Let's play a game designed to help you get into the International Baccalaureate Program mindset.
Loren Baron, the new IB coordinator at Millbrook High School, asked teachers at Tuesday's training session to imagine that they had to leave the U.S. and relocate to another country. He then handed out a sheet with random statistics from various countries using the United Nations Human Development Report.
Click here to view the sheet, which listed stats such as urban population, public expenditure on education, prison population and adult literacy rate. The 16 countries listed only had letter identifiers with no names attached.
Like the Millbrook teachers, pick the nation you'd want to live in. Don't cheat by jumping ahead to the rest of the post to see which letter represents each nation.
The choice of a majority in the morning session, around 50 people, was F — Iceland. Some teachers joked afterward that they might have picked differently had the climate conditions been listed on the sheet.
Next with 12 votes was P - France. In third place with eight votes was E - Slovenia.
Most of the nations got none or a few votes.
A — Israel (6 votes)
B — Cuba (3)
C — Singapore (0)
D — Argentina (0)
G — Jamaica (1)
H — Kuwait (0)
I — United States (1)
J — Poland (1)
K — Chile (1)
L — Namibia (1) (One teacher said he wanted a challenge.)
M — Costa Rica (1)
N — Thailand (1)
O — Greece (1)
The fact that the U.S. got only one vote surprised a lot of the teachers. Baron said he often got similar results for the U.S. when he did the exercise with his students at Broughton High School.
Baron said he wasn't trying to bash the U.S. He said he wanted to show how teachers can influence the results based on the statistics they give to students.
Baron also said the purpose of the exercise was to get the teachers to think globally.
"We are part of the larger world community," Baron told teachers.
The exercise was the opening portion of the first training session Millbrook teachers have received on their way toward offering the IB program. Millbrook got the program when the school board took it away from Broughton High.
The program is being phased out at Broughton and phased in at Millbrook. This is only a training year for Millbrook with the first magnet students coming for the 2010-11 school year.
Comments
I guess what I don't
Fri, 08/21/2009 - 17:42 — klanders65I guess what I don't understand, and I've never kept chasing the answer to this question...
My impression is that IB is some higher level more challenging curriculum with higher expectations. If that is so, what I haven't understood is how you just go in a change a school to be IB. It seems to me that if you believe you have bright kids who would benefit from some higher level challenging program, then you offer that level of expectation. If we can do more, then why don't we just do more.
I know they killed the IB program for Daniels and Broughton and are moving to Millbrook. Will Daniels and Broughton have easier classes now and fewer challenging ones? This is what I don't understand. I have always felt like I must be missing something. I could never figure out what IB is.
Information...
Mon, 08/24/2009 - 10:09 — Bob_SconceThe IB organization has a bunch of information:
http://www.ibo.org/diploma/
http://www.ibo.org/myp/
The main thing about IB is that the IB organization goes in and certifies that the school is doing what its supposed to. In that way, it's similar to AP, where students are measured according to a recognized set of standards. So, at some level, it's just signalling "This student took a rigorous set of courses."
Not sure...
Sun, 08/23/2009 - 20:01 — JSBinNCI don't fully understand the middle school and high school IB program - at the elementary level (PYP) the differences are not so much in the courses/classes that the children take, it's the approach to learning. It seems to be more inquiry based (than where we are coming from...) and a lot more encouragement to ask a LOT of questions and then find answers. They do a lot of group work... I think. We saw a lot of report type homework rather than worksheet after worksheet...
They don't have 100's of electives to choose from like Wiley and Underwood, etc - they do get Spanish at our school and they do get additional science in a true "science" lab/room. Other than that - it's the same classes that are at our base.
This will be our first year, so I'll be better able to comment in a few months...
That is kind of what I
Sun, 08/23/2009 - 20:31 — klanders65That is kind of what I thought, but what I don't understand is that almost any good teaching practice would involve using more inquiry and not doing worksheet after worksheet. And having a true science lab is a good thing any time and an improvement over not having one. So, when a school quits being IB does this mean they close down the science labs and go to doing worksheet after worksheet?
