October 16, 2015
Hello parents,
It is time for another update from the Diploma Programme office:
Note In The Pocket
On Monday the Diploma Programme will commence its second annual Note In The Pocket clothing drive. We are seeking donations from across the Millbrook community. Specifically we are soliciting nearly new or very gently worn fall and winter clothing. The clothing from Note In The Pocket goes directly to students in schools across Wake County and their families. It is a wonderful organization. So if you have not had the opportunity to clean out your closets...
Dominican Republic
I want to remind all parents, as I have students, that we are organizing a summer trip to the Dominican Republic this summer. The dates of the trip are June 16-23, 2016. The trip is run by EF Tours, and it is focused on service. The trip promised to be a life and perspective altering experience! For more information you can contact our lead organizer, Teresa Cronin at 919.501.7993, or you can go to the EF Tours website and reference trip #175584MU. There have been and will continue to be fundraising opportunities throughout the school year. The sooner students jump on board, the sooner they can take advantage of these fundraising opportunities!
Wake Forest Open House
Don’t forget that Wake Forest University is hosting an open house directed specifically for Diploma Programme candidates. The date of the open house is October 23rd and you can register at http://admissions.wfu.edu/visit/. I would love to know if you and your child are planning on attending.
Wittenburg University
Wittenburg University in Springfield, OH, is coming to visit on 10/29 at 9:00am. The admissions rep specifically said they are interested in IB students, as they have a new program at their school, where students with an IB Diploma can receive their degree in 3 yrs. I took a look at the benefits they offer and it is pretty amazing! A clear demonstration of the value of the Diploma Programme! Click HERE to see their Diploma Programme page. I know for most of your students, the determinations regarding their applications have been made. That said, there is time to consider more unique options.
Exam registration
I am currently working on IB exam registration. I have collected personal information and testing options from all seniors and will be entering the data into the IB database over the next week. By Oct. 27th or so I will be sending confirmation forms home with the students for all to examine and make sure all information is correct. I will let you know when they are distributed to students.
I hope you have a pleasant weekend and your kids have a wonderful senior homecoming experience!
Cheers,
Loren
It is time for another update from the Diploma Programme office:
Note In The Pocket
On Monday the Diploma Programme will commence its second annual Note In The Pocket clothing drive. We are seeking donations from across the Millbrook community. Specifically we are soliciting nearly new or very gently worn fall and winter clothing. The clothing from Note In The Pocket goes directly to students in schools across Wake County and their families. It is a wonderful organization. So if you have not had the opportunity to clean out your closets...
Dominican Republic
I want to remind all parents, as I have students, that we are organizing a summer trip to the Dominican Republic this summer. The dates of the trip are June 16-23, 2016. The trip is run by EF Tours, and it is focused on service. The trip promised to be a life and perspective altering experience! For more information you can contact our lead organizer, Teresa Cronin at 919.501.7993, or you can go to the EF Tours website and reference trip #175584MU. There have been and will continue to be fundraising opportunities throughout the school year. The sooner students jump on board, the sooner they can take advantage of these fundraising opportunities!
Wake Forest Open House
Don’t forget that Wake Forest University is hosting an open house directed specifically for Diploma Programme candidates. The date of the open house is October 23rd and you can register at http://admissions.wfu.edu/visit/. I would love to know if you and your child are planning on attending.
Wittenburg University
Wittenburg University in Springfield, OH, is coming to visit on 10/29 at 9:00am. The admissions rep specifically said they are interested in IB students, as they have a new program at their school, where students with an IB Diploma can receive their degree in 3 yrs. I took a look at the benefits they offer and it is pretty amazing! A clear demonstration of the value of the Diploma Programme! Click HERE to see their Diploma Programme page. I know for most of your students, the determinations regarding their applications have been made. That said, there is time to consider more unique options.
Exam registration
I am currently working on IB exam registration. I have collected personal information and testing options from all seniors and will be entering the data into the IB database over the next week. By Oct. 27th or so I will be sending confirmation forms home with the students for all to examine and make sure all information is correct. I will let you know when they are distributed to students.
