TIBS provides numerous scholarships and innovative teaching/training grants to deserving students and teachers each year  
TIBS 2016 eNewsletter, Spring Edition
Dear TIBS community,

Welcome to the 2016 Spring eNewsletter. 

The end of the 2015-2016 is in sight! We hope you've had a fantastic year and wish you a summer full of relaxation, travel and/or challenging adventures.

This edition brings a wide array of information to your inbox. We're featuring engaging stories from your schools, CAS trips abroad, a teacher spotlight, and LIMBS Day. We've adopted a new design with shorter articles, but rest assured that we will always find a place for your submissions: in our newsletters, on our website, and in our TIBS' homepage photo gallery. 

We are grateful for your continued support and truly appreciate your inspiring community and classroom work. Don't forget to keep us updated with your stories, photos, and videos! We can't wait to see them this Fall.
 
Best regards, 

Karen Phillips, TIBS Executive Director
Courtney Smith, TIBS Associate Executive Director
Alejandra Adán, TIBS Assistant Director
  • Scholarship and Grant Winners
  • What We've Been Up To / What's Coming Up
  • Recently Authorized Schools
  • 2016 / 2017 Board Members
  • LIMBS Day
  • Spotlight on IB World Schools
  • Going Global: Internationally-Minded Projects in TX
  • Teacher Spotlight
  • Announcements
  • New on the TIBS' Website!
  • Contact Us
TIBS DP Scholarship Winners
  • Adinawa Adjagbodjou (Denton HS)
  • Kendra Egharevba (Allen HS)
  • Anh Luu (Eisenhower Sr. High—Houston)
  • Sharriah Martinez (Burbank HS—San Antonio)
  • Loc Nguyen (Eisenhower Sr. High—Houston)
  • McKaylee Smith (Imagine International Academy of North Texas)
Innovative Grant Winners
  • Building Skills with Minecraft, Stacey Hohertz & Courtney Reames (Kirby World Academy—Wichita Falls)
  • Cameras for Creativity, Kaylene Rudd (Meridian School—Round Rock)
  • Hands on Science—Using Vernier LabQuest 2 to gather data, Jennifer Barnett (The Magellan International School, Austin)
  • Holocaust Museum Tour, John Cain (Kirby World Academy—Wichita Falls)
  • The IB Brain, Mark Rogers (Meridian School—Round Rock)
  • Writing, Reading, and Presenting Using Technology, Martha MacFarland (Meridian School—Round Rock)
Roundtable Grant Winners
  • Got IB 7: North Texas Roundtable (DP & MYP)—Kim Kamin
  • IB Continuing PD in Houston ISD (PYP, MYP, DP, & CP)—Penny Tschirhart
IB WSC Scholarship Winners
  • Jasmine Bell (British International School—Houston)
  • Veronica Cisneros (Lamar Academy—McAllen)
  • Natalie Cygan (Denton HS—Denton)
  • Ellie Dieringer (Meridian School—Round Rock)
  • Marley Esch (Rockwall-Heath HS—Heath)
  • Aaron Gonzalez (Meridian School—Round Rock)
  • Anna Jackson (Meridian School—Round Rock)
  • Gabrielle Lewis (Meridian School—Round Rock)
  • Erin Moore (Denton HS—Denton)
  • Taran Nudurumati (Meridian School—Round Rock)
  • Gabriel Odom (Meridian School—Round Rock)
  • Madeline Work (Meridian School—Round Rock)
What We’ve Been Up To:
  • TIBS Spring Meeting & Seminar—Dallas (February 12-13)
  • Regional Associations Meeting—Bethesda, MD (March 4-5)
  • SXSWedu—Austin (March 7-10)
  • TAGT Leadership Conference—Ft. Worth (April 4-5)
  • TIBS College Fair—Hurst (April 6)
What’s Coming Up:
  • El Paso On-site Workshops— Lincoln Middle School (June 9 & 10)
  • IB Conference of the Americas—Toronto (July 14-17)
  • North Texas On-site workshops—Ranchview High School (July 19 & 20)
  • Austin Workshops—Round Rock High School (July 24-27 & 27-30)
  • Houston On-site workshops—Reagan High School (August 4 & 5)
  • IB Workshop Providers Meeting—Bethesda (September 15 & 16)

Congratulations to our newly authorized schools in Texas! 
We are very proud of all of your hard work. If you are not on this list and have been authorized, please let us know.

