Charger News
IB classes begin at CHSAllison Coffey, Charger Staff Last year, Cookeville High School received the honor of becoming the fourth school in Tennessee to be approved for the IB program, also known as the International Baccalaureate Organization. The program is a non-profit program established in 1968. Five IB classes are offered this year: mathematics, chemistry, music, art, and biology. Ms. Misty Waller teaches the new IB math methods class, which she says is a blast. “I have a good group of students who are interested in learning and are willing to work,” she says. IB math methods class and a regular mathematics course are similiar, but an IB math differs in that the students do more investigation and application to real life. She was trained over the past two summers in the FLIBS workshop located in Florida in math studies and math methods. She found her training to be wonderful and felt that the workshops were some of the best that she has attended. Waller said, “A benefit in taking an IB class is that it gives you an international perspective of the world that we live in as well as how we study mathematics. In the IB math methods class, we study different mathematicians from around the world and how their contributions affect what we study today.” Waller decided to take part in this course because she felt that it was “very interesting and very broad.” Jennifer Williams is teaching the IB/AP chemistry class, which she finds fun. “IB courses are great in preparing students for doing university level work. The IB course concentrates more on understanding the bigger picture instead of little bits of information. The IB science course has a big emphasis on lab work and how the practice relates to the more abstract concepts.” She went to Toronto and Florida to attend her two workshops. She says that she enjoyed the training and felt that the “best thing about the training was being able to talk to other teachers from other states and other countries and to see what they are doing.” She says that right now, the IB classes do not differ from an AP class, but it might as the course progresses. “It’s like a freshmen college chemistry course,” she says. Williams wanted to take part in the IB program because she thought it was challenging and will “improve my teaching skills as well as the students abilities. It is good for teachers to be challenged, too. It keeps us sharp and helps us find new ways to do our job.” Mr. David Talbert says that his IB music class is a mixture of different performance components. “The students in this class are either part of the band and play an instrument, will sing or compose music. The class is, for the most part, just like other higher level classes. We will be focusing a whole lot more on the individual work rather than being a member of the overall group.” Talbert returned to the high school on August 9 after taking a trip to New Mexico for his training. “I thought [the training course] was really really good and very thorough. We had two instructors, which I think was a nice balance and helped a lot with my questions. One of the instructors had been teaching an IB music class for about seventeen years and had a lot of the bugs worked out. The other was someone from the international organization who was involved in the grading process of the things we must send out.” The difference between a regular music class and the IB Music class is that the students “will be studying more music history and theory.” He said that the students who will study music while in college will have a head start on the classes that they will take. “I really wanted to be part of this program and when I found out that there was a possibility in a music class, I wanted to be involved so I might become a better instructor for other classes. Even though I am getting a later start than others, I am enjoying what has happened so far and what I know will happen with it.” The new IB art class is a mixture of artistic talent and art history. The teacher, Mr. Mitchell White, thinks that it is great that he is able to teach art “the way that it should be taught, not doing one thing, wrapping it up, and then moving on. The students get to choose what they want to do and completely experience it.” The students are able to study whatever it is they want, and are able to explore the culture and history of their subject, something the regular art classes do not have time to do. “The major benefit for taking this IB art class is the amount of time the students are able to work on a project. They now have the chance to explore and reason something to its fullest, and have the chance to study more indepth what they are doing.” Along with Talbert, White attended a conference in New Mexico which he described as being great. “I thought it was very imformative. It gave me a chance to meet and work with teachers from around the world who have been doing this for a long time and being able to ask them questions.” Mrs. Aileen Click, the IB coordinator, said, “I am very excited
that we are offering these five certificate classes this year.”
She says that next year the entire program should be offered.
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