ISHCMC Food for Thought

Dear all,

Hope you all enjoyed the staff party last night at the end of  yet another wonderful week at ISHCMC. We have achieved so much this year and time has flown by that it is often hard to stop and put what we are doing into perspective. in the last 7 days we have had an outstanding Graduation for the Class of 2017, a PYP exhibition that powerfully demonstrated the ability of our students to articulate their creativity and thinking that was seized upon by the IBO and shared globally through a webinar in which our students were again outstanding. Add to this chess tournaments, Grade 10 work experience, string ensembles, live outdoor music assessments, students selling at our own Market@the square and one see how we continue to build diversity of opportunity at ISHCMC. With 8 days of the year left, we are in for a very exciting end to the year, looking at our calendar everyday is full of great learning activities and celebratory events.

This weeks Food for Thought is really a consolidation on the thinking that I hope I have provoked over the last few weeks. The first video is is a humorous TED by Garry Kasparov talking about why we should not fear artificial intelligence. The talk tracks his relationship and famous battle with Deep Blue through to his work today alongside computers. It again emphasizes that technology is an opportunity to be embraced not something that we should be scared about. It just means we have to accept and work with artificial intelligence not against.

A second consolidation of our thinking comes from the Andraka family. Here is mother Jane Andraka giving advice to parents about what they need to do to support and prepare their children for their lives. Of course being an ISHCMC parent reduces the need to follow some of her instructions because many of her ideas are ones that we are trying to follow  in school. These ideas are fully supported in our mission. Obviously energized, engaged and empowered students are far more likely to be creative and innovate. but deeper than that within our Achievement Culture we use supportive language, ensure that our rules do not create a box in which students live and through this environment we encourage students to develop their interests, take risks, fail and try again. It is important that our hidden curriculum is not about teaching students obedience and uniformity but rather how to be successful and be the best they can be. 

Some good quotes at the end that create an environment for a a growth mindset:

• Problems in the world are opportunities
• Innovation comes from discontent
• Petty rules stifle creativity so have less rules and more independent thinking
• If you live inside the box it is hard to think outside of it.

Now you might be thinking its alright for a mother to make such a suggestion but how about the proof. Well here is her son talking on TED about his work regarding pancreatic cancer. As they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating. For me the question for us to think about is if this student had these ideas at ISHCMC would we have been like the 199 university professors who dismissed them as rubbish or incorrect procedure, or, would we have encouraged the idea to flourish with our support?

 For me the question for us to think about is if this was an ISHCMC student who had these ideas would we have been like the 199 university professors who dismissed them as rubbish or incorrect procedure, or, would we have encouraged the idea to flourish and supported his idea? Who are we as a school?

If you want to find out more about what Jake Andraka is doing to do there are several more recent video on youtube for you to watch.

Have a good Sunday,

Yours
Adrian