While WAB and many other schools already offer individual education Target 13 is about expanding their reach so that more students can benefit from these individualized approaches.

One tool we are using toward this end is 100 Mentors, an online resource for teachers and students to connect with experts in certain subject areas from around the world. In fact, one student in WAB's Class of 2018 used 100 Mentors to connect with ethnomusicologists on her Musical Links Investigation. This direct access to an expert primary source contributed significantly to her component mark of 7 in Higher Level Diploma Music.

Another thing that will contribute to achieving Target 13 is the development of an individual learner profile for each student. Prior to even being admitted at WAB, we will begin to understand the strengths and challenges of each individual student from a holistic perspective – emotional, social, academic, physical, and beyond. We will use this information to place learners in the communities and with the mentors that will best support them.

Mentorship will be a key factor as we continue to offer more individualized approaches to teaching and learning. In regular meetings with their mentors, students will get individualized support through monitoring of academic progress, personalized and immediate strategies for improved learning, and advice on pathways to success.

As part of our school's commitment to empowering our faculty to offer the best education possible to students, WAB has partnered with Sea Change Mentoring to provide professional development for all Middle and High school teachers.

"There has always been some overlap between teaching and mentoring. The Sea Change professional development sessions highlighted that much of good teaching has always incorporated mentoring strategies," said DJ Rix, a long-time WAB teacher and chair of a faculty group dedicated to the development of the mentor role. "Teachers were able to consider challenges and questions about the implementation processes and phases of a successful mentoring program. It allowed faculty time to practice mentor role-playing, with immediate, expert feedback. It was encouraging to note how incredibly caring the WAB staff is."

Target 13 is aimed at allowing our teachers to build better rapport with the students to better understand, guide, and fulfill their diverse learning needs.