IB Program Update
PTA - Thank you for supporting us with the SCRIP funds so we can create a robust IB program at Sabin!
Priorities:
IB planning time -
IB resources - books, materials etc. to support the program
Collaboration with other schools - time for teachers to observe other teachers and different schools, share ideas and resources
Collaborative planning
Collaborative planning time is the backbone of IB instruction. Teachers work together to plan what will be taught for the core subjects and how they are linked to the IB theme. Reading, writing, math and science are all to be planned as a team and connected to the 6 IB units in each grade level. This is an IB requirement: “The school provides dedicated time for teachers collaborative planning and reflection.”
The school schedule was reworked after the year started to ensure that every PYP grade level team had collaboration time specifically for working on the units of inquiry. MYP teachers are all teaching their own units of inquiry and were offered the time to meet individually to work on their units.
Twenty-four half-day planning sessions have been taken to deepen the units or completely rewrite units where the standards have drastically changed in the last years. Some of the accomplishments in these planning sessions are that 7 MYP units have been written by different teachers, all of kindergarten’s units are now aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards, all new 5th grade units have been written.
IB resources
IB resources have been bought for units that are completely aligned to the Social studies and Next Generation Science Standards in four grade levels (kindergarten, first grade, first grade, 5th grade and 2nd grade). The resources have mainly been books to ensure that grade levels have resources to teach their units.
Third grade and fourth grade will be starting to plan their list by mid-April to ensure that we receive materials before the year is over.
We wanted to ensure that we only buy materials for units that were fully aligned and that will continue to be taught in the future.
The MYP used the funds for the Community Project to have books created to guide students through the project. We collaborated with Skyline K-8 around the creation of the Community Project book.
Collaboration with other schools - time for teachers to observe other teachers and different schools, share ideas and resources
Six teachers have taken ½ or full days at other IB schools. This was a mixture of both PYP teachers and MYP teachers. One of the teachers commented that this was some of the best professional development she had had in terms of implementing IB. During the tours, teachers had the opportunity to share resources from other schools, meet colleagues and see inquiry in action.
All teachers who are new to the PYP have been offered the opportunity to observe in another IB school. (Not all teachers are choosing to take that opportunity, but the majority have chosen to do so.)
It is much more cost effective to have a teacher spend a full day observing in a school over paying for the cost of teacher training. PPS is paying for the training of teachers.
PPS Funding
PPS is also funding release time after school this year for teachers to work on their plans for IB for the following year. Any grade level team that would like to take a ½ day or full day will be able to do planning.
PPS has also held a four-school IB professional development meeting as a replacement for one of our staff meetings. This was quite successful. PPS is also going to be holding a more in-depth collaboration day with grade-level leaders that want to work together across schools.
Middle school math
All students who needed extra math services were offered one to two hours of intensive math each week for two quarters of the school year
As students demonstrated that they were proficient in math, they were able to move out of the acceleration classes
Around 25% of students moved out of the acceleration classes.
4th/5th math
Any teacher who wanted to participate in walk to math
All students are receiving instruction at their current math level
Students in the two intensive groups have made over a years gain in math skills since we started this around the second quarter
Overall, students in all groups participating have made greater than expected gains in math
Reading
Students who are tier 2 receive interventions from their teacher. I support with progress monitoring, getting resources and materials for interventions
Students who are are tier 3 receive a daily second dose of reading instruction for 30 minutes from me or an EA.
We have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of students in the tier 3
