Strand: Creativity, Activity Learning outcome 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth Learning outcome 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process I am not a cook. Gordon Ramsey is the devil to me. I fear him. However, I am a risk taker, and I wanted to try a fabulous recipe that was shared to me by my stepmother on Pinterest. I love crisp apples, fall, and puff pastry- who doesn't? Once I saw this I knew I had to try it. Doing this, though, required some bravery on my part. I wasn't allowed in the kitchen much as a child (my older sister was the queen of that domain) so any recipe I try now as an adult comes with a fair amount of self-doubt that I will in fact make the kitchen explode or fail miserably. Luckily, my husband, Josh, was sitting safely in the living room and let me do my experimentation sans fear of judgement on how I went about following the instructions. I gathered my supplies- 3 apples, a half cup of cold water, half a lemon for its juice, a bowl, cinnamon, sugar, cream cheese, and puff pastry. I followed the video's instructions perfectly! With a fair amount of laughing at myself while trying to figure out rolling cream-cheese/sugar/cinnamon/apple filled puff pastry into the rose shape, I became more and more confident that I can indeed cook! I was very proud of myself as the house started to smell heavenly and Josh asked when they would be finished baking. No kitchen fires, no explosions, no humongous mess (well, this was until Josh thought it would be a good idea to add the powdered sugar), and I came out unscathed and confident that I can make an awesome fall treat. I will definitely be trying more recipes in the future!
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Oh, the city that never sleeps! Ms. Banks and I had ourselves an awesome, whirlwind of an adventure over the past weekend for our IB training at the United Nations International School (UNIS) in New York City. She attended the biology conference and I was in the level 2 CAS conference. We were with IB teachers from all over the world! It is always refreshing to be surrounded by other professionals who want to make the world a better place. I know for me I learned so much about how I can make CAS an amazing experience to help my students grow into amazing people...so that's exactly what is going to happen! I am so excited for the next school year! Ms. Banks and I agree that this year we are going to make our classes even better by applying what we learned in NYC to what we do. This conference totally helped me reach all of the CAS Learning Goals, but because I got paid to be there I cannot truly count this as a CAS activity. Don't forget that: if you get paid, you can't count it as CAS. Allow me, then, to simply blog about the trip! Of course, we had to explore the city after our 8 am to 4 pm conference. Being that I love traveling the world, I was excited to pull out my map of the city and take a pen to chart our routes for our afternoon adventures. Ms. Banks and I befriended a teacher from Arizona at lunch on the first day and she tagged along for the ride. What a ride it was! After packing our brains with new information, we ventured into the city to... Thursday: Staten Island Ferry to see the city from the water as well as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the "Fearless Girl" facing-off with the bull on Wall Street, had dinner in Eataly and then visited the 9/11 Memorial, walked all over the city to find Ms. Banks some cookie dough deliciousness and by chance (because we were never really "lost") found the Ghostbusters station in the process, and then saw the Union Square Park while we stuffed our faces with the cookie dough that was SO WORTH IT. Did I mention we walked all of this? We were ready to sleep by the time returned to the hotel at almost 11 pm! Friday: After dropping off our laptops, we headed to the Rockefeller Center, did a little bit of souvenir shopping, visited the Saint Patrick's Cathedral, found a New York Fire Department fire safety center and shop where we dressed up like firemen and got to see a truck up close and personal, and went to the Meatpacking District to check out the High Line (former railroad turned park) before it rained. Saturday: Our last day at the conference! Afterwards Ms. Banks wanted to work with her new bio buddies so I headed solo to the United Nations which was only a 25 minute from the school. I was really, really excited to be there but I was bummed because they do not do tours on the weekends and all the country flags were not on raised. Fun and thrilling nevertheless! I many or may not have purchased a lot of new things for the classroom... once Ms. Banks and I reconnected at our hotel we decided that we could not leave NYC without visiting Little Italy. In the process of making our way to Caffè Palermo for their world famous cannoli we found ourselves in Little Ukraine and around a ton of street art. After eating one of the best pizzas I have ever had, we asked for their cannoli. Oh my...if you ever find yourself in NYC, you must go there and eat cannoli! It was pure and utter heaven! We double dipped on dessert and followed up with gelato for our walk back to our hotel. Sunday was dedicated to the journey back home. Ms. Banks left super early for yet another conference in Texas, so I was able to relax on the rooftop with my coffee before leaving for the busy JFK airport. The view was lovely- the Empire State Building! After this experience I am really looking forward to meeting my new IB Juniors for Zero Period CAS!!!! I hate to break it to you, children, but there really isn't such a thing as this magical "summer vacation" when you are an adult. . . perseverence and committment in my quest to be a super awesome teacher. The more I come to my classes and work on projects the more I increase my awareness of my own strengths and areas for growth.
