Grade 3 Students Taking Action for Change

 

Dynamic duo, Chica and Zayli, in Grade 3, have been working on their passion project every week on Flex Fridays. Their plan is to raise money for Mozambican schools that need more educational materials or to done to organizations that provide clean drinking water to children - they're still deciding! They are raising the money by selling products made of Capulana material.

Chica and Zayli intend to continue with this project next year, when they are in Grade 4, and so they want the community to know about the project and keep an eye out for it next school year!

Grade 10 Inquiry into the Sustainable Development Goals

Grade 10 are currently presenting the work they've done during their inquiry into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the outcome of the inquiry being a sustainable, actionable solution to a local issue (which is also a world-wide issue related to SDGs).

The context for the unit of inquiry was to develop an understanding of the impact of the linear economy globally, and to consider how the UN SDGs can overcome global issues, within a local context, with students carrying out personalised inquiries and creating sustainable solutions and action. This inquiry ties in with the transition of Grade 10 to the IB Diploma and High School programme in two ways: to mirror an inquiry into the UN SDGs as per the Environmental Systems and Societies Internal Assessment and to engage students in Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) experiences, building a foundation for continued action in Grade 11 and Grade 12.

The unit of inquiry began with guest speakers from within the AISM community. Niall Tierney spoke about the history of the UN SDGs and his own involvement in developing them and implementing them. Florentine Bourdeaux spoke about the application of a circular economic model of industrial production in Maputo at the Beluluane Industrial Park, working on transforming the park into an eco-industrial park. Colleen Fletcher and Jasmine Howell spoke about the importance of sustainable action (economic, social, environmental), based on indigenous knowledge bearers, the Compass Model and spheres of influence.

Here are a few examples of the presentations the students have put together.

Ashutosh and Arvind's work focuses on sustainable, affordable water filtration systems for the local community in order to promote Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG6) and to counter the use of single-use plastic and climate change:

Sanjana, Saira, Maria Clara and Georgia's work focuses on making organic hand sanitizer to support the Health and Well-Being (SDG 3) and Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) of a local school in order, ultimately, to influence Quality Education (SDG 4): 

             

Margret's work focused on Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) and ensuring sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, with a focus on Mozambique:

Madeleine's work focused on seeing if solar paint is a plausible innovation to develop Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7):

Content from the Association Meeting

 As Sam promised, here are the things that he referred to during the recent Association Meeting.

Here are the new IB Standards & Practices. They describe all of the the elements of a successful IB school. We use them to develop strategy, identify priorities and reflect on our practice. A team from the IB comes to the school every five years in order to do an evaluation visit and measure how the school is doing according to these standards and practices. It is normal for schools to be at different stages of development and evolution in the various aspects of the IB Standards & Practices.

Here is a video showing all of the attributes of the IB Learner Profile. Being and becoming these attributes is the higher purpose of an IB education and so it is important that all adults in the community of an IB school are aware of, know, understand and have high expectations for themselves and each other to demonstrate these attributes at all times.

This video is a great overview of the Ruler approach to emotional intelligence that we will be implementing throughout the school in the next couple of years, starting next academic year.

Here are the links to the Grade 5 PYP Exhibition, Grade 10 MYP Personal Project Exhibition and Grade 12 DP Extended Essay Exhibition... three major milestones in an IB education!

Sharing the Planet in Grade 2

In our Sharing the Planet unit of inquiry, Grade 2 learners have been inquiring into living things in different environments and how humans share those environments with living things.

We met with one of our parents, James Hogg, who is an Environmental Scientist and avid bird-watcher. He shared information about different habitats in Maputo and the birds we might encounter in each habitat. We also  learned about the importance of planting indigenous plants to support local wildlife.

We were also inspired by Jadav Payang, the man who planted a forest, and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wanagari Maathai, who told the story of the Hummingbird taking action.  We decided to plant indigenous trees and reached out to Ms. Colleen who taught us about the Spekboom plant, a super plant amongst plants!  She kindly shared some cuttings with us that we were able to plant and will be caring for on campus.  

Furthermore, we have been reading poems and stories about different habitats, and the 2H  Hummingbirds decided to write their own to show appreciation for the Earth.

