The IB Journey

Back into the swing

2009-02-02T20:18:00.002-05:00

Okay, getting back into the swing of things this semester is proving more difficult than I thought. I'm totally forgetting things: my keys, homework, or blog,and frankly, I don't like it. My mom suggests keeping an agenda, but I've never liked those. Maybe just a calendar book, to keep track of big events? In any case, I need to get organized.

TOK is proving an interesting course, if not exactly as I had envisioned. I suspect that it really depends on your teacher, how the course will go. Still, reading Plato on day 2 is n't what can be classified as an easy course.

Not much too interesting to report, but I've got to go.
Au revoir,
Ace

A Day of Freedom

2009-01-28T14:12:00.002-05:00

Exams are over! No projects to worry about! No homework to keep up with! No class today! The day between semesters is the one day a year we are truly free. On normal weekends we are usually worrying about the big project due next week, or the math test on Monday, and even over the Winter Break we had work to do. Today, we have none because semester one is completely over and semester two has not begun.

The Math and History exams went well. Everyone was surprised at how easy the math exam was. I'm willing to bet some of us over-thunk parts of it. The history exam was just three essays, as it will be for the actual IB exam. We had about 45 minutes to write each one, though it wasn't broken up - just one big 2.5 hour block. I'm surprised I managed to be done in time, I'm usually a really slow writer. I hope I did well!
Tomorrow semester two begins. I've got Chem, Bio, TOK (Theory of Knowledge), and French. I'm excited to say the least, the TOK teacher is awesome.

The poll results are in!
Which exam are you most dreading? ...
... French 2 (12%)
... English 2 (12%)
... Math 9 (56%)
... History 0 (0%)
... Other 1 (6%)
... No exams for me! 2 (12%)

Obiously math is scary! And History is benign. But tomorrow semester two begins. I've got Chem, Bio, TOK (Theory of Knowledge), and French. I'm excited to say the least, the TOK teacher is awesome. But now I have to go shovel snow.
Goodbye,
Ace

Exams and Ubuntu

2009-01-25T13:14:00.002-05:00

And once more I miss my Friday post. This will be in its stead and I'll update again probably on Tuesday or Wednesday after exams. Speaking of which, French and English exams are over! French wasn't bad, there were a few things I read and was unsure of, but English was fun. I'm afraid I was a little incoherent in my commentary by the end though, because I was rushing to get it done in time. But the greatest challenge still looms ahead: Math. I'm studying now actually, wondering what to put on my cheat sheet. Our teacher gives us cheat sheets depending upon how organized we've kept our notebooks and if we've kept up with the homework. The less you did, the smaller your sheet. I know some people who didn't even bother asking for one because they knew it would be tiny. I was lucky enough to get a full page, even though I wasn't expecting that much. Last year I got about a quarter of a page and that sufficed to get me through, tough there is a greater volume of information in this course. In any case, we'll see how it goes. These exams don't count for IB, so I'm not as concerned as I will be next year come April (and this year for French).

I have gone Ubuntu trigger-happy. I'm installing it EVERYWHERE (or trying to). I tried to install it on my iPod, but I couldn't get it to partition without killing the actual iPod. I entertained the thought of installing it in a shoe, but decided that could be a little smelly. I'm currently reading up on getting it on a USB flash drive and letting it live a while. At the current moment I don't actually have any operating system installed on my computer. I'm running off the Ubuntu LiveCD and reformatting my hard drive. I've been entertaining the thought of making my desktop computer into a server and just having my external hard drive (which is over three times bigger than my internal one) as my default computer. I see no reason this shouldn't work, besides that the server might be down whenever I use my computer.

In any case, this blog isn't for my Ubuntu-musings. And I have to go study. See you at the Suicide (Math Studying) Party tonight [7pm, on MSN, message me].

Farewell,
Ace

Exams

2009-01-20T18:38:00.006-05:00

Dun-dun-dun! One more day before exams start! Not IB Exams, mind, just the regular OSSD exams for us semestered schools. Everyone's stressed, because today we had a Math Test, yesterday some people had the English IOP for Frankenstein, and since Thursday untill tomorrow the practice French Orals have been going on. I spent the weekend doing mostly History homework (sorry for missing another post this Friday!). Saturday I went over to a friend's house to film a bonus project about Fredrick Delano Roosevelt and Sunday I illustrated two Political Cartoons about him. We've been studying the Great Depression and FDR's "New Deal" for the past little (long) while.

There is going to be a "Suicide Party" on MSN Sunday afternoon/evening, for everyone in the SL Math course. Be sure to bring your questions and expertice, and we'll all try not to die on Monday during the eaxm.

So, I'm being yelled at to study French (my first exam, Thursday). I really don't want to. It's just going to be a simulation of the IB Exam, with three reading comprehension excercises. They're pretty easy, and other than aquireing random vocab there isn't much to do as far as studying goes. As for my other exams, English and History, they're just going to be essays (whoopie, five essays to write!). We have more essays for History actually than English, so that's a little comical. There are a few sets of plans for post-exam stress releif, some individual, some in groups. Hot bubble baths, massages, going skating (ask Beck about it if you want in), or out for a Chinese food binge.

Poll Results from forever ago:
My pollyphasic postponement...

... About time, you crazy fool!	1 (12%)
... Why did you stop? Your slow descent into insanity was amusing me.	3 (37%)
... Why did you stop? You were doing so well!	3 (37%)
... I'll be looking forward to your next trial, good luck!	1 (12%

Not much else, except that I might be starting up polyphasic sleeping again after exams. I'll be posting to thepolyphasicjourney.tk, so check it out!
Bye now,
Ace

Missed a Post!

2009-01-09T16:24:00.003-05:00

Whoops. I missed my end-of-week post and didn't even post yesterday (Monday). I'll try to make up for it here.

Getting back to school was good. Not everyone was quite as excited as I, however nobody really begrudged it. The only panic was really the Math Task.

Wednesday night was long. Few people in my IB SL Math class got more than six hours sleep. Many got as little as four hours, and one of my classmates was up all night. Why? Our Investigative Task for the IB Math SL Portfolio (internal assessment) was due Thursday. I personally started it on the last Friday of the Break and finished up the majority on Sunday. Many of my classmates started about the same time or even later, leaving them awake late into Thursday morning. Day of, everybody was nodding off by third period, except those who had ingested caffeine earlier. After school, I actually took a nap for half an hour and would happily have slept longer, had my mom not woken me to do homework.

We also got a long talk about our French Orals, which we will be doing a "practice" of this week. I've got to talk for four minutes, in complete French about American Politics. It may sound daunting, but as our IB Coordinator (and French teacher) said, four minutes really isn't a lot.

The other History class got their Historical Investigations back on Friday, though the general results I don't know. We haven't received ours back yet, although they are marked, due to some issues. Our teacher says there is a need to speak with a few people personally first.

