allshewrote

So, at my school, the administration recently (two years ago maybe?) hired the new IB coordinator after the old one retired. She decided that some changes needed to be made to "improve" the program, which included selecting a student's EE subject area and supervisor for them. As frustrating as that is (though I got my desired topic and supervisor, others weren't as fortunate), what bothered me most was the way she bumped the Theory of Knowledge requirement to two full years - eleventh and twelfth grade.

It used to be just a semester, but now we IB kids are left without 1.5 years worth of elective space, which is hard enough to come by in this program! I know that it's overkill, and it's maddening because that's time I could have spent in another AP class or in an elective I genuinely enjoyed.

It's too late to go about changing the situation for my class, but I'm still curious: has anyone else dealt with something similar?

yoamogatos

In my son's IB program, TOK is 2 semesters - spring of junior year and fall of senior year. It is held once a week after school for 2 or 2 1/2 hours, so the class doesn't interfere with the regular school day. It does interfere with sports practice and EC's however.

Diploma students select their own EE subject but I'm assuming they have to run it by the IB coordinator for approval.

missmbv

Ours is the same as yoamogatos' son's (2 semesters, spring of junior year and fall of senior year) but during the school day. Since our school doesn't have a lot of semester-long electives, it somewhat interferes, but at least we now have eight instead of seven classes so we have a bit more elective space.

berries123

At my school, we take TOK two days a week for 2 years and it's part of our class schedule for the day. On the days we don't have TOK, you can leave school early since it takes place at the end of the day.

neuchimie

Mine was a regular class, two semesters during junior year. We had a rotating schedule for classes, so we'd have each class for two hours every three school days (so max twice a week).

We could choose our EE subjects, but had to get the topic approved by the subject's HL teacher. So I had to check with my HL history teacher to make sure my history topic was good, and then he became my advisor.

Mom2M

Twice a week, in the evening, Spring Junior year and Fall Senior year. The teacher is amazing, and works around the EC commitments.

The students choose the EE and advisor.

Amandurrs

Our IB coordinator recently retired as well but the TOK policy has stayed the same. We take two semesters of it, fall of senior year and spring of senior year. It works out pretty well and I like the arrangement of it.

rerunagain

At my son's school TOK is the same schedule as it is for many of you: spring junior year and fall senior year. It meets every day during the school day (a lunch period so that most of them give up lunch for those two semesters). The EE topic/mentor is chosen by the students and their incentive for getting work done on it early is that each IB teacher can only take a certain number of students.

allshewrote

So it sounds like you guys/your children have a program coordinator that actually makes sense. I find myself sitting here simmering with jealousy - it just doesn't make sense to take this class for two full years (not to mention we're dealing with a teacher who's brand new to teaching anything related to the IB program). D:

Ah well. Gotta make the best of the cards we're dealt, I s'pose.

speedysloth

In our school, we only take it for a semester (5 days a week). It used to be that we were supposed to write our ToK Essays over the summer, but they've changed it this year so that we write those essays in our English class in senior year.

swim2daend

The system is set up where IB EXPECTS a school to offer it in 2 semesters: Junior spring and Senior fall. Other systems are simply wrong as it's not a school decision and the IB coordinator can get in trouble for doing otherwise (according to my old IB coordinator when I asked her why we did it in this fashion)

Athleticstudent

We take TOK first semester junior year, and first semester senior year. During second semester junior year, we have EE class, where you get time to write.

Dragonflygarden

At my D's school TOK runs 2 years but the Fall of Junior and Spring of Senior year function as study halls.

D is a rising senior and they are supposed to return to school with 2000 words done of the EE.

Kaeroze

My school is 2 years of TOK, each year is a semester of Writing seminar and then a semester of TOK class both Senior and Junior year. But then again, even with the full IB schedule, we get 2 electives(9 classes total).