This is an anecdote which I’m sharing with all the IB student and parent community. It’s the fruit of our experience gathered through immense toil and pleasure indeed by my high school grader and myself.
How To Survive IB: My Personal Story
Our experience may add value to many like us.
I remember my daughter talking on The Paradigm of ‘the sphere to flat’ which created a shift in the shared knowledge, going in line with Thomas Friedman, the author of the book ‘The World is flat’. This book explains the technological shifts of the ’90s. The shifts attributed to the sudden levelling of the economic sphere to flat and creating new global economies like India. The global moves of families required students to continue their education worldwide in an uninterrupted way. This is an added incentive for students to opt for international programs like the IB.
How has been the transition for her from US county curriculum to CBSE in grade 11?
- We shifted to Bangalore from US in her 11th grade and however, with a quick admission to a CBSE school close by, we expected a seamless transition facilitating her to appear for the boards.
- But going in line with what most of the Indian parents do, our experience was not fulfilling.
- She took admission in June and started facing challenges with the traditional approach of teaching.
- She kept on talking about a change to the International Board
I still remember she talking and researching on the IBDP…
- She gathered insights on the mission, vision, philosophy and its unique learning environment.
- By August she was hell bent to change the curriculum and take up IB. She explained us the nitty gritty involved from www.ibo.org
Was there anxiety in us that she was making a drastic shift in the curriculum?
- Yes, it was!
- She felt the pressure of how to get assisted with some online course materials with an individualized touch of mentoring on some of the IBDP group subjects like Economics HL, Math HL and Physics HL.
- However, the most challenging ones were TOK and Extended Essay.
- She was apprehensive about the facilitators in the virtual forum, not on their expertise, rather their approach towards handling peers across the globe, operating on the axis of cultural neutrality.
She happened to bump into an IB resource network…which changed her life!
- She felt the warm comfy blanket she needed.
- Founded by Shailey Valecha, an IBDP examiner of Business Management, Economics, Theory of Knowledge and Extended Essay, she spoke to the veterans who deal with Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics with a comprehensive knowledge and vast experience to understand that the international curriculums and understand the different approaches to teaching-learning and assessment.
The most interesting key was the student-centric learning environment!
- The teachers figured out the academic challenges faced by her and aligned her with self-paced progress, confidence and grit. They prepared an IEP for her with the aims and objectives feasible to attain.
The most engaging resource network!
- The emphasis was on active learning with respect to real life involvement, connectedness and concurrency.
- Each small assessment was a milestone for her and she understood from them that higher marginal scores mean higher average and total scores.
- This online resource network inculcated her affective skills.
Guidance on gateway to universities abroad!
- Sev7n.co.in career path analysts identified her areas of passion and oriented her to focus on subjects as per the preferred university prerequisites.
- It also facilitated her to qualify in various competitive examinations such as ASSET, ACT, DUKE TIP and SAT.
She can never forget her facilitators there…as it helped to groom her as an empathetic global citizen!
- She studies in an Ivy League and is doing an intern with an NGO which aims to conduct research, collect and analyze data, monitor economic trends, and develop forecasts for the labourers to match their skill set with the right job requirements.
However, I must say that since the approach towards IB encompasses the deliberative strategies, skills and attitudes that permeate the teaching and learning environment, you must land up in the hands of the expert facilitators.
I feel anytime this virtual platform better as they get to interact with the global children, learn the most updated online tools and techniques, become more organized in time management and planning.
Also, the most interesting part was they prepared an IEP for her with the aims and objectives feasible to attain.
I was a spark plug and kept a track of the daily work tracker. Whenever, she faced any challenge a color flag would rise and give the indication for help. It was a 24×7 support for her to score a 42!
The career path analysts oriented her to take up subjects of her passion and she is aiming to go to one of the IVY Leagues with Economics as her special paper.