My weekend was interesting! Friday I was invited bowling, to find upon arrival that I would be attending the birthday party of a friend of a friend. My friend did not actually know anyone except the birthday girl, hence bringing myself and another friend, and when the birthday girl was late we skipped out to Zehrs and bought hummus and pita bread to snack on. We also got a gingerbread "Santa's Sleigh" kit, on sale for 50 cents (awesome deal right?) and actually built it in the bowling alley. We didn't feel like eating it though, so we just left it on the party table. Saturday, I went with a friend to the by-annual Psychic Expo held in town. I got a "proffesional discount" with Christena Linka because I had been in contct with her husband, Peter, about potentially starting up doing readings for money. I haven't got a job, and I ofen find myself in want of cash, so I figured doing something love, and getting payed, would be awesome. Not something I want to do for life, like the Linkas, but there's plenty of interest expressed by my classmates whenever I bring my cards to school, so I'm doing a bit of a blitz week now to give everyone who wants one a reading, and then I'm going to start advertising my "business". Also, I got a new Tarot Deck while there, Raidant Rider-Waite, because my beloved Morgan-Greer deck was destroyed by a lively puppy last year. Peter actually surprised me by buying me a pendulum as a gift and I learned about Druid sticks, which I think I'll incorporate into my readings sometime.

Yesterday I meant to post here, but I got caught up an a 6-hour instalation of Ubuntu 8.10 onto my WD MyPassport Essential External Hard Drive, which, if you don't know, are an open-source Linux-based operating system (like Windows or Mac OS) and something simmilar to a really big USB drive, respectively. Ubuntu itself is not dificult to install, indeed it's easy, but I was having issues doing it on the External Hard Drive. I did get it eventually, but now my computer won't boot Windows without the drive plugged in, it just returns a "GRUB Loader Error", but I won't get into that. I'm currently running Ubuntu, and it's going to take some getting used to and figuring out. This is the first computer tinkering I've done, so I'm still a newbie with it all.

This week our French Oral Presentations start, with me on Friday (Day 2). Monday our "creative" segment for History class is due, and we have a Math test somewhere in there. Thursday exams start and the Thursday after we're into the new semester!

I hope that filled in the blanks sufficiently, and now I'm off to learn some more about Ubuntu.
Adieu,
Ace

Welcome 2009

2009-01-05T17:07:00.003-05:00

First day of school in 2009 is over! I was unusually uppity today. I'm usually a happy person, but I have a lot of unexplained gleeful energy today. We didn't do much in class today. Our math teacher started our Statistics Unit, but it was just a review of bar graphs and histograms. English we wrote children's poems and stories for the son of one of the teachers at our school who, at the age of only three, was diagnosed with lukemia over the break. In History we talked about a potential trip to Washington that our teacher would be organizing. In French we looked up articles in issues of "L'Actualite" - a magazine out of Quebec that focuses on global issues - to find a topic for our ISU, which will be a practice for the Oral Exam we will be doing in May.

In other news, exams and Science Fair are looming nearby. Exams are in about twelve days and besides the usual ill-feeling toward such a time, I've also got a good friend leaving at the end of the semester. Not out of the city or anything, in fact the other school is rather close to ours, but it's still a change. We met in grade nine and were fast friends, and though we were obviously going to separate eventually, I'd rather expected it to be a year or so later. Still, with luck, I myself will be leaving at the end of this school year. I still have to send in my application for the UWCs, but the deadline is February 15th, so I've got to hurry! In any case, Science Fair is comming fast and my project is untouched. Got to start working on that... Also got to finish the website for it. I offered to do it over the break and I'm mostly done. I've just got to upload mostly, and fill in a little of it.

Nothing much else going on though. I had an optometrist's appointment today and luckily my perscription didn't change. I'm getting new frames though, but I won't let the cat out of the bag about all that quite yet. I've also got a New Year's resolution: to do my math homework on time. It's something I often put off and end up forgetting about, but I really want to get back on track.

A note about my polyphasic blog entries - I'll be moving them off to another blog. It was fun publishing them here, but it looks really cluttered now and there are about 45 posts that are barely IB-related. I'll leave up a link to them, but they've got to go. Also, I'm surprised about the amount of support I got for my experiment. A lot of people were really excited about it and gave me much encouragement throughout. Thank you everyone!

And now time to go fulfill that resloution,

Au revoir,

Ace

Break Work

2008-12-26T05:16:00.003-05:00

Good morning world!
I wanted to post a non-polyphasic sleeping update, just about what the holidays probably look like for the more normal IBs who are not trying to mess up their internal clocks. We've got no homework in French or History, and in English, all we have to do is read halfway through Frankenstein, which is a rather small book as is. Not much work at all, it seems. But we also have a Math Task to do, and this one gets sent into "IB World". Once I'm better adapted to polyphasic, I'll probably talk more about this all.

I was speaking with my friend, who had a very funny story to tell me yesterday. With permission, I post it here:

But hey, listen to this.
Somehow, I got the idea into my head that...[our math teacher] said we had to go to school on Monday to take a math test.
Like...because we didn't have enough time to finish and shit.
...and I really really thought this.
When I woke up this morning.
I was totally in sleepy panic mode
(don't know how that works)
it was all, A:LKgj:LKDGJ NOT READY NOT READY MUST STUDY [FORGET] HOLIDAYS AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MEEEE? ;__;

I replied with, "My friend, you are IB."

That's all I have for you right now, keep checking back for Polyphasic Updates!

Polyphasic Sleeping

2008-12-22T12:34:00.007-05:00

All my polyphasic posts have been moved to thepolyphasicjourney.tk.

Check it out, and enjoy,
Ace

A New Level of ibness

2008-12-18T16:20:00.004-05:00

About a dozen of us were racing down the halls to the math room today. Gleefully running to be first in line for a Graphing Calculator (GDC). It was said that we have reached a new level of "IB-ness". I mean, how many people do you know who would do a breakneck sprint for math? None who are non-IB (or go to the school of Math)! Anyway, the reason we were running is because we needed to get our GDCs to use over the Break for our big IB Math Task and somebody had said there was a limited number of the CDs for doing screenshots of the GDC.

In other news, NO HOMEWORK over the Break! Except our math task. And reading half of Frankenstein. Which, compared to what was expected, is pretty light.

Our workload this week was pretty light. Our Historical Investigations were handed in, some people had their IOP presentation today on 1984, and we had to get the good copy of our 1984 essay done. We also had a math test on Matrices today, which I felt was pretty simple. I know I would have been better prepared had I done my homework, but I still think I did pretty well on it. Tomorrow is expected to be a snow-day and there were a lot of people planning not to come any way. I myself won't go if the roads are too dangerous.

I'm excited about the break.I only officially have 4 full nights of sleep left! Monday I'm starting my switch to Polyphasic Sleeping. I'm considering doing a video log on YouTube and linking it, or doing both a written and video log. Tell me what you think. And also, should I start a new blog and link back here or should I do my Polyphasic logs on here too? I'm cutting my previous poll short and putting this up instead. :)

Results:
Do you know where you want to go after high school?
... Yes, I have one school in mind. 0 (0%)
... Yes, I have a list of "top three" (or more) schools. 3 (30%)
... I've got some idea of where I might apply. 4 (40%)
... No. 2 (20%)
... I'm not worrying about that yet. 1 (10%)
... I'm not planing on pursuing further studies. 0 (0%)

Reports, Waterloo, and Poll

2008-12-15T18:40:00.004-05:00

I just returned from Waterloo with the School of Math. It was amazing! But more on that later in the entry.

I spent a good 15 hours on my Historical Investigation for IB this weekend. Friday from 7pm to midnight I did my Summary of Evidence, which is arguably the most difficult part of it. Saturday 10am until 2pm I did the Evaluation of Sources and took a break until 5 to shop for gifts. Then until about 11pm I wrote the Analysis and Conclusion and got it peer-edited for about an hour. It turned out pretty well actually, and I'm really proud of it. I would post it, but I doubt I'm allowed to until it actually gets sent in to the "IB World", so I'll withhold for now.