I hope you have a pleasant weekend and your kids have a wonderful senior homecoming experience!
Cheers,
Loren
September 24, 2015
Hello parents,
A quick update from the IB office...
IB exam registration is fast approaching. I will be visiting senior TOK classes in two weeks to register students for their May assessments. The DP requirement is that students take either no fewer than three and no more than four Higher Level exams. All students will take HL exams in English and History. The remaining HL opportunities will come from the sciences, the arts, and math. I will be visiting ToK classes next week to discuss with the seniors what their options are and how they might approach making their choices.
One important decision the students will have to make is how they want to be represented on their IB diplomas and certificates. Do they want first name only? Middle name or initial? etc. I always advise, "What would your parents want to see?" Several students already made this decision last year when they registered for exams. That information will carry over by default from last year. Once students submit this information, they will incur a fee in order to change it. Unlike exam fees, these change fees will not be covered by the state or county. For those students that did not take any IB exams last year, please confer with them on the name they will register with so that all parties will be satisfied:) Please note that if they registered for exams last year, the name they registered with last year will automatically be used.
Duke University will be sending a representative to Millbrook on Oct. 6th at 9:30 to speak with prospective students. I encourage any student interested to sign up with student services starting Monday. Of course a number of colleges and universities are sending representatives to Millbrook, and those visits can be identified on the student services website. The reason I am highlighting this one is a) because I do not think they have made a habit of visiting in the past, so I would love see strong attendance and repeat visits, and b) because the rep coming to visit is a former student of mine and she let me know she was coming to MHS:) Please do not mistake this for a bias towards one triangle/NC school over another! I love all of them equally, except for the one that happens to be playing Clemson at the time:)
If your student has emailed me and complained that I am not getting back to them, please ask which email account they are using. I continue to get emails from students on private accounts. I am not allowed to respond to any student email that does not come from their WCPSS student email. If they say they cannot access it, please ask them to see the good folks in the media center. These accounts do work!
Please ask your students how their CAS activity is progressing! I do not want this to get lost in the time of college apps and other demands, only to find them way way behind in the spring with little time to catch up! You can follow my own progress on my CAS Challenge on my CAS Challenge Blog. It has been a very rewarding experience thus far and I am only just getting started! That said, I am about 20 hours into my 75 hour goal for this school year. I hope the students are enjoying their CAS opportunities as much as I am enjoying mine!
Happy Friday Eve!
Cheers,
Loren
A quick update from the IB office...
IB exam registration is fast approaching. I will be visiting senior TOK classes in two weeks to register students for their May assessments. The DP requirement is that students take either no fewer than three and no more than four Higher Level exams. All students will take HL exams in English and History. The remaining HL opportunities will come from the sciences, the arts, and math. I will be visiting ToK classes next week to discuss with the seniors what their options are and how they might approach making their choices.
One important decision the students will have to make is how they want to be represented on their IB diplomas and certificates. Do they want first name only? Middle name or initial? etc. I always advise, "What would your parents want to see?" Several students already made this decision last year when they registered for exams. That information will carry over by default from last year. Once students submit this information, they will incur a fee in order to change it. Unlike exam fees, these change fees will not be covered by the state or county. For those students that did not take any IB exams last year, please confer with them on the name they will register with so that all parties will be satisfied:) Please note that if they registered for exams last year, the name they registered with last year will automatically be used.
Duke University will be sending a representative to Millbrook on Oct. 6th at 9:30 to speak with prospective students. I encourage any student interested to sign up with student services starting Monday. Of course a number of colleges and universities are sending representatives to Millbrook, and those visits can be identified on the student services website. The reason I am highlighting this one is a) because I do not think they have made a habit of visiting in the past, so I would love see strong attendance and repeat visits, and b) because the rep coming to visit is a former student of mine and she let me know she was coming to MHS:) Please do not mistake this for a bias towards one triangle/NC school over another! I love all of them equally, except for the one that happens to be playing Clemson at the time:)
If your student has emailed me and complained that I am not getting back to them, please ask which email account they are using. I continue to get emails from students on private accounts. I am not allowed to respond to any student email that does not come from their WCPSS student email. If they say they cannot access it, please ask them to see the good folks in the media center. These accounts do work!
