MESSAGE FROM THE IB MYP COORDINATOR
MESSAGE FROM THE IB MYP COORDINATOR
I am Leonardo Botaro and I am the MYP Coordinator at Escola Americana de Belo Horizonte. I want to personally welcome you (students and parents) to the Middle Years Programme.
The MYP is a program developed for grades 6 to 10 students, with an established framework that motivates academics, personal development, and social and emotional well-being. The curriculum framework of the MYP allows students to embrace and solve challenges in many disciplines, achieving their potential, taking risks, strengthening and reflecting on personal identity, while providing a perfect transition from the Lower School into the Upper School. It develops what we call the “IB Learner Profile” attributes, supporting the students on becoming communicators, knowledgeable, inquirers, principled, open-minded, and reflective -among other important traits- to flourish in academics and in life.
The Middle Years Programme encourages students to make connections between their studies in traditional subjects and the real world, through conceptual understanding and an interdisciplinary approach. It fosters the development of communication, intercultural understanding, and global engagement -skills and qualities essential to succeed in the world we live in.
The MYP focuses on an inquiry cycle, emphasizing action, and working towards reflection. In every class, teachers work with students on a set of unifying skills that leads the approach to every subject: communication, research, self-management, social, and thinking skills (Approaching to Teaching and Learning skills, or ATL’s) These skills allow students to take risks, and transfer their knowledge to unfamiliar contexts, too.
Middle Years Programme students take one subject from each of the following subject groups:
Language and Literature
Language Acquisition
Individuals and Societies
Sciences
Mathematics
Arts
Physical and Health Education
Design
Community and Service is an important element of the in the Middle Years Programme, and it aims to develop a sensitivity to the needs of the community and society in general, an awareness of the role of the individual within the community, a willingness and the skills to respond to the needs of others, and an altruistic attitude which enriches the lives of students through enhanced insight into different social patterns and ways of life.
In addition, towards the culmination of the MYP, students research and create a Personal Project, an independent inquiry-based project of study into an area of particular interest linking global contexts and several academic subjects. This Personal Project could take the form of an essay, an experiment, an artistic production, etc. Each student develops his/her project independently, with a teacher acting as a mentor.
For more information on the MYP, please visit www.ibo.org
