Last weekend I accompanied some of our MUN students to a conference in the Netherlands. It reminded me that in my last school, were I helped with our middle school MUN students, I created a document to help students to get to know the country they were representing.  I couldn't find the original document, so decided to make a new one.
It could also be useful for any research into a country. I might change our animation unit to be focussed on students making animations about the big issues faced in different countries and will also use this document/.

Here's the document. Feel free to make a copy (File > Make a Copy)

An activity I have for Grade 8 advisory coming up soon has them use critical thinking skills to analyse several photographs.

Students start off by discussing the question 'What is Critical Thinking?". They then see a short clip from one of the greatest movies of all time...Men in Black! After watching this they discuss the critical thinking that was shown, before discussing how and when they use critical thinking.

:After this students will move onto the main activity which helps them look at different photographs and use critical thinking to try and discover what is happening.

They main tool they use is the thinking routine 'See Think Wonder'. On scrap paper they will write everything they see, everything they think is happening and all the questions ("wonderings") they have.
They can also analyse the photograph through applying existing knowledge, analysing the people in the photos or by imagining that the photo is a snap shot of event - what is happening before or after?

Here's the presentation. (all the sources are in the 'speakers note' section below the slides)
​Some of the main slides, then the whole slideshow below:

Good teachers know that good teaching is inter-disciplinary. They know that in the world outside of school, people to not act in silos and they know that the most memorable curriculum is relatable, grounded in authentic experiences and applications, and therefor is also interdisciplinary. So why do schools struggle with interdisciplinary units?

The main hurdles I see are:

1. Timing.
   1. It's hard to find collaborating time with colleagues from other departments
   2. Teachers worry IDUs will eat into the time they have to teach their units / assess their subject's strands twice in a year
   3. The timetable often has students split in all different directions, so it can be hard to find teachers who teach the same students, (for example, students might rotate through the arts, be split for languages, choose two out of three sciences etc) 
2. Teacher Fear
   1. Teachers are sometimes afraid to share their practice with other teachers, particularly teachers of other subjects
   2. Teachers fear they do not know enough about the other subject they might partner with
   3. Teachers are nervous to do an interdisciplinary units, as they are masters of their own subject, and have never taught a formal IDU before
   4. Teachers are afraid their IDU ideas are no good!

Hopefully this blog post will give you some ideas to take away these struggles.
Here are some top tips:

1. Ask for collaborative planning time dedicated for the development of interdisciplinary units
2. You can run the IDU in a variety of ways, for example, you could do team teaching and run the unit 100% together, or you could teach in your normal classes, with your normal time table, both your normal subjects, then towards the end of the unit, do a combined IDU
3. Off time-table IDUs! Do an IDU which runs over a few days! You could even have the whole school doing this, or have students choosing which IDU they do, (including students from different grade levels). You could even have a common theme between all IDUs, anything from the UN's Global Goals for Sustainable Development, through to a shared Key Concept!
4.  Utilise the Art subject split - for example, if you are doing an IDU with Individuals and Society, and Art, have students choose their art side based on their current rotation - for example, 1/3rd could be approaching to the IDU through visual arts, another 1/3 through music and another 1/3 through drama!
5. Do an IDU with different languages and language levels- for example, an IDU with Design and Language Acquisition, where students are working on different languages, and at different phases. 
6.  Look at each of your current units - you should be able to see easy interdisciplinary links. 
7. Make sure you statement of inquiries are strong! These should be broad statements, using your concepts, and not linked to any particular subject. You should be able to look at the statement of inquiry and see how it could be addressed in any subject. Ideally you should be able to look at the statement of inquiry, and not guess what subject is using it too. ​This statement is a transferable idea supported by factual content (Should be written in the present tense and contain at least two concepts).
8. Look at your selected Key Concepts. How could these be explored in other subjects?
9. Flash Forward Podcast - Every time I listen to an episode of this my mind is full of ideas for interdisciplinary units! It covers science, history, ethics, design, society technology, religion, culture...so much! Basically it is imagining a future where X happens. It could be anything from bio-tattoos, to a world plastic ban, to wars over water shortages! Most episodes start with a little cheesy dramatisation, but then they have interesting interviews with academics and all sorts .I love these episodes as they really make me think! Sometimes the titles/descriptions sound dry/boring, but every episode I have listened to is so thought-provoking.

