Recently AVID students at GWMS took a challenge from World Language department chair Julie Anne Edmond to support OPERATION SMILE, a service organization that provides cleft lip and palate repair around the world. The organization has helped over 200,000 children in over 80 countries.

Edmond ran the Shamrock Half-Marathon, with friends and family pledging funds to support the medical nonprofit. AVID students sold buttons at lunch at GWMS for $1, with the challenge to sell 100. For each button, Ms. Edmonds promised a 1:1 match for every button sold.

In addition to educating the community, the students and Ms. Edmond raised enough money to repair two smiles. Two lives will be forever changed in ways that we can only imagine. In true IB fashion, here are some of the AVID students’ Operation SMILE reflections.

Central to IB is connecting one’s learning to real life, communicating, and crossing boundaries between subjects. All of these were accomplished when Robert McDonough’s 6th grade drama students participated in a video conference this week with Salva Dut, the protagonist from a play they recently read called “The Walking Boys.”

McDonough himself wrote the play,  performed here at GW in 2011, inspired both by personal contact with Dut and a 2010 novel about him called “A Long Walk to Water.”

Dut builds wells through his organization, Water for South Sudan. Donations through the Walking Boys production and the Builders’ Club two years ago went towards building a well with our schools’ name on it.

Dut not only survived civil war and drought in Sudan, as a teenager he led 1,500 Lost Boys across hundreds of miles of desert to a United Nations  refugee camp in neighboring Kenya.

Chloe, a 6th grader from GW, asked Mr. Dut via the scratchy audio of the teleconference: “How did it feel to go from being so unwanted and hunted to being one of the most important Walking Boys?”

Dut responded, “[Whatever the situation you are in,] Do your best. I kept my faith, and survived. It never crossed my mind to ‘be famous.’ My intent was for my people to get back home. Whatever you decide to do in life: Don’t give up!”

Last week GW had a school-wide assembly with the artist who created the Million Bones project and a Burmese human rights activist, two people whose jobs–I told the students, as the speakers were introduced– are Hope and Courage. (Read more about the project at GW in an earlier post.)

Naomi Nathale has given hope to thousands by creating a public art project that lets survivors know they are not forgotten and also lets the rest of us hold in our hands a way to make a difference.

Myra Dahgaypaw, a prominent human rights activist and campaigns coordinator for the U.S. Campaign for Burma, has courageously told her story of displacement to all who will listen since she was the age that some of our students are now.

Students filed into the auditorium with hand-made bones boxed and ready to head to the kiln. While this represents the end of the unit in advisory, they may participate in future events including a bus exhibit from Students Rebuild this spring and possibly even laying the bones on the National Mall in June.

The Million Bones unit truly represents the IB Learner Profile in action at our schools. Students became knowledgeable about significant issues; they were caring in making the bones; and they were principled in taking a stand for something they believe in.

Students were also reflective. See these thank you notes written by math teacher Donna Bucchiere’s 7th grade advisory to both Naomi and Myra. “Dear Myra,” wrote one student. “When you were telling your story about your life, that really connected to me. I thought about how hard your life is and how grateful I am for my life… I want to make a change in the world by attending the Million Bones project in Washington DC… I will tell my family and friends the issues to help raise awareness.”

Another student moved to act was a 6th grader who created a Unicef page to raise money for Somalia by completing a mini triathalon. Read more about his efforts and the project at GW in the ACPS Daily Digest.

What does IB look like in the classroom?

For one example, see the work done by Danielle Knapp’s 6th grade honors science students in a recent unit called “Investigating Environmental Policy.”

Ms. Knapp challenged her students to diversify Alexandria’s “energy portfolio.” This required them to research alternative energy options or conservation strategies, then create proposals that included timelines and budgets.

The proposals were in the form of wikis and targeted at the audience of the city council. The students had simulated meetings where the merits were debated: one group suggested a water turbine in the Potomac, and was challenged by reviewers who questioned the impact on migratory fish.

Here is a wiki by Will, Klare, Ahmed and Gaby. They propose putting green roofs on elementary school gyms.

What’s so IB? Solving real world problems and engaging with the community through the lens of academic content are fundamental aspects of the Middle Years Program, as is challenging students to communicate effectively via technology.

WE ARE ALL CONNECTED. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

These are the significant concepts that kids should take away from an upcoming unit in the advisory program here at GW called “One Million Bones: acting locally to create global change.” The unit develops key IB principles including “international-mindedness” and active engagement with community and service, as well as promoting information literacy and research skills.

