IB Community Theme: Sharing our humanity

How to contribute

All members of the IB community are invited to contribute to this site.

Please register first and then comment on posts others have made using the Comment button found underneath all contributions.

Alternatively, you can add your own post to the principal site areas by clicking on the Post to this site link (found on the right-hand navigation menu) or the Post new forum topic or blog entry buttons, found on the site discussion forums and community theme blog respectively.

When posting, please bear in mind the diverse nature of the IB community and avoid adding content that is disruptive, offensive or threatening; including negative comments about race, gender, disabilities, sexual orientation, age, religious beliefs and practices, political beliefs or national origin.

If you see anything on the site that you consider meets any of the above criteria, please use the report inappropriate content button found underneath all posts.

At all times, we encourage you to actively promote and demonstrate the attributes of the IB learner profile and respond positively to what others have written and posted.

The IB community theme in the Diploma Programme

The opportunity to explore the global issues of the IB community theme already exists within the Diploma Programme. Many of the aims and objectives of Diploma Programme courses require critical thinking and the development of multiple perspectives, which provide a natural framework for consideration of these issues. In many curriculum areas, questions and topics can be developed both to cover course requirements and to develop insights into the IB community theme. Some ideas about how to integrate the IB community theme into the Diploma Programme are noted below.

The IB community theme in the Middle Years Programme

Sharing our humanity provides IB World Schools with great scope for addressing subjects using the areas of interaction as contexts for learning. (The community theme is not an additional area of interaction). The theme lends itself perfectly to in-depth exploration and inquiry and can be approached in any subject whilst bringing meaning and relevance to learning. It is a great chance for development of attitudes and values that relate to the theme and are reinforced through the IB learner profile.

The IB community theme in the Primary Years Programme

The transdisciplinary nature of the Primary Years Programme (PYP), as described in the themes that frame a school’s programme of inquiry, is well suited to producing student work to illustrate the IB community theme, sharing our humanity.

About this site

This site has been created to enable students, teachers, parents, school communities, IB staff and everyone associated with the IB, to share and collaborate on the IB community theme: sharing our humanity.

Use the four areas of the site: For students, For teachers, For everyone and Action by the IB community, to help guide navigation and any contributions you might wish to make.

Note that posts can only be made under one of the four areas, described in more detail below.

For students

The area For students provides information, resources, views and opinions, and suggestions for action specifically for students.

For teachers

The area For teachers includes classroom resources, professional development materials and suggestions for action you can take individually as teachers, or with your students.

For everyone

The area For everyone is exactly that - an area for all members of the IB community. It includes information and resources relevant to everyone, and anyone can post their ideas, opinions, recommendations and suggestions for action. This area will be of interest to parents, IB staff, and others associated with the IB, who are neither students nor teachers but also have an important role to play in the community theme. Students and teachers will, though, find items posted here of general interest.

Action by the IB community

Action by the IB community describes what we are doing or have done to address and engage with the core topics of sharing our humanity. It is an area for us to post our reflections and reports on actions we are taking, or have undertaken (in the classroom, out of the classroom, at home, in our everyday lives, with others or on our own), and is open to all.

Examples: classes you have taught, activities undertaken by students, actions by individual members of the community.

Ultimately, this site is about encouraging us all to learn more about these important issues, and, where we can, to link our knowledge and understanding about a particular global issue with action to help resolve it. As we find out more about the various issues listed under the sharing our humanity theme, for example disasters and emergencies or global poverty, we will hopefully feel compelled to do something about them - something to help create a better world. Therefore, the site will not only contain facts, information and opinions about a particular issue, but also suggestions on what can be done to help minimise its impact. On this basis we invite you to contribute by:

• posting headlines and information, tagging them with facts & figures
• posting pieces with views and opinions (yours or those of others), tagging them with opinions & ideas
suggestions for action
• telling the IB community about your own actions (as individuals, or with others) and what you have been able to achieve, and posting them in action by the community.

Although the community theme focuses on particular global issues, please feel free to post reports, resources etc on other global issues.

Good luck and thank you for your participation. If you ever get stuck or need help, please email us at communitytheme@ibo.org.

About the IB Community Theme

The IB community now includes more than 2370 schools, 644,000 students, teachers, parents, staff and examiners and other colleagues in 128 countries.