funding, here is what Fred Rogers said to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on May 1, 1969. In today's world, I wonder what it means to be neighborly to our small cihldren. Does being a caring neighbor mean the physical person that lives next to you or is it a metaphor? Do they care for their neighbors? I like to believe so. I've seen a lot of good come out of my learners this year, so I am hopeful. All of these thoughts have rushed into my mind as I took a train from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Frankfurt airport this afternoon. A woman and her two children boarded the train mid-journey and she was very disheveled. People were staring at her while she was frantically trying to find her seats, because one of her chidren has cerebral palsy and was in a wheelchair. After the initial shock, everyone worked together to get her situated. Two women who were sitting in their correct seats moved, so the family could sit together. We found places where all the luggage could go, so everyone was safe and comfortable.
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
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by Lu Gerlach The number one mistake I made as a new coordinator was building the curriculum framework first. If you are a coordinator, please heed the call. Do not follow in my footsteps, because it cost me at least six months and polarized my staff. Here’s what I’d do instead. If I had to do it all over again, I would ignore the pressure from my school leadership to begin building the curriculum framework and focus on building a new school culture. Remember, the foundation of our PYP house is the learner profile.  Shared CultureA school’s culture is at the heart of what they believe and what they do. As a new coordinator, I struggled to assess the needs of the campus culture, because I was new to the campus and I was not a part of the Black American subculture. I underestimated the power of building culture in the process of laying the foundation of the PYP. Why is this important? Imagine how you’d feel if a stranger came into your school that you love and you were told that how you’ve been teaching is changing. There is going to be a new curriculum framework put in place that will change how you teach, what you teach together, and the order in which you will teach it. That’s a lot of change for more teachers to take on. This is why establishing a strong culture based on the learner profile matters. If I were to do it again, I would have spent at least six months going into classrooms and chatting with students and teachers. Assess the ideas that are already working in the campus that align with the PYP. Present these to the staff to calm their fears about taking on a “new program” again. Then, I’d work with developing the learner profile attributes with the entire school community through modeled teaching, co-teaching experiences, and student-led teaching opportunities. This is the way to get your team to buy into the new culture of what is coming ahead. Shared VisionAround the six month mark, I would begin to talk with the primary stakeholders (students, parents, teachers) about the vision of the PYP through the learner profile and how it will enhance the programming of the school. Together, we would create a shared vision of what the PYP will look like at our campus, since the needs of our students are different. By creating a shared vision, we are ensuring that all stakeholders have buy-in to the process. They are sharing their passions, hopes, and dreams about what the PYP will look like in the future. We will use the learner profile attributes as the vehicle for getting there. Shared LanguageHaving a shared language is vital to the success of any program. Around the three month mark, I would have started using the language of the learner profile to describe ideas in my modeled lessons, my conversations with students and staff, and how I describe the current state of the campus. This would have established a certain set of criteria of how we speak in relation to the PYP. How do we do this authentically and meaningfully? We don’t want to say things that we don’t mean, because they will fall flat. Here’s some examples of sharing the language of the learner profile. Chatting with students: I see you demonstrated open-mindedness by trying to solve that division problem using a new strategy. Modeling ELA lesson: How did Yoon (from My Name is Yoon) communicate how she was feeling about moving to America through her drawings? Chatting with staff: I noticed that Ms. Smith’s bulletin board used real-life food containers to help students to develop a deep conceptual knowledge of US customary liquid measurement. Taking time to lay the foundation of the learner profile will save you a lot of heartache and grief. It took a long time for my staff to trust my judgement, because I didn’t get to know them first. We are still struggling to lay the foundation of the learner profile, because it’s not a part of their natural way of teaching. 