“One Million Bones” itself is a large-scale public art project which will take place on the National Mall in Washington D.C. in June 2013. 1,000,000 handmade bones will be displayed as a visible petition against humanitarian crises in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Each bone generates $1 from the Bezos Foundation for international aid in these regions, up to $500,000.

Students at GW will learn about a region of the world where youth are in conflict, make bones out of clay, and have an opportunity to participate in community experiences which may include a “bone-laying” ceremony, an interactive video conference via Students Rebuild, or volunteering in June to actually create the installation on the National Mall.

Recently several GW teachers and I attended a networking session sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Association of IB schools dedicated to what IB calls SEN, “special educational needs” within the IB program.  (We use the term Special Education in ACPS schools.)

Special education students learn differently than their peers. “SPED” teachers are masters at making content accessible through various channels and techniques that are often unique to each learner. In ACPS, special educators generally work in partnership with classroom teachers to provide differentiation for identified special ed students in mainstream classes.

Presenter Nonye Oladimeji, IB Coordinator at Glasgow Middle School and a former special education algebra teacher, offered this focusing question: What sort of life do we want for a child with special needs in 25 years?

Answers tend to include college/career ready, the ability to self-advocate, be an engaged citizen, and have the maximum level of independence their disability allows. In short, said Nonye, these students deserve “a life like ours.” So, what is the path for a student in middle school?

The main message from IB, and one also espoused by ACPS, is inclusion. In a 2010 publication, IB sees inclusion as “…an ongoing process that aims to increase access and engagement in learning for all students by identifying and removing barriers.” In ACPS, inclusion is defined as providing what the law calls “the least restrictive environment.”

IB frames successful inclusion as a process of problem-solving where educators, parents and students collaborate to address each learner’s individual needs: “Inclusion is the learner profile in action,” states the SEN guide, “an outcome of dynamic learning communities.”

The learner profile is comprised of 10 attributes that all members of the IB community strive to display. IB challenges not just students and teachers but also schools to be reflective, caring, and principled as regards our special education students.

Within the structure of the school, we need to reflect on how best to meet every child’s needs; we must have a level of caring where every student is valued as an individual; and above all, we are bound to honor the fundamental principle that all students deserve access to a rich education.

MYP seeks to create well-rounded students by requiring every student to take a broad range of subjects for at least 50 hours per year. The eight required IB subjects in the Middle Years Program model are: language A (English for our school), language B (a second language), Physical Education, Sciences, Arts, Mathematics, Humanities and Technology.

At GW, we have a seven period day.This creates a challenge in offering all eight subjects.

For some students, the challenge is easily met under the current course offerings: they can take two semester-length electives (for example, art and technology education), and thus take eight courses a year to meet IB requirements. For our school now, about three quarters of the children already have such a schedule.

However, for students who choose to take two full-year electives, such as band and a foreign language, it is currently not possible to meet the IB requirements requiring all eight subjects.

To make sure that these students can continue to enjoy their full-year electives and also meet IB requirements, we plan to embed technology in PE and science.

Embedding technology means that within science and PE– two already required subjects for 100% of the middle school students in ACPS– we will incorporate the main principles and requirements of the “eighth course,”  IB technology.

This presents unique challenges: teachers need appropriate training and support, and lessons must be carefully designed to properly address the needs of both subject areas.

So, how will this work and how will it affect students? Stay tuned for upcoming posts on embedding technology in PE.

On Tuesday, Nov 13, I presented an overview of the IB program at GW this year to our PTA. Click PTA-Nov-2012-show to learn:

1.What is IB?

2.What does it mean to be an IB school?

3.What’s new this year at GW?

The Middle Years Program is a framework that affects all aspects of the school. At the same time, it is often hard for students to explain it. My hope is that this presentation provides a clear picture of both the visible and “behind the scenes” impact of IB on our school.

The engagement and support of all members of our community is a fundamental aspect of becoming an IB World School. Please don’t hesitate to contact me for further information. Thanks PTA!

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the ongoing implementation of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program at George Washington Middle School. Along with all ACPS schools grades 6-10, we are in the third year of candidacy to become an IB World School, seeking authorization in Fall 2013. As the IB coordinator here at GW, I want to celebrate successes, share our learning and communicate with the community about this process.