How to be creative

A link to a long post of inspiration on how to be creative, at any age, from a cartoonist and advertising industry worker: carve out some thinking time before clicking this. And yes, there may be some offensive language, and some British slang.

"New" education looks like IB

Bringing schools into the 21st century is the cover of the latest "Time" magazine. Sounds like IB to me. Read "Time" here.

Where does this path go?

Would a blog like this be useful and fun?
Do you think it could get a link from a more static, official IB Matters website?
Would it foster quick conversation?
Would you be willing to help?
Post your thoughts here. You can be anonymous, but please be polite.

Laughter

A sampling of potential IB exams and essay topics:

Mathematics: Square the circle. Be concise and show all work and calculations.

French: Outline three French victories in military combat. Historical accuracy is a must. Then proceed to sing the entire thing in French. Happily.

Theory Of Knowledge: What is the meaning of life? Be specific and concise.

Computer Science: Create an algorithm to solve World Hunger. You have 20 minutes. Use of binary code is strictly prohibited.

English: EITHER (Higher Level) recite all 56,748,092,635,009,657,214,784.55679283 known quotations of Oscar Wilde OR (Standard Level) spell the common three letter name of the domestic feline animal, or cat, starting with a 'c', ending with a 't' and with at least one 'a'. Must use a whole tree's worth of paper to do this.

Those are from here
Students please note: This site is public, which means your parents and your potential admissions counselors can see it. So maybe you shouldn’t mention other people by name, if you choose to join the wiki.

Youtube and IB

Some fun stuff, to illustrate our principles:
Go to youtube and search for IB Peoplez Rap. Laugh. Search for international baccalaureate and IB as well – you might get inspiration to create more than a “brochure” as your senior exit project. And you might learn how to spell baccalaureate.
If you can’t play video: ask someone with a computer like yours to help. And don’t try this at school.

More about this site

We’re connected to the official sanctioned website for IB Matters at Myers Park High School, because that’s what the Internet’s good for – making connections. But just one website can’t do everything for IB Matters. The official site does the official stuff and guides you elsewhere. It also recognizes that many Internet tools exist to share IB Matters, and each of those tools is good at different functions. This blog can help us share conversations and links to other places. Students can share a group on Facebook – in fact, it seems the biggest IB Facebook group is called “Victims of IB.” Let’s hope a new one starts – IB Matters, specifically for Myers Park. We appreciate young, dark humor, but don’t really want our kids to feel like victims.
Most parents, however, are probably not hanging out Facebook, so we can come here, and perhaps some students will hang out as well.
We already have an email system, though as technology changes, it might be good to examine a Google email Group instead. That shouldn’t be jumped into without lots of research.
Important: Students have found ways online to talk about IB, and this site is the place to get links to what’s going on already. We’re not trying to introduce lots of new information, and definitely not trying to out-code anyone.
Also, laughter helps, and laughing at ourselves can stretch the boundaries of officially sanctioned sites. That does not mean this site will sanction or link to mean stuff, or stereotypical stuff, but often our irreverent, creative students can push the boundaries, and being a link from the official site gives this site the freedom to send you other places.
This blog will try to be functional and well designed. It ‘s about conversation, and showing you – students and parents – what’s available.

Guiding principles

The site should be:
Organic: That means changeable. As technology develops and students and parents change, this site and links should be changeable as well. Too often, websites start with a bang and then become Internet “orphans” after a particular group of students or parents move on. With involvement, this site will continue.
Independent: This site is not taking a political stand. Neither should it be bound by CMS rules or a complex system of seeking official approval. However, it should be moderated by thoughtful, wise parents and teachers, who will help foster reasoned, courteous debate, learning and fun.. And protect our kids from posting something that may come back to haunt them.
Educational: It’s about IB Matters, after all. Links to teacher websites and other places jumping-off points for learning are highly encouraged.
Sustainable: Related to organic. It should not be a burden to any teacher, parent or student. No one should do this as a full-time job. Cyberspace is a tool, not a substitute for life. Thus, while it would be cool for this site to have something new every day, it won’t have that unless many, many people choose to participate. And that might not happen for a long time, or it might ebb and flow as our lives flow.
Elegant: Too much information can overwhelm. This is a connection point to all the other resources out there, not a complete list of every single cyberspace mention of IB. In addition, it should strive to only give you good quality stuff, promising the best use of your time online.
Scaleable: That means that if the IB presence in cyberspace expands in Charlotte and nationally, this website will be a part of that community, creating stronger connections among students, parents and teachers.

Fun with photos

Done with the youtube search? Want to see what else is out there?
Go to Flickr photos and search for international baccalaureate. You’ll see plently of congratulatory handshakes, but also perhaps the dissection of a mouse (eewwww). Think about posting your own photos and tagging them IB Matters, so we can all see them in the future. But talk with parents or trusted advisers about privacy settings before you post photos of you or your friends’ faces. The Amish were right: if someone has a photo of you, they have power over you. You don’t want a Kevin Federline in your future.

Everyone's watching

We’re public. That means anybody can see anything here. So students and parents beware. Act, and speak and write as you would in public, in front of your parents’ friends or in front of a college admissions counselor. There’s something about the psychology of staring at a screen that can make people meaner or more free with information than they would be face to face. (Remember middle-school IM frenzy?) Maybe the AP psychology teacher can tell us why. Or maybe someone’s senior exit can tell us why. Just remember: This is not MySpace or Facebook or LiveJournal. Doublecheck before you hit the send button, or before you post. It’s good training for future jobs.