08-09 School Year at IA East

The 08-09 school year was a whirlwind of activity for the IA East library. First, several summer months were spent creating a library appropriate for the 9^th grade International Academy curriculum. Books were ready for circulation a couple of weeks into the school year. A non-fiction collection was established to support classroom teachers. A fiction collection was established to reflect the IB Learner Profile, the IB Prescribed World Literature List, along with popular Young Adult fiction for our students to enjoy.

Tri-Campus Unity was goal for the three IA campuses. One of the first experiences our IA East 9^th graders had was to collaborate on a Google Doc with 9^th graders from each campus. It was a quick activity to reflect on their Freshmen Orientation and share with each other their IA expectations and perceived challenges. This was a great way to integrate technology into a reflective activity and it was finished before the official 1^st day of school!

During the first few months of school, our 9^th graders were taught (by their Media Specialist) how to evaluate websites, fundamentals of MLA documentation, how to avoid plagiarism, how to use academic research databases through our International Academy Virtual Library portal, how to create/use note cards and graphic organizers for research. We also had a lesson about the ethical issues surrounding academic malpractice and I tied in the IB Learner Profile to this lesson. In addition to this, students were expected to use Moodle for all of their classes. Students were assigned homework that entailed using the Moodle forums, wikis, surveys, on-line quizzes and keeping track of their homework assignments. As the year progressed, so did the level of technology integration. Students worked with their Media Specialist to create interactive wikis; embedding html code, images, .pdf documents, while using our research databases and ebooks. Students created digital stories about themselves for their World Literature class using either Windows Movie Maker or PhotoStory. Our Spanish Culture classes researched ancient civilizations in the databases and then created newsletters in Microsoft Publisher. Their creativity was inspiring.

To promote reading and the IB Learner Profile, every student at IA East participated in The Arrival activity. The Arrival, by Shaun Tan allowed students to reflect on the immigrant experience through the different lenses of the IB Hexagon and apply various aspects of the Learner Profile to the protagonist. The final highlight of our year was the opportunity to meet the author Todd Strasser and get a glimpse into the world of publishing. It was a challenging but rewarding year at the International Academy East Media Center.