Sunday morning I woke at 8am and set right to work on my essay for English on 1984. I really put thought into it, but I wrote it very rushedly because it was just a rough copy and I still needed to pack for the Waterloo trip. It was supposed to be around 1000 words, which really threw me off; my introduction and first paragraph alone were almost 500 words, and I still needed to fit 3 more full paragraphs in there. I had to cut some stuff out, so it probably ended up rather choppy-sounding because I didn't really have time to proof read it. Around noon I started getting ready to go.

We left about 2pm and didn't get into the hotel until 6:30pm, with a stop for dinner around 4:30. Then, we went to the South Campus at the University of Waterloo for a Q&A with past Math School grads and a Game Theory workshop. I learned some fun stuff, including some interesting pirate facts. Then we ordered pizza up to our room and watched CSI: Miami until almost 1am.

We woke up around 6:30am and went down to breakfast. One of my roommates and I were too lazy to change, so we just went down in our PJs. We left the hotel at 8:30am and got two Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science recruitment presentations. Then we divided up into smaller groups and had a little Q&A with people in charge of specific departments, like Computer Science, Business, Engineering, etc. After that we were let loose for lunch and boarded the bus at 12:30 to go the the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics.

THE PLACE WAS AMAZING. I won't go into details, but lets just say it (pleasantly) blew my mind. I can sorta prove that 1+2+3+4... etc. = -1/12. Crazy right!? Anyway, maybe later. After that, we came back home.

And, in other news, the poll is done!
What do you want to see more of?
... Curriculum: 8 (36%)
... IBO stuff: 1 (4%)
... Personal stuff: 9 (40%)
... Another point of view: 8 (36%)
... More frequent posts: 2 (9%)
... More frequent polls: 3 (13%)

So it looks like you want to see more personal stuff, like my social life or employment situation. This actually surprised me, seeing as I started this site to be all about IB, not about me. But I guess it applies to include my social life in here. It is a common stereotype that IB leaves you with no free time, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to truthfully report on that, either to prove or combat the theory. As is, I seem to have sufficient free time to fulfill my needs. Sometimes it's tough to schedule hangout times due to everyone's job or projects or whatever, but that is no different than it would be in a normal high school.

Anyway, I've already written enough for tonight. I'll probably post more this week due to the impending holidays, so we probably won't be doing too, too much and I'll have the time. Plus, there probably will be stuff to write about.

Good night,
Ace

Trig Study Sheet

2008-12-11T16:05:00.008-05:00

Trigonometry test tomorrow! I've promised to get a study sheet up before 7PM, at which time I have to be back at school for the "Grade 8 IB Info Night". More on that tomorrow, here's the study sheet. I am following the order in our textbook, Mathematics for the international student: Mathematics SL, not necessarily the order we did in class. Anything discussed in class that isn't in chapters 10-13 of the book, I've added at the end of the sheet.

Chapter 10: Right-Angle Trigonometry

Pythagoras

a²+b²=c² (where c is the hypotenuse)
this deals with sides, not angles
often used twice in 3D problems (eg. diagonal of a box)

"soh-cah-toa"

sin A = Opposite/Hypotenuse (soh)
cos A = Adjacent/Hypotenuse (cah)
tan A = Opposite/Adjacent (toa)

Solving (sides, angles, chords, and tangents)

Isosceles Triangles: drop an altitude from the base so that you have two identical right-angled triangles
Chords (right) can be made into isosceles triangles by subtending it from the centre (connect radii to both ends for the chord)
"A chord subtends an angle of 112 degrees at it's centre" means that angle AOB is 112 degrees
A radius can be drawn from the point a tangent touches the circle to form a right angle
Remeber that you can find right angles in other figures too, usually by drawing altitudes or diagonals
Angle of elevation is the angle formed between the horizontal and the up-ward line, angle of depression is the horizontal and the down-ward line.

Slope of a line (the dotted lines are the axes)

slope x = tan a
slope x = rise/run
tan a = opposite/adjacent
(drop a perpendicular from line x to the axis, this forms a right-angled triangle)

The two most important triangles ever

Chapter 11: The Unit Circle

You only really need to know the first quarter of the Unit Circle, and the transformations associated with the other quadrants.

for any point on the circle: P(cos a, sin a) when angle a is measured from the positive x-axis
the equation of this circle is x² + y² = 1 or
cos² a + sin² a = 1

CAST Rule
S A All trig ratios are positive in
TC quadrant A, only sin is positive in quadrant
S, etc.
We know they are negative because of the coordinates for each angle.

Corresponding angles
quad A ~ quad S ~ quad T ~ quad C
sin x = sin (180-x) = - sin (180+x) = - sin (360-x)
cos x = - cos (180-x) = - cos (180+x) = cos (360-x)
tan x = - tan (180-x) = tan (180+x) = - tan (360-x)

Chapter 12: Non-Right Angled Triangle Trigonometry

Area of Triangle = (1/2)ab sin C [where cappital letters are angles and lowercase letters are their opposite sides]
Area of Triangle = root of [s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)] where s= (a+b+c)/2

length of an arc = (θ/360)2πr
area of a sector = (θ/360)πr²

Cosine Rule: a²=b²+c²-2bc cos A
also: cos A = (b² + c² -a²)/(2bc)
Sine Rule:
sin A = sin B = sin C
a b c

Chapter 13: Periodic Phenomena

Periodic function: f(x) = f(x+p)
"over some interval of x, the y is repeating"
p = period
A = amplitude (half dist between max and min
principal axis = the line between max and min

Radians

(θ degrees)(π/180) = radian measure
(θ radians)(180/π) = degree measure
length of arc = rθ
Area=(1/2)r²θ
A radian is the length of an arc that is equal to the radius of the circle.
since the formula for the circumferance of a circle is 2πr, when we use the unit circle (radius of 1) we get a circumferance of 2π.
2π is the distance once around the circle (360 degrees)
π is the distance travelled around half the circle (180 degrees)
π/2 is a quarter distance around the circle (90 degrees)
π/3 is the length traveled when the angle that subtends that arc is 60 degrees
π/4 is the length traveled when the angle that subtends that arc is 45 degrees
π/6 is the length traveled when the angle that subtends that arc is 30 degrees

General Sinusodal Functions

f(x) = A sin [B(x-C)]+D (works for both sin and cos)
period= (2π)/B
Transformations
- A is the amplitude or vertical stretch, when negative it is a reflection in the x-axis
- B helps to find the period (see above), it is the horizontal compression, if negative it is a reflection in the y-axis
- C in the horizontal shift or "phase shift"
- D is the principal axis or vertical shift
Graphing a wavelength
sin: o-max-0-min-0
cos: max-0-min-0-max

Trig Modeling

Examples: tides, monthly temperature, Feris wheels
identify the max and min
find the principal axis (D) and Amplitude (A)
find the period and B value
decide whether to use a sine of cosine graph
make the appropriate phase shift (eg. if high tide is at noon and you have to use a sine function, shift so that noon is on your y-axis to make things easy to work with)

Simplifying/Proving Expresssions

make the left side equal the right side
do NOT "multiply both sides by4" or move anything over
use trig identities to simplify to one variable (all sin x instead of both sin x and cos x)

