Send us a text Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the eighth episode in our well-being series. We have already unpacked all the ways that anxiety can manifest itself. I don’t know about you, but it made me slightly anxious just talking about it! No pun intended. Now, we are going to examine the anxiety disorders that may be afflicting many of our colleagues, familiies, and learners within our learning community. For a written blog post and other ...

Send us a text Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the seventh episode in our well-being series. This week, we are going to explore the big kahuna of well-being, which is anxiety. As I was researching this condition, it was interesting to see the contrasting points of view. Some stated that worry, fear, and panic were on a spectrum of anxiety. While others stated that they were related, but not the same thing. Naturally I went to a credible source,...

Send us a text Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher and the sixth episode in our well-being series. It’s been interesting going through this well-being series, because it has really stretched my thinking about how we are supporting our own mental health and that of our learners. As I was unpacking panic, it really hit home to me. Although I don’t have regular panic attacks, I do experience acute moments of panic that cause me to worry and to become fearful. I...

Send us a text Welcome back to our podcast and the fifth episode in our well-being series. In this episode, we are going to lean into panic and how it can impact our well-being. We’ve all experienced those moments of panic and our brain temporarily shuts down. According to our friend Mo Gawdat, it’s because we believe a threat is imminent and there’s no time to act. This makes sense when we lean into what we know about panic attacks. Let's take some time to dis...

Send us a text Welcome back to our podcast and the fourth episode in our well-being series. In the last episode, we examined the power of fear in our lives. We are all struck with fear many times in our lives and there is no shame attached to it. In fact, we might have to worry if everything is perfect all of the time. Fear is a natural response to tension in our lives, real or imagined, that can take over our rational thinking. Many of us can be controlled by fear at...

Send us a text Welcome back to our podcast and the third episode in our well-being series. This is the most vulnerable I have been in some time. Fear is our mind’s early warning system. It shows up when we sense a threat (whether real or imagined) and while it can protect us, it can also quietly hold us back. Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, offers a powerful reminder: fear is natural, and it is something we all experience. Her message is not to wait until...

Send us a text Welcome back, my friends, to Confession 153. This episode is framed by this quote by Mo Gawdat, "Worrying is praying for what you don’t want." Mo frames worry as a form of negative visualization. Rather than focusing our energy on what we want to grow, worry channels our attention toward fear and imagined threats. When we do this consistently, we reinforce anxiety. We lose our sense of clarity. We become less joyful and less present. Mo reminds us that while pain i...

Send us a text Welcome back, my friends, to Confession 152. Today’s episode marks the beginning of a brand-new series on something that’s been quietly knocking at the door of my consciousness for a while now: well-being. If I’m honest, I used to push that topic aside. It just didn’t feel academic enough; too soft, too personal, too invisible in our talk about developing unit planners and learner agency. But some recent events stopped me in my tracks. A couple of weeks ago, I was all fired ...

Send us a text Hello my PYP family, this is Lu Gerlach from thinkchat. Welcome back to Confessions of a PYP Teacher as we explore confession number 151, which is a challenge for our essential specialist and supporting teachers. Over the past episodes in our specialist and supporting teacher series, we have explored some power topics, including The learner profile attributesInternational mindednessConceptual understandingNow, in the thirteenth episode of this series, it’s time to g...

Send us a text Hi friends, it’s Lu Gerlach from thinkchat, and today is a BIG one. Episode 150. One hundred and fifty episodes. It's the longest episode to date. Can you believe it? Because honestly, I’m sitting here with a cup of tea and a full heart wondering how we got here. What started as a passion project for me with a microphone and a head full of ideas has become a place of connection. This learner-centered community has kept me going, so a big thank you. It’s through your...

Send us a text Hey friends. Welcome back. It’s been a minute or two since we last connected, but here we are—episode twelve of our specialist and supporting teachers series. And this one? It’s a big one. Today, we’re diving into what I believe is the beating heart of deep learning in the IB: conceptual understanding—and more importantly, how it shows up in your space. This is the question I hear all the time: "Lu, I’m a PE teacher." "I support EAL learners." "I’m in th...

Send us a text Welcome to the eleventh episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series. Today, we are focusing on how we can further explore international mindedness in our practice. This requires some deeper thinking and collaboration to make it happen. In the last episode, we explored how to unpack international mindedness through local and global contexts and projecting across time. I am hoping that this episode will equally excite you to move forward with maki...

Send us a textWelcome to the tenth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series. Today, we are focusing on bringing about more international mindedness in your classrooms with authenticity. There are so many possibilities of exploration with the focus of international mindedness. One of the most common might be to embody an international mindset by exploring new ideas, meeting new people, being open to new experiences, and traveling. Although this is opening...

Send us a textWelcome to the ninth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series. I’m super excited to talk more about the learner profile attributes. This is one of the most underused tools alongside the approaches to learning in the IB programmes. This is a bold statement to say, I know. I’m just tired of people using the learner profile attributes as character traits. They are SKILLS required to create a DISPOSITION. More than ever, we need young pe...

Send us a textWelcome to the eighth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series. We are going to spend our time unpacking the learner profile in a new way. Oftentimes, the learner profile are reduced as a way to connect with behavior and they are much more than that. As specialist and supporting teachers you have a possibility to use the learner profile as a set of skills that create a learning disposition in your classes. It won’t take too much planning, ...

Send us a textWelcome to our seventh episode in our series for specialist and supporting teachers. This has been a passion project that has been frequently delayed with my return to the classroom, a school-wide adventure camp, International day, the IB global conference, a trip to London (my favorite city in the world like so many others), and a workshop in Dubin, Ireland with the Nord Anglia school. As I go through this list, I am excited, yet invigorated at the same time. One of...

Send us a textWelcome back to our specialist and supporting teachers series! This is our sixthepisode leaning into inquiry for our supporting teachers, particularly the inclusion specialist. In specified roles that support learning and behavioral development, the challenge is there isn’t a set curriculum you are following. This is how the PYP can help you the most, because it’s full of approaches to help bring about the best in the learners that you support. This can be a ch...

Send us a textWelcome back to our specialist and supporting teachers series! This is our fifth episode zooming into inquiry for you fabulous teachers. In this episode, we will explore how we might infuse more inquiry into our practice through think, chat, create, particularly in the PE classroom. This will be a fun exploration of how we might ask some thought provoking questions to bring about more local and global inquiry into our practice. For a written blog post and...

Send us a textWelcome to the fourth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series. We are continuing our journey with agency through the lens of the specialist teacher, in particular the librarian. All other specialist and supporting teachers should be able to find ways to modify the strategies over the two episodes to help their practice. It's about look at practices and our content through a different lens.This episode is dedicated to Kerry Darby, a passionate l...

Send us a textWelcome to the third episode in our specialist and supporting teachers series. If you haven’t listened to the series so far, consider going back to the beginning, because we are getting into the nitty gritty about your roles in each part of the PYP. Agency is a huge push in the PYP, but I rarely hear it being discussed in the role of the specialist and supporting teacher role. It may have to do with your hectic schedule from 30-60 minutes per week to incorporate meaningful...