Please ask your students how their CAS activity is progressing! I do not want this to get lost in the time of college apps and other demands, only to find them way way behind in the spring with little time to catch up! You can follow my own progress on my CAS Challenge on my CAS Challenge Blog. It has been a very rewarding experience thus far and I am only just getting started! That said, I am about 20 hours into my 75 hour goal for this school year. I hope the students are enjoying their CAS opportunities as much as I am enjoying mine!
Happy Friday Eve!
Cheers,
Loren
September 9, 2015
Hello parents,
It was good to see so many of you yesterday. I am looking forward to a great year with the MHS DP Class of 2016!
For those of you who were not able to make the meeting, I have attached the PDF of the powerpoint, including some notes regarding each slide. If you have questions regarding the content, please let me know. One very important point!!! The date of the IB DP graduation ceremony is the same day as the MHS graduation rehearsal. The DP graduation date was determined in June, but rehearsal date was only recently announced. With that in mind, we are discussing possibly changing the date of the DP graduation date. We will know in the next week or so and I will let you know as soon as a decision has been made.
Another element of the meeting that was not on the slide was a brief presentation by Ms. Cronin, our lead secretary and the sponsor of our World Cultures Club. We are working together to arrange a service oriented trip to the Dominican Republic next summer, shortly after the end of the school year. While the trip will be after the point at which your students can receive service hours for CAS, it promises to be a tremendous experience for all, including any of your recent graduates. Ms. Cronin will be holding an interest/information meeting next Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 6pm in room 3602. If you have questions about the trip you can ask me or, better yet, you can contact Ms. Cronin at tcronin@wcpss.net. She has lots of information about the trip!
Cheers,
Loren
It was good to see so many of you yesterday. I am looking forward to a great year with the MHS DP Class of 2016!
For those of you who were not able to make the meeting, I have attached the PDF of the powerpoint, including some notes regarding each slide. If you have questions regarding the content, please let me know. One very important point!!! The date of the IB DP graduation ceremony is the same day as the MHS graduation rehearsal. The DP graduation date was determined in June, but rehearsal date was only recently announced. With that in mind, we are discussing possibly changing the date of the DP graduation date. We will know in the next week or so and I will let you know as soon as a decision has been made.
Another element of the meeting that was not on the slide was a brief presentation by Ms. Cronin, our lead secretary and the sponsor of our World Cultures Club. We are working together to arrange a service oriented trip to the Dominican Republic next summer, shortly after the end of the school year. While the trip will be after the point at which your students can receive service hours for CAS, it promises to be a tremendous experience for all, including any of your recent graduates. Ms. Cronin will be holding an interest/information meeting next Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 6pm in room 3602. If you have questions about the trip you can ask me or, better yet, you can contact Ms. Cronin at tcronin@wcpss.net. She has lots of information about the trip!
Cheers,
Loren
September 2, 2015
Good morning parents,
Over the past two days I visited the senior TOK classes to officially welcome all of our DP seniors back and talk with them about the year ahead. I wanted to offer a brief update regarding what I talked with them about. Please note that much of what I said I will also be discussing with you at our DP Senior Parent Meeting next Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 6:30pm in the auditorium.
I spoke with the seniors about the demands of the senior year and how the students must be on top of their work to keep everything in line. I reassured them that they follow a long line of students, both at Millbrook and worldwide, that have successfully completed the programme, but that the tenor of the year and the level of their own success will be a product of their choices and their efforts.
