A timeline of women’s right to vote – interactive
UN Women’s 2011 justice report looks at the political, social and economic rights of women. Here we take a look at when women got the right to vote in countries around the world.
Triple A Learning IB Blogs
July 21, 2011
Inspiration for field notes…getting ready for IAs
One of the strengths of the IB anthropology course is that it gives both SL and HL students an opportunity to experience hands-on research. For SL students, this comes in the form of an observation and critique assignment and, for HL, a fuller fieldwork project. In both cases, taking field notes is core to the assignment.
July 19, 2011
Using the Syllabus – to Generate Notes for your Students
One grumble I often have is students refusing to take notes – or just writing those notes poorly or in a very disorganised way. One way to get around this is to simply use the syllabus and specific sections from each unit outline which gives a table like the one shown below :-
The problem with this table is that in some instances the IB has filled in the definitions and examples in others it has not. I find if you are able to copy and manipulate each section and make it blank then you can hand out copies either digital or on paper of each section / definition outline and then students have to neatly fill in and find, research or note down the specific information. If they do this at the end of each Unit – they can then build up a library folder or digital folder with the main revision notes they need. Simple but I have found very effective – the important thing is to make sure that the students are active and filling it in – rather than passive and just reading photocopies.
Thinking about the literacy issues your IB students face
One problem we face as teachers in an international context is an assumption about literacy levels, that may not not be valid for all students in an IB classroom. Indeed, I have had examples of students, new to my Business and Management class, who struggled to make themselves understood in English at all, let alone cope with the level of additional specialist language skills demanded by the subject.
In this ‘guest post’, Martin Hartnett suggests an approach to support students in their understanding of specific Business and Management terms:
July 18, 2011
creating knowledge? or creating ignorance?
“Agnotology”: do we now need such a word in our critical vocabulary? Oh no! I sincerely hope that we can manage to examine disinformation on significant social issues without having to get our tongues around that one! The concept, however, is one to which I’ve returned repeatedly in this blog (including in my previous posting): “agnotology”, a term apparently coined by a professor from Stanford, is the study of ignorance. The form that cries out for current study is the calculated fostering of public doubt in scientific conclusions that are well justified and accepted by legitimate scientific bodies. In May, a two-day symposium was held at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (ZIF) at a university in Germany to give attention to this phenomenon of undermining knowledge with predominant motives of ideology or profit.
Stéphane Foucart, covering the symposium for The Guardian, picks out for commentary the following points, all extremely relevant to awareness of the relationship between science and society, and to understanding debate on science in the media:
What is a good preparation for the IB Music Listening Paper?
What is a good preparation for the IB Music Listening Paper?
Not long ago in a music forum a new IB music teacher asked the question: “How do you prepare students for a successful IB Music Listening Paper?” Many teachers offered varied suggestions that in general limited to music theory, music history, Prescribed Works, and world music. I agree that this would have been a good list if the question had been: What is the content of the Listening Paper? However the question talked about ‘preparation’. I think that in addition to presenting the material described above, educators need to teach and monitor the skills necessary to convey the knowledge and understanding of the music that the student has. These skills have to do more with rhetoric than with music.
Get Your School Into 3D Virtual Worlds TODAY!
By now you’ve most likely read (or at least heard of) the “2011 Horizon Report,” which predicts that games-based learning will be mainstream in schools as soon as 2013. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t wait any longer. Get your free copy from the New Media Consortium website: http://www.nmc.org/publications/2011-horizon-report.
You probably already know WHY you want to get your school into 3D virtual worlds, but you just haven’t known HOW…but that’s all about to change. Courtesy of Changchun American International School, you can now have a free copy of “OpenSimulator: School Quick Start Guide.” Written specifically for teachers, this e-book includes introductory information, step-by-step setup directions and even lesson plans you can adapt. Second Life is covered too, since it’s now open to kids 16 years old and up! The e-book covers how to both choose an OpenSimulator host company and create a FREE OpenSimulator client/server installation, so your school can take the best path…the best path INWORLD, that is!
A problem, many roads
After watching for the first time the image
, surely you belong to one of the two following sets: a) People who see a white glass or b) People who see two faces staring at each other.
May be it is not so evident, but when we try to solve a mathematical problem we may have different perceptions about it, and therefore choose different mathematical tools in order to solve the problem. That selection will depend on different aspects, some of us are more “algebraical” than others, or more “geometrical”, or “trigonometrical”,etc.
Algebra, Geometry and the IB Continuum
Rotations and Symmetry (From Wikimedia Commons)
Looking for a common thread that covers topics and structures taught both in the MYP and the Diploma Programme, I came up with one idea.
Maths, laments and games
- Maths teacher and student in the 16th century by Nicolas Neufchâtel (Wikimedia Commons)
What does this picture tell us about the role of a Maths student in the XVI century ? Look at his eyes, his hands. Does he seem to have an active, engaging participation in the learning process? Is this quite different from our own experience as students some years ago?
