Tag Archives: IB

12/11/14

The IB Handbook of Procedures

During class today, we collaborated together in our subject area groups and went through the different sections of the IB Handbook of Procedures for 2014. The purpose of the activity was so that we could become familiarized with how the IB Diploma Programme functions. Isobel also mentioned that we may be asked certain questions during interviews such as what conditions need to be met in order for students to receive their diplomas. Although, admittedly, most of us in the class were confused as to why we were spending time in the class doing this exercise.

I think it would be more useful if I were to read through the handbook by myself one day; it was hard to understand some of the points people were presenting about what they had read in the handbook because there are still a lot of terms that we are unfamiliar with (e.g. “school based curriculum” came up several times in my group’s sections and we were unable to quite understand what it meant until we did some research). However, the questions that Isobel asked all seemed to be quite relevant, and it would definitely be helpful to have more sessions in the future where we can learn more about the program after we’ve had a chance to learn some teaching strategies and had time go through some of the details about IB on our own.

 

The following are some notes that I took during this activity on section A11 of the handbook, which is all about the reporting of results:

A11.1 The Schedule

  • Established schedules every May and November for issue of results data, as well as times when enquiries are allowed

 

A11.2 Issue of Results to Schools

  • IB marks released on IBIS (IB Information System) July and January 5th to IB coordinators
  • stats on global and school results available a few days later (9th)
  • IB coordinators are the intermediary between IB candidates and the IBO; the IBO does not directly issue marks to or discusses marks with candidates and their parents

 

A11.3 Issue of Results to Candidates

  • IB marks available on https://candidates.ibo.org to IB candidates on July and January 5th
  • PINS for accessing website only issued once, and should only be used by the candidate, they are not to be given to universities or admissions centres

 

A11.4 Candidates and the IB Alumni Network

  • alumni of the IB programme can register at https://candidates.ibo.org, using their personal code and PIN
  • receive newsletters and invitations to conferences, and can provide feedback to improve the programme

 

A11.5 Issue of Results to Universities and Admissions Centres

  • the IBIS can send a candidate’s results directly to universities and admissions centres in both electronic and paper format
  • a candidate can request for results to be sent to 6 institutions (however, of these, only one can be in Canada and one in the US)
  • transcripts for anticipated candidates who do not continue on to complete the DP can also be request by an IB coordinator

 

A11.6 Early Session Entries

  • when a candidate completes all session components six months prior to a subject not currently available in their diploma session, the results will be issued but no certification will be rewarded until the next session

 

A11.7 The Interpretation of Results

  • if a candidate retakes a subject/level, only the highest grade contributes to their diploma
  • diploma will not be rewarded if a candidate’s results contain a requirement code
  • candidates cannot change their combination of subjects in order to receive their diploma (i.e. cannot switch an additional subject for one of the 7 that contribute to their diploma)

A11.7.1 Diploma Awarded

  • all conditions of “General regulations: Diploma Programme” met

A11.7.2 Bilingual Diploma Awarded

  • awarded if the candidate fulfills one or both of the following conditions:
  • scores greater than a 3 in two languages from group 1
  • scores greater than a 3 in their group 1 language and greater than a 3 in a group 3 or 4 subject that is not taken in their group 1 language

A11.7.3 Diploma Not Awarded (Letters given rather than a score)

  • “P” indicates the IB Assessment Centre does not have sufficient information to issue a grade
  • “N” indicates that no grades have been issued for the following reasons:
  • withdrawal from exam
  • absence from one or all of the exams
  • failure to meet one or more exam requirements
  • breach of regulations (letter will be sent to IB coordinator with details)

 

A11.8 Diploma Requirement Codes

  • diploma will not be rewarded if a candidate’s results contain a requirement code (i.e. indicate what requirements for the diploma have not been met)

 

A11.9 Candidates Affected By Special Circumstances

A11.9.1 Candidates with Learning Support Requirements

  • candidates eligible for inclusive assessment arrangements (e.g. learning difficulties, emotional or behavioural difficulties, physical, sensory or medical conditions, or mental health problems) can have reasonable accommodation authorized

A11.9.2 Candidates Affected By Temporary Circumstances

  • any circumstances during the two year programme or the examination period that could negatively affect the student’s performance will not be recorded in the candidate’s documents

 

A11.10 Candidates Suspected of Academic Misconduct

  • an “N” will appear on the IBIS, but will not be recorded in the candidate’s document that is sent to universities and admissions centres (this information is regarded as confidential)

 

11/7/14

IBeyond Conference

Some of us in the IB cohort visited the IBeyond Conference today. It was quite an amazing experience to have, and I was really impressed to learn that the entire conference was organized by the second year IB students at Churchill secondary. Although the conference was not at all aimed for those of us who are learning about the IB programme itself, it was good to see how excited and motivated the Churchill students were. This would definitely have been an event that I would have benefited from when I was a graduating student myself.