Just because it is summer doesn't mean you stop! What are YOU doing this summer? However, there is hope. I consider the ethical implications of my actions and do not give out poor grades just because you forgot your name on the paper (again) and I cannot tell if it is an 'a' or 'd' that your wrote as your answer or if I am just not caffeinated enough to read the whole submission. I have shown perseverance and commitment to you this year by making sure that class has run smoothly, you don't wait too long to know your grade, and that you have things assigned to you well in advance. But guess what? SO HAVE YOU! You have come to class, you have given it your 'all'; there is hope!
Just don't bother me for your grade until the day after YOUR final, ok? Like many of you, I have an Instagram account. No, you cannot 'follow' me, but I want to share with you a post I made: Oh my goodness! I was stressing about the AP Exam (that I do not take, mind you, I am the teacher!) and this lovely student took the time to tell me that she noticed how dedicated I am to my students. This is not meant to brag but meant to be a heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you students who recognize that being a teacher to over 100 students and attending to all of their needs every single day can be so mentally/physically taxing that a bit of praise every now and then is so rewarding and motivating. Whether you know it or not, your teachers plan and initiate activities all year long for your benefit, we work collaboratively with others to ensure that you are successful, and we are constantly developing new skills so that we can better serve you!
SO PROUD of our IB Club! What a great event that was well planned and orchestrated by our IB Club President, Amanda! It was so refreshing to see young people gathered at the school by choice to collect clothing, toys, and other items to donate to those who are in need. The mountain of bags brought by the community was a sight to behold. Good job, team! Exemplifying IB!
(CAS Strand: Service) Over the past two weeks, Mr. Colera and I have visited the junior high schools in the area advertising the I.B. Program. Mr. Colera and I planned and initiated as well as worked collaboratively to present these students with information about this opportunity...and brought juice boxes and pizza! It is always enjoyable to see the younger students, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, to meet and eat pizza and talk about their futures. I remember when I was in junior high and met the IB Coordinator and was faced with the reality that high school was my last chance at a free education and every second of my time in high school counted. That is a huge pill to swallow as a young kid! I couldn't even drive yet and I was being presented with something that could potentially drive the rest of life. I am SO GLAD I made the best decision available to me and be IB. When we present to the 8th graders, we consider the ethical implications of our actions, meaning we make sure we tell the students nothing but the truth when it comes to enrolling in the IB so that way the students and their families can make the best, informed decision possible.
This post may be long but it is therapeutic. Therapeutic for you, of course, because this is a realistic read that (I hope) will make you feel better about the second semester IB madness you are feeling. I want you to know my real thoughts on this IB life because I too have lived it and I actually know that it is worth the struggle you are living through right now because look at where I am today. Is this not the 'feel better' image you had in mind? No? Oh...well, this is a realistic selfie/self-portrait of my life at the moment: posing with my piles of research materials in my kitchen deciding whether I want to make dinner for my husband and me or dive right into that pile (but obviously I decided to write this post for you instead). That is indeed a smile you see on my face and its not a fake one. Why the smile, you may wonder, when I am clearly up against more pages to read than one has tears to cry over the amount of time and energy it will take to get through them, take notes on them, and write about what I have read? I smile because long ago I was told that my disability would prohibit me from doing the things my heart so desired. True story. I was told I would probably be deaf by my 20's (I'm now 28) and I would never be able to join the U.S. Air Force and fly the jets and eventually the space shuttle like I wanted to, and I certainly could never learn French well enough...so I took French in high school and at the IB level, no less, and then I received my bachelor's degree in it and then got a job to teach it and now travel the world with students to use it. But...what about my sky-high dreams? True, my hearing didn't allow me to go Air Force, but the fact that I was involved in a fantastic organization called Civil Air Patrol to fulfill CAS hours actually led me to what I do now- teaching! Seriously! Thanks to IB I was actively involved in constant service and personal development activities which made my college applications look stellar and I discovered my passion for teaching while working with younger cadets. Now my disability is a source of empowerment and is driving me to help make the classroom a better place for students who are like me, so instead of wallow in some kind of pity I want to help change the world with it (and that sounds pretty IB-esque, now doesn't it?) (Right) Me in the back of a CAP Search and Rescue vehicle (Left) Conducting my preflight checks in 5229er Foxtrot at March Air Reserve Base I smile because I live in a country where, as a woman, I have the right to an education. This is a fact not to be taken lightly; this world where we live has some backwards ideology still left in it, unfortunately, and this doctorate is my final 'hear me roar' moment to the people in the world who think girl power isn't a real thing. I am going to use this doctorate as an