As an IB World School, Wayside: REAL Learning Academy gives students the unique benefit of learning about different places around the world through the lessons they are taught daily. One way they get to share what they learn with the school community is through International Baccalaureate (IB) Night, which features different research projects on different places and cultures around the world across each grade.
When asked share a little about IB Night, Melissa Berdis, the Kindergarten teacher who led the event, talked about the importance of enjoying, supporting and learning about our global community as well as our local community. “IB night is all about celebrating and learning about other cultures and sharing that with our school community,” she said.
As a teacher, the best part about IB night for Berdis was seeing all the hard work students and staff did in preparation for this night. “There were so many amazing projects, and it was very obvious that our students did a lot of great research,” she said.
For students, Berdis continued, “the benefit of IB night is that they are given the opportunity to experience and learn about various cultures from around the world– something they may not get a chance to do if it weren’t for nights like this. All of our students now have new knowledge that will benefit them not only while they are in school, but it’s knowledge they can take with them when they move off into the world.”
Students spent about a week researching and working on their projects while the event itself took several weeks to plan.
Overall, IB Night was a great way to get not only the students involved, but the community and parents as well.
