Sekolah Bogor Raya

Wednesday was a particularly busy day. I had some 8 candidates to interview for various positions, but mostly in response to our ad in Kompas for Science Teacher Trainees. The start of the day was fairly disappointing because so many of the applicants didn’t have sufficient English, weren’t recent graduates, and knew little science.

At the same time Kathy Derrick from IBO Singapore flew in for a one-day post-authorization checkup to see how we were dealing with the host of recommendations from the authorization team. Recall that just last February we received PYP authorization. Kathy was surprised at the extent of progress we had made in timetabling, English language teaching, library organization, etc. We had moved decisively to dismantle our computer lab so that computers are available in the classrooms. We had also moved and consolidated our libraries. So the basic infrastructure is there, we need to add manipulatives in all classrooms, books in the library and remove the wall in the library.

Kathy was very impressed with the huge changes she saw in our PYP implementation at SBR. She saw for herself during the classroom visit that our students have more enjoyment in doing the unit of inquiry, since everyone in school has come to a new understanding that Unit of Inquiry (UOI) is more than a subject. It is a unit to be inquired through different skills of each single subject specific. It causes enjoyment as well to teachers, to get a deeper understanding about planning the unit of inquiry, which can be integrated authentically, so that students can have more learning experiences in their inquiry learning and the enduring understanding of the transdisciplinary theme.

International mindedness which is shown by the attributes of the learner profile is also developed by teachers and students as a daily practices to become a lifestyle of the learning community in SBR. Students are encouraged to make connections to the profile with their actions.

Kathy in her infectious encouraging way complimented all the PYP staff. Next time you visit Kathy we’ll cook a turkey, but you’ll have to bring the cranberry sauce from Singapore, as it isn’t usually available in Jakarta.