Announcements
IBSC 19th Annual Conference
Monday 9 July to Thursday 12 July, 2012
Hosted by: Scotch College, Melbourne, Australia
Theme: Unearthing Creativity
Please visit the Annual Conference website for information and registration details. Conference information will be updated frequently as details become available, so check back often!
Locating Significance in the Lives of Boys is now available to IBSC member schools.
The report is posted in “Members Only” on the IBSC website, for which current IBSC members will need the school’s username and password. If these have been misplaced, contact office@theibsc.org for assistance. IBSC members are permitted to reproduce and distribute the report in any form to teachers, parents and boys in their school communities.
During the course of this two-year research project involving 20 schools around the world, Dr. Cox conducted interviews with groups of boys, met with teachers, and made presentations to parents. He listened carefully to boys’ voices, and followed the thread of their thoughts. What emerged was a cluster of “dimensions of significance” where boys find value and meaning – Becoming Myself, Belonging and Influence, Pragmatic Transcendence, “Real-Time” Achievement, and Origins and Traditions.
For boys’ schools, there is much in the report that will both affirm and challenge. These “dimensions of significance” will also give us, we hope, a new lens to sharpen the focus of our work with boys. The report includes a concluding chapter with recommendations – directive without being prescriptive – that should inspire rich discussion.
We are now soliciting applications to present workshops at the 2012 Annual Conference. For full-details, and for the workshop application, please visit the visit the conference workshop webpage.
There are again two “rounds” for workshop selection.
* The December 1st “early notification” deadline has passed.
* For “regular notification”, proposals must be submitted by February 1st, 2012 with decisions announced by February 6th.
Action Research Application
Deadline is December 1st, 2011
Expressions of interest to participate are sought from teachers across all grade levels and school divisions; elementary, middle and upper/senior. Strong candidates for this action research project will be enterprising and creative teachers who may already be doing great things, as well as those who may be launching into the topic for the first time. The topic is not confined to what we normally think of as the arts or design and technology, and is meant to be open to all subjects and disciplines.
The theme for the 2012 IBSC Annual Conference in Melbourne, Australia is Unearthing Creativity. So inspired, and as a means to nurture an ongoing discussion about creativity in our schools, the topic for the 2012-2013 cycle of the IBSC Action Research Program will be: Fostering creativity in boys through their use of digital technologies.
A summary of past Action Research reports, information about the purpose and nature of action research, and full details about applying for the 2012–13 project are posted on the Action Research home page.
Hosted by the City of London School
London, United Kingdom
Educators from boys’ schools from around the world gathered in London for the 18th Annual IBSC conference from July 10-13, 2011. For overseas and UK delegates alike, this was an opportunity to share best practices and to forge connections and collaborations with educators in the global network of the IBSC.
A photo gallery, the full conference programme, and archive of presentations and workshops are now available on the Conference Archive, and more conference reports are being readied for posting there.
March 9-10, 2012
Hosted by: Maritzburg College, Pietermaritzburg
Theme: Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys
Keynote Speakers include Drs. Michael Reichert and Richard Hawley
For complete details, please visit the conference webpage.
IBSC-UK Regional Conference
March 14, 2012
Hosted by: The Windsor Boys' School, United Kingdom
Theme: Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys
Keynote Speakers include Drs. Michael Reichert and Richard Hawley
Our guest speakers for the morning are Dr. Michael Reichert and Dr. Richard Hawley, co-authors of Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys (2010), the report commissioned by the IBSC and based on research conducted in twenty-five boys’ schools world-wide, including the UK. The speakers will also explore the newest findings of the IBSC’s follow-up project on Eliciting the Relational Dimension in Teaching Boys which focuses on strategies and approaches to reach, engage and motivate boys. That boys, more so than girls, are in this sense “relational learners” is emerging as a very significant topic, with great practical importance for the way we think about teaching boys. After lunch, the day will continue with a series of workshops, and will end with a plenary session to explore ideas and priorities for building our collective expertise as leaders in boys’ education in the UK. Details of the afternoon workshop programme will be communicated in early January.
Educating Boys
In Collaboration with the New York State Association of Independent Schools
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Hosted by: Allen-Stevenson School, New York City
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Adam Cox, on Locating Significance in the Lives of Boys
Details about registration and workshops will be available in January, 2012. For more information, go to the Educating Boys conference webpage.
Redefining Masculinity: Helping Boys to be Better Men
April 26-27, 2012
Hosted by: Landon School, Bethesda, Maryland
Keynote Speakers: Joe Ehrmann and Michael Kimmel
Click here for Conference Details.
IBSC UK Regional Conference
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Theme: Boys and Foreign Language Learning
Location: Dulwich College
Details will be available in January 2012
IBSC Teachers New to Boys’ Schools Conference
June 20-22, 2012
Location: The Roxbury Latin School
Special Presenter: Dr. Michael Thompson
Details on the program and registration will be available in early January.
A Conference for Teachers and Students.
Mobile technologies are rapidly transforming the way we live and learn. Students can now learn anything, anywhere at any time. Is your school or institution ready to embrace the change? The Second National ‘Boys and Technology’ conference explored with students, educators and industry how mobile technologies will shape learning in the future.
• Conference Program & Brochure [download pdf]
Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies that Work –and Why
Michael Reichert and Richard Hawley
Jossey-Bass
The International Boys’ Schools Coalition is delighted to announce the publication of Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys, based on the IBSC research project, Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices.
Challenging the widely held cultural impression that boys are stubbornly resistant to schooling, Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys features more than 100 detailed examples of classroom activities—along with real-world teaching techniques—that have proven effective with male students.