I know this sounds really stupid, but I have never figured out what IB means. One of the schools that my neighbor teaches in got turned into an IB a decade ago or so. Before that it was low scoring, not very good teachers it seemed. No one wanted to go there. They kept the same teachers and turned it into an IB school and suddenly everyone wanted to go there. Our neighborhood had pretty much all tried to get into magnet schools because this was not a good school. They made it IB and suddenly everyone wanted to go there. I was confused because it was the same teachers, same principal. I wondered how it could suddenly be good, with all the same people. If the teachers could have been good before, why weren't they?
There is something I am not getting. My whole neighborhood was elated to have the choice of going to an IB school. I saw the same teachers, same principal, same building, and couldn't figure out why I should think it is now a great school. I don't know if the scores changed. I think they redistricted so much you couldn't tell. People would explain to me things like that IB isn't worksheet after worksheet. I would think that if they had teachers who could teach without giving worksheet after worksheet, why weren't they doing so? Why do you have to become an IB school to decide not to give worksheet after worksheet.
Maybe in an "non" IB school, teachers are free to do whatever they want. And if they want to give word searches for homework, and do worksheets in class, there is nothing to stop them. And in an IB school, they have to follow some quality of teaching standards. Maybe that is what the difference is. If this is the case, then will Broughton suddenly have no teaching standards and the teachers can teach any low-level way they want now? But at Millbrook they will now have standards for quality lessons?
You are definitely bringing
Mon, 08/24/2009 - 08:20 — JSBinNCYou are definitely bringing up some very good points, and ones that we too, have thought of before! If it's best practice to do X, why doesn't everyone just do X? I totally don't get it either... but given the chance to attend school where "X" is practiced... we're gonna jump at it. IMHO it seems that all teachers and schools should be asking similar questions - what do we want to learn, how do we best learn it and how do we measure how well we have learned it?? (That's IB in a nutshell...)
I think you're right in that some of the effort is tied to having achieved the label... the belief that the school is doing something different, trying harder - transcends and the collective group pushes each other harder maybe. Another way that the disconnect between being a "base" school and a "magnet" school may have some un-intended negative affect on students, staff and administration.
Again - I'll check in with you in a couple of months and let you know how things are going, and what my views are then... :)
Hmm...
Thu, 08/20/2009 - 09:19 — Bob_Sconce"wanted to show how teachers can influence the results based on the statistics they give to students."
Very true. They could, for example, have given statistics regarding the impact of the financial crisis on the country -- Iceland is in deep, deep trouble. They could have also given statistics about diversity of the population, income mobility, quality of higher education. And, perhaps most telling, number of people wanting to emigrate into the country. Or, perhaps, number of neighboring countries who want to wipe your country off the face of the map.
Anyway, I don't think this quiz is a good example of the IB "Mindset." That quiz makes IB seem like some sort of loony left-wing, America-hating organization, which it's not.
Anyway, I don't think this
Fri, 08/21/2009 - 00:10 — NWRaleighMomAnyway, I don't think this quiz is a good example of the IB "Mindset." That quiz makes IB seem like some sort of loony left-wing, America-hating organization, which it's not.
It IS a loony left-wing, America-hating organization.
Fun
Thu, 08/20/2009 - 09:05 — RichardAnderson"The choice of a majority in the morning session, around 50 people, was F — Iceland. Some teachers joked afterward that they might have picked differently had the climate conditions been listed on the sheet."
The per capita electrical energy expenditure should have clued people into the fact that there had to be some kind of climate issue to deal with. What else could explain consumption at nearly double the rate of the second highest country?
And why would anyone pick B? Lowest electrical use, lowest internet used, highest sex based earning disparity and second highest prison pop.
Interesting stuff. Not sure if it is the best way to spend money at this time, but thanks for sharing it Mr. Hui.
Mr. Hui?
Thu, 08/20/2009 - 08:29 — AngelaWremind me again just how much this switch/training/phasing in/phasing out of the IB this will cost?