December/January Global Mindset Moments

Throughout the year, we share weekly Global Mindset Moments on social media to demonstrate how our mission is playing out in our school and how we are fulfilling our Strategic Plan. Here are the December and January Global Mindset Moments:

Global Mindset Moment (January 30): The Middle School used last week's half day to build community. The day started with a short presentation about service, followed by battle of the bands. Seventh graders duked it out, showcasing the skills they've developed in music this semester and taking risks in front of their peers. Later in the morning, students volunteered in the forest, giving back to their school community. The day was about developing empathy and caring for each other. It's part of creating an inclusive community within our school.

Global Mindset Moment (January 23): A Place with Purpose! We opened our new Maternelle classrooms this week, a major first step towards our campus transformation. Students and teachers are making these spaces their own and creating places that will cultivate joy and a love for learning. These classrooms will impact young learners for years to come!

Global Mindset Moment (January 16): Fourth graders are finishing up their unit on migration and how it causes change. For one of their final projects, they created a living wax museum. Students chose a historical person, someone they interviewed who has experienced a significant move, or someone from the historical/realistic fiction novels they have been reading. They chose to represent their person as a written letter or a live actor, and then welcomed second and third graders to visit their museum. This project was a creative way for students to showcase what they learned about migration, the emotions that come with the migration process, how migration leads to change, and the positive and negative effects of migration. It was a great way for students to demonstrate they have grasped the concepts.

Global Mindset Moment (January 9): Sixth graders (and a few fifth-grade shadows) got an introduction to variables in their math classes this week. They are in the midst of their pre-algebra unit, an important foundational building block for our students. We want middle schoolers to graduate prepared for high school math and beyond, and that begins in sixth grade.

Global Mindset Moment (December 19): Second graders have been working with Beebots over the last few weeks. BeeBots provide an introduction to robotics and coding, and students work together to have the robot navigate various courses. They designed and built their own BeeBot courses and then invited the first graders to see how the BeeBots worked. First graders will work with the BeeBots later in the year, but this provided an awesome introduction and gave the second graders a chance to showcase their learning.

Global Mindset Moment (December 12): Last week, Elodie Plé, a Pedagogical Lead from the AEFE, spent two days at our school. She visited classes, met with teachers, and hosted a training on the new math curriculum for Maternelle and Lower School. Being part of the French network is essential in helping us fulfill our mission. It helps us bring in highly trained teachers and offers professional development opportunities for our faculty to continue teaching using the best practices.

Global Mindset Moment (December 5): Third graders are exploring the central idea of "Ways of life change over time." They've been studying writing and its origins, looking at different forms and alphabets. In their art class, they got a visit from an Arabic calligrapher to learn more about that style of writing and its significance in history. They practice writing Arabic letters and worked on writing their own names. We want students to be prepared with empathy and curiosity for different languages and cultures, and our third graders are doing that as they open their minds to the world.