I didn’t learn quite as much as I had hoped to by attending this conference, but it was also inspiring to listen to the different speakers present at the conference. It was reassuring to hear that in this day and age, people have the ability to excel in more than one field; I love teaching, but there are also many different things I want to do in the future as well!

Photo 2014-11-07, 2 11 36 PM

Joni Mar was one of the speakers that Minhe and I listened to, and she has gone through so many different amazing careers already (news reporter, interior decorator and executive coach to name a few).

10/7/14

Visiting Mulgrave

Mulgrave

Mirae, Hyosun, Minhe, Ricky and me at Mulgrave (If only we had remembered to take a photo with the actual building!)

 

Our visit to Mulgrave Independent School was a very new kind of experience for me. As someone who attended public schools her entire life, I have never been exposed to an independent school setting.

Some of the aspects of the Mulgrave school community were how the average age of the staff is lower than what I expected, and how well the teachers collaborate within their departments. Sitting in during the science department’s collaborative block was a very good chance for us to experience how educators work together to assess their own teaching and development. Before actually experience a collaborative period, I always had the impression that teachers worked independently of one another; after having seen the science teachers at Mulgrave working through student assessments together, I now see how important it is to work together as a department to ensure that assessment styles are similar. I hope to also have the chance to observe a collaborative period in a public school setting, in which the different teachers do not necessarily follow concrete rubric assessments like the ones set up by IB.

Sitting in the classrooms and observing the lessons was interesting as well, because never before have I seen high school classrooms in which all the students are expected to be using electronic devices like laptops and tablets while in class. I could see the benefit of using devices in class; teachers can have the students following along with the powerpoint slides or with the files they send out, or the students could be researching information online as the class is progressing. However, I think that there are also some drawbacks to having all students on their devices, and there is definitely more I’d like to learn about the BYOB (bring your own device) policy in independent schools.

All in all, visiting Mulgrave was a wonderful experience, and after having spent a day in an independent school, I am looking forward to having an opportunity to one day experiencing teaching in an independent school.

09/4/14

“Preparing a Cup of Tea”

I have to admit that I was very narrow-minded about today’s in-class group activity, and this is something I really need to work on. We were given the task of teaching students “how to prepare a cup of tea”, and to create a rubric to assess the learning of the students. I, along with my group members, was completely unsuccessful at seeing the big picture. We forgot that we were supposed to be promoting inquiry, and instead focused on just instructing.

We were too focused on how to tell the students how to make tea, so that we did not stop to think about how we could gain the curiosity and attention of the students. It was disappointing to realize towards the end of the activity that we failed to remind ourselves of the importance of inquiry and engagement.

This was a mistake on our part, but that’s what being in this program is all about; this is the time that we make mistakes and learn from them. This was a sort of awakening for all of us, and I hope that for the remainder of this upcoming year, we will all remind ourselves of the importance of inquiry in education. As one of my instructors has said, “teaching is not telling, and learning is not listening”. I will definitely be reminding myself of this more often from now on, and think of creative ways to make teaching more engaging.

09/2/14

Inquiry Pursuit

Today our class began going over some of the different inquiries that we had about the IB program, or just teaching in general. Josh’s presentation on “how to mitigate stress in (IB) students” left the deepest impression on me, and made me really think about what I can do as a teacher to help students.

Some of the points that Josh shared were:

  • sharing success criteria
  • comment-only marking
  • classroom questioning
  • peer- and self-review
  • formative use of tests

I have personally thought of some of these different practices to use when teaching, such as explicitly informing students what will be expected of them, and how they can work to succeed. I specifically used this method when helping prepare some of my tutoring students for their provincials this past June. I carefully went through the expectations of the exams with them, and gave them tips on how they could do their best on the exams.

