Alex

Occupation: Middle School Math Teacher/IBMYP Coordinator

I don’t think anyone peaks in middle school. Coming back to the building that harboured my friends and I during our years of first periods, pimples, teenage angst, and a million small problems that we were convinced would cause the world to spontaneously combust, I was surprised how much nostalgia I felt. It was amplified even more when I met up with my seventh grade math teacher who is now the school’s International Baccalaureate coordinator. I couldn’t help but remember what a pain my middle school self was and want to apologize to her for my lack of interest and effort in my education. I think we were equally surprised that seven years later, I want my life’s work to revolve around the betterment of schooling. Being an IB graduate myself, I was intrigued and perplexed by the concept of the IB Middle Years Program.

For those of us who are less familiar with the IB structure, it is an international education program that aims to improve public education on an international scale. With student engagement and inquiry-based learning that the forefront of their philosophy, IB intends to connect educators and students around the world to one another through a global learning community. In my interview with Alex, we focused on the IB Middle Years Program and how that has influenced the learning community at Sunset Middle School.

“Inquiry is a really big focus of the IB program. There are some overarching philosophies that cover everything from the Primary Years Program to the Diploma Program. There’s a new program where students can pick and choose the IB classes that they take called the Career Related Program. I visited a school that had the Middle Years Program, a Diploma Program, and a CP all at the same time and they were doing amazing things… One of the things that I love about IB is that they try to make it work for all kinds of students. The Diploma Program has this reputation for being for more higher level academic students, and their making a shift into making it more accessible for all learners. The MYP and the PYP require that the programs be wall-to-wall, which means that everyone in this school is an MYP student. And that shift took place in about 2013.”

“So once these students go to a high school with the IB diploma program, they don’t have to do the preliminary honors-level program for their 9th and 10th grade years, they will just be prepared to do the program if they choose?”

“So some of them will be ready and others will not. Niwot is actually starting to make the shift from either you are or aren’t in the IB program to being able to take individual classes. Of course there will still be the students who want to do the full program with CAS hours, the Extended Essay, and everything else that comes with it.”

“So then what is the biggest difference between AP and IB at that point if you can pick and choose the courses that are right for you?”

“With AP, it’s always been, you can always choose. Both of them have credits that can transfer to college courses. In fact, Niwot is starting to mix their AP and IB courses. So, there are exciting shifts going on there too. But I feel like part of IB philosophy that doesn’t transfer over to AP is we learn through these global contexts… There are six global contexts. Scientific and technical innovation: at some point in a student’s IB career, they will be exploring math and science in this way. For example, when we are talking about graphing, we can talk about how Florence Nightingale developed this whole system of looking at data and looking at numbers and developed this different standard of patient care around hospitals that helped so many people. Until she started looking at the data that way, there wasn’t that scientific innovations that saved millions of lives. So, you don’t just look at the material with one lense. It’s really asking the students to ask, ‘so what?’... That’s the global part of it. The We have connections with a school in Uganda. But a lot of parents think that we’re just teaching their kids about a bunch of different countries and that’s not necessarily true. The international part of it comes from learning with these global contexts and how our learning connects with the world. And from there, we get the whole idea of teaching from many perspectives. Coming back to Florence Nightingale, I could team up with the Individuals and Societies (social studies) instructor and we can develop a unit where I get ot teach my math content standards and my math IB objectives and the Individuals and Societies can come back and ask, ‘why do we care?’ In the IB program, we want students to have the academic skills they need, the problem solving skills they need, the empathy they need to be able to look at the world and say, ‘There’s something going on that that I don’t think is right. I want to change it. And I know how.’ It’s all supposed to be teaching kids not only through concepts they care about, but also how to make an impact.”

“I think it’s incredibly important to share this idea of critical thinking and real-world application with as many students as possible. When I was in IB, I remember the program consisting of mostly white, upper middle class students. In other words, there was a clear divide between students with access to this form of education and students without access.Could you talk to me a little about demographics of the program? Do you think they’re beginning to shift?”

“In the Middle Years Program, the program is required to be wall-to-wall, so it’s really not like that at all. However, some MYP schools do have a very high concentration of upper-middle-class demographics. Others have very low-income demographics. Sadly, a lot of times in the United States, those statistics correspond with ethnic and cultural divides. We had the chance to visit a school in Lakewood and we knew that these kids did not have high socioeconomic backgrounds. But because they were learning this way, they were so engaged in their learning; they were learning way faster than another school with the same demographics, but without the resources. I think our local IB high school is making an effort to make a change in the IB population and appeal to more students. You were in IB. I’m sure you remember how much the exams cost. That keeps people out of the program. Now, they’re starting to make that shift from taking IB as a program commitment, to getting to choose which classes and which exams you take. That’s opening up doors for so many students. One of the things that I love about the program is that we are constantly reflecting and adapting to make ourselves better. We saw that there was a very limited group with access to these amazing skills and opportunities, and now we are doing what we can to make those things accessible to a wide range of students.”