IB Program

I am lucky enough to be teaching at an IB school. I'm constantly getting questions about what exactly that means. This morning I went to a half-day meeting for all new to IB teachers. I took a ton of notes, and I feel like I got a lot out of it.... 

Here are some of the things I learned (for those of you who are interested).
If you want to check out my IB Packs, check out the link. For the black and white polka dot version, click here.

Spicewood's vision:
Spicewood aspires to be a community of caring, global-minded thinkers. 

IB Mission Statement:

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

Education for international-mindedness relies on the development of learning environments that value the world as the broadest context for learning.

An IB education is unique because of its rigorous academic and personal standards. IB programmes challenge students to excel not only in their studies but also in their personal growth. The IB aims to inspire a lifelong quest for learning hallmarked by enthusiasm and empathy. To that end, the IB gathers a worldwide community of supporters who celebrate our common humanity and who share a belief that education can help to build a better world.

We want a community of learners to engage with global challenges through inquiry, action and reflection.

Inquiry- Curiosity

Action- Learning by doing

Reflection- Analyzing one’s own thinking and effort

Inquiry-

·         Exploring, wondering, questioning

·         Experimenting and playing with possibilities

·         Making connections between previous learning and current learning

·         Making predictions

·         Collecting data and reporting findings

·         Clarifying ideas and reappraising perceptions of events

·         Deepening understanding through application of a concept

·         Making/testing theories

·         Researching/seeking information

·         Taking and defending a position

·         Solving a problem a variety of ways

6 Themes:  Who we are, Sharing the planet, Where we are in place and time, How we express ourselves, How the world works, How we organize ourselves.

The IB learner profile brings to life the aspirations of a community of IB World Schools dedicated to student-centred education. IB programmes promote the development of schools that:

•          create educational opportunities that encourage healthy relationships, individual and shared responsibility and effective teamwork and collaboration

•          help students make informed, reasoned, ethical judgments and develop the flexibility, perseverance and confidence they need in order to bring about meaningful change

•          inspire students to ask questions, to pursue personal aspirations, to set challenging goals and to develop the persistence to achieve them

•          encourage the creation of rich personal and cultural identities.

Check out this entry to see the learn profile traits. They deserved their own entry because they are so important! 

Portfolios are a great part of the IB program because they show what the children have learned in every grade level.

2nd Grade Portfolios will contain:

• A variety of student work including:
• A piece of work that demonstrates the student’s development of one transdisciplinary skill as well as a reflection on that skill in relation to the selected piece
• A student selected piece of work from any discipline from each nine weeks


• The summative assessment and reflection from each unit

Transdisciplinary skills are so important to teach and encourage because these are skills that my students will be using their entire lives! 

The skills are: social skills, communication skills, thinking skills, research skills, and self-management skills.

We also have 8 concepts to provide a structure for the exploration of significant and authentic content. 

These concepts are:

·         Form (What is it like?)

·         Function (How does it work?)

·         Causation (Why is it like this?)

·         Change (How is it changing?)

·         Connection (How is it connected to other things?)

·         Perspective (What are the points of view?)

·         Responsibility (What is our responsibility?)

·         Reflection (How do we know?)