I had the chance to talk with a few people involved with the International Baccalaureate program at Temple High School and I'm very impressed.

We'll have a feature story on the program in Sunday's Temple Daily Telegram, along with video on the website.

I got to talk to Mary Adams, Dr. Jason Bullock and Derek Parsons about the program, and you can tell by the excitement in their voices and the stories they had to share how much they love IB and Temple High School.

We got to observe a little of Mrs. Spurlin's German class. Wow -- she is very dedicated and intense, and one of the original teachers from the program's early years at THS still going strong.

Unfortunately, I had so much information I had to trim the story down (and who knows how much the editors may have to cut. Hopefully, not much). I have a feeling I've only scratched the surface.

I knew the IB program was wonderful, but I have a little bit better understanding of just how special it is. I wish I'd been able to take some of those English and history classes (and maybe Spanish) back when I was a student.

One thing I didn't include in the story: A couple weeks ago, someone at Holy Trinity Catholic School said they actually lost a student to the THS IB program, and that student went on to be a National Merit scholar.

Also, I thought IB was probably for the academic elite at the school, but found out that about one-third of Temple High's 2,200 students take at least some IB classes. Very, very impressive.

I am very good friends with Derek Parsons , Mary Adams, and Jason Bullock.

Fwiw, you walked past my classroom twice today, and lastly, Nella Spurlin was my mentor and role model when I first started teaching at Ths.

I'm proud to teach in the IB program. Thank you for doing this article!

I wish IB was in more places. I was part of the first class to go through it down in McAllen. We had to pull students from all three 5A high schools, and we still only had ~20 students that first year.

The part of the aricle that was on the front page is wonderful. Congrats Jan for the great work you do there.

Proud Temple IB Graduate here. Nothing but great things to say about Mr. Bullock, Mr. Parsons, and Mrs. Adams. Really prepared me for college and allowed me to come into college with 33 credit hours without paying a dime.

Highly encouraged.