Barbara Block

Background

About Barbara Block

I am an art educator, having taught art from K-12 in multiple combinations over the years (and enjoyed them all in different ways). I am most familiar with MYP Visual Arts, but have taught IB DP Visual Arts for many years, and substituted recently for several months with this level, so have some awareness of the current program requirements. I've supervised a number of Extended Essays in Visual Arts. I started as an administrator with MYP (Personal Project and teacher training/supervision for level 4 and 5 MYP teachers, as our campus is split it two). I moved from Associate MYP Coordinator to High School Coordinator, which at my school means being in charge of the routines (teacher and student) for Grades 9-12. I have kept teaching MYP VA year 5 while doing this administrative role. Helping students with course choices and issues is a major part of the job, evaluating teachers and teacher training also major components. I have directed KIS's extensive Hiking Program since the mid 90's, and led a field trip for the school each year, often with an arts/culture focus (Grade 11 Art students to Ajanta, for example) but sometimes other, such as a week long canoe trip in the backwaters of Kerala or a Grade 7 trip to an orphanage to do community work. I am most interested in teaching/working in SE asia (India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia etc). I prefer locations with access to hiking/mountains/forest/beach as I do not enjoy big cities very much as a place to live in.