Identities

Quotient identities

tan θ = (sin θ)/(cos θ)
cot θ = (co θ)/(sin θ)

Reciprocal identities

csc θ = 1/(sin θ)
sec θ = 1/(cos θ)
cot θ = 1/(tan θ)

Pythagorian identities

sin² θ + cos² θ =1
if you divide the above by sin²θ, you get: 1 + cot² θ= csc² θ
if you divide the above by cos²θ, you get: tan² θ + 1 = sec² θ

All of the identities are things we have learned before. We learned what tan was in Grade 9 (or 10). The reciprocal identities are just reciprocals, the only new thing is the names (secant is the reciprocal of cosine, cosecant is the reciprocal of sine, and cotan is the reciprocal of tan). We learned the basic pythagorian identity ages ago, and the others are just different versions of it by division and application of the other identity names. When solving the identity questions, just

Addition Formulas

sin (a+b) = sin(a)cos(b) + sin(b)cos(a)
sin (a-b) = sin(a)cos(b) - sin(b)cos(a)
sin (2a) = 2sin(a)cos(a) = sin (a+a)
cos (a+b) = cos(a)cos(b) - sin(a)sin(b)
cos (a-b) = cos(a)cos(b) + sin(a)sin(b)
cos (2a) = cos²(a) - sin²(a) = cos (a+a) =1-2sin²(a) =2cos²(a)-1
the final two in the line above used the pythagorean identity to replace one of the values so as to simplify

There are only really two formulas, just different instances of them. The first is sin(a+b) and the second is cos(a+b). The italicised ones are just the simplified form of sin or cos of (a+a). Remember that to fully simplify and solve you should be using the Trig Identities to replace things you notice. for example, if you see cos²(a), recall the pythagorian identity of cos²(a) + sin²(a) = 1. You can rearrange this to cos²(a) = 1 - sin²(a) and then replace cos²(a) with it. This may help you to reduce the equation since you only need to solve for sin(a) now!

I hope this has helped! I've already received some positive feedback, and thank you very much for stopping by.

Good luck,
Ace

History, Hebdomad, and Hyperspace

2008-12-08T21:09:00.006-05:00

Today was a releif for many people. Quite a few handed in their Historical Investigations because today was the early deadline and I heard many scattered, "Phew, I'm done!"'s. I didn't hand mine in yet, mainly because I was relaxing after my IOP (procrastinating again) and I had still to read through some sources I have. I don't know how I'll get to writing those 1500-2000 words this week (or hebdomad) though: tomorrow I'm helping out with our Can Drive until 9pm, Wednesday I have Art Club and Night Math, and Sunday and Monday I'm in Waterloo, so I wont' be able to hand it in Monday. I'm thinking of either doing it Thursday night and handing it in Friday (but that leaves me too little time) or doing it Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and getting one of my friends to hand it in, which is probably what I'll end up doing.

This weekend I was working on quite a few web-based things! Firstly I want to reccomend StevePavlina.com, it's an awesome site about a bunch of stuff. I find his personal experiments entertaining, well thought-out and rigorously reported on. Just click "blog" in the top nav bar or scroll down and find an interesting topic in the sidebar. I first found his site while researching Polyphasic Sleeping and ended up clicking around some more. It's pretty awesome and a better waste of time than other things on the web.

I also decided to get a domain name for this blog! You may have noticed, ibjourney.tk is now the official address of this blog! As you may know Dot.tk gives away free domain names, and that's obviously where I got mine. As much as I love giving the world information about IB, I'm not willing to spend $4 a month or more for a ".com" or a ".info" etc. domain name. I think ".tk" works just as well and it's free!. I was also thinking of moving off Blogger to another blog hosting site, and I did reserve the username "ibjourney" with both Livejournal and WordPress in case I ever want to switch, but for now I'm sticking with Blogger because it's a lot less hassle. I may also in the future flesh this out into a full website, not a blog, and I want to have the versatility for that. I don't know which blog host will allow that best, but until I commit to that, I'm going to stick with the easiest way and stay here.

I've also decided to start building custom websites. I'll just be building a portfolio for the first little while, so I won't be charging anything, but if you're interested in a website for anything at all, feel free to contact me at ace.ibjourney@gmail.com and let me know what you want! I'm experienced with HTML and CSS, can create custom graphics and am learning Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I will be able to find a free host for your site that meets your storage and bandwith needs, and of course I'll get you a domain name at Dot.tk. If you do want to pay for a ".com" or other domain name, I'll do what I can to find you the most affordable registrar.

PS. Yes, I have gone link-crazy!
Regards,
Ace

Individual Oral Presentation

2008-12-05T16:31:00.003-05:00

I presented my IOP today in class! I had decided to do a dramatic monologue as Liesl discussing Faustus Legrand's transformation into Magnus. I had written it last weekend and got some peer editing done by a couple of friends in my class. I left it at that, even though I still needed to rewrite the intro and the conclusiion. Unfortunately, I pushed it off until last night, so I rewrote those parts of it and edited the rest. I got some more peer editing, this time from someone who did the IOP last year. And when I was finally done, it was about midnight, so I stayed up until two in the morning to memorize it, and now I'm tuckered out. I actually had to make cold tea (recipie: put a tea bag into a water bottle, close and shake vigorously), because my mom was asleep and our kettle has a whistle, to keep me awake and focused.

I wasn't nervous before hand, I rarely am, but when the presentations started I began to feel a little uneasy. The first was really good, incorporating visuals, group discussion, and analysis, and I was afraid mine would not be sufficiently formal. Once I got up there I introduced what I was doing and went right into it. I had a shakey start and had to keep reffering to my script. I realize now that I should not have brought it up with me. I'm always tempted to read when I can, instead of talking from memory, even if I know it down pat. So I moved away from the podium, and that really helped. I didn't have the crutch of the script, and I really grew in confidence. I did ocassionaly refer back to it, but not as much as I had to begin. Despite the fact that I've been with the same 40 or so students for over two years in the IB, I was still shaking up there. But I feel it went well overall and I'm glad I've got it over with.

Now I can focus on my Historical Investigation! All I've done so far is read the Communist Manifesto and written my Plan of Investigation. I've got a lot more work ahead of me and the early deadline is Monday. We've got a week after that before the final deadline, but we won't get the bonus marks. I'm still aiming for the final deadline, as this is officially being sent out to the IBO and the bonus marks are only for the course, not for anything in the "IB world". I do hope to get a lot done this weekend though.

Actually, on that day (Dec. 15th), I'm going to be at the University of Waterloo. Sunday afternoon we're leaving and comming back Monday afternoon. The teacher at Night Math invited me and I'm all signed up and ready to go. The trip is open to all the students who attend the School of the Mustangs (as I have mentioned previously, I'm not posting school names) which is famous in the city for their math. I'm the only Raider going, though there might be students from a few other schools going. In any case, I only know a handful of people at that school, so it may be a little akward.

In any case, that's all I have to report for now.
Goodbye,
Ace

Projects, Rubric, Polyphasic

2008-12-01T18:46:00.004-05:00

Okay, so it's Monday and time for an update! I spent a few hours over the weekend writing the monologue for my IOP. I've got about four minutes, which I could stretch to five when reading "in character" (dramatic pauses, appropriate emotional reactions, etc.). I read Part II of the Communist Manifesto, which was actually exciting; you could picture a stout Russian man, wearing red of course, standing at a podium emotionally delivering it as a speech. It's written almost conversationally, and it's a good read. However, Part III isn't. I barely got through the first section before I switched to another book.

