Now in my final year of highschool, looking back at my first days in sixth grade is shocking, to say the least. It seems so far back in time, I can hardly imagine myself being the ‘new kid’. So many of the faces around me have changed, both teachers and students and so has my perspective on our school.
I had arrived with the belief that to succeed one must be proficient in subjects such as maths and science, and in a way that required very little critical thinking- it was just a matter of memorising formulas and information. Being forced to actually think and apply knowledge was completely new to me, and incredibly challenging. I couldn’t understand why I was not doing well or was struggling with things that had seemed simple before.
Throughout my journey in VIS, I have been introduced and guided through critical thinking and becoming a learner suited for the IB Diploma.
From the Diary of a VIS Student
Amra Ryazapova- Gr 12
The IB Diploma has its learner profile, which outlines how it wants its students to develop, and I can easily say that in VIS, each and every objective is met and students are challenged with it. Personally, many of these objectives were achieved through the CAS curriculum; an integral aspect of the IB which must be undertaken by every student. Of all the changes I have experienced in learning and all the knowledge that I have assumed over the years, CAS is an aspect of my learning that has shaped me into who I am today.
In so many schools that I have attended before, so much focus was put on the academics and the grades of students, and while these are still important to a learner, being taught to be a better more critical human is invaluable as a learning experience. CAS worked to make me uncomfortable, to push me into a zone where I had nowhere to go but to grow and develop. I became leader of a club rather early on, at the end of 10th grade and although I wanted to do my best and really work to improve the lives of migrants and children in Sudan, I had no idea where to start. Only through the guidance of my CAS coordinators and teachers did I gain confidence in my role, and became assertive in what I wanted to achieve. As a result, the skills I gained in CAS aided me further on in my IB experience when I was faced with challenges. IB requires a great deal of organisation, and it was because I already had experiences with juggling many things all at once, did I find it easier to deal with.
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All in all, being a student at VIS is challenging and I have certainly been met with many obstacles throughout my time here, and yet I have really grown here into a different person that I know is fully prepared for anything in the outside world