Each week at ISL the school sends out a newsletter and posts it on their website. At the end is a section of photos that capture the weeks activities. This week I made an appearance!
Here I am working with a Grade 1 Italian student on the International Primary Curriculum unit called "That's Shocking". I am explaining the basic premiss of electrical circuits, which we later acted out with another student using props from around the room. Lots of fun!
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| I didn't blur out her face, as it is posted with permission on a public website already |
The diversity of learners we have in any of the classrooms at ISL is fascinating. Some challenges seem obvious, such as language barriers (as the children learn a new language). But there are also some unexpected challenges.
With students coming from around the world, they have all been apart of different education systems. These systems follow different curriculum, instructional focus (ex. play-based, reliance on drills), approaches to math or science (ex. the way we do division), etc. The students often move around a lot so any student may have been a part of multiple systems in different countries. Two students joined the primary class in January, one at the beginning of March, and one will join next week. This brings the total students in the class up to eight. But as you can see four students were in different systems within this instructional year. This leaves gaps and repetition in the topics they have covered.
The teachers are so great at trying to piece it all together, but it brings a whole new meaning to concept of differentiated instruction.
This has been such an interesting experience so far and I still have 1 week to go.
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