example to my fellow woman-kind that being educated is the best thing a girl could ever be. I am blessed to be able to have the scholarly 'know-how' to be USC, doctoral material, and that is thanks to my roots in IB. To be clear, I am not a man-hater, but you better believe I can hold my own in a conversation and I am as smart as the boys. My IB diploma was just as robust; my ability to survive in college was just as strong. Being in IB helped prove this fact to me and gave me that confidence that I still have today. I don't need a man to handle life for me- I got this myself! Note: My husband, Josh, is the best compliment to my life. He is the level-headed to my crazy, my reliable travel partner, and the best husband a girl could ever ask for. He is also wicked smart! Thanks to IB and the language learning requirement, I knew then just as I know now that I can survive on my own in the world and, heck, I'll take kids with me for the adventure too! Some people would never advise a lady to travel alone because it is so dangerous...but yet I have done it four times. Across the Atlantic. Before 30. With and without students. And was fine. I smile because I am the first in my family of five children to earn a college degree, and here I am working on my third. Being at USC was all my doing. So was pursuing my Master's degree, as was finishing my degree at UCR early (thanks to IB). I knew that if I did not make the choice to make myself college-ready and prepare myself thoroughly for the rigor of college while in high school that my choices in life would have been limited. IB gave me the edge I needed, the academic know-how I am so thankful for, and the skills I would have otherwise never learned that made all three rounds of college unbelievably less stressful than they could have been. Beyoncé said it best: Don't be scared to run this-run this back/ I'm rapping for the girls who taking over the world/ Help me raise a glass for the college grads. You know, the world does sound good to me, and thanks to IB I know it is mine for the taking and have known it since the day the diploma became mine. I smile because I am IB - I 'be' IB- and I will be for the rest of my life. IB PROUD and you can be, too! ... do you feel better now? You should. Ok, on to the Extended Essay talk: I had the absolute pleasure of being asked to be an Extended Essay adviser to one of my hardest working IB students (even if he did ditch my class for Spanish...whatever... if you're reading, I still love 'ya, kid!). We met up today not only to talk about his topic and complete his first reflection but to talk about, well, life! Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, A KID VENTED TO YOU ABOUT IB?Sure, why not? Am I not trusted enough for a student to be honest with me about their experience? BUT YOU ARE A TEACHER AND WILL TATTLE IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY! I won't snitch, scout's honor (unless if someone's life is in peril I truly would do no such thing). How refreshed we both felt after we talked about this huge element of I.B.! Talking about things really does help! It was also really comforting for the student to see how this EE process is a lot like how I have to go about creating my doctoral dissertation. It doesn't happen over night. I didn't write a doctoral dissertation in high school, but thanks to IB's Extended Essay that I too had to accomplish this curriculum dissertation I am writing will be a piece of cake (seriously). Trust me...I EMPATHIZE with the IB student struggle. I really have been there! YOU ARE NOT ALONE!Pursuing the I.B. Diploma, my dear students, is not easy. Neither is getting a man on the moon, but that has been done. Take it from me that the struggle is real but the struggle is absolutely, 110% worth it. If it was easy everybody would do it and if that were the case it wouldn't be special, so special in fact that it puts your name at the top of many colleges acceptance piles, and IB student entrance statistics prove this to be true so don't listen to nay-say'er adults or students. They truly do not even know. 'Adulting' is all about undertaking new challenges, and sometime you need a triple shot macchiato and a good venting session to be able to process it all. When you signed up for IB, just like I did back in 2003, you decided that you wanted to be part of the crème de la crème, be a cut above the rest, and stand out as a student...and with the IB Diploma Recipient on your resume you will be the best student you can be and chances are you will be a better adult, too. Showing perseverance and being dedicated is so important, but do not deny yourself the time to relax! You know something, though, you dear IB student? Planning is what makes the difference! Embrace the challenges IB throws at you because this is practice for college, jobs, and life. I promise you will develop new skills when you have your heart, brain, and planner in the same place at the same time. FIGHT ON, but please do come see me if you need help with the fight. I am here for you! Ponder for just a moment the messages within this inspirational quote below: With the new year upon us and the second semester of this first year of IB coming to a swift end, I wonder if I can be better, stronger, kinder, more compassionate, more mindful... just more. It is so important that we endeavor to increase our awareness of our strengths and our areas for growth. This year I want to really focus on you, my dear students, and how to make you more purpose-driven people who can overcome adversities and help lift others up. I want to be better, stronger, kinder, more compassionate, and more mindful of YOU!
Happy 2017, my dear IB-Wannabes! YOU CAN DO IT!
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AuthorDr. Thomas is the IB CAS coordinator for Azusa High School. She is an IB Diploma recipient, class of 2007. She is currently a doctoral candidate at University of Southern California Archives
August 2017
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