We got another assignment today. Two actually, in French class. Our first is an on-the-spot discussion of a small book we will be reading, L'homme qui plantait des arbres, or something like that. We got a random topic and a random partner, and some of the pairings were pretty funny. The next (and our course ISU by Ontario Secondary School Diploma requirements) is an individual, 4-ish minute oral presentation on any topic related to French culture. It's sort of our practice version of the actual French Oral that will be sent off to "IB World" as our teacher put it. Everyone was pretty excited about that, just as we were for our History Project, which has pretty much the same lack of restriction.

We had a Math test today on Trigonometry, and it was easier than I thought, though I know I made a few mistakes. It was only three pages and most of us actually finished within the period, so our History teacher didn't have to get angry about it.

I'm finding IB likes to be open-ended. "Historical Investigation: it's 2000 words and has to be on something over a decade old." "English IOP: it's max 10 minutes long and has to be based on on of the book we've read." "French Oral: it's 4 minutes max and got to be global and related somehow to French culture." So few restrictions, and those aren't really on the topic, just the length. Even the format is left up in the air. The rubrics also, are rather vague. For example, below is a portion of the rubric for IB Labs (Science classes):

Design
Levels/Marks Aspect 1 Aspect 2 Aspect 3
Defining the problem and selecting variables Controlling Variables Developing a method for collection of data
Complete/2 Formulates a focused problem/research question and identifies the relevant variables. Designs a method for the effective control of the variables. Develops a method that allows for the collection of sufficient relevant data.
Partial/1 Formulates a problem/research question that is incomplete or identifies only some relevant variables. Designs a method that makes some attempt to control of the variables. Develops a method that allows for the collection of in sufficient relevant data.
Not At All/0 Does not identify a problem/research question and does not identify any relevant variables. Designs a method that does not control of the variables. Develops a method that does not allow for any relevant data to be collected.

In other news, December is here! I went shopping for gifts over the weekend (and I'm a little disgusted that I did it so early) and even wrapped a few of them. I also started thinking about my Polyphasic Sleeping experiment. I need at least a week to adapt to the new schedule and by two weeks I should be physically fine to go on with school and life as usual. So Winter Break is the perfect time to start and it's less then a month away. A friend encouraged me to do a little more research than just blogs, so I did. Here are the best sources I've found so far:

Steve Pavlina's Polyphasic Sleep Log: the most comprehensive online blog of direct experience switching to a polyphasic schedule and maintaining it.
Polyphasic sleep strategies improve prolonged sustained performance: A field study on 99 sailors: A scientific journal article on studying how cross-Atlantic sailors naturally fall into a polyphasic schedule when racing.
Why We Nap: a book about polyphasic sleeping, how it's natural, etc. The only book on the subject, as far as I know.

That's it mostly. Oh, and the poll ended a couple weeks ago, so here are the results and a new poll:

Which class is your favourite?
... Math: 4 (36%)
... English (or your primary language): 1 (9%)
... History: 1 (9%)
... French (or other "secondary language"): 1 (9%)
... Any of the Sciences (Bio, Chem, Physics): 1 (9%)
... Any of the Arts (Visual, Music, Drama/Dance): 3 (27%)
... Philosophy (TOK, Anthro): 0 (0%)

Long Wait

2008-11-28T17:21:00.002-05:00

Wow, no post in ages. I've been really caught up the past couple weeks. We've got two major IB projects, our Can Drive has started, I need to get going with the Science Fair, and Semi-Formal was yesterday.

Our first major project is our Historical Investigation. It's really exciting actually, we get to choose any topic, narrow it down to a specific question, then "investigate" to find the answer. My topic is "To what extent did the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics maintain the ideals of Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels?" so I'm basically comparing the Communist Manifesto to how communism turned out in Russia (and the other Soviet countries). My Plan of Investigation is below, as an example of what is expected.

I'm reading the Communist Manifesto, because obviously I need to know what's in it, and I've been asked a few times if it's really dry. It isn't dry, but it is sort of rambling in the first part. Still, it's not bad to read.

Our other big project is our IOP (Individual Oral Presentation) for English. We had to choose one of the books from this year - Fifth Business by Robertson Davies, Feila's Child by Dalene Matthee, 1984 by George Orwell, or Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - the first two which we have already read and the third which we are reading currently. The deadlines are corresponding to reading order as well: Fifth Business is this Friday, Feila's Child is the week after, and 1984 is the week after that. Frankenstein is somewhere in January. We can do any of: an oral essay, and oral persuasive essay, an oral commentary, a role play/monologue, and more. I chose to do a monologue as Leisl from Fifth Business, discussing Faustus Legrand's transformation. I've been writing almost all afternoon and I've got a good 4 minutes of monologue done. It still needs some editing, but I'm not in the right mood right now to do that properly. we also need, if we're doing a monologue, justification for it, why we chose to do what we did, etc.

I won't talk much about Can Drive or Science Fair, since all they have to do with IB is being potential earners of CAS hours. Semi was fun, though a lot of people decided not to or for other reasons could not go. Fun night, though I hear there was some major drama behind some of the occurrences. In any case, it was a good night.

Options

2008-11-15T21:45:00.004-05:00

So, a few things went on this week. We got a nice yelling-at from our IBC (IB Coordinator) about telling the Grade Nines and Tens that IB is super-hard and you need to get 90's to go anywhere. It was said we complain a lot even though we don't get lots of homework and the teachers do all they can to make our lives easy. All the IBs got "the talk", not just us. But the fact is, our IBC was right. We don't get lots of work, and half of us don't even do it. We whine and complain about IB and how tough it is and how are marks are too low (not all of us, but the majority), even those whose marks are in the 80s and 90s.

It's a common fact that most of us can never be "good enough" in school. I think some of it is parental pressure, but there is a lot of peer pressure. The stereotype is "90s are good, 80s are okay-ish, anything lower and I'm failing," and many people subscribe to it. And for those people in the 80s and 90s, personal pressure overrides peer pressure, and they still want to acheive more. It's a horrible cycle of complaining and nobody is ever happy.

Our IBO said our behaviour was obvious, but the last straw, which triggered "the talk", was when a Grade 10 student who had all 80s came asking to drop IB because they thought their marks were not good enough. Nobody knows who this proverbial student is, but everyone was shocked when they heard it. It's not impossible for a student with 80s to drop out, but usually for reasons other than "it's not good enough" like courses needed for University or something.

Anyway, I think we need to stop being negative toward the Programme, and start encouraging more students to love it. But I must be off, because it is late!

Au revoir,
Ace

Parties

2008-11-10T16:13:00.004-05:00

I missed posting before the weekend because I was at a debate at the University. It was fun, but different from past years in a few dissatisfactory ways. I won't comment further on here.

My weekend was basically dominated by the debate on Friday and Saturday, and shopping (grocery and electronics) on Sunday. there was also a sort of debate "afterparty" on Friday night. As ib kids of course, we played Balderdash instead of getting drunk (sixth indication of an IB student: word games > intoxicants). The host also provided a hot tub and fireworks; it was a fun night. Sunday I went to a new store which had opened, factorydirect.ca (yes, it's a physical store location, not just a website, but the store actually has the ".ca" bit in the title). It's essentially a bunch of useless gadgetry but it does have some pretty good deals on refurbished electronics. I was supposed to go to a birthday party on Sunday too, but my parents were complaining that I'm out too much so they kept me with them.

