“Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the sooner we would be able to treat life as art.” – Maya.Angelou
On the 21st of August, 2023, our DP students of Grade 11 and 12 embarked on a week long trip to Malaysia as part of the DP retreat. The purpose of the retreat was to engage the students in a unique experience of interacting with students from The International School of Penang, Uplands in Penang, Malaysia. The trip was a highly academically engaging one in terms of getting to know the elements of CAS, TOK along with the Approaches to Learning skills.
Our first day of the retreat started off in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, where our students engaged in doing some local ‘Batik’ painting as part of a workshop offered by the local art gallery. Following this, they visited the largest walk-in bird park in the world. During this part of our trip to KL from Xi’an, our students demonstrated that they are capable of adapting to changes in their surroundings in terms of culture, food and language.
Our second part of the trip took us to Penang, Malaysia. The fundamentals of CAS and TOK were introduced to the students of DP1 when they were in the final phase of M5 in June. This learning was consolidated and built upon during the three days that our students interacted with over a hundred students from Uplands. Our students were highly motivated during these three days of interaction. Our first meeting with the Uplands students took us to Penang hill where the students from both schools met for lunch followed by team building activities. The next couple of days were on campus with all the students from Uplands. All the activities being led by teachers from both schools gave students multiple perspectives on how the world works. Activities on identifying knowledge sources and constructing arguments allowed our students to develop their critical thinking skills. Similarly, activities on identifying areas of CAS and engaging in conversations with students from the other school allowed our students to develop their communication skills and open-mindedness. Finally, our students visited a home for the elderly where they spent time talking to the members staying there. This did bring out the soft side as they were all in tears. It definitely did prompt them to ask some powerful and meaningful questions to us as teachers. We hope that the tears remind them the importance of empathy in life.
The retreat might have ended the Saturday after we left Xi’an. However, the journey in the lives of our DP students has just begun as they continue to explore avenues in enhancing their knowledge. It has just kindled a spark for the development of an entire generation that rests in the hands of these future leaders.
Thank you to all the teachers who accompanied us and made this trip safe and meaningful.
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Author:
Shameek Ghosh (DP Coordinator, DP Biology Teacher)