by Lu Gerlach There is no magical tool to stop undesired behavior, just love for your students. When you don’t like your students, they know. Changing our MindsetMy last year in Dubai, I taught 5th grade with 18 boys and 10 girls. I had some of the naughtiest boys in the grade level. My mom who was a retired teacher was my sounding board. I remember calling her when I found out my class roster in a panicked tone. My mom’s response was priceless. She said, “I know you are receiving some challenging boys, but you must forget what their past teachers have told you. You must love them, set the boundaries, and remember that they are children who are still developing into good humans.” I followed her advice and focused on developing relationships with each child by giving them nicknames, holding regular class meetings, giving them responsibilities, and allowing them to demonstrate agency of their learning. This allowed them to own their mistakes and revisit their behavior. It was one of the best years of my teaching career. The learner profile was a huge part of my journey that year, because I allowed the students to take on many attributes on their own. How do we get to this point? Here are some suggestions that have greatly changed my relationship with my students. Building RelationshipsWe must build relationships with our students in order to get the best out of them. I know many teachers say this is important, but I’ve seen many missed opportunities for growth, because a relationship was not established. What do I mean by relationship? I mean that the child is able to see you beyond the role of the teacher, but as a daughter/son, a student, an artist, a dreamer, and a friend. When we are able to get to this point, we can unlock the magical potential within our learners. Begin slowly with the learner profile through shared experiences through writing prompts, class discussions, and paired sharing. Hold regular class or restorative circle meetings where we address current issues that are an obstacle to the learning. The class openly talks about it in a safe place and the teacher shares their vulnerability. This is a powerful tool that can open up the most reluctant learners. As we become more proficient, we can pose prompts centered around the learner profile, so students can make relevant connections to the attributes. Hold private conferences to gauge where students are at the moment: their needs, fears, hang ups, successes, and celebrations. Have students identify their needs using the learner profile. For example, “I want to develop more conceptual knowledge in fractions and apply them to real-life situations.” Allow students to have a bit more agency during portions of the day: individual or small group work stations can allow for choice and student-driven learning, reflections can be video, audio, blog, journal, etc., genius hour to investigate a passion project, and so much more. Have them identify which attribute they are using while developing agency in their learning. This will make the reflective process a bit easier and more enriching.  Behavior GoalsIn my experience, behavior issues become more evident when students are bored or frustrated by the way we are teaching the content. Students act out to deflect the learning they don’t want to do, which heightens our frustration as the teacher. I’ve noticed the times I succumbed to outside pressures and taught according to someone else’s methods, my behavior issues rose exponentially. Here are some possible ways to set behavior goals and get the student back on track with the help of the learner profile attributes. Co-create learner profile behavior goals for a short duration of time. Have students reflect on the areas they see as needing improvement, so there is continued buy in of the process. Allow the student to create the goal length and co-create a success criteria that needs to be met to ensure the goal is achieved. Co-design a learner profile behavior chart that students use to self-monitor progress regularly. The duration is determined by the student (morning/afternoon, daily, every other day, or weekly). In the beginning, students may to to self-regulate more frequently, until they get a handle on the undesired behavior Meet regularly to discuss the progress of the learner profile behavior goals. Allow students to determine the meeting schedule, because this will ensure they are ready to take the next steps. Reflecting on BehaviorWe know that reflection is a vital part of the PYP, but are students regularly reflecting and owning their behavior? There is a simple tool we can use to help students take ownership of their mistakes and make goals for the future.
What did I do? - have students explain the undesirable behavior they demonstrated to someone else. This is a huge part of growing as a young person. Owning our mistakes takes great courage. Why did I do it? - now we are getting to the deeper issue of why the student performed the undesirable behavior. It allows students to self-assess their actions and own their mistakes. What can I do better? - ask students to reflect on alternative actions they can take and align it with the learner profile. For example: Next time, I will be more caring when I speak to others. By completing these strategies above, you will see a reduced number of off-task and disruptive behaviors in your classroom and feel more connected with your students. Are you willing to spend the time it takes to make it happen? by Lu Gerlach Now that we’ve established the learner profile in our school community, we can take the next step of explicitly teaching it in our units of inquiry. Let’s take a look at how we can wrap the attributes around the content areas to make it more meaningful. Attributes in LiteracyLearning about language structures can come alive by using the learner profile attributes as a lens of viewing and applying them.
 In this picture, one of my teachers is connecting the attribute (Principled) with the book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. The usual connection might be perspective, since the story is told from the Wolf's point of view. Instead, she used principled to examine the Wolf's actions in the story and their effects. to edit. Attributes in Science and Social StudiesTo support the conceptual thinking in science, we can use the learner profile attributes to help us make meaningful connections to the ideas. It’s the stories and experiences that help us to remember the bigger theories.
To support deeper thinking in social studies, we can use the learner profile attributes to make historical events and geography come to life.