  • Alcuin School (DP)—Dallas
  • Borman Elementary (PYP)—Denton
  • Briarmeadow Charter School (PYP)—Houston
  • DeSoto High School (DP)—DeSoto
  • Edgar Allan Poe Elementary (PYP)—Houston
  • IDEA Frontier College Preparatory (DP)—Brownsville
  • KIPP University Prep (DP)—San Antonio
  • Magnolia High School (DP)—Magnolia
  • Magnolia West High School (DP)—Magnolia
  • Pinkerton Elementary (PYP)—Coppell
  • The Magellan International School (MYP)—Austin

Linda Buie, At Large Rep
Margaret Davis, At Large Rep 
Rick Fernández, At Large Rep
Courtney Gober, DP Rep
Angela Hall-Hector, MYP Rep
Lynn Hobson, PYP Rep 
Kim Kamin, DP Rep
Kelly McBride, PYP Rep
Janice Swarts, MYP Rep
This year, TIBS partnered with LIMBS for the first-ever LIMBS Day on February 29th. IB World Schools in Texas had the opportunity to take action and provide amputees around the world a second chance at life. Click here to learn more about how Texas IB students became in involved and how they made a tangible difference for LIMBS' amputees.
Lamar Academy Students Filmed by the IB Organization

Students from Lamar Academy's IB Psychology course were filmed in April as part of the project to put together Ethics resources for the Online Curriculum Center Psychology page. After a few conversations with the IB Psychology Curriculum manager for Psychology and Biology at The Hague, a film crew visited Lamar Academy for one afternoon to film an interactive discussion on ethics in psychology. The footage will be edited and will be part of the resources available to teachers in the coming year.

Click here for a preview!

Submitted by Marissa M. Sarabando,  IB Coordinator, Lamar Academy
Water for Flint, Michigan

Broncos at Barbara Bush Middle School have participated in various service projects over the last few years.  These projects develop international-mindedness as the students become more aware of problems and challenges that exist all around the world.  Having enough clean drinking water is usually a problem found in less developed countries.  But in Flint, Michigan, there is a problem with too much lead in the water system.  This chemical makes the water unsafe to drink.   One day, a student named Karen Valdez walked into the office of IB Coordinator Laura Booher and said  “I heard about the problem of drinking water in Flint, Michigan. Can we do something to help them?"  From this idea, the Broncos organized a campaign to collect money AND water bottles to donate to the Red Cross.  They set out collection buckets during lunch and made announcements to encourage students to donate change to help this community who suddenly faced a shortage of drinking water. Donations totaled 5, 576.8 fluid ounces of water and $100.67, which the Red Cross sent to relief teams in Flint, Michigan.  Congratulations Broncos for your inquiry that leads to ACTION!
Making a Difference at the North Texas Food Bank

On Tuesday, Jan. 19, several teachers at these IB World Schools volunteered some time at the North Texas Food Bank.  The teachers sorted a large quantity of food donations  and helped prepare boxes of meals for people in need.  Volunteers who had never been there were amazed at the size of the warehouse where the North Texas Food Bank has a central location for processing donations before sending them out to the community for distribution.  After 4 hours of muscle power, the teachers had organized 1,400 pounds of food for the community.  What a powerful, visible way of demonstrating global citizenship for the IB students in CFB to emulate.
Submitted by Christina "Tina" Flatt, Advanced Academic Services, Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD
Humble High IB Students Take On "The Butterfly Project"

Approximately 35 Humble High IB students made the trip down to the Galleria Mall March 11 to participate in “Breakfast with the Butterflies” where they each had the opportunity to create their own butterflies and “release” The Butterfly Project.

The project is the Holocaust Museum Houston’s year-long traveling display with cases featuring handmade butterflies from around the world, commemorating the museum’s 20th anniversary and memorializing the 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust.

