Stress, anxiety, and a lack of time are common feelings for students at high school. Deadlines closing in, assignments getting harder, and social problems can combine to make a monstrosity of a teenager’s life. Entering the whirl is the new International Baccalaureate program, feeling bitter to juniors and seniors, and like another obligation to sophomores and freshman. However, the difficulty for teachers increases even more. For teachers, it is another program that has to be developed. The training to become an IB teacher is extensive, and takes a long time with lots of dedication. Math teachers Lisa Roberts and Gina Prowell have both committed to this training.

“Our process for becoming IB teachers started two years ago. Mrs. Prowell and I had to go to training programs, lead by the IB people. One of the trainings we went to was in Houston, during February. It was a three day workshop, and we sat in training to teach us what the tests are going to look like, and what the projects are going to look like,” said Roberts.

For the math department, the main difference for students between high level classes and IB classes is a paper that students have to write. The project allows students to dive deeper into their education, and research math topics that they have an interest in. For teachers, however, all of the textbooks are going to be different, and the curriculum plan has to be entirely rewritten.

“We have gotten [the teachers] textbooks that they can review and then go through a process using a specific textbook rubric that we have created. They could decide which textbooks to use, and we helped to guide them through what their curriculum will be and what the tests will look like, so that they can get a clear idea of what they need to be teaching in their classes,” said IB coordinator Steve Meek.

Along with planning differently, teachers have to teach differently. IB students and courses are a different style than regular courses, and are going to take more work.

“Teachers have to help prepare students to score well on their external assessments by giving them tests in a similar format and scoring them like IB will score the external assessment. Teachers also have to assist the students with the planning of their internal assessment, which is a math-related research into a topic we have studied.  We will support and challenge our students to rise to a higher level of expectations and we will encourage them in fulfilling the other requirements to complete the IB diploma,” said Roberts.

IB math courses are going to be another challenge on the workload that students possess. There will be more commitment, and much more time set aside for educational purposes. For teachers, though, everything is going become much more difficult. The teachers have the challenge of upholding all the standards of IB in every student, and have to teach higher level material. Their planning has to be recreated for the new courses, and the training has taken years to complete. Teachers have a hard job, and IB makes it harder.