I spoke with the students about the extended essay and what lies ahead. The first thing the students need to do is contact their advisors about setting up a "checking in" appointment. This discussion will get them oriented towards what they need to do moving forward. This meeting is supposed to happen by Sept. 11. All students were to have submitted a first draft at the end of junior year and met with their advisors. So now they are working on their second draft. The next deadline for seniors is submission of their second draft by Dec. 20th. I made clear the importance of working diligently and submitting a quality extended essay.
I spoke with students about CAS and some of the changes regarding CAS that come with the DP class of 2017, some of those changes we applied to the seniors. All changes will make the process easier for the seniors and hopefully offer an opportunity to engage more authentically in activities that matter to them. One immediate change is that parents can now sign off on their student's CAS activity. One thing I made clear to them is that while any adult supervisor can sign off on the activity, another student cannot, even if they are 18 years old. Other changes I will discuss at our parent meeting. I also mentioned that I have initiated and started the CAS challenge, my own intent to complete a year's worth of CAS activity, including reflecting on my activity. The intent is to share their experience and to offer what I hope will be a model for students as they start/continue their CAS activity. You can see my ongoing CAS Portfolio Blog at our website (bottom of front page), or CLICK HERE for the blog directly. It is a work in progress.
I spoke with the students about two very important dates. The first is the Extended Essay Extravaganza, January 22nd, parents invited. The event will be during the school day. The second date is the IB Diploma Programme graduation ceremony, June 2nd, 2016 at 6:30pm. The intent of the ceremony is to celebrate the students' successfully navigating this demanding two year programme. In order to participate they must a) satisfy all requirements of the DP, including the submission of all IB assessments, including IAs, sit for all IB exams, submit their EEs and complete CAS, b) do all of this with integrity, i.e. no acts of malpractice, and c) receiving a passing grade in all of their required IB classes.
I am looking forward to a wonderful year with our DP senior class and I look forward to seeing you next week at our meeting!
Cheers,
Loren
Over the past two days I visited the senior TOK classes to officially welcome all of our DP seniors back and talk with them about the year ahead. I wanted to offer a brief update regarding what I talked with them about. Please note that much of what I said I will also be discussing with you at our DP Senior Parent Meeting next Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 6:30pm in the auditorium.
I spoke with the seniors about the demands of the senior year and how the students must be on top of their work to keep everything in line. I reassured them that they follow a long line of students, both at Millbrook and worldwide, that have successfully completed the programme, but that the tenor of the year and the level of their own success will be a product of their choices and their efforts.
I spoke with the students about the extended essay and what lies ahead. The first thing the students need to do is contact their advisors about setting up a "checking in" appointment. This discussion will get them oriented towards what they need to do moving forward. This meeting is supposed to happen by Sept. 11. All students were to have submitted a first draft at the end of junior year and met with their advisors. So now they are working on their second draft. The next deadline for seniors is submission of their second draft by Dec. 20th. I made clear the importance of working diligently and submitting a quality extended essay.
I spoke with students about CAS and some of the changes regarding CAS that come with the DP class of 2017, some of those changes we applied to the seniors. All changes will make the process easier for the seniors and hopefully offer an opportunity to engage more authentically in activities that matter to them. One immediate change is that parents can now sign off on their student's CAS activity. One thing I made clear to them is that while any adult supervisor can sign off on the activity, another student cannot, even if they are 18 years old. Other changes I will discuss at our parent meeting. I also mentioned that I have initiated and started the CAS challenge, my own intent to complete a year's worth of CAS activity, including reflecting on my activity. The intent is to share their experience and to offer what I hope will be a model for students as they start/continue their CAS activity. You can see my ongoing CAS Portfolio Blog at our website (bottom of front page), or CLICK HERE for the blog directly. It is a work in progress.
