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News image Screen Shot 20210528 at 091236 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
The Art of Computational Thinking
Can machines think? — Alan Turing, 1950. Less than a decade after breaking the Nazi encryption machine Enigma and helping the Allied Forces win World War II, the great mathematician Alan Turing changed history a second time with a simple question: "Can machines think?"
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News image Screen Shot 20210520 at 101004 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
What’s in a name? Hybrid identities of ourselves and our students
What’s in a name? Are names important? The inspiration for this piece has come from a variety of sources, firstly from a part of the ongoing teacher professional development program about teaching in English in multilingual classrooms and from the Nord Anglia University course I tutor concerning EAL in mainstream classrooms. Finally, from a brief conversation with the Admissions department, where I was told the story of a potential family who were going to register their daughter with an ‘English’ name, ‘Cinderella’. This reminded me of some of the names I was faced with in my earlier days in South Korea; Otto, Harry (Potter) and AceKing, as a few examples.
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News image Screen Shot 20210513 at 072043 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Would Shakespeare be cancelled in 2021?
One of the areas of exploration in IB Diploma for English is how literature fits into time and space. In other words, how a text may be interpreted and received by audiences across different time periods and cultures. We have already begun developing this kind of conceptual thinking at KS3 this year as we study Shakespeare in term 3.
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News image Screen Shot 20210301 at 110526 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Growth mindset in mathematics
What is the mindset of a mathematician? Is it someone who just follows rules? Or is it someone who has a mad sense of creativity like Mozart or Einstein? Alternatively, is it someone who has a deep sense of clarity and structure? Or is it someone who has a very fast brain? Is it someone who does extremely fast calculations or someone who takes their time with very deep understanding.
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News image Screen Shot 20210430 at 183622 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
The use(less)ness of literature
Theodor W. Adorno, a renowned german philosopher, famously said: “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. And this corrodes even the knowledge of why it has become impossible to write poetry today”. This passage can be found in Cultural Criticism and Society (1949), and it is much cited by all the cultural critics since published. After all, how can we keep doing art in such a difficult time? After facing and experiencing tragedies, what’s the meaning of the art?
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News image Screen Shot 20210422 at 140034 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Term 2 STEAM Space Challenges
As part of the STEAM space challenges in collaboration with MIT, our secondary students worked on the MOXIE challenge, presented by Dr. Jeff Hoffmann, professor of aeronautics at MIT. The students were challenged to design a filtering device that could produce clean oxygen on Mars. Our students have been highly engaged in this challenge and we have received fantastic projects from our pupils.
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News image Music Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Music
In this ever changing world, now, more than ever, we feel close to other cultures and peoples, so it is paramount that we learn not only to respect others but also learn how to appreciate and cherish other people’s identity and ways of life.
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News image Screen Shot 20210408 at 155422 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Ocean of no Confidence
Over 70% of our planet’s surface is covered by water, and the oceans hold over 95% of it. So why do we mistreat our water supplies given how necessary it is to support life on Earth?
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News image Screen Shot 20210408 at 154720 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Responsibility
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme emphasises student agency in their education and their progress through the DP. Student agency is emphasised in both the Learner Profile and the IB’s Approaches to Learning (ATL). The IB Learner Profile describes a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond academic success. They also imply a commitment for learning to respect oneself, others and the wider world. The ATL illustrates the skills needed for students to develop to become successful life long learners. Taken together the qualities that are developed through studying the IB reflect the transformative potential of the curriculum to produce not only world class students but world class citizens.
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News image Mr Bean Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Assessment at BCB
Assessment is a key part of every school. However, it is also an extremely scary part for most students and sadly, exam anxiety is something that most of us remember from our own school days.
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News image Screen Shot 20210311 at 121638 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Inculcating a Culture of Caring
As I settle into my favorite khmer couch that has traveled thousands of miles from Cambodia, I contemplate on this week’s learner profile focus in Key stage 3.  I’m reminded of  a quote by Robby Novak who is an American media personality best known for portraying Kid President on YouTube and on television. “You don't need a cape to be a hero, you just need to care”. This was also what we asked our students to ponder on, in our weekly assembly this week.
