Soundings (6/23/09)
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Flag Salute and Invocation: by Aaron Lemperes
Dirty Joke by Barry Kramer
Visiting Rotarians: Asst. District 5050 Governor Larry Pollett, Ron Jepson, Steve White (father of our own Chris White).
Guests: Coleman Brummel, Remy Talbot and Steve Smith (works with Orphalee)
Asst. DG Larry Pollett gave two awards to our club. The first was for our club's overall good organization and program growth. The second was for our cooperative effort working with the Bellingham Rotary Club on the Food Bank project.
Announcements
Eddie announced a crab feed sometime later in July.
Changing of the Guard: July 7th evening meeting at Boxx Farm, 6-8 pm - NO MEETING THAT DAY!
Brewers by the Bay: 24 Breweries are now signed up, each bringing two types of beer. Keep selling those tickets! Sunday July 26th is the event. Also, please sign up for volunteering.
Bucks in the Bay
(sorry, I accidentally erased all of these!)
Sergeant at Arms by Denise Bosman
Fines for golfers, new member tennis players, non-nappers, Christine Palmerton and Barry Kramer.
Program
Rob McElroy (Principal) and Veronica Binkley (IB program coordinator) of Wade King Elementary talked about the International Baccalaureate program there.
Wade King Elementary (K-5), one of 14 public schools in City, is a new elementary school just built on Yew Street, that incorporates sustainable design and the latest technology. Our club members Terry Brown and David King were on the architectural team. The school has an adjacent seven acres of undeveloped land with which they are working with Huxley College (WWU) to eventually create an "environment learning center". Wade King can accommodate up to 700 students, and has a program for learning disabled kids.
Early on in the design phase, they decided to adopt the "International Baccalaureate Program" (primary years program) as a vision for the new school. This was based on a great deal of input from the families whose kids would be attending the new school. The IB Program strives to have the kids learn about and understand their own culture as well as other cultures of the world.
What is International Baccalaureate?
a) inquiry-based learning;
b) international oriented, second world language is offered: Chinese, as an avenue into a non-western culture;
From Wikipedia: The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IB PYP) is an educational program managed by the International Baccalaureate for students aged 3 to 12. The subject areas of the PYP are language, social studies, mathematics, science and technology, arts, and personal, social and physical education. Students are required to learn a second language during the program. Assessment is carried out by teachers according to strategies provided by the IB, and with respect to guidelines to what the students should learn specified in the curriculum model. The philosophy of the PYP is to make the students into "inquirers, thinkers, communicators, risk takers, knowledgeable, principled, caring, open-minded, well-balanced, and reflective."
What is the process to become an accredited IB PYP School? First, a rigorous application process. Initially the school is considered an "applicant school". The actual accreditation usually takes two or three years after the start of the program.
Respectfully submitted,
Stowe Talbot