MYP News

Operation Empathy

Honors English 7 students were engaged in problem solving during a recent visit from Operation Smile. Associate Vice President Jennifer Krzewinski spoke to the students about barriers that have to be overcome in order for Operation Smile to reach patients around the world. Plaza's students developed innovative approaches to inform potential patients about Operation Smile and its services. This lesson took place during the Operation Empathy unit. The unit asked students to explore learner profile traits, determine their impact on the community through service and analyze the novel Wonder

Seventh graders work on their Operation Empathy Hackathon

High School Academy Information and Transition to Princess Anne High School

Applications are now available online for high school academies. Eighth grade MYP Academy students who wish to continue with an IB education at Princess Anne High School do not need to complete an application or take the entrance exam. All academy students who are in good standing have the opportunity to automatically transfer to Princess Anne. Students are considered in good standing as long as they maintain a 3.0 cumulative grade point average and have satisfied all of their community service requirements. Transition packets will be sent home in December for students to complete. Please know that if a student completes the packet indicating they plan to attend Princess Anne a spot will be held for them, however, should the student not remain in good standing, the position will not be available.

Welcome back! We are so excited to have students back at school. This is going to be a great year! Wonderful things are already happening in our classrooms. As I visited classes this week I saw students engaged in academic conversations about a variety of topics including Hurricane Irma and similarities and differences among themselves and others. On Thursday all students received their Chromebooks that will certainly enhance learning in all classes. Teachers are already using them to support discussions and learning. As the year continues students will have the opportunity to engage in problem-based learning activities, service learning both in and out of the classroom, and exciting field experiences such as oyster gardening and a Chesapeake Bay Foundation weekend event.

It is our goal that this will be our best year yet as teachers are working hard to develop concept based curriculum that focuses on developing a deeper understanding of our world as they look at how we are similar to and different from other cultures and countries. They will focus on key and related concepts that will help promote inquiry among our students. We want our students fully engaged in examining important issues around the world and to be an active participant in developing solutions for those issues.

Additionally we will continue to help develop well-rounded citizens as we focus on the IB Learner Profile traits. As learners we strive to be: inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, and reflective. As parents you can support the development of these important traits when you see them utilized at home or when there might be a time in their life where using these traits are important. Remember, the aim of all IB programmes is, "to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world." The IB Learner Profile traits are one way to help make that happen.

As we begin this exciting year please remember that all faculty and staff here at Plaza are here to support our students and our parents. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions or concerns. I am looking forward to a fantastic year.

Cathy Susewind

Update on Leap for Literacy

Over the summer we received this message from the Literacy Impowerment Action Project (LEAP)

"Congratulations to Plaza Middle School from Virginia Beach, Virginia, for winning Kwame Alexander's 2017 LEAP for Literacy School Contest!!! Plaza Middle School raised a total of $2,782.07!

Plaza Middle School will receive a free, all expenses paid school visit, presentation, and book signing from Kwame Alexander, plus lunch with a select group of students. The school will also receive a Skype chat with L.E.A.P’s first secondary education scholarship recipient graduate, Ms. Lydia Amankwah."

We are so proud of Mrs. Allen's sixth grade class from last year for embracing an opportunity to help a community less fortunate than theirs. Their efforts to raise funds will support LEAP in building a library in Ghana. The groundbreaking for the library has already occurred and it is currently under construction.

As MYP students, understanding the needs around the world and engaging in service learning that supports those needs is one of the most important things we do. We will continue to support organizations such as LEAP in order to make a positive difference in our world.

�<8�٧ �� �q�ɕ

Whole School MYP Implementation

The Plaza Middle Years Program Academy was established in 2002. Students who attend Plaza MYP automatically matriculate to Princess Anne High School to continue in the IB MYP. The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program focuses on thematic instruction where learning is part of an integrated whole. Important concepts that support global thinking, civic-mindedness and service learning are fundamental to the program. Students in the MYP are bright, passionate young people who thrive on challenges and real-world problem solving. They are involved in school and in their communities where they are finding causes they are passionate about. We promote intercultural understanding and respect as an essential part of life in the 21^st century.

