IB, an intro.

Concordian is an IB school, and I realized today that I've been saying that but not explaining it.  So, here's my quick intro to the world of IB.

IB, or the International Baccalaureate Program, is a challenging one.  It focuses on inquiry, on the whole child, on morals and academic honesty, and it is above all driven by student motivation.  It is incredibly rigorous, with culminating projects in MYP and DP.

Ah, the acronyms.  Let me break it down a bit.
EYP - Early Years Programme - nursery grades, preschool, kindergarten.
PYP - Primary Years Programme - Grades 1-5
MYP - Middle Years Programme - Grades 6-10
DP - Diploma Programme - Grades 11 and 12.

I'll be working mostly with MYP and DP, focusing on research skills for the age group.  I envision myself helping students with their projects and teaching classes on research skills and academic honesty.  My position is brand new to the school; they've gone before having just one librarian focusing on PYP and the younger years, and I know that my presence is helpful to Erin, the current PYP librarian.

MYP and DP both have very intense projects associated with their level.  MYP has a personal project that involves inquiry, research, community service and presentation.  The year before they work on this project, there is an exhibition, which I imagine as similar to a science fair with other subjects involved.  This personal project, with all its work, really strives to be student centered and directed.  Teachers are not allowed to be too involved, just to give support as necessary.

In fact, in the DP final project, teachers need to calculate the number of hours they work on a project with a student in order to ensure that they are not giving too much support to students or doing their work.  DP's final project is an extended essay.  It is a 4,000 word, very detailed work, answering a very specific question with a body of research.  It is incredibly detailed, and gets sent out to DP examiners across the world to be assessed.

I like IB for the rigor.  I like that it focuses not on standardized knowledge, but making connections between the world.  All of the curriculum is linked, so skills and concepts talked about in science have a place in humanities as well.  That way, a student has a well rounded bit of knowledge and awareness of how everything is connected and their behavior can impact another's.  It is challenging, and pushes kids to be better people.  It also utilizes critical thinking and inquiry, or searching for your own knowledge, to create lifelong learners and stimulate curiosity.  It's a good system, one I think I'd have flourished in if I'd had the opportunity.

My high school was trying a similar thing, though, with Senior Project.  While nowhere as rigorous, it did the same thing.  There was a paper, a project element, community service, and a presentation.  I wonder if that is still being implemented.  It was useful for me, though like I saw at my last school, it can be done quite poorly.  I'm such it frustrates teachers when they see such behavior, as it frustrated me.  Some schools would make a choice to take it away.

I'm eager to see the students and how they react to these sort of challenges.  I suppose I'll find out soon.  The first day of school is Wednesday.