How does MYP IB work at these two schools specifically?

[Anonymous]

Neelsville and Westland. Are all students in the program? Or are different levels offered?

TIA

[Anonymous]

MYP isn’t course levels, it’s a whole school philosophy. Interdisciplinary projects vs single subject tests, rubrics, character traits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MYP isn’t course levels, it’s a whole school philosophy. Interdisciplinary projects vs single subject tests, rubrics, character traits.

Thanks. That’s interesting. I came from an explicitly whole school MYP, but these two schools say it is open to students without qualifying that it is all students. I thought it might be offered to students who want something more rigorous than the on-level curriculum. I am looking to return to IB, but don’t want to do whole school again.

[Anonymous]

My child has been at Westland for 7th and now 8th, and I still have no idea what the Middle Years Programme fully entails. She does not appear to have a different middle school experience than my other child did at North Bethesda MS, a few years ago. Last year in 7th, they did projects for National History Day. Every summer, they have to read an absolute drivel of a book (LGBTQ+ acceptance two summers ago and restorative justice last summer), and there is at least one day in the school year when they discuss the book. They don't go into interesting detail, they stay super vague (be kind! embrace your perp!) and something that could have been great in other hands turns into boredom.

Don't get me wrong. Westland is a perfectly fine school. She's had some good teachers, the Principal is kind and competent.

But I think the application of the IB concept is... very lacking.

It doesn't matter anyway. What counts is the actual IB program in 11th and 12th grade in high school (for us, BCC).

[Anonymous]

^ all kids are in the programme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child has been at Westland for 7th and now 8th, and I still have no idea what the Middle Years Programme fully entails. She does not appear to have a different middle school experience than my other child did at North Bethesda MS, a few years ago. Last year in 7th, they did projects for National History Day. Every summer, they have to read an absolute drivel of a book (LGBTQ+ acceptance two summers ago and restorative justice last summer), and there is at least one day in the school year when they discuss the book. They don't go into interesting detail, they stay super vague (be kind! embrace your perp!) and something that could have been great in other hands turns into boredom.

Don't get me wrong. Westland is a perfectly fine school. She's had some good teachers, the Principal is kind and competent.

But I think the application of the IB concept is... very lacking.

It doesn't matter anyway. What counts is the actual IB program in 11th and 12th grade in high school (for us, BCC).

Thank you. I want to work with students on building the foundation to be successful in the DP. It sounds like that is not going to be a priority at Westland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child has been at Westland for 7th and now 8th, and I still have no idea what the Middle Years Programme fully entails. She does not appear to have a different middle school experience than my other child did at North Bethesda MS, a few years ago. Last year in 7th, they did projects for National History Day. Every summer, they have to read an absolute drivel of a book (LGBTQ+ acceptance two summers ago and restorative justice last summer), and there is at least one day in the school year when they discuss the book. They don't go into interesting detail, they stay super vague (be kind! embrace your perp!) and something that could have been great in other hands turns into boredom.

Don't get me wrong. Westland is a perfectly fine school. She's had some good teachers, the Principal is kind and competent.

But I think the application of the IB concept is... very lacking.

It doesn't matter anyway. What counts is the actual IB program in 11th and 12th grade in high school (for us, BCC).

Thank you. I want to work with students on building the foundation to be successful in the DP. It sounds like that is not going to be a priority at Westland.

MYP is by definition whole-school.

The MYP is open to any student aged 11 to 16, at schools that have been authorized to implement the programme.

The MYP is inclusive by design; students of all interests and academic abilities can benefit from their participation. Implementation of the MYP is a whole-school endeavour, although the programme can accommodate academically-selective models.

https://www.ibo.org/programmes/middle-years-programme/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child has been at Westland for 7th and now 8th, and I still have no idea what the Middle Years Programme fully entails. She does not appear to have a different middle school experience than my other child did at North Bethesda MS, a few years ago. Last year in 7th, they did projects for National History Day. Every summer, they have to read an absolute drivel of a book (LGBTQ+ acceptance two summers ago and restorative justice last summer), and there is at least one day in the school year when they discuss the book. They don't go into interesting detail, they stay super vague (be kind! embrace your perp!) and something that could have been great in other hands turns into boredom.