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News image Screen Shot 20210301 at 110526 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Falling Forward
We have finished the first ever Mock Exam week for both our year 11 and our first ever graduating class, year 13´s. As I was pondering what to write for my blog I was drawn to what was the core message I wanted to convey at the end of a very significant moment in the short life of BCB.
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News image Screen Shot 20210225 at 173623 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Future : Learning Through Innovations!
Today, our lives are far more convenient and easy, with everything we need at our fingertips. The world of computers is growing at an un-recordable rate everyday, and needless to say that computers are the most influential tools in our lives, they are our present and future. We also need to remember at the same time that what we have today is the culmination of hundreds of years of scientific progress and breakthrough. “Inventions such as the Internet and mobile phones have changed the world forever”, I am sure we all agree with this statement and experience the same in our day-to-day living.
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News image Screen Shot 20210219 at 140734 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
The Challenge of Keeping Up With English Vocabulary.
In April of last year, the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary did something unusual.In April, and again in July, the dictionary’s editors released special updates, citing a need to document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the English language.  Some of the new inclusions were based on the language of quarantine; such as social-distance, shielding and self-isolate, others based on new social experiences such as elbow-bump (a safe way of greeting people),  zoombombing (which is when strangers intrude on video conferences), doomscrolling (which happens when you skim anxiety-inducing pandemic-related stories on your smartphone) and more globally, my personal favourite,  the German term “hamsterkauf” (literal translation ‘buying hamsters) as a way of describing panic buying. Whether such terms will be in common usage after the pandemic is anyone’s guess.
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News image Screen Shot 20210210 at 115031 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Persuasive Writing and Rhetoric in the 21st Century.
Let’s face it. The art of persuasion and rhetoric has helped to build local communities, cities and empires. We can celebrate the great orators of ancient Greece and Rome for crafting the skill that has stood the test of time for over two thousand years. Many modern day politicians still look back to some of the classical greats for inspiration to stir up crowds and nations in times of both peace and war.
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News image Screen Shot 20210202 at 172722 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
Reading Projects During Term 1
We at the MFL department have reinforced the importance of reading for students. Recently, each year group participated in reading projects that, despite the varied proposals, have as a common objective the academic role of students, as well as (providing) a repertoire of life, experiences, possibilities, exchanges and discoveries about themselves and the world around you.
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News image News Default Image Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
MIT Challenge - Living in Space (Term 1)
During this term, our secondary students have been invited to take part in the first STEAM challenge of this academic year. The challenge for this term is called "Into the void - Living in Space" - our students had the opportunity to interact with MIT experts who work at the International Space Station.
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News image Screen Shot 20201204 at 150701 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
The Importance of the Arts and Creative Thinking
Studying the arts online can be challenging but our students have been engaging in lots of creative activities.
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News image Screen Shot 20201127 at 084833 Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
On Monday 16th November, the World Bank (an international financial institution that aims for a world free from poverty), published a blog about the 2020 Atlas of SDGs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/2020-atlas-sustainable-development-goals-stories-and-insights-through-innovative-visuals
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News image IB_LOGO Blog | SecondaryBlog | Secondary Blog
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme - IBDP
I recently found myself in conversation with an alumni of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and they expressed a vehement dislike of the programme, to the extent that I was quite taken aback. Even more so when I informed them that I was in my current position of employment due to my belief and advocacy of the International Baccalaureate education model. I was amazed at the depth of animosity felt by my acquaintance. I decided to discuss with the IBDP students at BCB about their feelings toward the course. There was, as you would expect, a spectrum of responses; some wincing with pain in reflection of late nights working on Extended Essays; others joyfully recalling Theory of Knowledge lessons that blew open their understanding of reality; and admittedly one who felt at least a strong dislike for the programme. The reason I believe the IBDP can elicit such a strong reaction is because it asks more from the students than any other programme.
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