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Posts Tagged ‘Education’
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Dear Friends
We are delighted to announce that Riverstone International School is now officially authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate MYP program.
We received the official notification letter from the International Baccalaureate Organization earlier this week, which follows our final inspection visit in November 2008.
Riverstone is also in the final stages of its Primary Years Program (PYP) authorization and is well on track to become the only school west of the Mississippi officially authorized to offer all three IB programs, and one of only a hand full of IB World Schools in the USA, authorized for all IB programs.
Visit www.ibo.org
This comes in addition to Riverstone being accepted as an official member of the Council of International Schools earlier this year.
Visit www.cois.org
Our gratitude goes to Chad Carlson and his Middle School team for all their hard work making Riverstone such an internationally renowned success.
Tags: Education, IB, international, MYP, school
Posted in Education, IB, International Understanding | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
Four students; Trevor Wallace, Sarah Chu, Leslie Bergmann and Kangmin Kim were elected by the faculty to represent Riverstone in a student leadership and diversity workshop in Salt Lake City during the weekend of February 6 and 7. Gretchen Arguedas, IB English Literature teacher, accompanied the students during the weekend that brought together students from all the PNAIS schools in the Pacific North West.
Tags: Education, IB, international, Leadership
Posted in Education, IB, Students | No Comments »
Friday, February 6th, 2009
We learned this week that Riverstone art students were accepted into the Boise Art
Museum’s Fifth Biennial Juried Art Exhibition.
The students are;
GeumJung “Deborah” Heo 12th grade
Mara Truslow 12th grade
Hoang “Henry” Tieu 12th Grade
Alex Frizzell 12th Grade
Ian Cherny 11th Grade
The show will open Saturday March 14th. The opening Reception will be Thursday March 19th at 6pm.
The reception is open to students families and teachers of the artists.
We are all very proud of the students, and out thanks go to Jim Harper, their Art teacher
Andrew Derry
Tags: Art, Education, Exhibition, IB, international
Posted in Community & Service, Education, IB, Students | No Comments »
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
As part of our on-going professional development, Riverstone’s Elementary school teachers will be taking part in two days of training on Friday 23rd January and Saturday 24th January.
The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (PYP) requires far more collaboration from teachers than other programs so that the children get a far more holistic and realistic view of the education. For this to work effectively, teachers need to spend far more time working and planning together.
On Friday, Ben, Lauryn and Andrew along with several parent volunteers will take the Elementary children up to Bogus Basin for a day of tubing as an extension of the Outdoor program.
Andrew Derry
Tags: Education, IB, international, PYP
Posted in Education, IB, International Understanding | No Comments »
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
Does Santa come to International Schools too?
As I watch the Christmas decorations spring up in the yards and malls around Boise, it reminds me of the perennial discussion that faces so many International Schools around the world; should we celebrate Christmas? Won’t it offend some members of our international community? Wouldn’t it be insensitive?
There are two ways of approaching internationalism. The first is to take the “lets offend no-one” theory, in which we celebrate nothing at the risk of offending one cultural group or another. This is the ‘dumbing down’ approach in which we take the lowest common multiple as our guide.
The other, and to my mind, more understanding, more sensitive and more educative approach is to “develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect” (IBO, 2005). This is the Highest Common Factor approach in which we learn about, appreciate and celebrate as many cultural festivals and events as we can.
In a truly internationally minded school, history, religion and culture are best approached on a series of levels in which students are firstly taught to appreciate and understand their own cultural heritage. This serves as the strong foundation on which an appreciation of other cultures is built. Secondly, they are exposed to the history and religion of other cultures around the world. Finally they learn to be able to compare, contrast and appreciate the wonderful diversity of peoples and cultures around the world.
I stress, the importance of the first point in my list, for I have too often heard this approach being called “anti-American’. To really build an appreciation of other cultures and an ability to compare, contrast and appreciate the diversity in this world requires a deep-rooted sense and appreciation of your own culture.