Some examples of IDUs I have been involved with:

1. Math and Design - A robotics unit where we looked at the importance of accuracy in our code, and then students wrote an essay, containing their code too, about accuracy and robotics, and the benefits or problems robotics might cause to society in the future. Students also looked at the implications of human error/manipulation to lead to robots causing us big problems! This was in a small school, with one teacher per subject, so we had a lot of classes together!
2. Individuals and Societies and Design -  American civil rights 50 years ago and now. This was the year before the next chapter, when design was still 'Technology'.  Here we looked largely at how technology had changed how was take part in the political process, with a large focus on social media and protest. in I & S they mostly explored civil rights 50 years ago, and in Design we looked at civil rights now. We talked about slactivism, online petitions, police body cams, lie ins V die ins and more. We also had students debate if technology has made us more or less involved with the political protest. Students made a website sharing their thoughts, as well as protest banners. This was in a small school with one teacher per subject, but we didn't teach together - we just collaborated together and had the shared summative assessment.
3. All subjects (I & S and ?). Human migration. In my last school we piloted a human migration IDU. One day students would rotate through the different subjects, and have a short master class. I worked with the math teacher and we created a digital break out (escape room) telling the story of human migration, through a Google Form, where they could not progress to the next page without getting a cryptic, mathematical question write. Other activities included looking at non-translatable words (lang and lit), using physicality to show the human journey (theatre), book art to show the human migration (visual art), creating board games (design) and more. For the second day, students chose a subject they wanted to work with. They spent the day creating pieces, and in the afternoon, we had 'The Museum of Human Migration') with all their products, as well as performances, in our auditorium.
4. Music and Design - Emotions! In design we look at how and why designer use stock footage. We also explore how companies use emotions for branding, and we focus on  Coca Cola using happiness. Students then create a video using only stock footage to show one emotion. In music they compose an accompanying  soundtrack. (Read about unit here) We staggered how we did this unit, with design going first, so that when music started they already had they silent videos!
5. I & S, Theatre and Language and Literature (including mother tongue) - Civil and Human Rights. This was an off-time table three day IDU. Day one we took students to the civil and human rights centre. Day two they rotated through different workshops. Int he afternoon of day two and day three they created their performance and then third day afternoon they performed! We were inspired by Pecha Kuchas, so students had to create a slideshow to perform in front of. They had ten slides, each showing for 15 seconds. Read the unit over view here. Day one here, day two here and day three here (including student performances and assessment)
6. Language & Literature and Design  - Human impact on the environment. Students look at different ways humans impact the environment negatively. They debated the difference between propaganda and persuasion, then discussed creatives roles in promoting global issues. A lot of front loading happened in design, so Language and Literature only had to spend a few weeks on their part of the unit. In design we made a model to raise awareness of human impact on the environment. In their language classes they wrote accompanying Op Ed pieces. We exhibited their work in the library. Read more about it here.
7. Math and Design - Geometry. We did a unit about how using 3D modelling can help students show their understanding of geometry. Students used a lot of minecraft for this! We also debated the accuracy of models, and if the images on the screen were really 3D or not! Students made videos to share their understanding.
8. Design, Individual and Society and Language and Literature - Gothic London! We did a great unit all about the gothic in London! This included a walking tour of Highgate Cemetery! Students made gothic apps, which included interactive maps of London, a stop motion animation, a gothic choose your own adventure story and more! This was a heavy unit with a lot of content, but so much fun! This was done with Grade 6s!

Lastly...to give you some inspiration... I've put togethera spreadsheet with ideas for every subject combination (two subjects only). This will be an amazing spreadsheet if more people comment and share ideas! The more I add the better it will be. Also you might look at some of the ideas and think they are awful and that some are good - and that is totally fine.Link here.

My Grade 7s are five weeks into their First Lego League robotics unit. The theme this year is 'City Shaper' and students are looking for problems in their city that they can solve through design. We have laid a lot of the ground work, through watching different videos, including 'Sustainable Development City' and 'EPCOT' (from 10 minutes 20 seconds). We've also discussed if Stuttgart is stressful or not, as it was voted the least stressful city in the world. We also had an excellent guest speak, UX designer Elinor Samuelsson, who focusses on improving mental health through design. She worked on the Kokon, a relaxation pod for offices, and is now working on a happiness project, for Helsingborg, Sweden, which is part of the cities larger innovation project.

