IB

"My favorite memory in IB this month was during World Topics. We were talking about the history of India when Shane shared a funny anecdote about his family's rubber farm. You really had to be there to know what I am talking about."

- Viviana Ziegner IB Senior

"Sorry to keep talking about Shane, but my favorite memory this month was in Mandarin class. Shane was sleeping during one of our presentations and when Mrs. Xie woke him up he was super confused. His hair was disheveled and the whole class couldn't stop laughing."

- Noah Herrera IB Senior

"My favorite memory this month was during HL math. Heinrich connected Akhil's distraction to a Poisson distribution. It made our whole class laugh while also helping us to learn more about stats."

- Steven Shen Ib Senior

"My favorite thing we have done this month is the Bigs and Littles program. I have loved getting to know my little and enjoy helping them as much as I can."

- Kristen Mitchell IB Senior

"My favorite memory from IB so far has been the teachers; all of the teachers in IB are passionate about the subjects they teach and genuinely care about helping their students learn and grow. It fosters a sense of community in the IB program."

- Reya Felton IB Junior

"I've really enjoyed IB so far. It's been a lot of homework and stress but it's also strengthened my friendships. There's a really good support network and community that lessens the workload."

- William Jackson IB Junior

"IB has been enjoyable so far. Despite the stress I have experienced, I feel more mentally developed due to the amount and difficulty of work and have matured in my time management skills. I also have gotten closer to a lot of people that have also helped with the stress management by creating a system of support and friendships."

-Addison Reynolds IB Junior

The three strands of CAS, which are often interwoven with particular activities, are characterized as follows:

• Creativity – arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
• Activity – physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the DP.
• Service – an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student. The rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved are respected.

In order to demonstrate these concepts, students are required to undertake a CAS project. The project challenges students to:

• show initiative
• demonstrate perseverance
• develop skills such as collaboration, problem solving and decision making.

CAS enables students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development by learning through experience.

It provides opportunities for self-determination and collaboration with others, fostering a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment from their work.

At the same time, CAS is an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of the DP.

Below, we are celebrating three (of many!) notable CAS projects.

The new peer mediation organization at Lubbock high trains students in the process of peer mediation, which is a student led initiative designed to help students resolve conflict in a non-violent and collaborative manner. Students trained in the process receive their titles as mediators and proceed to mediate the referrals that come in. This organization aims to promote a positive school environment. The organization is still growing, but currently includes Akhil Gorparthi, Nick Lafon, Zaid Kharrat, Maia Freeman, Mona Sabouni, Emma Hail, Noah Herrera (pictured: back row from left), Aarya Patel, Zoe Reich, Anna Carothers, Sarah Rose, and Jana Shabaneh.

"Find something you are passionate about to do your CAS project on. I recommend you get it done sooner rather than later, so that you are not as stressed when assignments start piling up. I finished mine the second semester of my junior year."

-Maya Alhmoud IB Senior

"Use whatever free time you have to get your CAS reflections done each week. If you do one a week, I have found it's pretty manageable. Typically however, kids in our grade wait until the last minute to finish them all, and that is when they get stressed."

-Silas Washington IB Senior

"CAS is fun. Enjoy the ride!"

-Ethan Min IB Senior

Each month, students send in pieces of their personal writing they wish to be published in the IB Newsletter. Submissions can be done anonymously, or with a name included if the student so chooses. Writing pieces can be submitted using the following form: https://forms.gle/L6n5YeTMuZpY5Acs7

So much depends on a red wheelbarrow. Or does it?

We have all read the famous poem by William Carlos Williams.

“A striking example of twentieth century imagism!”,

“A poem that is both simple but complex,”

The overly dramatic descriptions and contradictions used to describe the poem;

Words given by teachers to make it seem more important than it really is.

Call me a nihilist if you will, but so much can never depend on one thing.

My future life, my goals, my successes are in front of me,

I can see them.

But they are blocked by a gate,

an ominous gate that is guarded by a giant who stands 20 feet tall.

The giant growls, only growing in power and fierceness as my stress feeds him,

Stumbling over deadlines and confusing supplements.

This giant's name is college, and he is a red wheelbarrow.

As I approach this gate and the giant in front of me,

I realize he is not ominous, or 20 feet tall, but just a facade.

A facade created by a fear of rejection,

Or maybe, even a greater fear of acceptance.

Life goes on and giants guarding the gates of futures will only grow larger.

So I ask one more time:

Does so much really depend on a red wheelbarrow?

- IB Student