To learn more, please visit:
Submitted by Christopher Stanley,  IBDP Coordinator,  Humble High School
Meridian School's Action Project Leads to Book Drive

As part of an action project, students from Meridian School in Round Rock, TX, interviewed some 5th grade students at INEDIB Preparatory School, an IB candidate school in Toluca, Mexico, to learn about how education in Mexico differs from that in the United States and took action to help the school develop a culture of reading by leading a book drive. The books will be sent to Mexico where they will help fill the school's general and classroom libraries.

Submitted by Kelly McBride, K-6 Principal, Meridian School, Leah Delafield, IB Coordinator, Meridian School, and Linda Johnson, I B Advisor for PYP and MYP
International School of Texas Begins Pen-Pal Program

To encourage our children to be more internationally-minded at the International School of Texas, the Grade 3 students have begun an international pen-pal program with the Year 4 (Grade 3) children of Handcross Park School, in Sussex, England. The children are corresponding  by writing traditional handwritten letters and 'snail mail' post, but also speeding up the process by using more modern methods, such as email and Skype.

We have shared our hobbies and interests, as well as sent photographs of ourselves, and also compared and contrasted our schools. The children are very much enjoying making new friends in far off places. We hope that one day, we may be able to organize a trip to meet our pen-pals in person!

Submitted by Tim Reilly, Interim Head of School and IB/PYP Coordinator, International School of Texas
International-mindedness through the CAS Program 

The Awty International School encourages students through their CAS Program to gain  personal experiences by involving themselves as global citizens, to witness lives of people and cultures in other parts of the world. By engaging themselves they become aware of very different economic, political, social, emotional contexts that exists across the globe. We believe that these experiences will help our students become better human beings who can contribute in a constructive way to this world.

Here are some of the many examples:
Syrian Refugee Camp

Two students came together to help the Syrian Refugees in Turkey due to the fighting in Syria caused by ISIS. One of the students’ father and uncle helped organize the trip. These students went to the camp in a town called Suruc. They interviewed members of the camp and decided to raise money for the camp in order to help build a school for the many children there.

“It was an unbelievable experience to learn about the situation going on in Syria and in Turkey. We entered the camp early in the morning and spoke with the guards and told them about how we wanted to learn about the situation in the camps and take photos and videos. They let us in and we spoke with doctors and volunteers working at the camp. The most amazing part was interviewing the refugee families and in particular one with a 15 year old boy named Juwan. I learned about the struggles of growing up in an environment like that. I got home created a presentation to show at the school Gala and encourage people to donate to charities helping out these refugees. I learned that it is my responsibility to help out these people who are in need and that we all must put in effort to stop this world catastrophe from going on any longer."  

"Our trip to the Syrian-Turkish border was a trip that I will never forget for the rest of my life."  
Immersion in India

During the 6 weeks in India the student did a lot of service for the people, ranging from farming to teaching English. She also did many creative activities such as giving speeches on tenants of Buddhism, and she trekked in the Himalayas for a weeks.   

“India was a trip that stretched me both mentally and physically… It made me feel so incredible lucky for what I have and what I have been able to accomplish and at the same time I was so grateful to have the opportunity to really listen to these people and their ways of life.”  
Schools for Children of the World, Honduras trip 

For the past three years, Awty has worked with the Schools for Children of the World Program (SCW) to both raise money and make service trips to Honduras. The objective was to provide poor villages with nicer schools. The way the operation is run, the community receiving the aid provides half of the funds and does most of the construction, while members of the SCW club at Awty provide the rest of the money and assist for a week on the construction. The SCW program in turn helps organize everything and provides engineers and building plans.

"Through working with my friends on this trip, I plan to grow as a person and help those in need."
Shepherd’s Field Internship                                                            
Shepherd's Field Children's Village is a non-profit organization that serves as a foster home for children with special needs in Tianjin, China. The student stayed at Shepherd’s Field for two weeks helping to teach English to the children, comfort small children in the clinic, clean up around the campus, etc.

