Schools

Westlake Elementary Schools Prepare for International Baccalaureate Program

District will apply for candidacy in April with help of grant from Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

Westlake teachers are learning to conduct class in a whole new way as the district gets ready to start an International Baccalaureate program for students in kindergarten through fourth grade.

And now, thanks to a $40,000 grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, students and staff will be able to share what they're learning with other classrooms all over the world.

The grant money is helping to cover the cost of staff training and workshops, but it also provided digital cameras for students to document the process of becoming an IB school.

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"It's like a living history project," said Pam Griebel, Westlake Academic Services director. "Years from now, folks can look at that and see how it all started. They can record for projects, school functions ... the possibilities are endless with this digitized media."

At the end of the year, the district will share the video project with the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, and with other schools embarking on the same process.

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The district plans to apply for candidacy in the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program in April, and staff members are busy at work implementing the new philosophy.

"Right now it’s a pretty busy time for staff. They’re trying to get their arms around it and get it infused into the schools," said Superintendent Dan Keenan. "When you first do something like this you get excited and nervous. You have to maintain excellence, but you're trying things out for the first time."

The IB teaching philosophy is designed to help students understand themselves and their environment through critical thinking and personal inquiry, but on a global level. 

"It really opens the doors to learning to focus beyond 'Who am I?' and 'Where is Westlake?' to a more global view," Griebel said. "We still teach the standards that the state tells us, but this gives an added dimension of international-mindedness."

For example, when studying transportation, students will learn about rickshaws, motorbikes and ferries, along with the standard planes, trains and automobiles. Students will even learn French and Spanish, which is a part of the district's continuous improvement plan, along with many other areas like service learning, experiential learning and environmental responsibility.

"International Baccalaureate encompasses all of those things, and that's why we thought it was a great fit," Keenan said. "It's a great mesh with the areas the community defined to work on.

The district plans to fully implement the program by 2014.


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