IB Matters

Send us Fan Mail This episode is the sixth in a series of 8 podcasts we are doing on the IB Approaches to Learning Skills known as the ATL’s that are at the core of all four International Baccalaureate Programmes. This episode features teaching Social Skills . My guest is John Harvey , an experienced IB coordinator who has led this work in multiple schools. It is our goal to give you a coherent, s...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is the fifth in a series of 8 podcasts we are doing on the IB Approaches to Learning Skills known as the ATL’s that are at the core of all four International Baccalaureate Programmes. This episode features teaching Communication Skills . My guest is John Harvey , an experienced IB coordinator who has led this work in multiple schools. It is our goal to give you a cohe...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is the fourth in a series of 8 podcasts we are doing on the IB Approaches to Learning Skills known as the ATL’s that are at the core of all four International Baccalaureate Programmes. This episode features teaching Research Skills . My guest is John Harvey , an experienced IB coordinator who has led this work in multiple schools. It is our goal to give you a coherent...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is the third in a series of 8 podcasts we are doing on the IB Approaches to Learning Skills known as the ATL’s that are at the core of all four International Baccalaureate Programmes.  My guest is John Harvey , an experienced IB coordinator who has led this work in multiple schools. It is our goal to give you a coherent, sustainable, values aligned strategy to impleme...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is the second in a series of 8 podcasts we are doing on the IB Approaches to Learning Skills known as the ATL’s that are at the core of all four International Baccalaureate Programmes.  My guest is John Harvey , an experienced IB coordinator who has led this work in multiple schools. It is our goal to give you a coherent, sustainable, values aligned strategy to implem...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is part of a series we are doing on the IB Approaches to Learning Skills known as the ATL’s that are at the core of all four International Baccalaureate Programmes.  John Harvey and I will, in these eight episodes, try to give you a coherent, sustainable, values aligned strategy to implement ATL Skills in your school. We want to help you build your team of coordinator...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to Dr. David Webb about his time as a leader in IB schools in Minnesota and about his book called ‘ Homerun Leadership: Your Guide to Better, Faster Team Decisions ’.  If you have a leadership role in an IB school - whether it be an IB coordinator, department head, or school adminstrator this podcast is for you. Dave has put together a strateg...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we talk to four DP students from Shiv Nadar School Gurgaon . All four are in their second year of the Diploma Programme and have done a great deal of reflecting upon what they have learned so far. They have determined that mental and emotional health are tied together and can be best maintained through communication among students, teachers and school leaders. Whil...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we talk to author, Jason Ablin. His book, The Gender Equation in Schools: How to Create Equity and Fairness for all Students will be published in June 2022 and features many tools for teachers to use in beginning to create classrooms where all students feel empowered to be their best selves. Jason shares some of these tools and we hear stories of how he has worked...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we return talk to Vikas Pahwa . This time the conversation centers on leadership in IB and International schools. Vikas has recently contributed an article for an upcoming book on this subject and we found this to be a good opportunity to share our thoughts and experiences regarding great school leadership.  By the way, if you are in Minnesota, our MNIB Leadership...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to Dr. Aarti Baksh i of Pathways School in Noida, India. As you will hear, she is a very enthusistic counselor who has used every resource available - and few she conjured up - to create a positive school culture which brings the full nature of an IB education to fruition. Dr. Bakshi describes how she, along with teachers and school leaders, h...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode,  we talk to Era Dogra about her role as a coordinator of the social emotional learning programs in her school. Listeners will hear how she and her team have implemented necessary supports for students experiencing a lack of personal connections while they are learning in isolation from home. They have found that, by making the programs customized to their school c...

Send us Fan Mail  In this episode, we talk to Shradha Narayanan from Toddle about the upcoming Inquiry Educators Summit (TIES) . This will be third time they have offered this event but there are many changes in place for this version. In particular, this time there will be pre-conference meet-ups and then ongoing follow-up sessions for several months after the main event. TIES is back for its thi...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we talk to 5 students from Ebenezer International School in Bangalore, India and their Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS) teacher Bhavya Prabu. These students have created a CAS Project based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (known as the UN SDG’s). They mentor younger students to learn about particular SDG’s and then help them develop TED Talk format...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of we return to talk to Vikas Pahwa about the IB approach to teaching Geography. His experience with both the MYP and DP makes him a good ambassador for the subject. Vikas has a deep respect, understanding, and appreciation for Geography and he makes a great case for including the subject as one of your options in Group 3 of the Diploma Programme.  Some of Vikas&ap...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we talk to Lucia Figar and Barry Cooper of The Global College in Madrid, Spain. They are two of the principal figures in the startup of this brand new IB School based on entrepreneurship. It will be a unique member of the IB community but it has all of the key attributes every new IB school requires: a rigorous and well-planned curriculum, a caring and dedicated st...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we talk to Bhavya Prabu about the IB approach to teaching and learning science from MYP to DP.  Bhavya has experience teaching in both the Diploma Programme and the Middle Years Programme so she has an excellent perspective for this discussion. We talk about the structure and requirements of a couple of DP science courses, specifically Biology and ESS. But we also...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we talk to Lisa Maren Thompson from Sejong Academy in St. Paul, Minnesota. Sejong Academy is an MYP candidate school nearing the end of the candidacy phase to become an official IB World School.  Like the other podcasts we have done in the “Becoming an IB School” series, the keys to a succesful IB school candidacy are the people in the school community. They need t...

Send us Fan Mail In an effort to promote equity, excellence and inclusion in IB programs, Tim Kane and Asheesh Misra from IBSchoolImprovement.com help schools develop strategies to maximize success in the Diploma exams. These strategies lead to more students enrolling in the classes, taking the exams, and benefitting from the exposure to challenging curriculum. These benefits have been shown to fo...

Send us Fan Mail This is be one of the more personal episodes in this podcast series, as I speak to Jake Rosch . Jake’s parents have been close friends for decades and I’ve known Jake since he was in pre-school.  Jake is now Director of Educational Technology at College du Leman , an IB school in Switzerland. We speak about international teaching, blended learning, being an Apple Distinguished Edu...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we speak with Joelle Amuah who is a 17 year old student beginning her second year of the Diploma Programme at Aves International Academy in Ghana. She wrote a blog (" My awesome IB experience so far ") recently sharing her experience in year one of the DP.  She described all the ways she grew as a person and as a student in just one year of the Diploma Pr...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of we take a close look at the DP History course, one of the key aspects of any Diploma student’s experience in the IB.  Our guest is Vikas Pahwa who is an experienced DP History teacher in the city of Gurgaon , India . What I loved about this conversation was the universality of the DP History approach he describes. I felt like I was talking to one of the teachers...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we talk to Wendy Heydorn and Susan Jesudason who have recently revised their TOK texts pubished by Cambridge University Press .  They give us a great tour of the newly revised TOK curriculum which could serve as a primer for anyone returning to the classroom this fall to teach the new TOK course with first exams in the Spring of 2022.  They also share a tour of the...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we talk to Guru Charan Kumar of India about his work teaching the IB Diploma ESS Course but mostly we talk about taking his students on exciting trips to support the classroom teaching with real life field experiences. Guru makes a great case for getting out there but he also has tips for those of you wanting to plan for such a trip. He even tells a couple harrowin...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we return to talk to Asnaha Farheen from Abdul Kadir Molla International School in Bangladesh. This time we focus on the PYP Exhibition - the culminating activity of any student’s PYP experience offered in either 5th or 6th grade. Asnaha talks about how they prepare for the Exhibition and how it has been different under the COVID restrictions. Links: First Blog abo...