Messages and Announcements

• Four IB World Schools Honored as No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools

In September, the United States Department of Education announced the No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools. The Blue Ribbon Schools program works to identify and honor schools “that make significant progress in closing the achievement gap or whose students achieve at very high levels.”

The schools are selected based on one of three criteria:
1. Schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that dramatically improve student performance on state tests, as determined by the state school chief
2. Schools whose students, regardless of background, achieve in the top 10 percent on state tests
3. Private schools that achieve in the top 10 percent in the nation.

Of the 289 schools recognized, four were IB world schools!

Congratulations go out to:
Summit Middle Charter School, Boulder, Colorado
Frank Crawford Martin Elementary, Miami, Florida
International Baccalaureate School at Bartow High School, Bartow, Florida 
Metro Academic and Classical High School, St. Louis, Missouri

For more information on 2004 No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools, please go to:
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2004/09/09172004.html

• We Want Your School Pins!

In celebration of IBNA’s 30th anniversary, we plan to honor all IB world schools in our region with a “pinning ceremony” at our Annual Regional Conference in Montréal 7-10 July. Your school pin will help to represent your hometown pride by marking your city or town on a special regional map. We hope that this IB world school map will convey the impact and growth of the IB in the North American region. 

Please send pins (with school name, state/province and school code clearly marked) to:
Theresa Mustafa
Executive Assistant to the Regional Director
International Baccalaureate North America
475 Riverside Drive, suite 1600
New York, NY 10115  USA
Tel: 212-696-4464 ext. 40

• Texas Education Agency Chooses IB History Teacher as Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year!

Out of more than 288,000 Texas teachers, Sheryl Lindemann, an IB history teacher from the Wichita Falls Independent School District has been named Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year for 2005.

In addition to being named Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year, Lindemann also was selected to be Texas’s nominee for the National Teacher of the Year Award.  The outcome of the national program will be decided in April 2005.

Ms. Lindemann has dedicated herself to the teaching profession for the past 15 years.  She now teaches 11th- and 12th-grade IB history of the Americas and IB world topics at the Hirschi Math-Science Magnet High School in Wichita Falls.   With true IB spirit, Lindmann writes, “I followed my heart. I love history. I love a challenge. I love to pass on my spirit for questioning to my students. I love watching them grow and mature into independent learners.”  Beyond independence, Lindemann believes her students should understand and develop ethical behavior in their roles as citizens of a community.  She says her “most significant achievements are . . . reflected in the success of my students.” 

For more information, please go to: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/press/04ttoy.html

• JSTOR Journal Storage: The Scholarly Journal Archive

JSTOR is a not-for-profit cooperative that has created an archive of the complete back runs of selected academic journals, mainly in disciplines related to the social sciences and humanities. 

JSTOR would like to offer IB world schools the opportunity to explore the JSTOR archive with a free one-week trial (the week can be determined by you). These accounts are password governed, but the passwords should be shared liberally with all interested faculty and administrators at your school.

The JSTOR archive contains cover-to-cover gif-image reproductions of more than 400 fully searchable journals. All staff may be interested in the nearly 30 education titles contained in the archive.

To set up your trial account, please contact:
Carol MacAdam
Associate Director for Library Relations
JSTOR
149 Fifth Avenue, 8th floor
New York, NY 10010
212-358-6400
212-358-6499 fax
clm@jstor.org

For further information about JSTOR and about JSTOR participation for secondary schools, please see JSTOR's web pages at www.jstor.org.  There you will find complete lists of the titles in the archive and lists of the current participants in JSTOR, including more than 100 secondary schools.

• Free Class Set of The Concord Review!

A word from Will Fitzhugh, founder of The Concord Review:

The Concord Review, the only journal for research papers of high school students of history, has been happy to publish a number of IB extended essays over the years. I would be happy to send a free class set (26 copies) to any IB teacher who would like one. Since 1987, The Concord Review has had two goals: to recognize exemplary papers and to show them to as many high school students as possible. Your request will help with goal two; and as to goal one, I always look forward to submissions of IB extended essays. Just send me an e-mail at fitzhugh@tcr.org and give me the street address where I should send the set.  Please visit our website, at www.tcr.org, which has just been completely redesigned.

Will Fitzhugh, founder
The Concord Review
National Writing Board
National History Club
730 Boston Post Road, Suite 24
Sudbury, Massachusetts 01776 USA
978-443-0022; 800-331-5007
www.tcr.org; fitzhugh@tcr.org
Varsity Academics®

****IBNA and IBO in no manner endorse any or all of the above organizations.**** [ return to top ]