Hi all,
I’m trying to make sense of the IB programme as myself and my husband are hoping to move abroad and teach in International Schools. Most of the schools we’re interested in use this format to teach their students. I have read a lot of the material on the IB website but it’s extremely confusing and I have never had contact with it before.
Can anyone tell me what the expectations are for IB “Language and Literature” teachers?
* What does the assessment look like?
* Where on Earth is the list of optional/ compulsory texts (if there are any)?
* What is the “personal project”? Is in inter-disciplinary? Who helps the student coordinate it?
* Is there a clearer outline of the IB beyond their website?
Thanks for your help, I’m really struggling to make heads or tails of it!
15 comments
IB is one big hazy foggy barrier to push through. I’m trying to do so myself now but am not having any luck either.
I’m commenting to follow this thread. At this point I’m so frustrated that IB feels like one big gate keeping barrier to entry.
Unless you have experience teaching IB in your home country, it’s extremely unlikely you’ll be able to get a job teaching IB in Japan. You may have better luck in a different country as the competition is extremely high here.
You need to register on their website for access to more materials. They also provide a list of accredited universities and colleges, with online degrees and certificates, so you can get a good introduction to the IB philosophy.
That being said, shorter courses will only generally cover the philosophical aspects.
I assume you’re talking about Language A for the DP. You’re unlikely to get many (if any) help on this sub because (1) most people here don’t teach IB and (2) those that do are mostly subject teachers, not language teachers. I’m part of the latter too.
You’d be better off asking in r/internationalteachers or r/Teachers . Afaik there’s no IB Teachers sub though.
>myself and my husband are hoping to move abroad and teach in International Schools
Just FYI that most international schools (especially good ones) require you to already have experience teaching whatever curriculum they offer.
And IB schools that _do_ hire without IB experience (but usually expect teaching experience in general, perhaps in another curriculum) will pay for you to do the IB workshops.
r/internationalteachers is a good place to start getting info and ask questions about international teaching.
Oh goodness. I teach at an IB school in Okinawa, and it’s… so much. Luckily, I was given access to IB’s teacher’s manual and stuff long before I started, so I had plenty of time to read through the EXTENSIVE documents full of jargon and… to put it lightly, self indulgent pomposity. It’s almost like learning a language at the same time as learning how teaching IB works. That said, I genuinely do think it’s core aims, values and goals are wonderful, it’s just all worded so… poorly, in my opinion. I also think teaching in that style in a second language is extremely limiting, id love to see what an IB class could achieve if they were learning mainly in Japanese with English being the second language.
Assessment is still super hazy, for me. Nobody really seems to understand it well where I work. For older classes there are a bunch of ways to do it, but I’m It’s coming up to the end of my second year teaching pre schoolers. The best way I’ve found to assess is to set an open ended task for the students, which to complete would require knowledge of what we’ve studied. For example in our unit on endangered animals, I asked them to draw me the reasons they know that animals become endangered. That way, their output could demonstrate their understanding – or lack of, in some cases.
As for the list of texts, there’s a website called my IB, you’ll need to be signed up to it by your school (I think?) in order to access it. There an AWFUL lot to read there and it really does get exhausting. It’s extremely dry.
Personal project, sorry, that’s for older kids than I teach so I can’t help you there.
As far as I know, IB is quite protective of its stuff, so the my ib site is the best way to get information. To put it as briefly as possible – like, to cut distill hours of reading as much as possible, IB aims to teach “how to think, not what to think,” in classes we teach the students what they need to know to be able to answer certain questions, and at older ages, how to find the information they need themselves. It also encourages taking action with the knowledge, so becoming a person who uses their skills to make positive changes. It teaches inclusion, awareness of the world outside one’s own country. Really, it does sound like it could change the world if an entire generation was taught this way, which is what enabled me to make it through all those circular, self-fallating documents.
I have taught in an IB school before (PYP), and it’s about leading the learners to discover their own questions. That usually means finding out what they know, what they don’t know, and what they want to find out. The projects would be a form of showing all three of the above. Their certs will give you methods to probe for information and also how to help them learn through hands-on activities like carouselling.
I don’t know if that helps much, but let me know if you have more questions!
Let me know if you need help. My activity page on Reddit is not working. I won’t be able to reach this thread. You can direct message me. Been in IB field for 5 years.
As an IB alumni in America, the personal project is basically anything. I transferred in late so i got to skip it but i was actually really jealous because it seemed super fulfilling. One of my friends wrote a play. you have an assigned advisor, can’t remember if it has to be a teacher in the discipline that you’re doing the project in or if theyre assigned by the school. For a student IB is BRUTAL and that’s coming from an American perspective. Can’t imagine what it’s like in Japan. I did it for 2 years in middle school and 2 years in high school. My friends who did it for all of middle school and high school do admittedly seem more successful than me though lol. It’s basically college in high school.
I’ve taught IBDP Econ for 15 years. DM me and I’ll answer your questions in detail.
lol I’ll get downvoted for this but clearly you need experience in your home country that would be able to pay for your IB training, at least for IBDP. just like how it is rigorous for the students, it is for the teachers as well. you really have to go beyond than what you would normally do in order to teach IB. you can just be a textbook, chalk and talk teacher for it if you want, but it might not help your students achieve much. maybe you can buy some IB textbooks to get yourself familiar with the curriculum.
I think it depends if you’re looking at PYP (elementary), MYP (middle school), or DP (high school). I’m a new IB teacher in Japan and learned in PYP there’s no set curriculum, but rather a scope and sequence that you use with a normal curriculum like common core.
If you type in English A textbook choices you’ll come up with a suggested list.
[Thinkib.net](https://Thinkib.net) is a good website for a lot of information on the IB. You have to pay for most of it.
Assessments look different depending on the subject. Do you mean assessments as in the Paper 1 2 3? Or homework assessments?
Taking an IB course from the IB for your cert will answer a lot. Just reading the English A manual will help a lot as well.
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Honestly, IB isn’t something you just stumble into like you’re an ALT. It would help if you gave us some of your own background. Are you a teacher?
In regards to the personal project: teachers are usually assigned students to supervise. But the overall supervisor would either be a person specifically designated to oversee the process or just bundled up in the IBMYP coordinator’s position.
The personal project can literally be anything as long as it is chosen by the student. For example, I had students who created a fusion tasting menu, a podcast about pathways into different jobs, and a handbook for micro-financing for employers.
Your role as a supervisor is to simply provide guidance as well as reviewing and making suggestions in their written report.
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A high school I taught at before wanted to do go IB. They were prefectural international focused, hiring lots of foreign teachers with special licenses system. I wondered how difficult it would be for them. I know city HS that did it but they hired a lot of outside experts who had IB experience.