Attributes in MathTo support conceptual thinking in math, we use the learner profile attributes to collaborate with others. We listen to each other and express our ideas confidently and creatively.
by Lu Gerlach You’ve unpacked the learner profile attributes, now what? Do you just use them whenever time permits or can you plan with them in mind? In my personal observation over the past twelve years, I’ve noticed that most PYP teachers use them as behavior attributes. So our challenge is to look at the learner profile in a new light and try to consider them as a teaching tool. Here are some examples in relation to learning spaces Attributes in the Learning SpaceWhen we are thinking of the learning space, we are considering more than just how the furniture is laid out and how the walls are decorated. We are examining how the learning space has been designed to reflect the learner profile attributes. Are there places where students can take open-minded risks? Here are some possible suggestions: Thinkers: an inquiry table is an excellent way for students to play with ideas and make connections based on their prior learning. An inquiry table has materials from the various content within the unit. Students examine and make predictions on what the unit is about and how the objects are connected together. Inquirers: an inquiry station has random materials and a question is posed to provoke the thinking. Possible question: What can you create with these materials to show force and motion? This open-ended task allows students to express their curiosity and hone critical thinking skills.
Attributes in the School LibrarySince the library is the hub of all learning, it sets the tone for reading as a lifelong learner. It can also set a tone for developing the learner profile attributes.
Attributes in the School HallwaysThe school hallways, office areas, and other communal spaces provide a blank canvas for the exploration of the attributes. One challenge is to make it interactive and relevant to our students, instead of pretty wallpaper.
by Lu Gerlach Yay! Our podcast has reached 500 downloads. Considering I didn’t think anyone would download my ramblings, I’m humbled that so many people keep returning for more ideas.  For curiosity's sake, I decided to look up the locations with the most downloads. To my surprise, the top 3 are all places that hold a special place in my heart. #1 Sharjah, United Arab EmiratesI lived on the border of Sharjah in the neighborhood of Al Qusais for three years. The richness of the culture, the smells in the air, and the smiles of the people still take me back to a special place. I’ll be forever grateful for that time, because it’s where my international teaching experience began. #2 Melbourne, AustraliaI had the opportunity to attend Melbourne Uni to finish my bachelor’s degree due to a generous scholarship from Rotary International. It was a defining year of my life and eventually led me towards becoming an educator. I met mates that I will have for life, I learned things about myself, and I carried a brolly everyday, so I was prepared for the four seasons in one day. #3 Houston, Texas, USAI moved to Houston to be closer to family after a decade teaching abroad. Little did I know that I’d grow exponentially and refine my practice as a PYP educator. I’ve come to love this great city with its ice houses, quaint neighborhoods, and annual flooding. It makes the journey more memorable. As I was reflecting on these experiences, it reminded me of the power of the learning profile and how the ideas, not terms, can change our behavior. They allow us to see beyond our current capabilities and strive for more. Each place above holds a space in my heart, because it’s where I grew partly into the person I am becoming. How magical is that? This is what we want for our students too by using and reflecting on the learner profile attributes. Let’s explore the next steps of making the learner profile more a part of your daily practice. Besides using the learner profile attributes as part of your school’s behavior plan, that’s a topic for another podcast, we want to see how you are using them each day. You heard me, each day. If we aren’t using them every day, we aren’t keeping the heart of the IB mission statement close to our practice. Think about that one. No pressure or anything. Here are some simple ways to implement the learner profile into your daily practice. Unpack the AttributeI begin the unit by taking time to unpack the learner profile description. Open-Minded Being open-minded is often mistaken for trying new foods, tolerating someone else’s beliefs, and taking on new experiences. This is part of the process. Being open-minded is looking below the surface and understanding that everyone’s life has a story based on a set of beliefs and values that were established by their unique culture. When we are open-minded, we seek to understand a range of points of view, so we can better understand our own. Unit Context: Who We Are
Learner Profile connections
 Wall of FameMy first PYP Coordinator, Kirsten Wickham, taught me a lot about the learner profile Wall of Fame. This is a great way to get students involved in understanding the learner profile attributes and what they mean. Here’s my version.
