Research!

Since we are now embarking our way into the spring semester, I thought it would be nice to take a look back at the wonderful work our students did for the research EXPO last May.  EXPO has been going on at St. George for several years (not to be confused with Exhibition-we will begin that this year).  During EXPO students share their research related to their units of inquiry.  We invite parents and members of the community to attend.  It is a great opportunity for students to showcase their work and the research process.  The video below shows some of the highlights from last year's EXPO, we will look forward to another interesting showcase this May!

Hello Ireland-are you there?

Technology is amazing!  We have several teachers who have really begun to embrace skyping as a way to communicate on a global scale.  Our second graders visited with Ireland, Columbia, Canada, and Georgia all in one week!

Resources...

One of the most challenging aspects of implementing the PYP is finding resources that support our units of inquiry.  Our librarian, Ms. Angel has developed a site to provide video resources for our units links for specific grade levels are listed below.  Thanks, Ms. Angel!

5^th grade-   http://blnds.co/1jpGfJ9

4^th grade-   http://blnds.co/1jpWki0

3^rd grade-  http://blnds.co/1jpWki0

2^nd grade-  http://blnds.co/1c7maVw

1^st grade-   http://blnds.co/1h52h7h

Kinder-      http://blnds.co/18VUGQ5

Pre-K-        http://blnds.co/17U7OVP

IB/Literacy Night at S@SGP!

We had a wonderful turnout at IB/Literacy Night!  Thank you to all the students and parents that attended.  We debuted the the S@SGP production-"What is IB all about?" (see video below) .We had our dedicated and knowledgable teachers explain the IB basics.  We also had a wonderful literacy presentation and free books!  We gave out 240 free books-that is more than last year! What can be better than that?

Also-we want to give a special thank you to our wonderful teacher volunteers!

Did someone say mother tongue?-The "Kindle Project"

One of the greatest things about S@SGP is the diversity of our student population.  We have over 30 mother tongues represented.  So, we began to wonder...how can we get books in mother tongues into our classrooms in a way that is quick, accessible, and cost effective?  The result of this question is the "Kindle Project".  We decided to purchase classroom Kindles and load them with as many mother tongue e-books as we could find.  Mr. Stephens, our principal, thought of this innovative solution and quickly started talking to our PTO about financing the project.  Thanks to the generous donation of a PTO sponsored Amazon gift card, we were able to purchase a Kindle for each classroom and load them with tons of mother tongue books.  What a great addition to any classroom library!  Does anyone want to curl up and read an e-book in Arabic?

Student Led Conferences!

We have successfully completed our first round of Student Led Conferences!  Teachers and students have been diligently working on reflecting upon their work and setting academic goals!  All of the work was compiled in our IB Portfolios and we were ready to go!  We had so many parents attend the conferences and give positive feedback.  Parents overwhelmingly enjoyed the experience, and so did teachers.  Student led conferences are definitely here to stay at St. George.  If by chance, you did not get to attend a student led conference, there will be another opportunity in the spring!

Application for Authorization-ACCEPTED

Great news!  Our application for authorization has been accepted and approved.  We met all standards being considered in this phase of the process, with no matters to be addressed-whew!  This is great, because it means we can move forward with our verification visit in the spring!  As many of you probably already know, the road to becoming an authorized IB World School is long and sometimes bumpy, but definitely worth the journey.  The S@SGP submitted its application for candidacy in the 2011-2012 school year and we officially became a candidate school in April 2012.  Since then it has been a whirl wind of professional development and unit development.  Our teachers have worked tirelessly to develop and negotiate our Program of Inquiry and 6 units of inquiry per grade level.  Our IB Steering Committee has lead us through the development of our Action Plan, Language Policy, Assessment Policy, and has helped to roll out the use of IB Portfolios and Student Led Conferences.  On top of developing curriculum documents, teachers have taught the units of inquiry and have refined their teaching craft to further develop student understanding.  Like I said, it is quite a bit of work and I am so proud of all that they have accomplished!  Their hard work will pay off in a better education for all of the students at S@SGP. Way to go Dragons!