My School and I's First Year with IB

[jshepard45]

Hello! 

This next year is my schools first year implementing IB and I am interested in doing it for my 11th-12th grade years. Though, I am concerned about my school's readiness to have these classes considering that the other times they have tried to implement IB it has been nothing short of poor (i.e. IB MYP). However, I have faith in the teachers that have answered the call of duty to teach these classes will teach well. My preferred schedule is listed below...

• SL Lang and Lit
• SL French (online)
• HL European History
• HL Biology
• HL Chemistry
• SL Math
• TOK (obviously) 

Is this a good plan for a schedule? Also, should I be concerned about being the "guinea pigs" for my school's IB experiment?

Thank you!

 

[Nomenclature]

Welcome to IB Survival.

You're schedule is great. I mean–in my opinion–the only bad schedules are the ones that don't hit the requirements or that have you taking courses you don't want to. 

You do ask a good question in regards to what extant you should concerned. I'd say a little bit, but don't worry too much. The difference between scores from a teacher who really knows IB versus a teacher who isn't that familiar generally isn't that significant. Obviously experienced teachers have a leg up in knowing what their previous kids struggled in/common pitfalls, but in most subjects I'd wager that probably wouldn't affect students scores much. Two subjects in which I think it makes a big difference are Lit A and Comp. sci., both of which you aren't even taking. 

I've taken Language B, History, Math, Bio, and TOK. In Language B and Math I'd say teacher familiarity with IB doesn't matter at all, and history it does a bit, but it's pretty easy to learn what IB expects on your own by looking at past papers. Assuming your math teacher is competent, he/she'll cover everything, and that's what all math teachers do. No secret advantage to be had there. Bio is similar to that. You'd think it have a large effect in TOK, but in my experience it didn't because even though I had great, veteran instructor teaching that, he really didn't guide us because apparently IB doesn't like TOK instructors to influence students too much.

At the end of the day, there's a pretty good body of information on the web, and with past papers and marker comments it will be very easy to align yourself with what IB wants and expects in terms of subject knowledge. You'd be examining those regardless of whether your teachers were new or seasoned, so–again–it's not too bad. Also, your teachers should have all attended workshops and have a good idea of what IB expect, even if they haven't yet rode the circuit.

[dxsxnchxntxd]

hey i literally take your subjects except for a different lang sl! i think it is a good plan for a schedule (though i may be slightly biased haha) - it's hard, especially as the three highers are all quite content heavy, but it's also v interesting and rewarding. with bio and hist it's largely just content learning, so it doesn't matter if your teachers haven't taught ib before, and with chem as long as theyre a good teacher in general you'll be absolutely fine. similarly maths sl shouldn't matter at all if your teacher has taught ib before or not. 

if you ever need any help/advice from someone with a v similar subject combo feel free to pm me