IBARMS
We hope you all are enjoying the first taste of cold, snowy, wintery weather this week, and that this finds you all having a great November so far! This newsletter contains a lot of information about upcoming events, professional development, and specific programme-level updates. Be sure to read through everything and feel free to share out information with teachers, admin, and district leaders if any of the events might be of interest to them. Please note that our Special Seminar with Stand Tall Steve is limited to the first 150 people registered, so this one could fill up quickly!
Remember that IBARMS is here to support coordinators, teachers, school leadership, and schools implement IB programmes in the most effective ways possible; don't hesitate to reach out if you need support for your school, your programme, or in your role as a coordinator or building/district leader.
We hope you all have a wonderful November! We can't wait to see you all at our next quarterly meeting on December 5!
Join IBARMS Today!
It's not too late to join IBARMS for the 2024-2025 school year! Membership gives you access to the entire IBARMS network of support, that includes IB coordinators and administrators in public and independent schools in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah! Click here to join today!
IBARMS is excited to announce a Special Seminar with Stand Tall Steve!
Join us for this absolutely incredible day of professional development with Steve Bollar, aka Stand Tall Steve, an educational leader and master motivator. Steve works with forward thinking organizations to generate new ideas, improve climate/culture and maximize leadership skills. His quick wit, experience, and in-depth knowledge makes him one of the premier speaker, trainer, consultants available. He was a keynote speaker at the IB Global Conference in Washington DC, July 2024. His books, Stand Tall Leadership and Ideas, Ideas, Ideas! have been a jumping point for hundreds of organizations on how to increase morale, change the culture and improve the climate for their students and staff.
- Date: Wednesday, January 22, 2025 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- Location: The Adams 12 Conference Center, 1500 E. 128th Ave., Thornton, CO 80241
- Cost: $85 for members; $150 for non-members
- Lunch will be provided
For more information and to register, click here!
This special event is limited to the first 150 people who register!
IB Training in Beautiful Keystone, Colorado!
Join us in beautiful Keystone, Colorado in June 2025 for official IB training! We will have session offerings for PYP, MYP, DP, CP, IB Leadership, and IB Education. Click here to see the workshops that will be offered next summer!
Rocky Mountain PYP Coordinators,
As promised, dynamic support information will be shared via this newsletter before and after each of our three association meetings. One piece of information that might be useful to you is that the IB workshop formerly titled, ‘Making the PYP Happen: Implementing Agency’ will be known as ‘Building Your IB Program: Primary Years’ as of January 2025, and will be available at the IBARMS Keystone Conference next summer.
Just in time for the first rounds of school choice enrollment, here are a few links to IB promotional resources schools might like to make available: Key findings from research on the Primary Years Program, The IB Community video library, What is an IB education?, Education for a Better World, Parent Pack- Frequently Asked Questions about the PYP, and 10 Reasons why the IB PYP is ideal for students to become active, lifelong learners. All of these materials are found on the public facing ibo.org website, where you can also find versions in the languages your school population needs.
The next association meeting will once again provide time for professional learning, collaboration and support. If there are topics that you would like to see brought forward at this meeting, feel free to email me.
If you missed the September meeting, please find the notes here.
PYP IBARMS learning opportunities that you can share with staff include an upcoming PYP Second Language roundtable. This roundtable is for coordinators and second language teachers, and is meant to support IBARMS PYP schools in finding and retaining second language teachers, developing outcomes for second language learning, and exploring curriculum and delivery models for second language learning. If you’re curious to know more about the PYP and language learning, check out the following Teacher Support Materials on the Program Resource Center on MyIB: Student language portraits, The PYP and bilingual education, & Translanguaging.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any ideas or questions ecroak@psdschools.org.
Hello, MYP Coordinators!
It was so much fun seeing/meeting everyone who was able to join us at our September meeting. If you were unable to come to the September meetings, we hope you will be able to join us for our next meeting on December 5.
If you missed it, please feel free to review the presentation slide deck and the minutes (thanks to Sharon!) from the breakout.
Here is the link to our Padlet for this year. We will be using these to share resources throughout the year. If you have something to share, please feel free to add it.
Thanks to those of you who requested mentors or volunteered to be a mentor! The support our community members provide for one another is consistently amazing.
It was a pleasure to see so many people join us for Karen East’s MYP Crash Course on Monday. If you haven’t had a chance to check out this resource, please take a minute to do so! It is a one stop shop for so many things MYP, and a huge time-saver for onboarding new-to-MYP staff!
We have a couple of roundtables in the works! Stay tuned for more information.
During our December meeting, we would love to build in time for discussions that are timely for you. If you have any burning questions or discussion topics, please email us. One theme that has come up is meshing the MYP with local requirements. If anyone has ways your school has successfully navigated this, or ideas to explore, please bring them!
If you need anything or want to send questions to the group, always free to contact us.
We hope the beginning of the cooler weather treats you well!
Alex (armstrong_alex@svvsd.org) and Emily (emily.heinrich@asd20.org)
Exam supervision requirements:
Kelsey Day recently followed up on our extended exam supervision concerns. She says she and other world schools managers have been discussing this weekly and that internal discussions have been happening. She and her bosses would like us to email our concerns to support@ibo.org, david.weiss@ibo.org, and kelsey.day@ibo.org. They need specific info, including how many teachers and students would be affected. Holly, Elzbieta, and Melissa have been discussing having a common response that we can all copy and paste into an email. You would need to add a portion detailing how this decision specifically affects your school. We're all busy with IAAs and registration right now but we need to respond sooner rather than later. Here is a link to a draft email I (Melissa) created. Feel free to use, to modify, or to disregard as you see fit.
Language B roundtable:
Click here to register your teachers now! This is a great opportunity for your language teachers to connect and collaborate with other language teachers, a rare opportunity for teachers who are often singletons. November 20 from 9am-2pm in northern Colorado Springs!
IAAs:
While you're registering students for exams, don't forget to fill out your requests for Inclusive Access Arrangements (IB for accommodations). Reach out to Melissa if you have any questions or difficulties! Make sure to get those submitted by November 15 to ensure they're approved.
Diploma Programme updates:
The latest edition of program updates (formerly known as coordinator notes) was released on My IB in September. Make sure to check that out for the latest info, including updates about forthcoming updated subject guides!
Next IBARMS general meeting:
December 5, 10am-2pm at the Adams-12 conference center. Sign up now! Looking forward to seeing everyone there.
As always, reach out to me if you need anything at all, melissa.knight@asd20.org! See you next month.