​Today teams had to brainstorm lots of problems in our city, then finally each team selected the problem they are going to focus on. You can use this brainstorming technique for any scenario. I love it because they go big first, coming up with as man ideas as possible, then they find connections, then they narrow it down! It's also fun and get's students out of their seats!

1. CLASS DISCUSSION: As a class we discuss the theme first [Here was talked about city problems & Solutions - everything from e-bikes to the amount of people who smoke in public in Germany]
2. CARDS: Each table was given a stack of cards. Each individual student wrote as many problems as they could. One problem on each card.
3. SORTING, CONNECTING: When they had their cards filled, as a class, we worked on sorting them and making connections [themes that emerged including entertainment, art, green spaces and pollution]
4. ELABORATING: One student, who has been taking the lead on making the connections shared out with the class the themed that emerged and how the cards were organised. He also read out loud some of the cards
5. JUSTIFYING: Each student choose the one problem they cared most about, then answered some questions in their process journal.
6. SHARING: In their teams, each student had one minute to share out the problem they picked and why. Their team mates were encouraged to ask 'what makes you say that?" whenever their teammate could provide more details
7. SELECTING: The groups had time to focus on the problem they want to focus on.
8. HIGHLIGHTING: Students wrote a newspaper headline about their problem. They could write it either about the problem right now, or they could write a future headline!

Below you can see some of their ideas. I also added a picture of the hole puncher I use to make these.

This fits in with one of my favourite AtL skill indicators! Thinking - Creative Thinking - "​Use brainstorming and visual diagrams to generate new ideas and inquiries"

I made some more posters on Canva - these ones are for the different ATL clusters, with their descriptors. Even though their are ten clusters, the IB has grouped media literacy skills and information literacy skills together when they give a definition... (If I am wrong, let me know, and I'll separate them out into two posters). Canva is free and easy to use...imagine if everyone was making and sharing IB posters... (on that note, check out the cool posters shared here). All the icons are free from FlatIcon - super easy to use, my students love this site!
​Link to posters here.

I'm working on a project to make AtL Skills more visible across my school, (but will first work with the teachers to narrow down the list of AtLs covered, as the one I inherited is too long, covering almost 250 AtL skills in a year...). I realised I have lots of different posters saved on my drive, or in various Pinterest Folders, covering everything from MLA 8 Citations, to Growth Mindset.

I decided to put them together into a spreadsheet, organised by AtL. This is just a start and I would love for other teachers to share posters to add to the spreadsheet. Link to the spreadsheet is here.

Here's some samples of some of the posters in the folder:

I heard someone once say that when a poster has been on the wall for more than three months it becomes invisible! I decided to knock out some quick Global Context posters this morning (just made on Canva), to swap out with my current ones.
Feel free to use - Link here.

Don't forget I also have AtL posters, Global Context Posters, MYP Design Concepts Posters and Personal Project Posters!

The 10th of October is WHO's World Mental Health Day. The day before students will be doing activities about mental health in their advisories. This year I have my Grade 6s and 8s working on a very similar activity, with the AtL focus being: Self-Management - Affective Skills: Practise strategies to reduce stress and anxiety.
Students will start off by considering the similarities between mental and physical health, and that we all have both. Just like physical health, we have have moments of excellent and poor mental health, and some people have better health than others.

After watching the above video, students share out what they do when they are stressed or feeling down. (examples from the video include everything from exercising to playing with your pet!).
Students then watch the following videos and discuss the strategies that the primary school aged students share:

Students then reflect on current things which might be impacted their class' mental health, including transitioning from primary to grade 6, or from 7, to 8 (not being the middle school leaders) or into a new school. Students then also discuss what other issues impact their grade (this is an opportunity to focus on current issues, anything from social media to peer pressure to homework pressure).
Students then watch this BBC Brainsmart video about managing stress:

The conversation then leads to how they can support each other and how the school can support them
Below I've embedded the Grade 6 presentation. You can view, and make a copy of the Grade 6 presentation here and the Grade 8 presentation here.

At the end I also give the students some fun websites to use when they have moments of light-stress (this should end the session on a lighter note, as they may have been discussing heavy issues!)

• Autodraw
• Calm
• Do Nothing for Two Minutes
• Fluid Simulation
• LandLines
• Noisli
• Open Puppies
• Rainy Mood
• Remember Spook (interactive movie)
• Soundrown
• Stars (Google Earth...but for Stars)
• Weave Silk 
• Yoga for the Classroom