Don't get me wrong. Westland is a perfectly fine school. She's had some good teachers, the Principal is kind and competent.

But I think the application of the IB concept is... very lacking.

It doesn't matter anyway. What counts is the actual IB program in 11th and 12th grade in high school (for us, BCC).

Thank you. I want to work with students on building the foundation to be successful in the DP. It sounds like that is not going to be a priority at Westland.

There is some emphasis on the IB learner traits I guess but tbh I’m not sure what building the foundation to be successful in the DO would like for middle school (apart from general academic preparedness, managing schedule/assignments and other geneic MS stuff)

[Anonymous]

All MYP Middle Schools in MCPS are whole school. IB at the HS level is not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child has been at Westland for 7th and now 8th, and I still have no idea what the Middle Years Programme fully entails. She does not appear to have a different middle school experience than my other child did at North Bethesda MS, a few years ago. Last year in 7th, they did projects for National History Day. Every summer, they have to read an absolute drivel of a book (LGBTQ+ acceptance two summers ago and restorative justice last summer), and there is at least one day in the school year when they discuss the book. They don't go into interesting detail, they stay super vague (be kind! embrace your perp!) and something that could have been great in other hands turns into boredom.

Don't get me wrong. Westland is a perfectly fine school. She's had some good teachers, the Principal is kind and competent.

But I think the application of the IB concept is... very lacking.

It doesn't matter anyway. What counts is the actual IB program in 11th and 12th grade in high school (for us, BCC).

Thank you. I want to work with students on building the foundation to be successful in the DP. It sounds like that is not going to be a priority at Westland.

MYP is by definition whole-school.

The MYP is open to any student aged 11 to 16, at schools that have been authorized to implement the programme.

The MYP is inclusive by design; students of all interests and academic abilities can benefit from their participation. Implementation of the MYP is a whole-school endeavour, although the programme can accommodate academically-selective models.

https://www.ibo.org/programmes/middle-years-programme/

Thank you for the clarification. Looks like it’s not for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child has been at Westland for 7th and now 8th, and I still have no idea what the Middle Years Programme fully entails. She does not appear to have a different middle school experience than my other child did at North Bethesda MS, a few years ago. Last year in 7th, they did projects for National History Day. Every summer, they have to read an absolute drivel of a book (LGBTQ+ acceptance two summers ago and restorative justice last summer), and there is at least one day in the school year when they discuss the book. They don't go into interesting detail, they stay super vague (be kind! embrace your perp!) and something that could have been great in other hands turns into boredom.

Don't get me wrong. Westland is a perfectly fine school. She's had some good teachers, the Principal is kind and competent.

But I think the application of the IB concept is... very lacking.

It doesn't matter anyway. What counts is the actual IB program in 11th and 12th grade in high school (for us, BCC).

This was our experience at Neelsville as well.

[Anonymous]

So sad for the PP's child who apparently had to read "Rick" by Alex Gino, instead of The Brothers Karamazov.

https://kids.scholastic.com/content/dam/scholastic/kids/pdf/Book%20Excerpts/Rick_excerpt.pdf

(I read the excerpt. It's not my thing. And that's fine, because I'm not a middle-schooler.)

[Anonymous]

Brothers Karamazov in MS? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brothers Karamazov in MS? Really?

It was a poor attempt at criticizing my post, when I said the summer reading was terrible. I'm not asking for grim realistic literature, but something a little more elevated than Rick might be in order. My daughter hated it, and I don't know anyone at her school who liked it. In reality, I'm not sure there are a lot of people who read the summer book... and that could change, if they chose something better!

[Anonymous]

IB at middle schools means that kids take more language are a requirement. They are also supposed to have one project per quarter in each class. IB MYP also has a design component so there may be more tech/design based electives.

That’s about it. Not much different from regular MCPS middle schools. The language requirement is probably the most important as this is necessary to apply to IB high school programs.