IB@BCC

November flew by quickly and we are almost at winter break! Our seniors have just completed their English Oral assessment and the juniors are starting to focus on their first IA's. Just before Thanksgiving our students enjoyed the first hot chocolate bar of the year!

Read on to hear about other news here in the IB Office at BCC.

If your student has a spare twenty minutes during break, ask them to enter one of their CAS experiences into Managebac. This is also a good topic of conversation if you have family gathered over break. Have your student tell their grandma (or whomever) about what they are doing for CAS. If they are a senior they can share what they are doing for their CAS project.

If you ask them about this and they give you a bit of a blank stare or a look of panic, have them come by the IB office to talk with Ms. Kane and she will get them back on track.

Thank you to all the families that contributed supplies to our first hot chocolate bar of the year. I want to give an extra appreciation to Orly Isaacson for organizing the sign-up, and to the volunteers: Beth Pruski, Liz Harjes, Jill Pellettieri, Jill Kolakowski, and Melike Oncu.

December has been busy! Students register by January 10 for classes for the next school year. As such, tenth grade students and their families have been learning about the IB Diploma Program and creating their Two-Year Plans. If you know of a student in tenth grade that might be interested in doing IB, please share this link with them to draft their two year plan: bit.ly/IBtwoyear

This month's IB Learner Profile Attribute is Inquirer. Our students demonstrate their curiosity and inquiring nature by asking questions, trying to determine the how and the why, in addition to the what and the where. This is an essential element of IB, seen daily in Theory of Knowledge and in their Extended Essay. Inquiry is also a regular component of all the IB diploma classes. Emphasizing inquiry helps foster the love of learning in our students and urges them to become good citizens of the world as they ask questions about what they hear on the news and attempt to see the perspectives of others.

Image by kraphix on Freepik

This coming exam season we will be giving more than 800 exams. This means that we will need a lot of proctors! We are allowed to have parents and caregivers serve as volunteer proctors. These adults would circulate around the testing room to help ensure that students have a quiet testing environment and all students are acting honestly. Please start to make plans to support our testing sessions. We can use you for a short or longer amount of time, one day or many. Thank you! Email Ms. Day or Ms. Kane to let us know you plan to help.

IB Exam dates are set many months in advance by IB and may not be changed. If your student has a conflict between an IB and an AP exam they need to email Claudia Yener to arrange for a make-up test date for their AP Exam.

You can see the full schedule of IB and AP exams at this link.

Office Emails:

• DP Coordinator: Sarah Day (Sarah_E_Day@mcpsmd.org)

• CAS Coordinator/ IB Office Admin. Assistant: Mary Kane (Mary_b_Kane@mcpsmd.org)

Join the IB Parent List-Serve

• IB Parent Liaisons: Orly Isaacson and Jill Kolakowski

• ibdiplomaprogram+subscribe@groups.io

Other School Resources

• Maryland Diploma Requirements: B-CC Counselors

• College Related Questions: Catherine Heald (catherine_e_heald@mcpsmd.org)

• Transcripts/Credits/Graduation Requirements: Maureen Bonner (Maureen_Bonner@mcpsmd.org)

• Course Specific Questions: IB teachers - they should be your first point of contact

• IB Administrator: Deberry Goodwin (deberry_L_goodwin@mcpsmd.org)