So yes, Riverstone will be celebrating Christmas and helping our international students understand and appreciate its significance. At the same time, our international students will be helping us understand and indeed, celebrate other cultural events such as Diwali, Hanukkah, Eid Al-Adha and the Chinese New Year.
At Riverstone, we will not close our students eyes, but open their minds to the cultural richness and diversity this world has to offer. International understanding is a far better option than mistrust and misunderstanding.
Andrew Derry
Tags: Culture, Education, IB, IBO, International Understanding, religion
Posted in IB, International Understanding, Students | No Comments »
Monday, November 24th, 2008
Community and Service
It was exactly one year ago almost to the day, that I first visited Riverstone,
Of all the great things about the school, I have often said that the one thing that really stood out at that time was the sense of community.
This was brought home to me this weekend with all of the community and service activities occurring with our students, teachers and parents: The Middle School disco; the Staff Auction Dinner and Rake-Up Boise (ably organized by RIS senior, Lauren Henken).
Community and service are integral pillars of Riverstone and, indeed, the International Baccalaureate Organisation. We believe passionately that the world will be a better place if everyone had a strong sense of community and if everyone recognized the value of service to that community and the world in general.
After all, attending a school like Riverstone is indeed, a privilege and it is right that the gifted should give.
I think therefore IB
Andrew Derry
Tags: Add new tag, Baccalaureate, Community & Service, Education, IB, IBO, international, Service
Posted in Community & Service, Education, IB, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Dear Friends,
As you are aware we have just hosted an IB MYP authorization team visit and the Directors and I met with them for their debrief session this afternoon.
The team will write a report and send it to the IB head office. A committee will meet to discuss our application and make a recommendation to the Director General in February. We will receive our report and decision on authorization shortly after (late February)
The report will contain ‘commendations’ for things we are doing well, ‘recommendations’ for areas we ought to look at and ‘Items to be addressed’ for the areas we must deal with in a given time frame.
Although strictly unofficial, it is fair to say that the team was highly impressed with our school, our mission, the quality of education and the support of the entire school community. They were especially praising (amazed was the word they used!) of how hard the faculty had worked and how much they had achieved in working towards the MYP in such a short time.
They also went out of their way to praise the support of the board and the parents for the school, international education and the IB in particular
The verbal report we received contained a couple of “items to be addressed” a few ‘recommendations’ and many ‘commendations’ (far more commendations than anything else)
And no surprises!
All in all we received very positive feedback.
There are still many things we need to do to make Riverstone the beacon International School in the west, and that is our goal, but this is a big step and one that lets us know we are moving in the right direction
We host the IB PYP authorization team in spring and hope to be the first and only school west of the Mississippi to be authorized for all three IB programs.
To put this in to perspective, there are currently 925 schools in the USA officially authorized to offer the IB
Of these, only 93 have been authorized to offer both MYP and DP
Only 6 in the entire USA have been authorized to offer PYP, MYP and DP
There are only 12 schools in the west that are authorized for MYP and DP
There are no schools in the west who have managed to achieve authorization for all three programs, PYP, MYP and DP
Andrew Derry
I think therefore IB
Tags: Baccalaureate, beacon, DP, Education, IB, international, MYP, PYP, school
Posted in Education, IB, International Understanding, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
What Really Matters 2.
Traditional education revolves around the three Rs.
No, not reading riting and rithmatic as was the case when I was at school, but Repeat, Remember, Regurgitate.
We all remember those Maths classes when the teacher would show us a problem on the board (usually a chalk-smeared blackboard), we would do the next 40 problems from the text book (all similar), another 20 for homework. Then at the end of the section, we would be given a test of another 40 almost identical problems with which we were expected to score more than 90%.
The fact of the matter is that most educational systems were designed this way. Real life was divided in to artificial domains or subject areas. Tests were devised that allowed for the “brightest” (and by that we mean “best at remembering”) to succeed and for the rest to fail.