The International Baccalaureate has a strong belief that an IB education is appropriate for all students. They strongly recommend that all authorized schools that operate a school within a school program, like Plaza’s academy, move to a whole school program. During our last evaluation, IB addressed the fact that we were not a whole school model. Over the past two years we have developed an implementation plan that will move toward making Plaza Middle a whole school IB MYP program. While all students will begin benefitting from the student-centered instructional framework of IB, the academy will not see any changes. To put it simply, the wonderful teaching strategies that our academy students benefit from will now be implemented in classes throughout Plaza beginning with our 6^th grade students in the 2017-18. Each year we will add another grade level until we have full implementation in 2019-20. All students, academy and zoned, will continue to receive rigorous course work that is appropriate for their level. I want to assure academy students and parents that the whole school implementation will not impact the academy in any way.

Leap for Literacy

Sixth-grade students were empowered to create a change in the global issue of illiteracy through a recent project in collaboration with the Literacy Empowerment Action Project, or LEAP, for Ghana. LEAP was co-founded by author Kwame Alexander as an international literacy program in 2012 following a trip to Konko, a village in the eastern region of Ghana, West Africa. Since 2012 LEAP has established student scholarship opportunities, provided literacy training for teachers, facilitated girls’ empowerment workshops, and facilitated career development projects. LEAP is currently working on raising awareness through a project that will result in the building of a brand new library for the village of Konko. Sixth-grade students joined in this mission to build the library by raising money and awareness about the current state of literacy in Ghana.

First, classes read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and learned about William Kamkwamba, a boy about their age who built a windmill to provide energy to his village after reading about windmills in an American-funded library close to home. Students explored components of change and analyzed how access to the library resulted in sustained change for the village. Next, students participated in guided research to find out more about literacy worldwide. They came up with problem statements to solve, such as: “There are not enough resources for people to become literate, which impacts their lives, education, health, and income.”

“At first, [students] discussed illiteracy in terms of not being able to read, and how this could be a problem if someone couldn’t read a menu at a restaurant. Through the guided research, I saw their thinking expand. They realized being illiterate meant you might not understand contracts, medical information, fine print… they started making the connections that illiteracy is not only a cause, but an effect of poverty. They started to recognize that a [country’s] higher literacy rate is connected to more power in the global sense,” said Julie Allen, sixth-grade English teacher.

English classes learned persuasive media techniques and studied them in magazine and television advertisements. Groups were challenged to come up with a commercial, using one of the techniques, that spread awareness for worldwide literacy and the LEAP program. Groups also had to come up with their own fundraising methods and create miniature business plans. Presentations were given to their peers about what was learned, what was done to raise awareness, and how the efforts will actually create change. Julia Michalek said, “This project made me think about how a single library could cause change. It can stop poverty at its source, stop illiteracy, and offer an opportunity to some people who have never had it. This could eventually lead to an end to illiteracy, and a change in how people live their lives in Ghana.”

To raise money, students organized bake sales and lemonade stands, sold meals in jars, created websites, and asked family and friends for donations to build a library in Ghana. With their amazing efforts, the sixth-grade MYP team raised a total of $2,732.07.

Reflecting on the project, Dylan A. said, “The most important thing I learned was of something I never really thought about about until this project. I never really knew that so many people didn’t know how to read and write. I recognized poverty and being poor, but I never thought about how much it could affect someone being literate.”

Students will find out in the next week if they have won the 2017 LEAP for Literacy Contest by raising funds to provide increased access to education and opportunities for literacy around the world. This summer, LEAP will send pictures and videos of the library being built in Konko - the library that they helped to make happen!

Below students are holding a neighborhood bake sale and lemonade stand.

The Natural Bridge

Natural Bridge sits in the Shenandoah Valley in Blue Ridge Mountains. The Natural Bridge is a National Historic Landmark. You can walk through the historic and beautiful Cedar Creek Trail and the Monacan Indian Living History Village. The Natural Bridge Caverns, museums, a hotel & conference center, and restaurants surround the nature park.

What a wonderful opportunity for the students to attend an interdisciplinary trip field to the Natural Bridge. The students were able to transfer knowledge of Earth science and Virginia history with real-world application. They explored the creation of the caverns, mined for minerals, observed Karst topography in the landscape, witnessed the lifestyle of a Monacan village, analyzed water quality, and interpreted the importance of the watersheds in Virginia.