I had two tests today, History and Math. I mad a whole bunch of stupid mistakes on the math test that I know I made and could have easily fixed if I had thought about it for a moment. I think I did pretty well on the history test however, so hopefully I can keep my average high. We had some really random "bonus" questions at the end of the test which I'd like to share, just because our history teacher is awesome:

1. There is a clerk at t he butcher shop who stands 5'10" and wears size 13
sneakers. He has a wife and 2 children. What does he weigh?
2. What is the next letter in this sequence: A M J J A S O _
3. What is the definition of "barlafumble"? (This was multiple choice, but I do not recall all the options.)

Tomorrow I have a dentist's appointment to relax my jaw. I hope it helps, because I've been having these jolts of pain up the side of my face for the past day of so and it's really annoying. Thursday I have a Parks and Rec Meeting which I need to prep for and Friday is my friend's birthday party.

Something Wrong

2008-11-04T15:48:00.002-05:00

You know something is wrong when your History teacher has to officially ban the Math textbook from class. We have History right after Math and it tends to spill over, especially after a test. Also, our teacher mentioned that people were doing Math homework in class instead of History work. But even I have to admit, History isn't the most important subject to most of us and we've all been slacking due to the workload from French, English, and of course, Math.

Speaking of which, I was up until about 1:30 in the morning working on the French project we've had. My partner and I had to plan a vacation to Tahiti and talk about it for 20 minutes. All good and well, but there isn't much to do in French Polynesia other than lounge on the beach. It was a fun project, but there were all sorts of miscommunication hassles and nobody was happy. I decided not t o drink any tea today, which by third period seemed like a mistake. I was so tired, I nearly fell asleep in Math class. But I'm a little more awake now, and I think I'll have a little caffein before my meeting tonight so I can comprehend what's going on.

English class was fun. More people presented their projects and they were all very well done. We had a little time at the end of class to look around at all the works, both from our class and the other class (there are about 42 of us, so we're split into two classes). It was really fun, a nice relaxing moment in the day.

Updates Schedule

2008-11-02T16:58:00.004-05:00

So, the results of the poll are in:
How often should I update the blog?
... Three times a week: 0 (0%)
... Twice a week: 3 (60%)
... Weekly: 1 (20%)
... Biweekly: 1 (20%)

I shall officially be posting at least twice a week to report on the status of my IB life. I'll try to do it Sunday night (or Monday if I don't manage on Sunday) to report on my weekend and set out the next week's activities and on Thursday or Friday night to report on the actual proceedings of the week and my plans for the weekend.

In any case, I'll actually start this this week, but right now I have to go finish my homework.

Tah-tah,
Ace

Community Involvement

2008-10-27T19:03:00.003-04:00

Since community involvement is one of the elements of IB, particularly the CAS aspect, I think I have the right to complain on here about mine!

I'm on my city's Mayor's Youth Advisory Committee and I chair the Parks and Rec. Subcommittee. We're having Youth Forums for the next three days and I'm stressed as I've ever been. Not everything's falling in place and I just wish I had more time! Not to mention other clubs and schoolwork, ugh. Three things happening on Hallowe'en: French project due, English project due (wait, this may have been moved to Monday) and a Math test.

Don't get me wrong, I love volunteering and all sorts of extracurriculars, it can just be a little trying sometimes. You've got to learn to pick and choose - don't just jump into everything and hope it'll all fit in. Trust me, it won't, and you'll have to give things up halfway through. Personally, I hate starting something and not gettign through to the end, so once I make a committment, I do everything short of killing myself to follow through. If you're like that, plan ahead first so you're not stuck doing everything at once.

Grar.

2008-10-21T20:58:00.005-04:00

Sooo, my week is booked right up. I do quite a bit of extra-curricular stuff, and this week was officially hell. New dentist on Monday (That was actually fun, I got a filling without anasthetic and can now chew on BOTH sides of my mouth! Isn't it grand.); EWC meeting today; Art Club, Night Math (which I'm skipping for the meeting) and a Parks and Rec meeting tomorrw; another EWC meeting on Thursday; and a school dance Friday at which I have to work because I'm on Student Council. Yayyy [sarcasm].

My dentist has told me that I am to stressed. The fact that I only met him yesterday tells me he is very perceptive. Or just a good dentist. I clench my jaw often, and apparently I was clenching so hard I cracked a filling. Anyway, my biology teacher tells me that I need to slow down. I don't agree, in fact I think I need to speed up. I just need to be more organized about it. And train my body to survive on 2 hours sleep a day.

Also, a friend and I are speaking strictly French on MSN Messenger! It's an attempt to get used to the language, praactice conjugation, and build vocabulary. Especially "everyday" vocabulary, the kind we don't really get taught in class. I mean, when am I honestly going to have to use "crime scene" words? On the other hand, terms I already use in every day conversation are worth knowing.

So... nothing strictly IB-related has happened recently. I did get a comment on the blog though! My math was corrected in the study sheet. x does not "approach infinity", it "grows without bounds". The form to write it (x --> ∞) technically says "approaches infinity" as the arrow is read "approaches" and the sideways eight symbol reads "infinity". Still, I understand the arguement behind "grows without bounds", but I'll explain that another time.

Good night for now,
Ace

Rational Functions Review

2008-10-16T22:31:00.003-04:00

Once again my procrastination (and inattentiveness to dates) leaves me writing up a test review the night before. Though I still doubt many of my classmates bothered studying until tonight.

Rational Functions
Definition: A polynomial over a polynomial.
Form: Where f(x) and g(x) are polynomials: [The function can also be written as the roots of f(x) over the roots for g(x).]
f(x)
g(x)
Domain: x belongs to real numbers except the zeros of the denominator: g(x) ≠ 0
Characteristics (examples for f(x) = 1/x²)
intervals of increase or decrease
can be written in set notation:
Increase {x E R x > 0}
Decrease {x E R x <>
can be written in interval notation (remember, round brackets are "non-inclusive" and square brackets are "inclusive"):
Increase [∞,0)
Decrease (0,∞]
x-intercepts
set the numerator equal to zero and solve for x. Check answers with denomenator to be sure x ≠ 0 (none for this function as 1≠0)
y-intercept
solve for y when x = 0 (none for this function as the denominator ≠ 0)
asymptotes (Definition: a limiting line; a line the function apporaches but does not reach)
Vertical (cannot be crossed): set denomenator = 0 and solve (VA = 0 for this function)
Horizontal (can be crossed): "analyze as x aproaches infinity"
divide each term on top and bottom by the highest degree of x
f(x) = (1/x²)/1
since x is approaching infinity, anything over x will be a tiny number therefore as x --> infinity, f(x) --> 0/1
The HA for this function is 0.
check for crossing by setting HA = f(x) and solving.
Slant: Divide the numerator by the denomenator by long division. The resulting line is (potentially) your slant asymptote.
domain and range
state in set notation
use asymptites as guides

New Poll

2008-10-14T21:52:00.004-04:00

So, another large time-gap since my last post. I think I'll have to start posting regularly, like marking it on my calendar. How often do you think I should post? Vote on the new poll!

