Conferences are so often something of a disappointment in that they end up being self-serving talking shops. But this was something rather different. We are all aware of the uplift that we feel, as professionals, when we come together from all parts of the world and share with each other aspects of our jobs.

 As some teachers commented "I found the conference very stimulating. I came away with lots of new ideas and practical methods for using the MYP philosophy in my subject." And "The conference provided an excellent opportunity to meet fellow MYP teachers, to exchange ideas and lesson plans, and to clarify points that were not clear in class." This conference achieved this feeling, but a lot more too.

 It can be all too easy to theorize over the MYP and see it as more like another form of institutionalized education system than a living, evolving, dynamic educational process. Moscow allowed us to be further energized in seeing the MYP as very much the latter.

Homo Faber or Human Ingenuity as it will now be called, Approaches to Learning,Community and Service, Environment and Health and Social Education, give the MYP Learner a fantastic opportunity to develop themselves in the key educational skills while at the same time, not be bound by the constraints of over prescriptive syllabuses, that are so redolent in the educational world of today. The pleasure and release for a student to be able to study for learning’s sake and not be facing the prospect of sets of external examinations at the age of 16, thus turning their education into a set of boxes to tick, isa very important achievement of the MYP. Conversely, the pleasure that the teacher has to therefore teach in both breadth and depth their subject as a result of that release, is a really liberating experience.

 That is what Moscow 2007 gave to us. It showed us how to turn that theory into practice and gave us the assurance that we in Jerusalem are going about this in exactly the right way.

 Much still to do, but we are rapidly getting there. And, most importantly, that we have made the right choice as a school - that the MYP is a tremendous thing for our children. Through the MYP ,the IB imbues the next generation in a real and lasting way with its three guiding fundamental concepts - true Holistic Learning, deep Intercultural Awareness and highly developed Communication Skills. The Moscow conference gave us an added and much needed fillip to achieving those concepts at AISJ.

Dr. B. Zinn and Mr M. Dufty
MYP Coordinators

Conferences are so often something of a disappointment in that they end up being self-serving talking shops. But this was something rather different. We are all aware of the uplift that we feel, as professionals, when we come together from all parts of the world and share with each other aspects of our jobs.

 As some teachers commented "I found the conference very stimulating. I came away with lots of new ideas and practical methods for using the MYP philosophy in my subject." And "The conference provided an excellent opportunity to meet fellow MYP teachers, to exchange ideas and lesson plans, and to clarify points that were not clear in class." This conference achieved this feeling, but a lot more too.

 It can be all too easy to theorize over the MYP and see it as more like another form of institutionalized education system than a living, evolving, dynamic educational process. Moscow allowed us to be further energized in seeing the MYP as very much the latter.

Homo Faber or Human Ingenuity as it will now be called, Approaches to Learning,Community and Service, Environment and Health and Social Education, give the MYP Learner a fantastic opportunity to develop themselves in the key educational skills while at the same time, not be bound by the constraints of over prescriptive syllabuses, that are so redolent in the educational world of today. The pleasure and release for a student to be able to study for learning’s sake and not be facing the prospect of sets of external examinations at the age of 16, thus turning their education into a set of boxes to tick, isa very important achievement of the MYP. Conversely, the pleasure that the teacher has to therefore teach in both breadth and depth their subject as a result of that release, is a really liberating experience.

 That is what Moscow 2007 gave to us. It showed us how to turn that theory into practice and gave us the assurance that we in Jerusalem are going about this in exactly the right way.

 Much still to do, but we are rapidly getting there. And, most importantly, that we have made the right choice as a school - that the MYP is a tremendous thing for our children. Through the MYP ,the IB imbues the next generation in a real and lasting way with its three guiding fundamental concepts - true Holistic Learning, deep Intercultural Awareness and highly developed Communication Skills. The Moscow conference gave us an added and much needed fillip to achieving those concepts at AISJ.

Dr. B. Zinn and Mr M. Dufty
MYP Coordinators