One of the points that I had never really thought about was only give comment-based feedback to the students. However, this is a really valid point, because simply giving a numerical grade to the students on their assignments can be very confusing if the questions required more than just memorization. Given constructive feedback on assignments can help to lessen the stress for students, because it will clearly tell them what it is that they need to improve on.

I think that these are all very important things that I will have to keep in mind when I start creating assignments to give to students, because I really do want my future students to not only succeed, but also gain knowledge from their studies.

08/28/14

Theory of Knowledge

Today, it almost felt like time had repeated itself, and I found myself in my old ToK class again. It was the heated debates and the feelings of frustration as we tried to make a certain points all over again.

When I initially applied for the IB cohort, the thought of applying ToK to anything again had never even crossed my mind. I have to admit that although the discussions my ToK class had back in high school were sometimes fun, I never really enjoyed the class very much. I don’t think I ever got any answers out of those experiences, just more questions.

However, this new experience may be different; I’ve learned more and experienced more since I was in the IBDP programmed. Something I learned back in ToK was that the more a person learns, the more they realize that there is to learn. I’ve expanded my horizons a bit, and I’m ready to learn more!

Another thing I’ve realized is just how quickly this program is going, and just how intense the workload is going to be. We haven’t even officially started the school year yet, and we already have our first ‘lesson plan’ date set! I can already feel the anxiety and anticipating starting to build. I’ll really need to focus on time management and remain determined for this next year!

08/27/14

The Rennie Collection & “What Is Art?”

  1. I have always been focused on the sciences, and am not much of an artist. I think that art is something that is created for some purpose, such as displaying beauty or sharing a certain idea or message.
  2. Based on what I described ‘art’ as in the previous question, I do believe that if an artists calls a piece of work ‘art’, it would be considered art. However, there would be limitations to this situation. For example, based on my description of what art is, there should be some sort of meaning behind the piece of artwork. The artist would be able to explain the significance of the piece in some sort of way. In contrast, a person can take a piece of trash and call it art, but only if there is some significance behind this action that turns the piece of trash into a meaningful piece of art.
  3. One piece of the Rodney Graham exhibit that I really enjoyed was “Introductory Lectures”, the red piece that was in the first room of the exhibit. The bright red of the shelf was very eye-catching in the bare room, and aesthetically pleasing because of the mathematical dimensions of the different sections. The subtle comedy of the ‘Freudian Slip’ was also very witty. Although I didn’t really understand the purpose of the piece at first, after listening to Alexandra speak about Graham and his background I was able to understand the significance of the piece.One piece that I did not understand completely, even after listening to an explanation, was the performance piece at the very end of the gallery, “Throwing Potatoes at a Gong”. I could understand how Graham attempted to insert himself and his art into the 1970s by using mediums that made his artwork appear like they were from that time period, but I just could not understand the significance of throwing potatoes at the gong. Was he simply just trying to juxtapose the absurdity of the act and the serenity that is usually associated with the sound of a gong?
08/27/14

Did You Know?

I’ve seen the “Do You Know?” video before, although it was probably an older version, not the 2014 version that we watched in class today. Every time, it’s always a surprise to see the astonishingly large numbers that they present. It’s overwhelming to think about at how fast of a pace everything in the world is changing, and how something that I learned just a few years ago is already irrelevant now, or that some of the most popular jobs today didn’t exist just a decade ago.

This kind of information could possibly cause a lot of people to feel anxious about the future and what will happen in just a few years, but I’d like to take an optimistic approach and think that this only means that options and opportunities are limitless. Life is a constant learning process, and I can’t wait to see what great things people can come up with.

08/26/14

Roles in an IB Education

  1. The role of an educator is to be empathetic, and to care about the education and well-being of their students. Good educators aim to find a balance between being an authoritative figure in the classroom, and being someone who students are comfortable speaking to. A good educator will be passionate about their subject area, and carry out engaging lessons that make students ask questions and want to learn more.
  2. The role of the student is to synthesize the information that their teachers present to them. More importantly, the role of the student is to ask questions and not just simply accept information that is given to them.
  3. As a teacher, the IBDP education is significant because it allows the teachers to grow along with their students, and challenges the teachers to continuously update their own knowledge to keep up with the pace of the changing world and new students. An IBDP education is significant for students because they are not expected to simply absorb the different subjects they enrol in. Students are taught how to learn, and they are also given direction and guidance that helps them to develop life skills that will hopefully allow them to become more successful later in their educations.