This week during our Late Opening Wednesday meeting, the Skyline staff explored the connections between the ten IB Learner Profile Traits
and the equity work we do as a school district.
The words: principled, balanced, caring, knowledgeable, risk-taker, inquirer, thinkers, open-minded, reflective, and communicator all seem fairly straightforward on the surface. One thing we discovered when we looked deeper at the definitions the International Baccalaureate provides was that to truly teach these traits to students we need to make sure we are sharing multiple perspectives every day, every lesson, every unit planner. In order to educate global citizens, it is our task to provide a variety of narratives. As educators, we need to be sure that what we know and understand to be true may not be the whole story, and that our own personal experiences shape our truths. Just as the experiences of our families and our students shape their truths.
Our next school wide assembly is focused around the Learner Profile Trait, principled. The IB defines people who are principled as folks who, " act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities. They take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences that accompany them."
The above video tells a perspective, a story, a narrative. This 2009 Ted Talk was the first thing we watched on Wednesday morning. Nigerian author and teacher Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares her thoughts on the dangers of hearing a single story. She explains that when we know only one perspective, we miss the whole story.
"I've always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar."
What if the Skyline community listened to many stories? Could we then internalize what it truly means to be principled? Could we escape the danger?
Please contact me if you have thoughts, questions, want the hand-outs and activities from our staff professional development, or would like to hear more about our IB program at Skyline.
Heidi Earle
IB Coordinator
Skyline K8
hearle@pps.net