Younger Students Class 1G nominates Yoon (from My Name is Yoon) for being open-minded. She moves to America from South Korea and doesn’t know any English. She has a hard time, because life in America is different from her home in South Korea. She tries to find words to describe who she is to her new friends. Older Students Class 4G nominates Ms. Manners for being open-minded. She is always interested in learning about other people and how their culture is different from her own. She will ask us questions that make us think about our beliefs and values. Ms. Manners also shares her beliefs and values about different topics, so we can understand that different opinions are okay. She makes us look at how ideas and words can hurt someone else, so we are trying to learn how to be more respectful about different opinions. "Indiana Jones is a risk-taker. He tries new things, even when he doesn’t know how they work, like when he jumped into an airplane. He uses his imagination to get out of trouble. An example is when he put the flame from the candle on his rope. Indiana drinks from a special cup that could kill you. He does it to save his father, who has been shot. He didn’t just try, he did it. " - Ms. Gerlach's 3/4 Class Learning GoalsOne of the best things I’ve done is to get students to make goals based on the learner profile. We started off the year making self-portraits that defined who we are. Then, we unpacked the attributes and chose one to focus on with a specific task. The time frame was open-ended and we wrote the goals on post it notes. This was important, because students didn’t feel stuck with a goal that they had achieved and it wasn’t permanent. Oftentimes, our strugglings learners don’t feel they are progressing fast enough, because the timeframe is determined by the teacher and grading period. This change allowed for more student agency of the goal setting process. One of my favorite experiences with attribute goals was with Eddie. He was one of the few Black American students in a predominately caucasian/ hispanic campus and struggled to fit in. He wrote this beginning of the year goal, “I want to be principled because I only do the right thing when people are looking.” As I checked progress throughout the year, Eddie decided for himself that he was not ready to move onto his next goal. At the fourth grade awards ceremony, he was finally presented an award for being principled. What joy it was to see his beaming face as he crossed the stage. This is how we change dispositions.  ReflectionsReflection is naturally connected to developing the learner profile attributes. Through reflection, we make connections between our learning and are able to identify ways we still need to grow. This is so important if we want to bridge all of the ideas we have learned across the curriculum. Reflection should be a daily practice. You heard me correctly. DAILY. Not weekly like most people do. It’s during these quiet reflective moments that innovation sparks to life. We need to carve out time in our schedules to regularly allow our students to connect the dots.
I’ve created some reflection sheets to help guide the daily practice, self-assess our behavior, and look back at learning through portfolios and unit reflections. Reflection is not limited to these sheets, but they’ll help to get you started. Look in our Resources section at https://thinkchat2020.weebly.com/ by Lu Gerlach I think the learner profile attributes are often under-valued in the unit of inquiry. They are often equated to a bunch of character traits that we follow to be better people. Upon a deeper look, you’ll see that there are hidden depths.
We are going to take a deeper look at the attributes by sorting them into Action Within and Action Beyond. Where do you think they will lay? As I read the expanded descriptor, consider if this is an action within or action beyond. We’ll compare answers at the end. BalancedBeing balanced is more than healthy eating and doing yoga twice a week. It’s having the capability to explore different aspects of ourselves and not being ruled by one facet. It’s recognizing that there will always be positive and negative factors in the world and to dwell on the things we can control. It requires us to look beyond our own needs and think of greater humanity. CaringBeing caring is usually tokenized as being a good friend or caring for the classroom. Caring is deeper, because it requires us to listen with compassion, empathize with those who are hurting, and respect opinions that are different than our own. Caring requires us to look beyond ourselves and consider the needs of our local community. Our action or inaction greatly impacts the lives of others. CommunicatorBeing a communicator is more than sharing your ideas to a whole or small group. It requires confidence in your ability to articulate your thoughts clearly to the intended audience. Being a communicator requires a broad base of skills related to voice, word choice, meaning, message, and audience. A communicator understands the presence of bias and persuasive ideas, so they listen carefully to the ideas of others. InquirerBeing an inquirer is usually tied to asking a lot of questions. This is only a part of what inquirers do. They take those questions and plan how they will explore them through research, real-life experiences, speaking to experts, engaging with a variety of multimodal texts, and so much more. Inquirers are independent learners who understand their purpose and this sustains their love of learning throughout their lives. KnowledgeableBeing knowledgeable is more than gaining new information. When we obtain true knowledge, we are making connections across the content areas through a conceptual lens to create transfer. We seek ways to connect this understanding to issues in our local and global community. Open-MindedBeing open-minded is often mistaken for trying new foods, tolerating someone else’s beliefs, and taking on new experiences. This is part of the process. Being open-minded is looking below the surface and understanding that everyone’s life has a story based on a set of beliefs and values that were established by their unique culture. When we are open-minded, we seek to understand a range of points of view, so we can better understand our own. PrincipledBeing principled is being more than honest. It means you are doing what is right when no one else is looking. They have a strong sense of fairness, truth, balance, and justice. As such, they own their mistakes and accept the consequences for their actions, regardless if they were intentional. They do not blame others for their mistakes, because they understand that making mistakes is part of the learning process. ReflectiveBeing reflective is more than recalling events from a singular learning engagement into a journal. It’s a vibrant process of putting ideas and events together, considering their implications, and thinking about one’s participation in the process. It requires regular and systematic time and space for these ideas to connect. Risk-TakerBeing a risk-taker is not always jumping out of an airplane like Indiana Jones or battling a basilisk in Harry Potter. They are often quiet decisions that require a lot of forethought. Risk-taking requires a deeper look at the costs and benefits of a plan and assessing its value. It is overcoming fear of failure and establishing a resiliency to weather any storm ahead. It requires blind faith to take a step towards the unknown. ThinkerBeing a thinker is the ability to know a wide variety of skills and tools and be able to self-select them to solve complex problems in the world. They are innovators, creators, and problem-solvers who make informed choices based on a wide-variety of data points. They know the impact their decisions will have on the community, so they are committed to making reasoned, ethical decisions. How did you do?What learner profile attributes are action within and action beyond. Here are my ideas, but they are simply my opinion. If you can justify your response, this is what determines the placement.
