Secondary Principal’s Blog
September 25, 2020, Update
Christina Powers, Secondary School Principal
A warm hearted thank you to the parents who attended last night’s parent social. It was great to see so many parents. With social distancing, we need to make an ongoing effort to remain connected and last night’s event is an example of one way in which ISY is building connections.
To help with maintaining connectedness, ISY is fortunate to have three dedicated counselors who are available to support you and your child. Please do not hesitate to contact one of them for support.
Thank you for the support and feedback provided in last week’s survey. The feedback was very positive and constructive. It is important that we continue to work together to ensure a quality program for our students. The three areas that rose to the surface are listed below.
- A need to better understand the interdisciplinary teaching and learning in middle school
- A need to continue to have a variety of approaches when teaching
- A need to maintain connections
Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning
Over the last few years, ISY has been working towards moving away from the traditional approach of teaching content where subjects are taught in isolation to creating circumstances where real-life situations can be viewed through different lenses.
Instead of teaching math by itself, and teaching science by itself — We looked at how math, science, social studies, and language arts interact. How the students could apply their math learning to their science learning, and apply their reading and critical thinking skills to help them better understand social studies concepts. Being able to apply a skill or knowledge to a different context shows a depth of understanding that cannot be developed or assessed if it was taught in isolation. This approach will go a long way in helping our students achieve the goal of being lifelong learners.
In middle school we are accomplishing this goal in the following ways:
- A single teacher teaches two subjects. For example math and science
- Teachers have teaching partners when possible. This allows for teachers to have rich conversations around assessment and learning.
- Teachers guide students when studying a topic, idea, or concept from the perspective of as many subjects as possible
- Teachers assist students in making connections to a common enduring understanding regardless of the subject being taught. This leads to connections being between subjects.
In High School, we are accomplishing the goal of the interdisciplinary approach in the following ways:
- Having a common focus or enduring understanding about a topic, idea, or concept.
- Teachers have teaching partners when possible. This allows for teachers to have rich conversations around assessment and learning.
- Teachers guide students when studying a topic, idea, or concept from the perspective of as many subjects as possible
Interdisciplinary approach to learning allows our students to make real life connections and apply their skills and knowledge to different concepts. ISY continues to teach all subjects using our ISY standards.
Check out our frequently asked questions on Interdisciplainary Learning which will outline in detail why this approach is important for ISY.
Variation in Approach
Both students and parents commented on the need to ensure that lessons are varied and that we continue to utilize different approaches to ensure student engagement. Teachers continue to attend weekly technology PD sessions to strengthen these skills. These sessions focus on sharing resources and strategies that will enhance learning. Teachers will continue to use zoom for face to face interaction, and breakout rooms to facilitate discussions.
Need for Connections
With both online and Chinthe learning the need for students and parents to be connected is stronger than ever.
We have increased the number of meetings that we had originally planned for our self-paced Middle School Chinthe Learning Online program. In addition synchronized Middle school students are now having weekly Chinthe Chat sessions with their teachers. Chinthe chats are a small group of students who meet weekly with a teacher to share and connect. In High School in the afternoons we have socials for students to connect and enjoy each other’s company. This is facilitated by our HS counselor.
The International School Yangon
20 Shwe Taungyar Street
Bahan Township
Yangon, Myanmar
+95 (0) 9 880 441 040