Extended Essay May 2017: the final countdown

March 24, 2017

This time of year is stressful for history teachers: we tend to have a lot EEs, we are trying to mark and enter our IA grades and we have to determine predicted grades.  We are also still teaching our classes, trying to finish the syllabus and also help students...

World History Topic 10: Authoritarian States

February 17, 2017

“May I choose Margaret Thatcher as an authoritarian leader?” This came from one of my cheekier students.  After we finished units on Lenin and Stalin, I thought I would try an experiment and allow students to choose their own authoritarian regimes.  I was...

Teaching Russia, killing 3 Birds with One Stone and Auld Lang Syne

January 13, 2017

My last post for the student blog that I finished yesterday, in honor of the centennial of the murder of Rasputin led me to re-examine how to include the Russian Revolutions in the curriculum.  When the World History Topics were 20th century World History Topics, and...

Whither the Prescribed Subjects? Next month’s exams are the end of an era

November 2, 2016

We are now one month out from the final IB exams of the session that began with the exams in 2010.  On 8 November, the final set of Paper 1s will be given, and after that, these subjects will be put to rest.  The peacemaking, peacekeeping material is easily integrated...

Handwriting counts in exams

July 20, 2016

With the May exam session behind us by nearly six weeks, and most exams marked by the examiners, it is time to address an important issue with regard to IB exams: your handwriting. In much of life, your ability to hand write work clearly may not seem that important,...

Subject Choice review

July 15, 2016

If your school has November exams, you are winding down on the old curriculum while concurrently preparing for the new curriculum that has first exams in 2017.  At this point, it is worthwhile to review the changes to History: In the current curriculum your students...