Teaching PYP was not the direction I had envisioned for my career as an educator. Having taught older students, primary age students were completely foreign to me. However, the nature of my students, being full of questions and enthusiasm has been a refreshing experience.

Teaching 400 students in eight different grade levels with limited instructional time at 45 minutes per week has been a true test of my skills as an educator. The planning, co-planning, organization and preparation it requires gave me a first hand appreciation of something I already believed to be true, that primary school art teachers work hard.

The importance of the strength of the Program of Inquiry is not something that should not be overlooked and in my time teaching PYP our POI was completely revamped. As a ‘specialist’ educator this revamp was essential in order for me to collaborate and build meaningful transdisciplinary units more authentically.

Alongside the PYP coordinator I developed the document for art standards using the IB and Ontario curricula, created a planner for stand alone units and redesigned the art curriculum both vertically and horizontally.

When teaching PYP my goal was to maximize students time to be hands on creating, experimenting and collaborating while still prioritizing language development, critical and creative thinking, good studio habits and agency.

Having entered a world where I can see first hand the developmental stages and growth of students over time has allowed me to develop better strategies when teaching.

Below are some highlights from over the last two years.