One of the core components of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program is the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Course, which provides “an opportunity for students to reflect on the nature of knowledge, and on how we know what we claim to know.” Students investigate the many “ways of knowing,” such as reason, emotion, intuition, or sense perception (what we see in the world), and they think about how those different ways of knowing interact together to help them make decisions about what they think they know, and also the certainty about how much they know.

Confused yet? Read on to learn more...

To start this school year off on a positive note, our Grade 8 students and their advisors spent Wednesday, August 29, focused on Leadership Empowerment Training (LET), which began at WIS last year. As Eric Beck, Middle School Dean of Students, explains, the point of the program “is to promote thinking and self reflection about student behavior toward each other, and challenge students to take a positive role in helping Grade 8 be the best it can be, as leaders at the Middle School this year.”

Last year, Middle School Dean of Students Eric Beck introduced a new initiative in the Middle School: Voices of a Generation. The idea is to have students get up in front of their peers at assemblies and speak about topics that are important to them, whether it's current events taking place in our world, or something more specific to their WIS experience.

The most recent speaker was Elektra G., a Grade 6 student, who spoke about gun violence in the United States. Click here to read her essay.

One of the newest clubs offered to Upper School students this year was the Global Health Club. Read on to learn about the work they did this year leading up to a week-long service trip to Peru during Spring Break, where the students spent time volunteering in a local community.

From January 22-26, students and teachers in the Middle School celebrated Kindness Week, as part of The Great Kindness Challenge. 

The following essay was written by one of our Grade 5 students, Derin. After his first experience of playing fantasy football, he has some great insights that can be applied to almost any situation.