Introducing Friday College Workshops during High School Lunch (1:45 p.m.) in Ms. McDiarmid's Office (Room 413).
All students are welcome to attend these workshops. If you are a grade 11 student thinking of applying to university outside Spain (and not already in Ms. McDiarmid Counseling 11 class) you should definitely attend!
Last week, an induction ceremony was held for the Junior and Senior National Honor Society. The event recognized the principles of scholarship, leadership, character, and service—all building blocks for BFIS’s quest to become an extraordinary school. Students were heard praising one another, offering testimonials about respectfulness, earnestness. A candle was passed from the oldest to the youngest student.
The previous week, there was a bullying incident in the tenth grade. Members of the high school administration and I gathered with the students to have an open conversation. We began by recognizing the problem. It was acknowledged that the incident wasn’t isolated. In fact, bullying is a problem that has a long history at BFIS. This was the first step toward finding a resolution.
I share these two different yet interwoven incidents because they speak to the ethos of what is happening at BFIS. Through rituals and conversations, we are reinforcing what we value. Through addressing conflicts, we are defining who we are.
What these incidents highlight is how BFIS is as much a place of life as it is of learning. The social, emotional and intellectual, are constantly interacting with each other. One day the community is coming together for the Saint Jordi Festival, and another an ad hoc meeting is held with the administration and the middle /high school to publicly condemn theft. So much of what we do is about helping young people define what it means to become good human beings: people who respect, care, are generous, loving, curious, and open. So much of what we do is also about how we cultivate intellectual aliveness and scholarship.
There is no power for building a culture greater than that of a community discovering what it cares about.
Yesterday we broke ground for our first community garden. The communal act of weeding, clearing the soil, and turning it over, is a metaphor for what we have recently done with our Mission Statement.
In our pursuit of extraordinariness--becoming one of Europe’s finest international schools--we have revised our mission, with the approval of the BFIS Foundation. This is noteworthy as it indicates we are continuously examining and refining our work, making even more coherent who we and where we are and how we need to evolve.
I would like to highlight three of its elements, as in them lays the kernel of our present, our past and our future.
The first describes BFIS as “embodying the values of international education: multiple perspectives, broad-mindedness, and multilingualism.” This is who we are: diverse, multinational, and multilingual. Our challenge is in making these values permeate everything we do—curriculum and instruction, community engagement, hiring, how we relate to and communicate with each other and the world.
Second, “connecting teaching and learning to the world…in the partnership…between children and teachers, community is lived.” This statement speaks to learning as a social act, an interaction between people, ideas, and the world. Facts and information that are not connected to the world, to real issues and problems is extraneous and superficial. We are committed to learning as an exciting and purposeful encounter that fosters personal responsibility, cooperation, imaginative thinking, problem solving and empathy.
And finally, “we view education as an opportunity for children to use their minds well and become global citizens contributing to building a more just and habitable world.” To use one’s mind well is to think practically, analytically, imaginatively, and wisely. To be an educated citizen in the 21st century will require the kind of inventiveness, collaboration and resiliency that can restore balance to a world at risk of losing the possibility of its own sustainability and well-being.
A new mission statement is a new roadmap. It designates a course and provides a direction. Holding the compass to our future, it points in a direction where everything is possible: new gardens, bold initiatives, joy and diligence in learning.
Ayer comenzamos a trabajar en lo que será nuestro primer jardín. Nuestra acción colectiva de eliminar las malas hierbas, limpiar la tierra y removerla es una metáfora de lo que recientemente llevamos a cabo con nuestro nuevo ideario ( conocido como Mission Statement) .
En nuestra búsqueda de la excepcionalidad (esto es, en convertirnos en uno de los mejores colegios internacionales europeos) hemos revisado nuestro cometido, bajo la aprobación de la Fundación de BFIS. Esta revisión resulta digna de mención, ya que es un indicativo de que continuamente estamos examinando y redefiniendo nuestro trabajo, siempre buscando la coherencia entre lo que somos, dónde nos encontramos, y hacia donde nos dirigimos.
Me gustaría destacar tres de los elementos que conforman nuestro nuevo cometido, ya que en ellos está la semilla de nuestro presente, pasado y futuro.
El primero explica que BFIS “abarca los valores de la educación internacional: con perspectivas múltiples, abierta y multilingüe”. Así somos: diversos, multiculturales y multilingües. Nuestro reto es hacer que estos valores filtren todo lo que hacemos: programa, clases, comunidad, contratación, y cómo nos relacionamos y comunicamos unos con otros y con el mundo.
En segundo lugar, “conectar la enseñanza y el aprendizaje con el mundo…a través de la relación entre alumnos, profesores, se respira un sentimiento de comunidad”. Este cometido interpreta el aprendizaje como un acto social, una interacción de gente, ideas y el mundo. Los hechos y la información que no están conectados al mundo, a temas reales y a problemas, son extraños y superficiales. Estamos comprometidos a aprender en un encuentro emocionante y decidido que fomenta la responsabilidad, la cooperación, la imaginación, la resolución de problemas y la empatía.
Y finalmente, “vemos la educación como una oportunidad para que los niños puedan usar su mente de forma productiva para convertirse en ciudadanos del mundo, capaces de construir un mundo más justo y habitable” . Usar la mente de forma productiva implica pensar de forma práctica, analítica, creativa y sabia. Para ser una persona educada en el siglo XXI se requiere ingenio, sentido de colaboración y flexibilidad para reestablecer el equilibrio en un mundo que corre el riesgo de perder sus posibilidades de sostenibilidad y bienestar.
Nuestro nuevo cometido es nuestra guía. Indica el camino. En la brújula de nuestro futuro, apunta en la dirección en la que todo es posible: jardín nuevo, grandes iniciativas, alegría y diligencia en el aprendizaje.
