This year, five Grade 12 students did Visual Art for their IB Diploma. Fortunately, they were able to invite their parents on to the campus to come and see their exhibition in real life, and most other grade levels in the school also came to see it. However, because of the current restrictions, the whole school community were not able to come. Now, through the virtual gallery, you are4 also able to explore the students' art work and learn more about the Artists, their methods and their artistic intentions.
Grade 11 students Beamlak, Rylan and Isabelle, have been developing their Creativity, Activity and Service project in the form of a podcast. Through the Buffalo Trail Podcast, they are aiming to inspire curiosity, listen to and share different perspectives and increase the communication between different grade levels in the school.
You can listen to their podcast on Spotify:
You can listen to their podcast on iTunes:
... and we are also hosting the podcasts on the AISM Radio Soundcloud account!
Grade 11 students just had a Core Retreat in which they were able to dedicate some time to the Core of the IB Diploma. This is made up of Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the Extended Essay and Creativity, Activity and Service.
In this podcast, Sam Sherratt finds out more about the retreat, what happened and what impact it had by chatting to Gabriel Di Mauro (IB Diploma Coordinator), Rui da Silva (Extended Essay Coordinator), Colleen Fletcher (CAS Coordinator) and two Grade 11 students, Rylan and Jana.
As Sam promised, here are the things that he referred to during the recent Association Meeting.
Here are the new IB Standards & Practices. They describe all of the the elements of a successful IB school. We use them to develop strategy, identify priorities and reflect on our practice. A team from the IB comes to the school every five years in order to do an evaluation visit and measure how the school is doing according to these standards and practices. It is normal for schools to be at different stages of development and evolution in the various aspects of the IB Standards & Practices.
Here is a video showing all of the attributes of the IB Learner Profile. Being and becoming these attributes is the higher purpose of an IB education and so it is important that all adults in the community of an IB school are aware of, know, understand and have high expectations for themselves and each other to demonstrate these attributes at all times.
This video is a great overview of the Ruler approach to emotional intelligence that we will be implementing throughout the school in the next couple of years, starting next academic year.
Here are the links to the Grade 5 PYP Exhibition, Grade 10 MYP Personal Project Exhibition and Grade 12 DP Extended Essay Exhibition... three major milestones in an IB education!
Click on the image to visit the Extended Essay Exhibition
Grade 11 and 12 students go through the process of planning, writing and publishing the extended essay as part of the IB Diploma Programme. This is an independent, self-directed piece of research, finishing with a 4,000-word paper.
The extended essay provides:
practical preparation for undergraduate research
an opportunity for students to investigate a topic of personal interest to them, which relates to one of the student's six DP subjects, or takes the interdisciplinary approach of a World Studies extended essay.
Through the research process for the extended essay, students develop skills in:
formulating an appropriate research question
engaging in a personal exploration of the topic
communicating ideas
developing an argument.
This year, AISM students have written essays about topics ranging from the ideal diets for basketball players to the relationship between childhood experiences and criminal behaviour, from the discrimination and exploitation of minorities to Turtle nesting in Mozambique, from the effects of social isolation to Korean cuisine and social media! The diversity of topics is amazing, and something our school, and this cohort of students, can be very proud of.
Crucially, the extended essay is a powerful reminder of how important it is for students to be curious about the world, to develop strong interests and to develop the skills involved in personal inquiry.
