A November to Remember For IBDP – Lots O’News
Movember!
This week begins the month of Movember! SSIS teachers will be raising money for Hearing Vietnam. If you wish to join the “Mo Bros”, please see Chris Wolf.
Extended Essay – Number of Hours With Students
Extended Essays are due on November 13th. This is a day for much celebration. Do be aware that EE Supervisors are required 3-5 hours of guidance. If a school has teachers who go over this amount of allotted time, it can expect to get flagged from IBO. All EEs should be completed by November 13th.
World Student Conference 2018: Hong Kong
http://www.ibo.org/university-admission/ib-world-student-conference/wsc-2018-hong-kong/
From 31 July – 6 August, 2018, the International Baccalaureate (IB) and The University of Hong Kong (HKU) will hold a World Student Conference in Hong Kong.
At the conference, students will come together and explore the theme, “Education for All: Moving Towards a Gender-Fair World.”
Early childhood education and gender equality are woven within 2 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and students will have the opportunity to address these critical issues. They will engage with thought leaders, teachers, and scholars, including both HKU faculty and alumni in order to work toward solutions to alleviate the gender-related inequality that still exists throughout the world.
Scholarships are available to students to support the cost of attendance. Interested teachers can also attend as Global Action Team Leaders, Chaperones or Observers. Details can be found in the link above.
IB Workshop Reflections
For all IB teachers, do not forget to fill out the IB Workshop Reflection Form:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ktnXjfW1PHJOcivqE_X7BIijIYSDjIR615Cj94BYoBk
This will allow a greater ability to achieve Professional Development in the IBDP.
VIETNAM-LAOS-MYANMAR-CAMBODIA Remaining Job-Alikes
The Job-Alikes are starting soon. Here is the form for the upcoming 2017 Job-Alikes. If you want to attend a Job-Alike, then I can sign you up on the official form. You will need to fill out the PD form with Tina. These are excellent opportunities to reach out with fellow educators to discuss pedagogy with like students.
March 5th – 9th 2018 Mock Exams
Several weeks ago, I posted a preliminary Mock Exam schedule. However, there were a few errors regarding student classes. This has now been addressed. Here is the March 2018 Mock Exam Schedule and list of students: Look For Any Errors before November 15th as this is when the schedules will be sent to students.
Following is a list of News Items from the IBO released on IBIS for all DP Teachers:
1. Clarifications on the May 2018 prescribed titles
As a result of several queries received in regards to the TOK May 2018 prescribed titles, we would like to provide further clarification to ensure that the expectations for the titles are clear for everyone.
We ask coordinators to please communicate these clarifications to TOK teachers.
Prescribed title 4 currently reads: “Suspension of disbelief” is an essential feature of theatre. Is it essential in other areas of knowledge? Develop your answer with reference to two areas of knowledge.” The title states that ‘suspension of disbelief’ is an essential feature of theatre, a discipline within the area of knowledge of the arts. Ideally, the candidate will need to explain/unpack to some extent what “suspension of disbelief” might mean in theatre in order to open up the analysis. The title then asks “Is it essential in other areas of knowledge?”, which means the candidate needs to discuss suspension of disbelief in two additional areas of knowledge other than the arts.
Prescribed titles 1 and 5 make reference to “academic disciplines”.
The term “discipline” in a prescribed title refers to an established academic subject.
Some areas of knowledge include a collection of disciplines whereas others comprise just a single discipline. Hence, for example, biology and chemistry are disciplines with the natural sciences as an area of knowledge, and economics and anthropology are disciplines within the human sciences as an area of knowledge, and theatre and music are disciplines within the arts as an area of knowledge. These are disciplines, but not areas of knowledge in themselves.
But history, mathematics and ethics, while also being disciplines, also each belong to their own area of knowledge respectively. They are disciplines and areas of knowledge.
Where a title asks for the candidate to address areas of knowledge, individual disciplines within the composite areas of knowledge (natural sciences, human sciences, arts – if selected) may be addressed as part of the analysis, but care should be taken that they are plausibly representative of those areas of knowledge.
Where a title explicitly asks for disciplines, that is what is required and not a general treatment of those areas of knowledge that consist themselves of more than one discipline as above. A treatment of two disciplines within the same area of knowledge would be one legitimate approach in these circumstances, but candidates should ensure that such a comparison can generate enough contrast for worthwhile conclusions about knowledge to be drawn.
2. November 2017 music HL/SL paper 1: secure method for playing audio tracks
The music audio packages for the music listening paper on Wednesday 15 November 2017 will be made available to all schools with candidates registered for music HL/SL on Monday 6 November 2017. Please click here (IB Music Audio File Information) for further information. (This is a heads up for the pack that will be released for May 2018) IB is moving toward online assessment to coincide with eCoursework. Changes are coming to all courses over time.
3. Social and cultural anthropology guide: guide clarification
First examinations 2019
(True – We do not offer this course, but IB is offering it to students. FYI)
Paper 2—Section A (SL and HL)
This question is compulsory for all students and requires them to make connections between a given key concept, an area of inquiry and a real-world issue. The current wording of the guide states that the real-world issues will vary in each exam session. To help teachers make appropriate choices in applying an anthropological lens to real-world issues, the following eight broad themes have been identified—with five chosen in each exam session to form part of the question.
These eight real-world themes will remain the same for the life of the course and are:
- environment
- globalization
- human rights
- inequality
- poverty
- sustainability
- technology
- violence
An update to the external assessment sections of the guide will be made as soon as possible.
4. Inclusion Access Arrangements
All requests for inclusive access arrangements submitted for the November 2017 examination session have now been acknowledged. An email response has been sent to the Diploma Coordinator for every request that has been approved by the IB Global Centre. If you have not received correspondence in relation to a candidate at your school, please contact inclusion@ibo.org as soon as possible. Any new requests received at this time cannot be guaranteed.
Modified, enlarged and Braille exam papers requested and approved for the November 2017 exam session are dispatched separately from the main examination paper mailing. Schools should receive these examination papers by 20th October 2017. If you have not received your modified, enlarged or Braille examination papers by this time please contact inclusion@ibo.org immediately.
5. Changes to IBIS library
Following the introduction of the Programme Resource Centre (available via My IB), the IBIS library will undergo some changes over the coming weeks. The Programme Resource Centre will become the source of all IB programme documentation for schools, therefore the IBIS library will be reduced to contain only IBIS procedure guidance. What is available on My IB? See here (Documents_available_on_Programme_Resource_Centre_via_My_IB)
This will ensure that there is a single, searchable repository for all programme documentation and will eliminate duplication and version control issues across IB systems.
All DP teachers need to transition over to My IB before the end of the year. The OCC will no longer be updated, and so IB teachers will need to access My IB for all IB materials.
Related Posts
About The Author
