Back to school
Sunday 1 September 2024
As the Academic Programme Leader at UWC Red Cross Nordic, I've been 'back to school' since the start of August thinking about:
- Refining our collective vision for education
- Presentations for alumni
- Inductions for new colleagues
- Welcome programmes for returning colleagues
- Welcome programmes for returning students
- Inductions for new students
Wherever you are with these, I hope it is all going well!
With it being 1st September, it's time I dive back into physics with these top tips for a great start to the year.
- Reflect on the previous academic year: How are things going with your continuing cohort? What can you learn from the outgoing cohort? Reflections stimulate planning - both for our classes and professional inquiry - and this period when routines resume but written feedback expectations are low is key.
- Make use of the IB enquiries upon results: Purchase any remaining marked exam papers and extended essays that you might be able to learn from (I bought an extended essay that I thought was A/B but which scored C). If your IAs were moderated down by more than 15%, you could talk to your coordinator about purchasing remoderation (in which marks cannot go down). And perhaps you have students who are close to the next grade up, who might have written to you over the summer. These options end on 15th September.
- Prepare the lab: We've topped up on equipment for experiments, focusing on topics where we didn't have many hands-on activities, and recruited a student team of lab assistants to help us with organising it. We've also bought textbooks for the new DP1 cohort and put up reference posters for course aims and command terms so that students aren't always reaching for the laptop.
- Consider the IB as a whole: For the first time, I have put paper on the wall that is blank except for three headings (IA ideas, EE ideas and TOK ideas). My idea is to have students write on these when inspiration strikes. This will be a big improvement on my usual strategy of saying "That question would be a great EE" or rining my TOK Bell and no one remembering it months later!
- Greet your students personally: My ice-breakers this year (as I have many non-fluent English speakers) involved students drawing on mini-whiteboards and then presenting what they had drawn. What do you think physics is about? What do you think physicists are like? What activities do physicists carry out? (Incidentally, this was also a concise intro to three out of four aspects of the TOK framework.)
- Get to know your students as physicists: I have set the Should I study physics? quiz to check for prior understanding as well as familiarising students with the site.
- Share your course outlines: I find that students are often eager to check that their studies will conclude in a timely way and so I don't hesitate to show them this teaching sequence, which includes the minimum hours.
- Plan lessons: Consider the Subject Guide's guiding questions and understandings as well as links across and beyond the course. To me, taking full responsibility for the delivery of the course combined with authenticity in the classroom are key.
- Think about whole-school coherence: What themes have leadership shared for the year ahead? What training is available? How can you support your physics students to thrive Diploma wide?
- Remember the bigger IB picture: Will you be attending a workshop? When is your school's next IB evaluation? Are you thinking about becoming an examiner or workshop leader? Are you attending IB Global Conference? I find opportunities like these keep me motivated because of the educators I meet and renewing my connection to the IB mission.