Photo by John O'Nolan on Unsplash

The IB Learner Profile in the AISM Community

 

This is a video that shows the postcards we have designed in order to make the language of the IB learner profile more visible in our community. It features some beautiful photographs by some of our talented parents and teachers!

The IB learner profile is the most crucial element in the identity of an IB school like ours. The collective mission of IB schools is to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. This is the work of our whole community and can only be achieved when we are all doing our best to model the attributes of the IB learner profile to the young people we are educating and parenting. As the African proverb says, it takes a village to raise a child.

One of our current goals, as a school, is to rapidly bring the language of the IB learner profile to the surface in our community, to make it a priority to strive towards living it and to have high expectations for how we all behave and interact with each other. Keep an eye out for some of the initiatives that we hope will help us achieve those goals.

Feel free to contact Sam, our Director of Learning, if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions about how we can make this happen.

Grade 7 are Spoken Poets and Activists!

The current unit in 7th grade Integrated Arts is "Activism in the Arts". We're looking at some of the visual art, music and performance art that has come out of activist movements around the world. All students created a spoken word poem about a cause of their choosing. Spoken Word Poetry has become a popular performance art among young people especially as they share their voices to help change the world and show their own power for good.

Here are some examples of the spoken word poems that Grade 7 students have been producing.

Zara:

Ver no Vocaroo >>

Kate:

 

Francesca:

Raisa:

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

4L Have Strong Opinions About Our Planet

How do you address your audience in a persuasive way? 

Grade 4L spent the last 8 weeks diving into deep issues around the world in our Sharing the Planet unit:

Central Idea: Interactions within environments have consequences

Lines of Inquiry:

• The cause and effect relationships within the environment
• How interactions impact environmental balance and sustainability
• How advancement in technology changes and affects the world around us.

Changing people's thinking about how we treat the planet was 4L's purpose behind learning how to write a strong and persuasive opinion text. 

We learned how to persuade readers by using a strong and bold thesis, reasons to support that thesis, and finally, examples to help us elaborate about our reasons. 

Please take a few minutes to read our published pieces and learn how you can share our planet responsibly.

We Need to Stop Poaching by Maelle

Stop Water Pollution by Mufaro

We Need to Stop Poaching by Elliana

Is Air Pollution a Problem? by Monica

We Need to Use Less Plastic by Hannah (coming soon!)

Deforestation Needs to Stop by Maia

We Need to Stop Deforestation Now!! by Makai

Climate Change by Tomas

Feel free to leave a comment on this post and share your opinions about sharing the planet too.

Photo by Richard Gatley on Unsplash

Kindergarten's Urban Safaris!

 

During their Sharing the Planet unit of inquiry, Kindergarten students are learning about the living things that share our environment:

Central Idea: When we look closely and wonder, we learn appreciation and respect for living things in our environment.

Lines of Inquiry:

• The features and behaviours of living things
• How features and behaviour connects to where they live (habitats)
• Respect and appreciation for living things

While the AISM campus was closed, they were challenged to go on an "urban safari" around their homes to see what living things they could find. Then, they were asked to document what they saw and record their ideas and thoughts about the features and behaviours of living things in their environments.

Here are two of those urban safaris!

Many thanks to Arielle, Pedro and their families for sharing these wonderful explorations and documentation with us.

Photo by: Rikki Chan on Unsplash

"Dear World" by Mariana in Grade 3S

 

Dear World,

Everyone needs to “STOP RACISM” because you can't judge people by their color. Just because a person is a particular color, does not mean they are not nice or as special as anyone else. In fact we are all humans with: family members, eyes, nose, ears, bodies, lives, and friends. Maybe not all of us have shelter but we all learn and we need to support others and accept them the way they are.

My opinion is that it is very rude to be racist. Like what happened to Jorge Floyd, American police killed him just because of his skin color, and that's not right. He was: a dad, a brother, a son and most of all a young man and he was a human. It's unfair you are making people lose their self confidence and people will feel sad, anxious, a loser and uncomfortable with who they are.

Everyone has the right to be loved, have a family, have friends that love you. Everyone has the right to have freedom to be themselves, and live with freedom with no one judging them. People need to feel free in this world and feel confident with themselves.

“DON'T BE RACIST”

From: Your Mariana in 3S
To: Our amazing world!

Image from: https://www.gcftf.org/statement-against-racism-and-inequity/