Learning about IB started quite a while back. Due to a number of unforseen circumstances, including the death of a parent, unfavourable experiences at my first international school and a family move across Asia, it has taken longer than I anticipated to complete this course. However long, I have found the experiences through San Marcos invaluable, and will undoubtedly be able to apply my experiences to new positions that come along.

Throughout my first field study as an ESL teacher in China, I focused on the transdisciplinary theme of How we Communicate, with my central idea being that Language Connects People Globally. With my assigned position, this had a natural fit.

Over the course of the summer, new opportunities arose, and I found myself no longer in China, but in the UAE, assigned the position of Visual Arts teacher for grades 1-1o. This had it’s own set of challenges in regards to my field study, not to mention other issues I was dealing with.

For grades 1-7, I only see my students for 40 minutes periods once a week. As my IB study is focused in the primary field, I had to stay with the grades of 1- 6, so some improvisation was necessary.

The Transdisciplinary theme I chose for this study was Where we are in place and time; 
An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and
global perspectives.
My central idea of my student is stated as: Through exploring different forms of art, we can make connections to different places and cultures. 

Even though my field study is focused at the primary level only, I carried this central idea throughout all my grades, with each grade focusing on a different art time period and how connections can be made presently, by what was created in the past, no matter how far back.

Please click on the tabs above to read more about my 2nd field study!