My choices: Action Within: thinker, principled, open-minded, reflective Action Beyond: knowledgeable, inquirers, communicators, caring, risk-takers, balanced by Lu Gerlach About a year and a half ago while co-presenting a workshop, I had an Aha moment while comparing the PYP to a house. You’d think I would have presented this framework at the beginning of this podcast series. I had initially intended for it to be that way, but there was so much panic in the world on how to engage with students in a virtual learning environment. As such, I adapted my plan to focus on how to make inquiry accessible in a virtual space. Then, I ventured into agency and action, because they have a symbiotic relationship with inquiry. One cannot exist without the other. Once all of the initial thoughts were captured, I decided to go back to the beginning. So let’s try to frame our thinking of the PYP by looking at it as a house.  The FoundationAs we know, the foundation is the most important part of a house. It provides a level surface for the rest to build upon. The foundation takes the pressure from the rest of the structure when outside forces push upon it and shake it to the core. As such, the foundational layers need to be items that are deep rooted in the IB philosophy and reinforce school culture. The first layer of the foundation consists of the learner profile attributes. The learner profile attributes are more than terms we use to describe an internationally minded student, they are a disposition of how we look at the world. They are one of the only elements of the IB program that follow a learner from kindergarten to graduation. Why is the learner profile so important? They lay the foundation of school culture through shared language. With the diverse backgrounds of our educators and learners, the learner profile unifies our purpose and provides a common language that can be used throughout the program continuum. The second layer of the foundation is international mindedness. We strive to become internationally minded, because it's the embodiment of the IB mission statement in our school and community. It allows us to look beyond our perspective of the world and examine how others do things differently. As such, international mindedness is at the heart of building relationships that can withstand obstacles. Framing the HouseAs we set the foundation, we want to build a strong floor that can withstand a lot of wear and tear. This floor will span the entire house and every nook and cranny. Our flooring takes shape with the transdisciplinary themes. As we create our strong mindset, we move forward with building a curriculum that is laid in the frame of the PYP six transdisciplinary themes. These themes center our thinking conceptually and connect all of our content areas together. The studs and beams truly hold up a structure. They are what create the rooms and floors in a home. Concepts hold up the house structure vertically. These are universal ideas that are timeless, universal, and abstract. They connect all of the ideas in our various content areas and bring them together as a cohesive unit. Without concepts, our units would be thematic, departmentalized, and unrelated. They truly are the anchor to everything we do and help students make generalizations about the world around them. Designing the HouseOur house has been designed to have two floors. The main floor has been designed to showcase the approaches to learning or ATLs. The ATLs are skills that are explicitly taught, so learners can become independent thinkers. Their aim is to ensure that students understand, can explain, and are able to replicate processes to new situations. This is learning transfer. On the second floor, you will find the approaches to teaching or ATTs. These are various teaching and assessment strategies that teachers employ to ensure that big ideas are understood while delivering content-driven objectives. They include: inquiry, concepts, collaboration, local and global contexts, differentiation, and assessment. Holding it All TogetherThe attic and roof hold everything intact, so there is no damage to the home. This ensures that habitants can freely roam with little fear of being exposed to the outside elements. Agency and action act as our shields in holding the program together. They anchor to each component of the structure to keep everything balanced and secure. Agency and action come about naturally when there is a strong foundation of school culture and relationships through the learner profile and international mindedness.
All of the elements of the PYP house work together to stand tall. It’s not easy, because there will always be maintenance to ensure no calamity befalls the house. There will be major overhauls over time to be able to stay abreast of current trends and improvements. You can easily differentiate between PYP houses. There are some that were crafted over time with care. The people devoted a lot of themselves into making it the best edifice on the block. Meanwhile down the road, others did a quick construction job to get something up with little thought of long-term durability. This is our reality. Which type of house do you currently live in? What repairs need to be made so your structure can stand tall? |
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