Tesfa International School aims to become an authorized International Baccalaureate School offering the full Primary Years Program by 2018. The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a student focused non-profit educational foundation. The IB’s mission statement strives to develop internationally minded students who recognize their importance as global citizens who are motivated to use their knowledge and skills to take action to make changes to and in the world.
The mission of IB states: “The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment. These programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.” IBO
The IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) is a curricular framework that allows for engaging, relevant, challenging and significant learning experiences designed for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. It focuses on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both in the classroom and in the global community. This framework addresses students’ academic, social and emotional well being, and encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning in an effort to gain an understanding of the world around them.
The PYP offers students an educational environment rich in conceptual teaching and learning. Facts are locked in time, place or situation. A concept is a big organizing idea or mental construct, which is timeless and universal.
The key concepts of the PYP (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, reflection and responsibility) are considered ‘macro’ concepts, which transfer broadly and and give us breadth, while ‘micro’ concepts (or sub concepts ) support the big ideas and give us depth.
To learning more about concept based learning click on the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8fKU9LZ2kw
“The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, story tellers, caregivers, consolers, big-picture thinkers – will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”
Daniel H Pink: “A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age” (2005)