At ISY, we have three ISY Learner Outcomes. We want all of our students to leave ISY as:
- Compassionate Global Citizens
- Lifelong Learners
- Agents for Positive Change
Over the break I was thinking and reading about what it means to be a lifelong learner. Yuval Noah Harari’s books are excellent if you’re thinking about what the future might hold and how you might need to adapt to it.
In Homo Deus, he wrote:
‘Traditionally, life has been divided into two main parts; a period of learning followed by a period of working. Very soon this traditional model will become utterly obsolete, and the only way for humans to stay in the game will be to keep learning throughout their lives, and to reinvent themselves repeatedly. Many if not most humans may be unable to do so.’
In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, he wrote:
‘To survive and flourish in such a world, you will need a lot of mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance. You will have to repeatedly let go of some of what you know best, and feel at homewith the unknown. Unfortunately, teaching kids to embrace the unknown and to keep their mental balance is far more difficult than teaching them an equation in physics or the First World War.’
No-one wants to be learning online. As hard as we try and as good a job as we do, we all worry that our children are missing out on something. But these two quotes got me thinking that maybe we should stop worrying about what they might be missing and start valuing what we know that they are certainly getting – an education in ‘embracing the unknown.’
Every day, our Elementary School students see their families and teachers struggling to learn new skills, thinking of ways to overcome unexpected challenges, and adapting to meet them, all the while trying to ‘keep their mental balance.’
Never before have our children had such an insight into what it means to be a lifelong learner. It means being able to struggle, think, adapt and keep your head so you can apply what you know to whatever life throws at you.
It is strange to think that our children might be better for this experience if we keep struggling, thinking, and adapting with them. But if we want to develop lifelong learners, this is the time to do it!
Elementary Music 2020
I think this picture is an excellent visual representation of a lifelong learner embracing the unknown and adapting to meet the needs of our students.
Our students see examples of lifelong learning from all of their teachers everyday.
CHINTHE SPIRIT WEEK! ALL NEXT WEEK!
- Monday: Costume / Character Day – dress like your favorite character from a book, movie, game, or in a fun costume, anything goes!
- Tuesday: Crazy Hat Day
- Wednesday: Dress Like A Teacher Day
- Thursday: Crazy Hair Day
- Friday: Chinthe Spirit Day – dress in ISY Chinthe colors
COUNSELOR'S CORNER with Ms. Patty
ES MORNING FITNESS WITH ISY's MR. MYANMAR!
Mr. Zar Li has kindly offered to run 15 minute work outs for our students that will start at 8:10am every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. These work outs will start next Monday. The Zoom link for the workouts will be on the Friday Family Report email that you receive from your child(ren)’s teacher. All ages are welcome and parents are welcome to join in too.
The workouts will finish at 8:25am to give students time to get a drink and get organized before joining their classes at 8:30am.
These workouts do not replace regular P.E. classese during the school day.
PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES: Thursday, November 19
QUARTER 1 PROGRESS REPORTS: Friday, November 13
NEW QUARTER 2 'PROSPERITY' UNIT & ADAPTED SCHEDULE
The Quarter 2 schedule for our Grade 1 to 5 students has been adapted to allow for more focused Music and Visual Art instruction without taking any time away from instruction in core subjects. Students will now have two lessons of Music or Visual Art per week. One session will be with their own homeroom class and another session will be with their whole grade. Students who start with two sessions of Music per week will switch to two sessions of Visual Art per week half way through the quarter and vice versa.
Your child(ren)’s Friday Family Report from your child(ren)’s teacher lists the days that different specialist classes are happening.
Quarter 2 ends on January 29, 2021.
ONLINE LEARNING TIP: How was school today?
- What made your teacher smile?
- What kind of person were you today?
- What made you feel happy?
- What made you feel proud?
- What made you feel loved?
Elementary School Blog – November 13, 2020
Childish wisdom mixed with a global perspective and some ‘grown up’ expertise and experience will go a long way in finding the answers to many of the problems that our children will need to solve.
Elementary School Blog – October 23, 2020
We have made a good start to this year like no other. The Thadingyut break comes at a perfect time for us to rest and reflect on the last 8 weeks.
Elementary School Blog – October 16, 2020
We finished this week in Chinthe Colors! Next week, we will be celebrating Thadingyut (Thursday) and Halloween (Friday).
Elementary School Blog – October 9, 2020
As expected, we have retained our fully accredited status as a WASC school and this extends to our ISY Nay Pyi Taw campus.
Elementary School Blog – October 2, 2020
Next week, we have a committee from WASC working with us online. WASC stands for The Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
Elementary School Blog – September 25, 2020
I hope this finds you all well after navigating another week that I am sure had a few twists and turns. This week, I have written about how Winnie the Pooh might provide us with some guidance in dealing with these uncertain times.
The International School Yangon
20 Shwe Taungyar Street
Bahan Township
Yangon, Myanmar
+95 (0) 9 880 441 040