Teachers possessed the “knowledge”, they passed it on to the students in the order and manner they felt fit, the students remembered the knowledge and then regurgitated it on tests. The best students at this process, progressed, the others did not. The more cynical among is might suggest that the old fashioned system of forcing students to Repeat, Remember, Regurgitate was considered a good way to discipline the young. It certainly put the teacher in a position of power in the classroom.
Fortunately modern brain and pedagogical research shows us how children think and learn best – and it’s not by the three Rs!
In the best educational systems, the old fashioned, knowledge based approach is replaced by skills based, contextual learning. In such systems the teacher is no longer the fount of all knowledge, but the facilitator helping each individual student to acquire the skills and concepts necessary to understand, to think, to adapt, to analyze and to do.
This is the underlying philosophy of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. Whether the PYP, MYP or DP programme, IB students are empowered to think and to do rather than to just know.
I think therefore IB
Andrew Derry
Tags: Baccalaureate, DP, Education, international, MYP, Pedagogy, PYP
Posted in Community & Service, Education, IB, International Understanding, Pedagogy, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, November 7th, 2008
Yordanos addresses the IBO annual assembly
Yordanos Refu, an Ethiopian refugee who graduated from Riverstone International School recently, addressed the packed assembly hall of the International Baccalaureate Organization annual conference in San Francisco in July.
1200 educators, administrators and politicians from around the world listened in awe as Yordanos spoke about the profound effect Riverstone and the IB had on her life. During her speech there was not a dry eye in the hall and at the end Yordanos received a standing ovation that lasted for minutes.
You can watch Yordonas’ speech at the IB’s facebook site:
http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=39945250074 (select Yordanos’ speech)
Yordanos is now studying at the College of Idaho and will be working as an alumnus volunteer at Riverstone with other refugees.
We are extremely proud of Yordanos and what she has achieved, as we are proud of all our students at Riverstone.
Andrew Derry
Tags: Education, IB, international
Posted in Education, IB, International Understanding, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Welcome to this new blog page and welcome to our new website. A great deal of time and effort has gone into making this new site more informative and more user-friendly. We would certainly appreciate receiving your feedback on the look and feel of the site.
Being new to the school this year, my family and I gave a great deal of thought to our move. Moving from Europe to the USA was a big decision and we wanted to be sure that we made the right one. In making that decision, we started to ask ourselves: What really matters?
Of course, what really matters in schools is the right combination of many things; teachers, students, parents, program, and facilities to name but a few. But, for us the things that really mattered when choosing to come to Riverstone, were family, community and relationships.
Riverstone International School is a very special place and it’s not just the rigorous IB curriculum, it’s not just the college admission success, it’s not the fact that our students score in the 97th percentile on PSAT scores. What really matters at Riverstone, what really makes this school stand out, is its community and the relationships it develops among staff, parents, students. We are one big family, all working together for the benefit of our students.
Having worked in many international schools around the world, I can tell you that we should never take this for granted. Not all schools are like Riverstone, not even those that are as academically successful. To be honest, when I first came for an interview in November 2007, I knew nothing about Boise. I distinctly remember returning home and trying to explain to my family why Riverstone was the place for us. What really mattered was the sense of community and the relationships that developed as a result of that.
This was brought home to me very recently as part of the Capital Campaign to build the new Elementary School building. Teachers in any school are not the highest paid citizens in society, but our staff decided to get together to find a way to contribute to the campaign. As a group, they decided to have part of their salary set aside each month over an eighteen-month period. As a result, they managed to provide a leadership pledge to the campaign of $15,000. That is extraordinary! As a group, the staff understands how important that sense of community is to this school.
This school is extraordinary for many reasons, but being new to the school, what makes it so special for me is its sense of community!
Andrew Derry
Tags: Education, IB, international, Pedagogy
Posted in Education, IB, International Understanding, Pedagogy, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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