The IB Education System

The education system I work in follows the curriculum and guidelines set forth by the IB system for the primary, middle school and diploma program. I am new to the IB system, the curriculum structure and the grading criteria. For the 2013/14 school year I will be working directly with the learning support coordinator as a learning support assistant for two students. My background originally is child and youth work where I have been trained to work with adolescents providing behaviour management, life skills etc. My role has now evolved into learning support but also a little bit of behavioural support.

My knowledge of the education system, teaching strategies and techniques is very limited, and a lot of what I am learning right now is new. I felt the need to further my education and get my teaching certification to start to fill in gaps I felt I had towards my approach when teaching in the learning support room. Thus far what I have been reading and studying has proven beneficial and opened up a new understanding that has helped me begin to be a more effective facilitator for the students.

At the moment I am an observer in most classes I attend with our students receiving learning support. I do not enter into a teaching/facilitator role until I begin working one on one after the main lesson has been taught.

One observation that I feel is an issue at our school (perhaps a common issue) is the majority of students who seem detached, disengaged and disinterested while the class is being taught by the teacher. After completing activity 1 in unit 2, this really came to the forefront and magnified for me what must be an issue in modern education. My question is are we actually reaching todays students in western society effectively. A thought that crossed my mind is that we have knowledge age students who are being taught by industrial age teachers. This is not to point a finger at my fellow colleagues in the teaching profession but do we need a new approach going forward instead of trying to recycle the traditional methods into something new.

I see so many students distracted by their cell phones and computers with access to the World Wide Web while in class. Each teacher will have a different style of classroom management, but I wonder is it the distraction of modern technology, the failure of the teacher or a mixture of both?

Aside from the need that I felt I needed to fill in gaps by gaining a deeper understanding of education and teaching practices. I also feel a challenge or a call to become a dynamic, innovative teacher who is able to reach the detached, disengaged, disinterested student and create a positive enjoyable learning experience for them.