Inspiration

I am inspired. Plan and simple. I am not from the education world. My previous experience has been in business and not-for-profit, but my educational experiences are that of being a student myself and being a parent. As a parent, I know I want better and different for my student. But what does that look like? Can we take an Indiana classroom and just say, "Ok...it's IB"?

The answer is no. As a school, we can label our classes IB. But to truly be IB, it is more than just a class or curriculum. Tonight, a young man spoke at the opening session. He just graduated from an IB school in Florida. He looked like any student you would see in a Columbus school. And then he spoke. He spoke with a passion and an eloquence that was mesmerizing. He was confident. He was educated. He spoke of his classmates and what he will take with him this fall to Dartmouth. He spoke of classes where he did not memorize, he interpreted. He had a maturity that was undeniable. And as I expressed my astonishment that this was merely a child of 18....over and over I heard, he is IB.....that is IB.

IB is more than classes our students will take. It looks so different than anything Columbus has seen. We cannot just bring IB into our classrooms...we will, as a school, become IB. We must to succeed. It is opening our mind to become, as staff and parents, as internationally-minded as our students will become.

I spoke with a teacher from Kansas City tonight at length about the differences in being an IB teacher vs. a traditional teacher. She told me that she is never good enough, but she doesn't mean that in a good way. She challenges herself to constantly reassess her curriculum, her classroom and her own personal development and always be looking for opportunity to grow.

I think we have a fantastic foundation to be IB. This is going to be a fantastic and exciting year!