I really
need this mode...it is kinda hard when I don't exactly know where to turn to
for very specific concerns re: the Hist new guide. This is what I truly miss
about my former work. I know anytime I can bounce ideas with or unload to co
teachers for anything about teaching and learning--offline or online...embedded
in the craziest narratives of the day or even the sickest, greenest jokes over
lunch, and this still happens 24/7 having my husband as the most reliable co
teacher around.
Now at my
2nd year at Beacon, I have a small groupie I know I can turn to. I have AG, RE
and JG to ask about DP HL/ SL matters. I have VN and JL to check on my sanity,
AA to ask about her thoughts on my views, ML and CC about teaching, kids
& classes, CF for ideas in my
MYP class, GG and PI for
organizational/ faculty-as-body views, ZG for acad reading and writing...
OMG, what
list was that. It only shows how cluttered my brain can be.
Lately, and
specific to History I am able to sound off
ideas to and concerns with a new
(but very experienced) teacher but still in times when I get confused (and
bagot with myself for being confused) and then emotional in the midst of the
confusion, I think it best to shut up
and listen first to my thoughts before I do anything. That space between stimulus and response
(naxx..what I gathered from HOS, hehe)
While I do
recognize I can turn to my current DP coord for concerns re: grading,
assessment and TSCs, Id really like a serious conversation about IAs and how it
relates to the IB Exam paper assessments etc etc etc AND the course guide
itself. Im sensing, there must be a better way to work with all these--tipong
we hit 2 birds (or even more) with one stone...and in the end try to lighten
the load on the students or actually maximize their brain efforts toward the
common goal of meaningful learning.
Here goes:
I was
thinking what if to help students in that phase when they need to think of a
research area of inquiry and their research question, which upon advice of
former DP coord should be related to Philippine history, we can actually look at THAT list of World
History topics outlined by IB in their New History Guide. From the list,
extract those topics and even from that list, why not develop specific WH
topics for Grade 12?
And if so,
do I rock the boat---this way: ask a co teacher and my coord whether another WH
topic can be developed for the 12s next year in of support student related IA
inquiries which touch on the
Philippines-SEA context?
And if so,
which former World History topic can
then be replaced by this new WH unit/topic?
And if so,
can the DP coord with the Hist 12 teacher also look at this topic/ unit development
alongside the DP Socio-Anthro course
development?
So instead
of actually looking at the History course as a topic listing of sorts, we look
at the topics as a coherent web--with the routes, prescribed courses, case
study like courses and world history option courses as somehow interrelated and
we see THAT common strand we can work in so that we work around the IA?( I
wonder then how we can view all our DP courses.) It's as if we do not actually
have to start from scratch whenever we are faced with the IA.
Suma total,
it is essentially a question of (and in the light of the new Hist Guide): Do we
keep the Hist course safe and keep with the courses we have comfortably
developed and enriched vs Do we take this as an opportune time to do the
necessary change so that the Hist course can continue to evolve or redefine
itself given student demands and interest on Phil History?
OR keep it
safe cuz eventually, we shall cancel out Hist course and go for Socio-Anthro,
just to be pragmatic about this. We have soooo much work to do anyways.
So
AHA...there must be something good coming out of doing a self study on this New
History Guide_ m2017. It requires us to realistically look into our priorities
as a program...and also a chance to ask ourselves--could it be that the Phil
educ system have always sidelined Socio Anthro as a social science over History
which seems to have dominated the SocSci discipline since time memorial...with
History historically emerging even before the Social Science was conceived.
Then all the more, we carve that space for Sociology and Anthropology, the
Philippine kind in IB-DP.
Glad to have
this out of my brain.
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