Today is the last day of the IB Conference.  I meant to post a little everyday but got caught up in being in a new city and in general enjoying a working vacation of sorts.

I arrived in Savannah on Friday night.  The sun was already setting so I didn't get to see much of the city.  Got checked in, went to my room and took a nap for a while.  I had intended to make it for that night's check in for the conference, but ended up sleeping through it.  Oops.  Found a GREAT place called Mardis Gras on Bay, a little pub where Beverly the bartender was just all sorts of friendly and cool, as were Shane, the guitar player, and Michelle, his wife.  For a little while it was just the three of us in the place, though later on we were joined by a small group.  I splurged a little on dinner, but it was worth it.  If you are ever in Savannah, go there and have the she crab soup.  Amazing stuff, as are the conch fritters.  Spending time there only reinforced my ideal that if you really want to know a place you are visiting, don't go to the chain places... all you get there is the same crap you can have at home.  Take a chance and find the out of the way local place, and if it's quiet, head on in.  I finished out my evening there, went back to the hotel, read a little, watched some t.v., surfed the net and went to bed.  I could hear fireworks on the river (my room had a balcony with a view of the river... pretty sweet!), but couldn't see them through the fog.

Saturday morning dawned with some of the preceding evening's fog remaining, but the rising sun burned it off fairly quickly as the day went on.  I got checked into the conference, ate breakfast, and headed off to the first session.  I'm here for an IB (International Baccalaureate) conference, and I was excited. I've been fortunate that the two previous conferences were excellent, and I hoped that this would hold true to the pattern.  Fortunately, it did. The presenter is very good, and graciously gave me his power point presentations when I asked for them.

I'm here to learn about a class I'm offering next year called Theory of Knowledge.  It's part cross curricular studies, part philosophy, part ethics, part current events with studies on media studies and knowledge acquisition thrown in.  I can't WAIT to teach it next year, though I'm admittedly a little intimidated... I have a LOT of work to do between now and then.

Hmm... only a few minutes before my last session begins.  More later.

So... further thoughts on the conference.

The more I get involved with IB, the more I enjoy it and I see that it can represent where education should go... perhaps even must go.  The academic standards it holds are quite high, which is a plus, but more importantly is the philosophy of internationalism and understanding that it promotes, as well as its emphasis on student collaboration in view of our increasingly global society.

The TOK class itself is going to be challenging for my students... it's going to be challenging for ME as well.  Suddenly I find myself in search of Aristotle, Descartes, Aquinas, and others in addition to the "normal" reading I am doing.  I am also finding that my movie viewing is going to be branching out, and films that have had a "yeah, that'd be cool to see sometime" view for me are also taking on new importance (e.g., What the Bleep Do We Know, which I think might be right up the TOK alley). 

My concern is that the district will honor the letter of the IB guidelines, but not the intent; nor will the upper administration be willing to acknowledge the fact that my students will need more than the requisite 100 hours for the class in order to be able to meet or surpass the IB standards.  For a variety of reasons, there is a dearth of background knowledge with my students, and I need the time to be able to give them that... to make sure the foundation is there and solid before I build the house, as it were.  To that end, I'm planning on rolling in the Extended Essay work as part of the TOK class.  IB students are required to write a 4,000 word essay on a topic of their choice.  My students will definitely need time in which to do that, and access to technology that many of them do not have at home (the digital divide is very real in our district).  In addition, they will both want and need feedback and the like from me on the progress of the essay; having time built into the TOK class will give them the access to both the technology and to me.  It will also justify to the district why a 100 hour course, designed to be taken over two years and taught concurrently with the rest of the curriculum, should really be offered in the way IB intends it.

Does anyone who happens to read this have any experience with IB, either as a student or a teacher?  What have been your experiences?