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Organizers of the drive for the International Baccalaureate at Incline's schools hope to raise $125,000 during the next two years to cover the expenses of training teachers and administrators.
Local fundraising drive continues
The Incline Village community is mostly on the financial hook for implementing International Baccalaureate, an estimated cost of more than $400,000 over the next 10 years.
To date, the program has raised about $61,000, said IB organizer Gary Lee, up from $54,000 in late September. That sum accounts for enough funding to train the 35 K-12 teachers IB organizers plan to have trained by early next year, Lee said.
Organizers hope to raise $125,000 over the next two years to cover the expenses of training teachers and administrators in teaching the IB curriculum. The group continues to fundraise for both training and the implementation of IB through its donor fund with the Incline Schools Academic Excellence Foundation.
Donations to the IB program are administered by the Incline Schools Academic Excellence Foundation at PO Box 4153, Incline Village, NV 89450.
To date, the program has raised about $61,000, said IB organizer Gary Lee, up from $54,000 in late September. That sum accounts for enough funding to train the 35 K-12 teachers IB organizers plan to have trained by early next year, Lee said.
Organizers hope to raise $125,000 over the next two years to cover the expenses of training teachers and administrators in teaching the IB curriculum. The group continues to fundraise for both training and the implementation of IB through its donor fund with the Incline Schools Academic Excellence Foundation.
Donations to the IB program are administered by the Incline Schools Academic Excellence Foundation at PO Box 4153, Incline Village, NV 89450.
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — Turning a perceived educational liability — speaking Spanish as a first language — into an asset is one of the ways regional supporters say an International Baccalaureate curriculum helped their schools.
Jennifer Sims, IB coordinator at Pacific Beach Middle School near San Diego, said her school is about 60 percent English language learners and said the students benefit heavily from having Spanish taught in the classroom.
“So often their first language is seen as a subtractive skill,” said Sims. “We see it as opening a new door, it really empowers students and opens up a new door to everyone in the class.”
In Incline Village, students who don't speak English as a native language have at times struggled in the public schools, causing test scores to slip below federal standards in math at Incline Elementary and English language arts at Incline Middle School last year.
The English learner population is growing to nearly half the school at the elementary level.
Jeni Cross, a major proponent of IB and an Incline High School French teacher, said the foreign language component of the IB curriculum could serve to decrease any perceived marginalization of Latino students.
“When we have our Latino kids in class we start to marginalize them, by saying in a non-verbal way the language you're speaking at home really isn't of value in our school,” she said.
Cross said current practices which push English education all the time, to the point of scheduling intervention classes for English learners to work on the language, serves to separate the students from their peers and make them feel marginalized.
In the IB curriculum, which Incline hopes to install in all public school grades by 2013, students must learn a foreign tongue, and the Incline IB movement is set on Spanish as that language.
Tracy East, IB coordinator at Amelia Earhart Elementary in Indio, Calif., said students who speak Spanish as a first language have steadily improved academically, and in English, since the school began teaching the IB curriculum in 2005.
“Those students are a big part of our program — they really help us to show a vibrant part of the culture to their classmates,” East said.
Cross said academic success could follow for EL students as their parents would be invited into classrooms to share their knowledge of the language.
“If we can invite them in with something they're confident in, what a cool thing that would be for all of our students,” Cross said. “We have the community to support a really excellent Spanish program.”
Jordan Sobel, a Spanish teacher and IB coordinator at Kate Sessions Elementary in San Diego, said he's seen some improvement for Spanish-speaking students since the school's recent IB implementation, especially in classroom confidence.
“They find out their language is valuable, and now they are kind of the expert, and that helps with their self-esteem,” Sobel said. “They help me run lessons and correct other kids with their Spanish.”
The IB curriculum not only helps English learners with their English, but also their Spanish, Cross and Sobel said.
“A lot of those students can speak Spanish well enough but aren't all that literate in it,” Sobel said. “A lot of what I do is working with a text and their literacy really improves.”
Cross echoed the statement, saying now Spanish-speaking students have difficulties achieving literacy in either language.
Jennifer Sims, IB coordinator at Pacific Beach Middle School near San Diego, said her school is about 60 percent English language learners and said the students benefit heavily from having Spanish taught in the classroom.
“So often their first language is seen as a subtractive skill,” said Sims. “We see it as opening a new door, it really empowers students and opens up a new door to everyone in the class.”
In Incline Village, students who don't speak English as a native language have at times struggled in the public schools, causing test scores to slip below federal standards in math at Incline Elementary and English language arts at Incline Middle School last year.
The English learner population is growing to nearly half the school at the elementary level.
Jeni Cross, a major proponent of IB and an Incline High School French teacher, said the foreign language component of the IB curriculum could serve to decrease any perceived marginalization of Latino students.
“When we have our Latino kids in class we start to marginalize them, by saying in a non-verbal way the language you're speaking at home really isn't of value in our school,” she said.
Cross said current practices which push English education all the time, to the point of scheduling intervention classes for English learners to work on the language, serves to separate the students from their peers and make them feel marginalized.
In the IB curriculum, which Incline hopes to install in all public school grades by 2013, students must learn a foreign tongue, and the Incline IB movement is set on Spanish as that language.
Tracy East, IB coordinator at Amelia Earhart Elementary in Indio, Calif., said students who speak Spanish as a first language have steadily improved academically, and in English, since the school began teaching the IB curriculum in 2005.
“Those students are a big part of our program — they really help us to show a vibrant part of the culture to their classmates,” East said.
Cross said academic success could follow for EL students as their parents would be invited into classrooms to share their knowledge of the language.
“If we can invite them in with something they're confident in, what a cool thing that would be for all of our students,” Cross said. “We have the community to support a really excellent Spanish program.”
Jordan Sobel, a Spanish teacher and IB coordinator at Kate Sessions Elementary in San Diego, said he's seen some improvement for Spanish-speaking students since the school's recent IB implementation, especially in classroom confidence.
“They find out their language is valuable, and now they are kind of the expert, and that helps with their self-esteem,” Sobel said. “They help me run lessons and correct other kids with their Spanish.”
The IB curriculum not only helps English learners with their English, but also their Spanish, Cross and Sobel said.
“A lot of those students can speak Spanish well enough but aren't all that literate in it,” Sobel said. “A lot of what I do is working with a text and their literacy really improves.”
Cross echoed the statement, saying now Spanish-speaking students have difficulties achieving literacy in either language.
