《声音》启明星专刊 VOICES for Daystar Academy VOICES Fall/Winter Edition 2018 | Page 19

DS BEIGAO MS
Thank you for joining us on VOICES. Let me
begin by asking, how did Daystar receive
its MYP authorization in such a short time?
Jessica: Yes, we did it in just under two
years, which is relatively quick compared
to the usual amount of time. A number of
factors contributed to why it happened
so quickly, but I would largely say it was
because of what the teachers brought to the
table. Both in terms of previous experience,
or if they didn’t have much experience
their willingness to learn the MYP. Shawna
and I also worked closely together, and our
combined knowledge and experience with
IB implementation helped expedite the
process.
Shawna: All of our teachers were eager
to participate in training. Some had more
experience than others, but everyone
was on board with going to trainings, and
then implementing what they learned into
practice, which is a big part of it.
What is the MYP at Daystar?
Jessica: When you talk about curriculum
and philosophy of teaching, you have
some schools who fall into “everything is
relevance driven”, it’s authentic, student-
led, student-guided inquiry, all project-
based learning, and letting students drive
what they are learning. Then you have on
the other side what some may say is more
rigid, standards-based, and students have to
master these standards.
What we do is we combine the two. We
want our students to have this progression
of learning, but at the same time, in a way
that is relevant and authentic. Because if
you only do relevance, you end up with gaps
in learning. But if you only do standards,
sometimes it can lead to a lack of relevance
or authenticity, and It can be very dry and
rigid. What we do at Daystar is we pull them
together.
Another difference is that our students do
not take language acquisition courses. In
the MYP every student is required to learn
two languages. And most often it tends to
be your language A, which is your language
and literature, and language B, which is a
language acquisition. But because we are
a bilingual school all of our students are
engaged in two languages. So, Chinese
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