Follow the links below to see the range on offer. Our next session begins on May 28th. Do not miss out on these…book now to update your professional training. Our interactive workshops and resources will help take your career to the next level and support your classroom practice. Our courses cover subject-specific and whole-school topics and make the in-service training budget go further.

We also have an exciting new range of Triple A Learning workshops to supplement our IB-approved offering.

• Artists using Art: looking at transcription & appropriation to enhance art teaching and learning
• Assessing 20th century world history topics: the Cold War
• Business & Management: Tackling the pre-seen case study (Paper 1)
• Business & Management: Teaching Accounting and Finance
• Developing and extending CAS in your learning community
• Extended Essays – roles, responsibilities, research and resources
• Introduction to Higher Education counselling
• Language A: Meaningful Study and Assessment in Part 4 – Options
• Music Prescribed works: analysing, comparing and contrasting Prokoviev and Xian
• Supporting student inquiry in the DP
• Teaching International Economics workshop
• What makes an IB Library?

All our workshops are developed and mentored by highly experienced practitioners – many of whom have been senior examiners.

Workshops available…

Follow the links below (or select the IB Workshops tab at the top of the page) for details of all workshops running from 28th May 2012

IB-approved DP Workshops  (Scroll down and select Diploma Programme)

• These workshops count towards a school’s IB authorization process and, depending on the category chosen, are fully recognised as part of the IB authorization process
• All workshops require 4-6 hours commitment per week to satisfy the certification requirements. Workshops cost from (GBP) £150 to £395 depending on the length of workshop

Triple A Learning Workshops  (Scroll down and select Triple A Learning IB Workshops)

Our own Triple A Learning workshops are designed with you in mind. They are both subject specific and whole-school  related. They have been developed to to support excellent classroom teachers by providing both strategies for delivery and shared resources. These workshops are not recognised by the IB for school authorization and evaluation purposes.

We also offer an extensive number of IB-approved MYP workshops.

To register and find out more…

Already have an account with us? Go to our Workshop Booking System  Not registered before? Go to Registration Guidance  If you have any queries, please contact us at workshops@triplealearning.com.

Nyoman Iswarayoga is the Director of the Climate and Energy programs at WWF Indonesia. His ideas below are consistent with the concept commonly quoted in CAS programs  -  ”think global, act local.” 

This is the sixth year of Earth Hour globally and the fourth time it has been held in Indonesia. Here, 26 cities across Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Kalimantan participated, a significant increase from just seven cities last year.

He’s got the good gift of being able to transfer concepts with appropriate metaphors.

Just 2 days ago he and I were talking with a newly arrived employee and we trying to describe Nyepi – the Balinese New Year which falls today.

“It’s not unlike the Passover, if you’re familiar with that ceremony,” said Ben.“Darkness, candles, a prescribed time to meditate and to appreciate what you have and who you are.”

On the way home from work on the same day I happened to read an excellent essay about Nyepi by Giovanni Comparini, an Italian architect who’s living in Ubud. This writing and my earlier conversations led me to think – it’s very easy to know Bali, but of the millions of tourists, visitors, or new residents there how many really understand this unique cultural festival?

A distinct aim in the Diploma Program is to promote international open-mindedness. This often starts from inquiry. Our quality of vision and perspective will often emerge through reflection and experience.

CAS and TOK are the vehicles for much reflection and experiential learning in the DP. So, on this very special day I invite you to help me open some minds in your CAS cohort. To this end I share with you Giovanni’s 5 hopes and 5 wishes for his preferred annual feast.

And my own hope and wish?

That you will find the right moment and opportunity to promote inquiry and reflection, and share this essay with your own CAS students.

Unless we are artists or musicians, most of us become very self-conscious when we are asked to draw, paint, or play an instrument.

This wasn’t the case when we were young children. In elementary school whenever we were invited to pursue activities in art, music, and movement it was particularly enjoyable, if not therapeutic learning. We were engaged and enthused.

So why the difference for young adults?

As we grow older I believe that we’re conditioned to emphasize our speech and writing – in our left-brain structures, and perhaps much to the detriment and neglect of our right brain skills.

So to help you and your CAS students find a creative moment in the month of March, here’s a good resource courtesy of The Daily Good  – “The Good 30 day challenge – art every day”.  - thirty activities that might help your group to find their creative groove.

And why not try this activity- ‘map’ and list the many types of CAS reflections that your students could produce that might derive from the right side of their brains.

Here’s a sample – a student’s photo blog inspired by 2 years of CAS at The American International School in Dhaka.

http://hotsideofmoon.blogspot.com/

“experience shapes the brain.…….and the brain is so powerful precisely because it is so sensitive to experience…..Our social and cultural life shapes our biology.”

She argues that we should expose students to experiences that will shape their brains and provide them with more opportunities for  “apprenticeships” – a graduated system of learning new skills in real-life contexts in programs that are service oriented.

“Instead of simply giving adolescents more and more school experiences—those extra hours of after-school classes and homework—we could try to arrange more opportunities for apprenticeship. AmeriCorps, the federal community-service program for youth, is an excellent example, since it provides both challenging real-life experiences and a degree of protection and supervision.”