“One global issue that I think plagues our local communities and our world is that of homelessness, rejection and abandonment. Many of the children at Shepherd's Field are unwanted because of their multitudes of physical and mental disabilities. While their own parents, the government and outsiders may think that their disabilities are what make them a burden, I believe that their disabilities are a blessing to the world. Without diversity and imperfection, the world would never know how important compassion is."
Ecole Primaire Louise Michel in La Courneuve, France 

Two students have joined and helped a school in a very unprivileged area in France. The children attending this school are very poor kids who have violent parents as well as the area (La Courneuve) is a very dangerous part of France where a lot of drugs and violence occurred. The goal was to raise global awareness in these areas in France and allow many people to be involved in helping. These two students have been giving the French kids in the school an insight of American culture as well as the students have shown our students the French culture.

“It is truly a trip where we learn from each other.”

Peru Cultural Immersion and Service Summer Program 

During the summer of 2015, a student took a month long, cultural immersion trip to Peru. During this month she traveled throughout Peru staying in bungalows in the Amazon, thin tents in the freezing cold Andean mountains and the small, mud huts of the Q'eros people. 

“…Then we did a 6 day trek in the Andes that physically and mentally pushed me to my limits. We continued on to the Q'ero community, which is located in a very remote area. At the Q'ero community, we helped our home stay family with everyday affairs and learned from their ways. My stay at the Q'ero community created conflicting ideas and truly made me think of my impact on the world.
  Submitted by  Isabel Van Dyck,  IB Coordinator, Awty International School
Congratulations to Haley Boone, our 2016 Fund For Teacher Fellow, her proposal for self-designed summer learning has been funded.

Haley will attend the fifth annual "Teaching for Peace: An Indian Immersion Experience in Practical Nonviolence" in New Delhi to take a proactive stance with preK students and create a culture of nonviolence on campus. This is one step in her journey to instill global minded thinking in St. George Place students.

Since 2001, Fund for Teachers has invested approximately $26 million in self-designed fellowships of more than 6,500 preK-12 teachers across the United States, changing their role from knowledge takers to knowledge makers. Fund for Teachers believes the answer to effective teaching lies in trusting teachers to identify gaps in their learning (and/or their students’) and providing grants to make the learning happen.

Through a rigorous, competitive process, 484 preK-12 teachers from across America were selected to receive approximately $1.7 million in grants. These exemplary teachers will pursue knowledge and skills in 72 countries on 6 continents this summer.  Only 30 teachers in Texas were selected for this honor, The School at St. George Place is very proud of Haley Boone and her initiative to teach for peace.

Submitted by Maxine Adams, IB Coordinator, The School at St. George Place

UPCOMING EVENTS:

  • Westlake Academy invites you and members of your staff to attend our Second Annual International-Mindedness Educator Symposium from July 28-30. We are so excited about the opportunity to explore global collaboration with you and your staff. We encourage you to attend or send a team to partner with us as we strengthen the international mindedness of our organizations. Download a flyer [PDF] and register via the International-Mindedness Educator Symposium website.

  • Registration for TIBS' Austin workshops (Session 1 and 2) is now open! Remember: the IB organization and Kent State University have partnered to offer graduate credit for PYP, MYP, and DP training. Click here to find out more!

IB WORLD SCHOOL RECOGNITION:

  • The International School of Texas was recognized in the latest edition of IB World magazine. The students have been working diligently on many different projects around the school and within our community. They were honored to be featured in the publication and are already busy working on more action projects!
  • Austin Eco Bilingual School has been selected as one of the best International Baccalaureate Schools in the U.S. by Newsweek. The recognition has been astounding and we are thankful for the inclusion on such a prestigious list. Read the Newsweek article here!
We'd love to hear from you with any questions, concerns, or feedback:
 
Karen Phillips,  TIBS Executive Director
Courtney Smith,  TIBS Associate Executive Director
Alejandra Adán,  TIBS Assistant Director
 
To share your schools' stories, accomplishments, and projects, please email us at [email protected]. 
Texas IB Schools (TIBS)   |   www.texasibschools.org