Local history as alternative history – North America

July 11, 2016

1July 1st is Canada Day and July 4th is Independence Day in the US.  The Canadians commemorate the British North America – or Constitution Act – whereby three British colonies were united to create federated Canada.  In the US, it is the celebration of the...

It’s time to focus on the first year IB students

May 4, 2016

Many of us will still be teaching first year students for at least another month but at this point, we seem so focused on the students about to take their IB exams.  This is a golden opportunity as you can focus your energies on year 1.  The students will appreciate...

Do Mock Exams Help Our Students?

March 9, 2016

First I must apologize to those of you in the southern hemisphere.  The November session is eons away for you, but for those of us north of the Equator (or south but on the northern school schedule) the IB exams are now 2 months away.  Many schools choose March as the...

The HL option and Paper 3

January 27, 2016

Happy New Year to all of you!  The weather has definitely changed course for most of you, and while most of my posts have been written with a blue sky and warm temperatures, the mountains of New Mexico have had near-record amounts of snow and the temperatures have...

Changes to the World History Topics and Paper 2

November 2, 2015

At face value, the changes to the World History Topics leave us with the ability to keep things very similar in our curriculum, or modify them wildly if we so prefer.  I am guess that very few of you are going to do the latter, but this is not meant to be dismissive:...

Changes in IB History – the New Prescribed Subjects

September 25, 2015

The transition from one curriculum to the next happens every seven years, and despite all preparation, it is always a challenging year: there are two sets of syllabi and two sets of assessments. The most dramatic content-based changes come in the Prescribed Subjects. ...