Based on a wide-ranging, worldwide study of more than 1,500 boys and 1,000 teachers, Reichert and Hawley reveal what boys need in order to want to succeed in school and offer tips for forging successful relationships with boys. Woven throughout the book is moving testimony from both boys and teachers that validates the effectiveness of these lessons.
Action Research in Boys' Schools, 2009–10
Ready, Willing, and Able: Boys and Writing
Members of the fifth cycle of the IBSC Action Research programme addressed the question: How can we help boys become prolific, powerful and confident writers? A team of 22 teachers from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada, South Africa, the UK and the US worked on a variety of exciting projects during 2009-10.
A number of clear themes are evident in the two volumes of Ready, Willing, and Able: Boys and Writing. The first theme focused on the ways in which Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, discussion boards and blogs can change the way boys feel about writing tasks. A second theme highlighted the importance of audience and feedback for boy writers. The third theme relates to the use of a variety of prompts and stimuli to encourage boys to write, whilst the final area of focus examined the value of collaborative projects in engaging boys in the writing process.
These reports are a treasure-trove of ideas for motivating boy writers, and a celebration of the unique power of action research to generate reflection and change in teaching practice – to the betterment of boys’ education everywhere.
Ready, Willing, and Able: Boys and Writing, Volume I [download pdf]
Ready, Willing, and Able: Boys and Writing, Volume II [download pdf]
During 2008–9, nearly 1000 teachers and over 1500 boys told stories of memorable and powerful teaching and learning in the middle and senior school years. The project involved eighteen IBSC schools in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices is the result of this unique world-wide collaboration. Writers are Dr. Michael Reichert, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Boys' and Girls’ Lives at the University of Pennsylvania, USA and Dr. Richard Hawley, retired Headmaster of University School, Ohio, USA.
The report affirms and celebrates what teachers in boys’ schools do every day, and will generate vigorous discussion and reflection. It extends, often in imaginative ways, the range of effective pedagogy for boys, and signposts new paths for further thinking and research about boys’ achievement and motivation. No simple recipe book, the report invites the reader to listen to and engage in a vibrant conversation about teaching geared to boys.
Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices is available in the following ways:
1. IBSC Members have free access to the publication, and are granted permission to use and distribute the report in any form within their school community.
2. Non-IBSC members may purchase a single eBook with rights for one copy.
Please note that the IBSC asserts copyright, and all rights are reserved.
For those who are not members of the IBSC, the report may be used and downloaded only for personal and non-commercial use.
More details, including IBSC member access to the publication and non-member ordering information is available on the Teaching Boys web page.
Journeys into Masculinity: the 2008/9 Action Research Report
The 2008/9 Action Research Team began their work at the 15th annual conference in Toronto, and presented their findings at the 16th annual conference at Lindisfarne College, New Zealand in July.
The reports offer deep insights into the challenges that face boys on their journey into manhood and illustrate the great opportunities that boys’ schools have to assist them in coming to grips with complex and sensitive constructs such as masculinity.
The findings also highlight the vital role that boys’ schools can play in providing safe environments in which boys’ voices are recognised and respected.
Journeys into Masculinity is now available to IBSC members. Please visit the Action Research section of our website for this and other Action Research reports.
Positive Relationships, Positive Learning: 2007/8 IBSC Action Research Report
This collection of reports is the culmination of the creative and inspired work of five educators in the IBSC action research programme for 2007–8. They met at the 14th annual IBSC conference at The Roxbury Latin School, worked on their projects during the year, and presented their findings at the 15th annual IBSC conference in Toronto.
Positive Relationships, Positive Learning is grounded in two principles. Boys learn best in empathy-rich classrooms. And nurturing boys’ social-emotional competency is central to our mission as schools for boys.
The reports explore peer leadership and mentoring initiatives, programmes that promote healthy relationships, and exercises that “engage the empathy muscle for a workout”, in the words of one contributor. Whether on a small or large scale, the projects described here are intriguing and inspiring. These are also vivid stories of the step-by-step process of action research, a brand of inquiry that remains at the cutting edge of educational practice.
For front-line teachers and school leaders alike, the journeys recounted here provide compelling testimony of the power of action research to spark professional growth and school change.
We are grateful to these educators for giving us such a privileged glimpse into the vitality and vibrancy of their schools. And special thanks to Di Laycock, coordinator of the program, for her leadership.
Interested individuals have long expressed interest in how the IBSC could capitalize on its status as an international organisation by facilitating a visits and exchanges programme between member schools. Since its inception last year, several IBSC schools have begun to utilise this service, the purpose of which is to help IBSC schools interested in visits or exchanges identify and communicate with other member schools to arrange visits and exchanges.
To enter the IBSC Visits and Exchanges Programme, you will need your school’s IBSC “Members Only” username and password.
The homepage of the programme outlines the various categories of faculty and student visits and exchanges. The on-line submission page is designed to capture a school’s intentions as a “sending” and as a “hosting” school, along with relevant information about the school itself. Once submitted, core information for each school is posted on a “notice board”, and the reader can then follow links to the full information for schools that may be of interest. Contact information for those directly responsible for faculty and student visits and exchanges programmes in other schools is provided there.
Our hope is that IBSC schools will take up this opportunity, and that it will lead to some wonderful collaboration, enriching the professional lives of our teachers and the experiences of boys in our global network of boys’ schools.
The International Boys’ Schools Coalition is eager to help all member schools who might have positions to be filled.
The Role of Sport In Boys' Schools
The IBSC one day conference and conference dinner will examine the role of sport in boys' schools past, present and future. Recent directions of a more professional approach to schoolboy sport and the employment of specialist coaches will also be explored by keynote speakers and in workshops.
