IB Matters

Send us Fan Mail in this episode of IB Matters we talk to Angela Jerabek, the founder of the BARR Model and one of her colleagues at the BARR Center, Hannah Scherer. As all IB educators know, there is much more going on in IB schools than just their respective IB Programmes.  Every school needs a strong and collaborative staff dedicated to the success of their students. Angela and her team have cr...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to Rezuan Chowdhury. Rezuan discusses how he mixes teaching students while also conducting research aimed at improving teaching in the greater educational community. Rezuan is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh and is a Primary Years teacher in an IB school there. He is great example of a collaborative IB teacher who not only is dedicated to helping...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to Paul Campbell of IB Americas about the first ever IB Virtual Global Conference. #IBVirtual This event, created out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a great demonstration of how important gathering, sharing, and learning continue to be for everone in the IB Community. It clearly illustrates the Global nature of the IB movement w...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to Chad Hyatt from Washington Township Schools in Indiana. Chad is an IB curriculum coach in his all-IB District  Our conversation begins with how Chad helps teachers and students to limit teaching to the key points in this online or hybrid learning environment. Some things simply must be set aside when extraordinary circumstances exist. Howev...

Send us Fan Mail Hi - welcome back to season 2 of IB Matters. This episode brings back Tim Kane and Asheesh Misra from IB Schoolimprovement.com with their take on the 2020 IB exam issues and how they have helped schools work with the fallout and results from this unique situation. We did simultaneously video record this episode because Tim shared his screen to illustrate the ways in which the scor...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to Oanh Crouch, a director of education at Globeducate Schools working in Madrid. Oanh’s extensive experience working in IB schools, serves her well working for this global consortium of 50 Schools whose mission aligns perfectly with the IB.  Our conversation focused on ways her schools are using the COVID19 crisis as an opportunity to improve...

Send us Fan Mail This is the 7th episode in the series on Becoming an IB School featuring Rockford High School about 40 miles west of Minneapolis, MN.  As you may recall from previous episodes, Rockford is applying simultaneously to become an MYP, DP and a CP school. It’s a big task in any year but it became doubly difficult with the onset of the COVID-19 crisis of 2020.  Local Rockford parent, Ma...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we talk to Andy Richardson whose IB journey is an example of, not only the world-wide influence of the IB, but also the personal journey of IB teachers as they realize the value IB teaching brings to their students, wherever they are. We also discuss building a personal network of engaged educators through blogs, social media, and other platforms. In Andy’s case, m...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk with Jon Halligan, an experienced IB educator based in the Netherlands about the unique place of the Career-related Programme (the CP) in the suite of IB offerings.  His recently published article (linked below) challenges the IB to help the CP take itself out from the shadow of the more well-known Diploma Programme. Jon argues that each Progr...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to four outstanding members of the Minesota IB community who will share their reactions to the murder of George Floyd in our State and in our local community here in Minneapolis. Anne Lalonde Laux, Chad Owen, Jenny Magdal, and Angela Wilcox are each IB coordinators representing the full IB continuum. Each has a very personal reaction to the ev...

Send us Fan Mail In this unique episode we talk to Jason Reagin, the host of another IB-centered podcast called “Design Cast”. His podcast is focused on aspects of design curriculum in an IB context and includes very practical information for IB teachers. We are also joined by our MNIB president, Kurt Carlson who, like Jason, is a very experienced member of IBEN - that’s the IB Educator Network an...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to Asnaha Farheen in Bangladesh. She is an experienced PYP coordinator now guiding a new PYP candidate school through authorization.  We had intended to talk when her visit was completed to see how it went. However, we recorded this podcast during the shut down of schools world-wide in the wake of the COVID-19 virus and as a result her journey...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we speak with Adrian von Wrede-Jervis. He is an experienced coordinator in an IB continuum school and he has done quite a lot of writing and sharing of his research regarding education in general, and IB education specifically.  We reached out to him recently to have him speak to us about making conceptual teaching more relevant as students progress through the pro...

Send us Fan Mail We talk with Toddle Co-founder, Deepanshu Arora and colleague Chris Overhoff about the PYP support platform and how they are adapting to online learning in this time of the COVID-19 outbreak. They describe the many ways Toddle supports PYP teachers as they transition to online learning. We also talk briefly about the recent Toddle Planathon where over 450 unit plans were submitted...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to Julie Stern and two members of her training team, Trevor Aleo and Kayla Duncan. They recently published an Online Learning Template for teaching online that ensures teachers consider a conceptual framework when using distance learning. They walk you through the template and also share many great ways to think about effective teaching and le...

Send us Fan Mail As we record this episode, thousand’s of schools around the world are closed and teachers and school leaders are scrambling to create the means to teach students of all ages in remote settings. In this episode we talk to Sara VanDerWerf, a national leader in math education and a former IB teacher, about how to use modeling to prepare students for learning from videos - a common pl...

Send us Fan Mail Why would a Head of School want to add IB? We hear from a new high school principal, with IB experience, describe the advantages he sees in leading an IB school. We were recently at Rockford High School to help them record a podcast for their local community about becoming an IB school and I had a chance to meet their new principal, Paul Menard.  Administration changes are inevita...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we talk to Jenny Magdal about maintaining students’ wellness as they try to balance the IB Programme, extra-curriculars and their active social lives. Jenny has led several workshops in her own school and district and for the MNIB on this topic and we think you’ll find her ideas applicable not only to Diploma students but to younger children and even...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we speak with Trevor Aleo whose recent post was featured in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Blog.  After reading his post called,  “Reading the World: The Case for Multimodal Literacy” we reached out to see if he would speak to us so more of you could hear about this intriguing trend in literacy teaching. Trevor also does work in su...

Send us Fan Mail This episode of IB Matters was originally recorded at Rockford High School for the benefit of the Rockford Schools community. We edited this version to serve as a more universal example of how families see the role of IB as part of a comprehensive education which still dovetails with traditional expectations of parents and students for the entire high school experience. If you hav...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of IB Matters we return to speak with Humera Riyaz of Eastern Public School in Bohpal, India. Humera was a guest in our 12th episode several months ago and we are bringing her back to share the highlights of her recent article in IB World Magazine on Design Thinking in the PYP. You’ll get some practical ideas from her and you can learn more by checking out the arti...

Send us Fan Mail This is the fourth in the “Becoming an IB School” series. We were at Rockford High School to record another set of parent questions with Rockford parent, Maris Ehlers , and Dr. Matthew Scheidler - the IB coordinator. But we were also able to capture an interview with one of Rockford’s experienced teachers who is just beginning his own IB journey. Ben Pennings , formerly a Middle s...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we talk to Peter Muir of Melbourne, Australia. Peter is currently an MYP coordinator but he also has extensive experience with CAS - that’s Creativity, Activity, Service - a key component of the Diploma Programme core. We focus on the role of CAS in developing the Diploma student’s awareness of themselves beyond their academic capabilities and more on developing t...

Send us Fan Mail This is a sponsored episode with Toddle , a new PYP-focused platform that provides resources and a place for PYP teachers to collaborate. We speak with Deepanshu Arora - one of the co-founders of Toddle who tells us about the many ways Toddle supports teachers and students in the PYP Programme. Toddle just launched in early 2019 but is already becoming a leader as a PYP resource o...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is another example of the global reach of the IB. Here, we talk to Loredana Giovanelli of the Beijing World Youth Academy (BWYA), a continuum school which includes the MYP and the DP. It is one of the oldest IB World Schools in the Asia/Pacific region. Our discussion focused on the Service as Action (sometimes referred to as SA) component of MYP.  Loredana has some gr...