In May of 2018 the school provided the staff with the opportunity to hold internal professional development and round-table discussions on all areas of the curriculum. The outcomes and open debate were both encouraging and inspiring. It was a rough voyage at times, though.
Schools are not boats. (Well some are, but not this one, we're firmly land-locked! )
We squared our yards an' away we rolled,
with the fiddles playin' handy, Wid a roll 'n' go, an' a westward ho, an' a Yankee Doodle Dandy.
At this point in the year, we weren't singing. And we had definitely lost our sea-legs.
In previous school discussions, and in official school documentation, the terms 'concept-based', 'UBD', and (perhaps most ominously) 'Inquiry' had all been used before in describing the curriculum. Some staff were weary of these educational buzz words and "fads". The school had recently moved to the IBO's MYP, and a move to the PYP in all its fluffy and holistic glory was the subject of staff-room mutiny. Sailing off to a PYP Atlantis (or drinking the cool-aid, as a principal once described it) was indeed the wistful stuff of sea Shanties. But some saw it as a mythical beast, formidable as any great Kraken.
The staff PD sessions were filled with practical applications: 'What does inquiry look like in the classroom', 'How to plan for concpet-based learning' ("All Hail, Queen Erickson"), as well as Visible Thinking routines.
In one such session, we discussed how best to steer our intrepid ocean liner on a new course. We needed a solution that didn't involve: "Iceberg dead ahead"nor (as I find more common in schools) one that would result in the boiler-room-fires turning icy cold as staff had long since stopped shoveling coal. (On a side note, and in my opinion, it doesn't take long to turn an ocean liner, and even if you argue that it takes ages for the thing to slow down BEFORE you turn, that's not an analogy I want to use to describe a school. Get a new engine, stick the thing in reverse.. and "Hard right". )
At the end of 6 weeks. We were left with what seemed like an impasse.
Do we continue with a pre-prescribed, and to some, restrictive curriculum that was difficult to frame around true student-led Inquiry and concepts? Or do we risk icebergs and storms that come with uncharted seas. Who has the right map? Some had been there and didn't want to go back. Others longed for a chance to visit the new world they had heard so much about.
"Take her to Sea, Mr. Murdoch.."