Aussie students traditionally do well in the DP. MLC DP students in particular are well represented in the perfect score statistics over the last three years. In the academic year 2011 8 Sydney students achieved a perfect 45 score – four of them from that school. If you take into account that only one in every 1000 students who sit for the IB DP exams worldwide will achieve a perfect score that’s a point of some justifiable pride. Graduates from MLC have achieved four “45’s” in 2010 and 2008, and two in 2009.

Nikita Simpson, one of the 45’s from the MLC class of 2011 was quite shocked by her results. ”I didn’t really expect it,” she says, “I had worked pretty hard but there is a lot that’s up to chance….I really liked the ethos of the IB…and I like the way they encourage you to be an inquirer, a thinker and encourage well-rounded growth.”

In 2010 Lucy Forbes scored a 45. And Lucy acknowledges that CAS was one of the reasons why she achieved her perfect score. The Creativity, Action, Service requirements forced her to take a scheduled break away from her academic studies. And playing sports, music and helping out at an after-school care center helped her to balance her academic life.

“(CAS) helped me do things outside of study and not be so blanketed,” Lucy adds.

If CAS supports the balance of academic and experiential learning then how do we maintain a focus on learning outcomes and emphasize the quality of that learning, and not the number of hours, in CAS?

To commemorate the occasion, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other education leaders are fielding questions on digital learning and policy at a national town hall event that also is profiling educators who were filmed using technology in their classrooms.

So what?

The writer of this blog post offers suggestions and resources for teachers celebrating Digital Learning Day. The post includes archives of reports on education technology dating back the 70′s. And she challenges educators to observe the occasion by starting a conversation, trying one new thing, and showcasing a success.

iBooks that are created and designed for use on the iPad offer students the opportunity to engage with and learning from ‘materials’ that are dynamic and interactive.

Last year “NY Times” columnist Matt Richtel highlighted a different picture of student engagement by writing about a school where, in of all places Silicon Valley, the school’s main teaching tools are anything but high-tech. It’s a school where students use pens and paper, knitting needles and sometimes mud – not smart boards, digital tablets, smart phones or even computers – to promote student learning.

At this school (the Waldorf School of the Peninsula) teaching and learning is focused on physical activity and learning through hands-on, creative tasks. Supporters of this approach claim that computers inhibit creativity, movement, interaction and attention spans. Computers are not allowed in the classroom here and indeed their use at home is discouraged.

‘I fundamentally reject the notion you need technology aids in grammar school and the idea that an app on an iPad can better teach my kids to read or do arithmetic, that’s ridiculous,’ says Alan Eagle whose daughter, Andie, attends a Waldorf school.

Can digital natives warm to learning without using the tools that they use daily? Or, does stimulation, motivation, curiosity and interest come from great teachers and challenging learning opportunities?

According to Richtel,”Without clear evidence the debate comes down to subjectivity, parental choice and a difference of opinion over a single word : engagement. Advocates for equipping schools with technology say computers can hold students’ attention and, in fact, that young people who have been weaned on electronic devices will not tune in without them.”

Would you encourage CAS students to express their creativity by authoring an iBook?

Do they use the iPad to make CAS reflections and reports, journals, and portfolios?

Is there an app for CAS in the making ?

And if you think that these systems are password secure, read on.

Matt Richtel’s article - “For the young (and probably foolish), love is a password” – explores the ramifications of a new and ‘intimate’ custom with teenagers in this digital era.

We might reflect on how we ourselves judge and verify the originality, authenticity and source of our students’ online CAS records, reports, reflections nowadays in such an era.

Follow the links below to see the range on offer. Our next session begins on FEBRUARY 20th. Do not miss out on these…book now to update your professional training. Our interactive workshops and resources will help take your career to the next level and support your classroom practice. Our courses cover subject-specific and whole-school topics and make the in-service training budget go further.

We also have an exciting new range of Triple A Learning workshops to supplement our IB-approved offering.

• Extended Essays – roles, responsibilities, research and resources
• Teaching International Economics workshop
• Assessing 20th century world history topics: the Cold War
• Language A: Meaningful Study and Assessment in Part 4 – Options
• Language A: Literature Part 1 – Literature in Translation
• Artists using Art: looking at transcription & appropriation to enhance art teaching and learning
• Business & Management: Teaching Accounting and Finance
• IB Music Prescribed works: analysing, comparing and contrasting Prokoviev and Xian
• What makes an IB Library?
• Introduction to Higher Education counselling

 All our workshops are developed and mentored by highly experienced practitioners – many of whom have been senior examiners.

Workshops available…

Follow the links below (or select the IB Workshops tab at the top of the page) for details of all workshops running from 20th February

IB-approved DP Workshops  (Scroll down and select Diploma Programme)

• These workshops count towards a school’s IB authorization process and, depending on the category chosen, are fully recognised as part of the IB authorization process
• All workshops require 4-6 hours commitment per week to satisfy the certification requirements. Workshops cost from (GBP) £150 to £365 depending on the length of workshop

Triple A Learning Workshops  (Scroll down and select Triple A Learning IB Workshops)

Our own Triple A Learning workshops are designed with you in mind. They are both subject specific and whole-school  related. They have been developed to to support excellent classroom teachers by providing both strategies for delivery and shared resources. These workshops are not recognised by the IB for school authorization and evaluation purposes.

We also offer an extensive number of IB-approved MYP workshops.

To register and find out more…

Already have an account with us? Go to our Workshop Booking System  Not registered before? Go to Registration Guidance  If you have any queries, please contact us at workshops@triplealearning.com.