Results of the last poll:
I am... (13 individual votes total)
... an IB student, past or present. 12 (92%)
... an aspiring "ib kid." 1 (7%)
... otherwise knowlegeble of the IBO. 0 (0%)
... so confused by this whole "IB" thing! 1 (7%)

In school news, we had a Canadian Mathematics League contest today! It was fun, and the first time since grade nine I've had a good score. So, nothing else too interesting going on.

I'm still waiting for applications to come online for the United World Schools. Applications don't come online in Canada until the end of October, so I've got a while to wait. But before I do, I need to choose which schools I'd like to go to. There are 11 or 12, and theres a lot of info to go through and I'm not looking too forward to it. But I do have to sift, and to make it easier for any future UWC-goers, I'll post my summaries/reports here. Alas, it is late, so I shall update further tomorrow

CAS

2008-10-06T16:45:00.002-04:00

So I did my first bit of campaigning for CAS today. A friend and I, in conjunction with our biology teacher, have started a group called the YCASSIE (Youth Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Study, Inquiry and Education) which is basically an upgrade of Science Fair. But it's not only for people interested in doing Science Fair projects - we're also organizing the first ever Science Fair for our feeder schools. So, to get people to pay us some attention, we're doing Mad Science Week this week in the cafeteria. Just fun, simple, messy little experiments. We did volcanoes today and it went pretty well. We had a signup sheet that got nicely stained with food colouring, and to add to the number of people that signed up at lunch, I went around to the first year IB classes (only two of them) and got practically half the class to sign up. Fun stuff!

In other news, I was asked if this blog gave me CAS hours. I still plan on asking to make sure, though I doubt it. Where does blogging fit into "Creativity, Activity, Service"? Which reminds me, I haven't explained what CAS is.

CAS is just like the 40 hours of community service you need to get an Ontario Secondary School Diploma, except expanded to the max. Instead of just service hours, you need activity and creativity hours too. And about 50 of each. The CAS System got switched around last year, so I'm not all to clear on the new method. I know we need to plan projects, instead of just collecting hours, and our "big international project" has some specifications it has to meet, like incorporating at least two of the sections of CAS, and don't know all of them. Should I manage to dig up all my CAS info, I'll update you on it, but until then, this is the gist of it.

Study Sheet!

2008-09-30T21:12:00.003-04:00

Woah, long time no post. IB and extra curriculars are starting to pick up, so I haven't been able to get around to a "trivial" thing such as a blog in a while.

We've got an oral project for French due tomorrow, and of course, being procrastinators (fourth indication of an IB student: proffesional procrastination), my partner and I left most of it for tonight. It's actually come together quite nicely for an oral report on cow poop. Yes, that's right, cow poop. The project is that each pair gets a different innovative form or alternative energy as their topic, and we have to research, write up, and present a report including an explanation of the method and each person's opinion on it. It's actually come together rather nicely and I think I'll publish the written when we're done.

I also have a Math test on Polynomial Functions tomorrow, and considering I only got 11.5/12, out of a possible 15 (bonus marks), I'm a little stressed. I know exactly what I did wrong, but I still fear making stupid mistakes. I think I'll start posting up review sheets of sorts here for my tests, a few days ahead of time. It'll help me review (and not procrastinate as much) and it might be useful f or anyone in my class. I tried to start up a homework-posting website last year, but it failed as I got overwhelemed with other stuff and generally neglected my homework anyway. This is a lot less demanding and I think I can keep up.

So, here goes the study sheet for tomorrow, for those of you who like the late-night study sessions:

Polynomial Functions
Definition: A series of terms raised to a natural number with one variable per term.
General form: y=a_nxⁿ + a_n-1x^n-1 + ... a₂x² + a₁x + a₀
End behaviour:
odd degree functions behave like the graph of y=x, extend from the third quadrant to the first
even degree functions behave like the graph of y=x², extend from the second quadrant to the first
"a" value : The lead coefficient (provided decreasing powers), if negative, means a reflection in the x-axis
Turning points: There is a maximum of (n-1) turning points, where n is the degree of the function. Turning points are crests and troughs, not points of inflection (s-shape in the graph of y=x³).
Zeros: There is a maximum of n "real" zeros.
Order of factors:
A cubed factor is a "factor of order three" and appears grapically as an s-shape
A squared factor is a "factor of order two" and appears grapically as "touching" the x-axis and "bouncing" off
A factor raised to the power of one is a "factor of order one" and appears grapically as passing through the axis
How to graph a function by it's factored form equation:
Determine the "end behaviour" by "a" value and the degree of the function
Mark the x-intercepts or zeros
Use "order of factors" to determine intercept behaviour
Find the y-intercept (sub x=0)
Miscelaneous:
To find "standard" or "expanded" form from factored form, simply expand the function.
The degree of a function is equal to which of it's constant difference tables is constant.
The number of factors is at most one more than the number of turning points
How to factor:
The constant in the standard form equation is the product of the roots. Sub facotrs of it into f(x) and solve. If it is equal to zero, then x minus the number is a factor. (eg. (x-q) when k is a factor of the product of the roots.)
Factor Theorem: (x-q) is a factor of y=f(x) <=> f(x)=0
You can then use this factor to conduct long division on the equation to find the remaining roots.
Remainder Theorem
"Find the remainder when (insert function here) is divided by (x-q)."
Sub f(q) and solve, that is your remainder.
Dividend = (Quotient)(Divisor) + Remainder
f(x) = (Quotient)(x-q) + Remainder
When you sub q in for x, the divisor becomes zero, and all you are left with is the remainder.
If (x-q) id divided into some y=f(x) then the remainder will be f(q)
Even and Odd Functions
NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH EVEN AND ODD DEGREE
If f(x) = f(-x) then the function is symetric about the y-axis
If f(x) = -f(x) then the function is symetric about the origin
If neither of the above are true, the function is neither even nor odd.

That seems like it. Hope it was accurate. Any questions feel free to comment, I'll get back to you. But not in time for this particular test, I'm off to bed. I promise earlier study sheets next time!

Party, "Drugs", and Homework

2008-09-20T21:51:00.013-04:00

Although parties don't happen every weekend, they occur pretty often because everyone likes to celebrate with the whole IB year. The one on Friday was amazing! Foosball, Pinball and Pacman, a prank, live DJ, cotton candy machine and a chocolate fountain. It was the Sweet Sixteen of a friend of mine and her family went all-out. She invited our whole IB year and other friends of ours, but it's still considered an "IB Party". There were a couple IB birthday parties over the summer, but seeing as this is the first during the year, it's the first officially "IB" party. Fortunately, it was not like some of the other IB parties I've heard about, with drinking and Facebooking drunken photos.

Although we may fore go the illegal booze, we still keep tabs on the "drug dealers" of the IB world. Within two days, I saw three people seek out Advil (third indication of an IB student: knowledgeable of all sources of Advil). You would be surprised at the amount of people who keep over-the-counter painkillers accessible.

But now are we getting a little taste of the IB stress. We've got a short History report and skit due Monday, plus an easy Math Task. Of course, we've barely bothered with it all until this weekend, so we're all stressing about it last-minute. Come Monday, we'll all be groggy and sleep deprived or over-caffeinated and jittery. Knowing our luck, we'll have a second wave of the illness we're all just getting over, given our weakened state.

Alas, I am back to Math.
A bientot,
Ace

Header

2008-09-16T17:53:00.002-04:00

I finally got around to photoshopping up a simple header! Not exactly what I had invisioned, but it'll do for now. Also, I updated the settings so that you don't have to have a Blogger account to post comments, so please, let me know what you think!

