Heart Words: Building Belonging Across the Curriculum
What words stay with us long after we leave a classroom? In this interactive workshop, participants will explore “heart words” – words in any language that carry memories, emotions, identity, and belonging. Through personal reflection, multilingual storytelling, and practical classroom strategies, we will examine how every teacher helps shape the language students carry forward. Participants will create their own collection of heart words and leave with ideas for fostering voice, confidence, and meaningful connections across subjects. Because every teacher is a language teacher, and every classroom has the potential to leave students with words that last a lifetime.
Presenter
Iryna Klyuk
MYP Teacher / JEDI Change Taskforce Leader
Nanjing International School
Iryna Klyuk is a multilingual educator, counselor, and JEDI lead at Nanjing International School, where she teaches Visual Arts, German, and Wellness in the IB Middle Years Programme. As an Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Qualified Administrator and doctoral researcher, she explores how translanguaging, intercultural competence, and humanising pedagogy can strengthen student learning, identity, and belonging. Shaped by her own multilingual journey, Iryna is passionate about supporting and inspiring educators move beyond viewing language as a barrier and instead recognize it as a resource for thinking, meaning-making, and deeper engagement across all areas of the curriculum.
