The Ten-Year Rule

January 12, 2018

I have decided that, when school resumes in January, I will give my students an assignment in which I will ask them to analyse the IB’s 10-year rule and determine if they think that it is a well-reasoned rule. This morning, I was reading an essay by Umair Haque...

The May 2017 Subject Report is now available

October 18, 2017

Most understandably, there was a small delay in the release of the subject report.  With all new assessments, there was much to report on and the examiners responsibly clearly wanted to provide clarity on the expectations of the assessments, and advice for future...

And the results are in!

August 16, 2017

…Well, they were in a month ago. As teachers, more than anything we are most interested in the grade boundaries for each paper. For two years we were flying blind, trying to guide our students to passing, or in some instance, the elusive 7. And now that...

Integrating CAS and History

August 7, 2017

In IBDP there has been an emphasis in recent years in integrating the core (EE, TOK and CAS) with the course content in the different subjects. In history, it has been nearly effortless to integrate EE and TOK. The skills in the History IA layer nicely with the...

IB Exams – History preparation

May 8, 2017

IB exams officially began last Thursday with school-based syllabi and Business Management and Global Politics last Friday.  And today, with Biology there are even more students involved in the examinations.  Critical mass with Diploma Candidates will occur Wednesday...

My semi-annual list of reminders for DP History exam prep

April 28, 2017

The IA grades have been entered, the samples are uploaded and we’re all in that last race to finish the curriculum.  Teachers in the US are more than a little concern: their top students, all of whom were interested and engaged have been admitted to their dream...