We had some time today in class to work on our Math Tasks. I'll publish mine (once they've been handed in of course) so the world can have an example of what IB Math SL is like. Perhaps I'll persuade a few potential ib kids to take on the challenge?

Also, today was our last day being taught French by our IBC. I saw our Temp in the hall actually, as I was leaving the IBC's office. Ahh, it'll be a long exam.

Hmm, not too much else of import going on.
Terrah,
Ace.

Monday, Monday, Monday!

2008-09-15T16:02:00.003-04:00

Our IB Coordinator (the person who is completely in charge of running IB at the school) is also our French teacher. The way we're organized, we write our Group 2 French SL Exam in May this year and the rest of our exams next year. So, to get us up to IB-par, our Coordinator (IBC, for short) decided to teach both classes (about 22 students each) in our grade during first semester and no classes second semester. Now, her contract states that she will teach only one class per semester, but they agreed last year that this trade-off was okay. However, because this is a negotiating year, the union is getting annoyed and for the past week has been trying to get her to stick to contract. And to boot, there are scheduling issues with other IB French classes (only one other teacher is trained for IB French, and she was a long-term temp who got sent away due to budget cuts). So, our IBC isn't teaching my French class anymore. Our temp (she taught my class last year (not the same grouping as this year) and our IBC taught the other class) is coming back, but we'll switch teachers in second semester, so we'll all be taught by our IBC at some point. There's also the possibility of after-school study sessions with our IBC, which I'm totally up for.

Speaking of after-school, guess I ought to tell you a little more about me and how I got involved in IB. When I was in grade eight, we had to decide which high school we wanted to attend. Mostly it's divided up by what area of the city you live in, however there's always the option of the nearest Catholic school or the nearest Public school. Plus, we have a School of the Arts (for security reasons, no names of schools will actually be used in this blog) and a school that's famous for their Math. So, while we were filling out course selection sheets one day, our teacher handed out these nice purple flyers advertising the IB Programme at the School of the Raiders (our mascot, and slightly safer than saying the name of our school) that gave a date and time for a parent-student orientation night. Huzzah, I rushed home to tell my parents about this cool new opportunity and we found ourselves seated at the back of the crowded Raider cafeteria. We were introduced to the IBC and some of the students, and next thing I knew I was bathing the the warm glow of random yellow walls and the flickering basement lights (those got fixed at the end of grade nine). Two years have passed, and here I am, thinking about leaving the school I have grown to love.

"What?" You ask? "I thought you liked IB, now you're dropping out?" No, I'm not dropping out. I'm planning on applying to a United World College (http://www.uwc.org) for a full scholarship to go study abroad in a completely IB school for two years (after grade eleven). It's an awesome opportunity, and I'm psyched at the possibility of being accepted and doing IB in India, or Norway, or any of the UWCs. I'm talking with my IBC tomorrow to see what she's got to say about it, but the applications don't come online until October. And alas, results aren't in until May.

But now I'm off for shopping, since I have no homework.
Happy Monday,
Ace

Math Task

2008-09-13T10:00:00.006-04:00

Alas, I awakened this morning to the pleasant pitter-patter of raindrops outside my open window and the not-so-pleasant memory that I have a math task due on next Friday. Being sick yesterday, I had my friends and mother collaborate to get my homework to me (it's a mildly complex process, so I won't elaborate). So, instead of returning to sleep,(first indication of an IB student: lack of sleep/exhaustion) I hauled myself downstairs to make some breakfast and tea. I know I shouldn't caffeinate if I'm not too tired, (second indication: caffeine addicts by necessity) but I just love the aroma of Earl Grey. A friend of mine, starting her second and final year of IB, is already immune to caffeine in less-than-lethal doses, so I try to be careful and not over use it.

The task we have is a "Type II: Developing A Model" task called "Stopping Distances." It involves making a graph, developing the model that best fits the data and using it for inter- and extrapolation. We;re marked on six criterion: use of notation and terminology, communication, mathematical process - developing a model, results - interpretation, use of technology, and quality of work. IB marking schemes have a tendancy to be vague and increadibly subjective, so it is imperative to check and re-check in the most meticulous way to be sure you have acheived perfection, so that when the marks come back you are guaranteed at least a 70%.

I once heard a horror story about the IB marking system: A student was top-notch, always got A's in everything. There was a paper that was to be marked by the teacher and then sent out to someone in Wales for a second marking. The teacher, following the IB rubric, gave this student's paper an A, but it came back a D, marked with the same rubric. Horrific, I know, but true. So, for all you ib-kids out there, be sure your work will score 110%, and you might be lucky to get an 80.

I'm signing off to actually do that task now.
Au revoir,
Ace

An Intro

2008-09-12T21:45:00.000-04:00

Hello one and all and welcome to my wonderful new blog, dedicated to recording the chronicles of my IB life. It's two weeks into the IB Programme for me and, as I was home sick today, I got to thinking about blogging. And what better to blog about than my two-year journey into madness with those people in Wales who so like to torture the International Student. More about me and my aims later, but lets talk about the IBO now.

http://www.ibo.org/ - The International Baccalaureate Organization
You can click above for the official version of what and who IB and the IBO are, but here's the gist of it. The IB is a standardized, international programme for education that is recognized throughout the world by top universities, including Harvard, Oxford, and the University of British Columbia.

It is also rumored to be hell on earth for it's students, bombarding them with homework and CAS hours requirements. My school offers a 2-year pre-IB program to "bring students up to the IB level" and I've already watched a good chunk of my classmates from grade 9 drop out due to the stress and workload. More still are considering the drop at the end of the first year/semester. I personally don't find it that bad. I love to learn, and I think that's exactly the point of IB, to advance your education and give you a little extra stress now so you don't bomb your first year in university because of the intense requirements.

Anyway, I live in a small town (technically a city, but trust me, you wouldn't know it) in Ontario, Canada that depends on (and is dying because of) the auto industry. The school I attend only recently became an IB World School, and it's still a regular secondary school, so scheduling is tough and the courses being offered are limited. In fact, our only options are for the Group Six exam; either Visual Arts or Biology, both SL; and Group Five, either Math Studies or Math SL. The compulsory courses are HL English, History, and Chemistry; and SL French.

I'm the third set of IB students at my school, so we're still part of the Guinea Pig-ing they're doing in refining the program. Only one group has graduated, and from what I've heard, they're doing well. Still, it bugs me to think that everything has been chosen for us, that there's no choice within the program for us. But more on that later.

I'm off to play around with the layout for this site and nurse my failing health.
Good night,
Ace

Design
Levels/Marks	Aspect 1	Aspect 2	Aspect 3
	Defining the problem and selecting variables	Controlling Variables	Developing a method for collection of data
Complete/2	Formulates a focused problem/research question and identifies the relevant variables.	Designs a method for the effective control of the variables.	Develops a method that allows for the collection of sufficient relevant data.
Partial/1	Formulates a problem/research question that is incomplete or identifies only some relevant variables.	Designs a method that makes some attempt to control of the variables.	Develops a method that allows for the collection of in sufficient relevant data.
Not At All/0	Does not identify a problem/research question and does not identify any relevant variables.	Designs a method that does not control of the variables.	Develops a method that does not allow for any relevant data to be collected.