A letter to IB learners at AISL

Dear AISL students

As the year comes to a close, I would like to ask you to reflect on how you have become a better person as a result of the knowledge, skills and concepts you have gained here at AISL this year?

Getting an IB education is about the learning. It's about the improvements you make to yourself and the community and the world around you. 

Ask yourself:

• Are you a better communicator? Did you work out differences with others, resolve conflict, listen carefully to understand? Or did you choose to hold a grudge, not find out the truth by going to the source. Were you communicating from an egocentric viewpoint or striving to understand others?
• Are you more openminded? Have you adopted another viewpoint and are more ready to listen and understand that we come from a variety of backgrounds, environments, cultures and that individuals' truths all have a place and should be heard?
• Are you more of an inquirer? When you hear something new, do you research, read more, ask others? Are you looking to learn more each day? Are you reading every day? Fiction gives us insight into the human condition and we learn to understand perspective - don't under estimate the power of books. 
• Are you more principled? Have you owned up to mistakes? Done the right thing even when you have felt angry or betrayed? Do you treat everyone with respect, regardless of status? How do you speak to the waiter, the workers at school? Do you greet people and smile? 
• Are you more caring? Do you carry out small acts of kindness? Have you learnt empathy for those who are less fortunate? Have you learned to be kind to yourself? Have you asked yourself if you would treat others the way you treat yourself? Do you make time for others who are hurting? Do you forgive others when you feel wronged? Do you include those excluded?
• Are you more knowledgeable?  In the MYP we don't just teach facts. But facts are important. Can you knowledgeably discuss a topic or event? Have you made sure to check that which you have learnt is true?
• Are you more of a thinker? The 14 thinking strands from Project Zero's Visible Thinking are not easy for all of us and need intentional practice.  Are you transferring what you have learned to the world around you?
• Are you more of a risk taker? Do you stand up for others? Do you ask questions in class despite what others think? Are you resilient and eager to try something new despite your fear?
• Have you become more reflective?  Do you realise how little you know... and that that's ok? That you have a whole life ahead of you to learn about yourself and others and the world. Do you learn from your experiences? Or do you make the same mistakes again and again? Do you listen to advice from others and respond positively and make corrections to behaviour or attitude?​
• Are you more balanced? Do you look after yourself and make sure that you balance rest, play and work? Do you make sure to laugh with friends and use your time wisely? Have you realised limiting screen time makes you happier? ​

Being a successful person is all about these attributes. It's not the grades and status and later your career and degrees and what you earn and buy. Being a success is how you lived.

You might want to read "If" by Rudyard Kipling again  - Grade 7 study this in Language in Literature - which more eloquently puts the IB philosophy into poetry form.

I love the IB philosophy, and every day intentionally strive to be live more successfully - often failing dismally. But... what is great news is that every day, I get the chance to start again!

With love and good wishes to the Graduating class.  To everyone else a happy holiday or new start. May the IB Learner Profile attributes be with you!
​
Mrs Turner
​

If— by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you   
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,  
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 
But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, 
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, 
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 
And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken 
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, 
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, 
And lose, and start again at your beginnings 
And never breathe a word about your loss; 
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 
To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you 
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, 
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, 
If all men count with you, but none too much; 
If you can fill the unforgiving minute 
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!