Professional Development Highlights
IB Diploma Programme subject specific seminars
Subject specific seminars introduce curriculum changes to experienced teachers. The faculty will include master teachers and those involved in the curriculum review. Staff from IB’s curriculum and assessment centre will also be on hand to answer questions.
For 2011, groups 1 and 2 and economics are the revised subjects, with teaching beginning in September 2011. Workshops will continue in 2010 with the current course since new subject guides will not be available before late 2010, and first exams do not occur until 2013. Subject specific seminars for groups 1 and 2 will take place in early 2011. The latest summary of changes to the curriculum is detailed in the document Guidance for language provision in groups 1 and 2, which is posted on the occ.
The new guides (first teaching September 2011) for group 1 and 2 courses which were developed during the recent curriculum review will be published in December 2010. To support the launch of these guides and to provide valuable professional development for experienced teachers, each region will be holding subject specific seminars in early in 2011. Subject specific seminars are unique category 3 workshops which are designed to address the curriculum changes to Diploma Programme courses as part of the review cycle.
The goals are:
- to provide clear guidance on changes to subject specific content and assessment models
- to illustrate changes to assessment models using specimen examination papers
- to offer examples of student work that illustrate these changes
- to explore teaching and learning strategies to support changes
- to provide clear changes to procedures associated with submission of student work
All category 1 and 2 workshops scheduled to take place after the subject specific seminar in 2011 will focus exclusively on the new guides.
Please visit the events pages of our website in September for dates and locations.
Category 3 workshops for all programs
IB Americas has experienced tremendous growth over the past year in category 3 workshops. Category 3 sessions provide a unique opportunity for in-depth, content-based professional development. For a complete listing of IB Americas category 3 workshops, please visit our events pages at: www.ibo.org/events/workshops.cfm
We encourage workshop leaders in each of the three programs to submit proposals for additional category 3 workshops. The proposal form can be found on our website at www.ibo.org/iba/workshops/categorythreeworkshops.cfm
Please submit your proposal via email to margot.hoerrner@ibo.org and lisa.fanning@ibo.org.
Continued Collaboration with the Prestigious American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)
Begun in 2007, IB Americas continues to offer its teachers the museum’s award-winning Seminars on Science program, which currently features ten online courses ranging from evolution to ocean dynamics to quantum physics. Each course is six weeks long and is designed specifically for educators. The courses, taught by a museum scientist and a veteran classroom instructor, tap into AMNH’s immense resources and the expertise of leading scientists. Teachers earn up to four graduate credits and/or IB professional development credit. The final assessment activity required of each course will focus on an IB classroom application.
For more details, please visit the workshops and conferences page at www.ibo.org/events or contact Lisa Fanning at lisa.fanning@ibo.org.
Space is available for workshops across the Americas for the remainder of 2010!
For more information, please visit the IB Americas workshop website at: www.ibo.org/iba/workshops