I spoke with the students about two very important dates. The first is the Extended Essay Extravaganza, January 22nd, parents invited. The event will be during the school day. The second date is the IB Diploma Programme graduation ceremony, June 2nd, 2016 at 6:30pm. The intent of the ceremony is to celebrate the students' successfully navigating this demanding two year programme. In order to participate they must a) satisfy all requirements of the DP, including the submission of all IB assessments, including IAs, sit for all IB exams, submit their EEs and complete CAS, b) do all of this with integrity, i.e. no acts of malpractice, and c) receiving a passing grade in all of their required IB classes.
I am looking forward to a wonderful year with our DP senior class and I look forward to seeing you next week at our meeting!
Cheers,
Loren
August 21, 2015
Hello IB Diploma Class of 2016 students and parents!
I hope you have had a wonderful summer and are ready to go! It has been a very busy few weeks here at Millbrook and I am looking forward to seeing all of you back here and ready for your senior year! It is going to be a rewarding year for you!
First off, congratulations to the DP Class of 2017 for your success on last year’s IB exams. As a group you took 65 IB exams and scored a 4 or above on 89.2% of them! Your success was shared with the IB Class of 2016. We had a MHS high 82% diploma award rate, beating the US and world averages! We also had tremendous success on our extended essays! We look forward to the DP class of 2017 carrying on the tradition of excellence!
We are still working hard to get everything ready for the first day of school, but there are a few dates I want to make you aware of now. There is an DP 2016 senior parent meeting on September 8th. We will be going over all sorts of matters that your students will be addressing throughout the year. Students are welcome to attend, but the meeting is specifically for parents. The other critical date to save is June 2nd, the IB Diploma Graduation Ceremony!!!!! Other important dates, including our annual Extended Essay Extravaganza and the IB exams are listed on our website (mhsdp.weebly.com). More dates will be posted as they are settled over the next week.
At this point schedules are essentially set for our seniors. Thank you to all of you that have received phone calls from me and for your patience and flexibility as we resolve scheduling issues. I will be around during Wednesday’s walk through. If you have any questions, or if you do not, feel free to stop by and say hello. Please be reminded that all summer assignments are due the first day of class for each assignment.
Finally, I have updated my email list to reflect the changes to our DP Class of 2016. If you are receiving this message in error or if a parent or student that is NOT receiving this email and should be, please let me know. I want to be sure communication throughout the year is effective and efficient.
Enjoy this last weekend of summer! I look forward to seeing you next week!
Cheers,
Mr. Baron
I hope you have had a wonderful summer and are ready to go! It has been a very busy few weeks here at Millbrook and I am looking forward to seeing all of you back here and ready for your senior year! It is going to be a rewarding year for you!
First off, congratulations to the DP Class of 2017 for your success on last year’s IB exams. As a group you took 65 IB exams and scored a 4 or above on 89.2% of them! Your success was shared with the IB Class of 2016. We had a MHS high 82% diploma award rate, beating the US and world averages! We also had tremendous success on our extended essays! We look forward to the DP class of 2017 carrying on the tradition of excellence!
We are still working hard to get everything ready for the first day of school, but there are a few dates I want to make you aware of now. There is an DP 2016 senior parent meeting on September 8th. We will be going over all sorts of matters that your students will be addressing throughout the year. Students are welcome to attend, but the meeting is specifically for parents. The other critical date to save is June 2nd, the IB Diploma Graduation Ceremony!!!!! Other important dates, including our annual Extended Essay Extravaganza and the IB exams are listed on our website (mhsdp.weebly.com). More dates will be posted as they are settled over the next week.
At this point schedules are essentially set for our seniors. Thank you to all of you that have received phone calls from me and for your patience and flexibility as we resolve scheduling issues. I will be around during Wednesday’s walk through. If you have any questions, or if you do not, feel free to stop by and say hello. Please be reminded that all summer assignments are due the first day of class for each assignment.
Finally, I have updated my email list to reflect the changes to our DP Class of 2016. If you are receiving this message in error or if a parent or student that is NOT receiving this email and should be, please let me know. I want to be sure communication throughout the year is effective and efficient.
Enjoy this last weekend of summer! I look forward to seeing you next week!
Cheers,
Mr. Baron
