Why US Public Schools Love Toddle for the IBDP
As an administrator at a bustling US public school, we know you have a full plate.
From managing multiple programs like advanced placement (AP) and dual-enrollment to meeting state expectations for accountability, it can feel like balancing a dozen oranges while riding a unicycle!
If you’re offering the IBDP, make that a double dozen. 😅
So, how do you keep your balance and make sure there isn’t too much up in the air for your students, families, and most importantly, teachers?
How do you help your IBDP teachers track Internal Assessments without drowning in a sea of clunky spreadsheets? How can you provide your students with personalised guidance as they navigate the several nuances of IBDP core? And what can you do to keep families informed on how their bright-eyed teenagers are getting ready for the real world?
Enter Toddle : Toddle helps you streamline everything from IBDP Core and internal assessments to portfolios and family communication – all from one beautiful interface.
Like an extra pair of wheels for your unicycle, Toddle provides the stability you need to keep your IBDP team’s six key functions running smoothly. Read on to find out how!
- 1. Track and monitor IBDP Core components
- 2. Streamline IBDP internal assessments
- 3. Align the IBDP curriculum with CCSS and state standards
- 4. Plan a comprehensive IBDP curriculum
- 5. Access PD resources on the go
- 6. Explore 1000s of IB-style assessment tasks
1. Effortlessly track and evaluate all IBDP Core requirements
The IBDP core, true to its name, forms the foundation of the IBDP programme. Its 3 components – EE, CAS, and ToK – are designed to help students engage in critical thinking and explore creative solutions to real world problems.
However, in reality, both students and teachers get so caught up with tracking deadlines, journaling progress in different tools, uploading documents, and creating to-do lists, and tend to miss out on the bigger picture.
CAS projects tend to become about ” When is this CAS project due? Is it quicker for students to present reflections as an essay or a video?”. Instead of “How do my students feel about this activity? What are some other such activities they can take up to impact their communities?”
Likewise, EEs tend to be more about hitting deadlines rather than original ideas, and ToK about meeting criteria rather than critical thinking.
At Toddle, we’ve built smart dashboards to help you track such logistics automatically, so you can stay focused on the “core” of DP core:
- Students can use Toddle’s guided workflows to understand IBDP core requirements:
One common problem in IBDP schools is that students don’t always have enough time with their supervisors to learn the steps involved in EEs and CAS projects. With Toddle, you’ll find embedded resources for every step of the process. This saves your teachers significant time while empowering students to become more independent learners.
- Supervisors/coordinators and students can collaborate in real time:
Your IBDP teachers wouldn’t need to wait until their first EE or CAS interviews to give feedback. With Toddle’s inbuilt chat interface, your teachers and students can exchange ideas in real time through every stage of the process. And not just as text, but also as audio/video messages! Got a brilliant idea for a student’s EE as you’re about to call it a day? Simply tap the mic icon and leave a voice note.
- Students can submit work in a wide variety of formats:
Some CAS experiences shine through oral presentations, while others come alive in videos. And EEs may be best articulated through long-form essays. With Toddle, you can give students the freedom to submit their work as text, audio or video notes, sketches, links, presentations, or any other format they prefer. What’s more, teachers can provide feedback in the same flexible way – through text, annotations, or audio and video messages. - Track all deadlines in one place:
When was the second CAS interview scheduled for Student A? And the first EE interview for student B? How many students have completed their first CAS/EE interviews so far? No need to stress over finding such info anymore. Toddle automatically keeps track of each deadline, for every student, and gives you one-click access to all this info, right when you need it!
2. Say goodbye to the chaos of managing internal assessments
Internal assessments (IAs) are the essential building blocks of the IBDP programme. They help your teachers design differentiated instruction, your students identify their strengths and learning gaps, and ultimately also impact their final grades.
However, for IBDP coordinators like you, managing IAs can often feel like playing a game of Jenga with these building blocks.
To succeed, you need to get the organisation JUST right!
You need to track the requirements for over 30 unique courses, and keep tabs on which courses each student has chosen. You also need to make sure each student is meeting the requirements of these courses within deadlines, and facilitate supervisors and coordinators to give meaningful, personalised feedback throughout the process.
There’s just too many spreadsheets involved, and they’re spread all over!
For instance, the typical IA spreadsheet at a DP school has over 1000 rows. Imagine reviewing multiple such spreadsheets after a long day of teaching intense courses. It’s no wonder that keeping track of IAs can be overwhelming for IBDP coordinators, is it?
And that’s where Toddle comes in to make your life easier.
Toddle’s IA module helps you organise and track requirements, progress, and deadlines all on one beautiful interface – providing a hassle-free IA experience for your IBDP team:
- Track IA requirements with guided workflows :
Keeping up with the ever-changing IA requirements can be challenging. At Toddle, we make sure to examine the IB guides periodically and automatically update the latest IA requirements in the guided workflows within the platform. With these workflows, you and your teachers will have access to the latest requirements for each subject, right within Toddle.
- Monitor progress and deadlines in real-time:
With nearly 50 eCoursework components across different subjects, tracking progress and deadlines for each student can be a daunting task. On Toddle, you can track the progress of all your students in real-time, across all subjects, at the click of a button. Want to recall the second deadline you set for a particular group of students for a Language and Literature assessment? No need to scramble through multiple sheets. You can get that info in seconds with Toddle! - Automatically collect info for the IBIS portal:
No more waiting for subject teachers to turn in students’ IA grades and submissions! With Toddle, you can access your students’ work at the click of a button, at any time during the year. What’s more, you can also download their grade reports in the exact format that the IBIS portal mandates.
3. Make aligning with Common Core Standards and state standards second nature
There’s no denying that integrating the Common Core Standards (CCSS) and state standards with the IBDP curriculum goes a long way in preparing students for college and success beyond the IB.
The challenge however, is managing the sheer volume of requirements involved in planning such a curriculum.
With 200+ assessment objectives and 300+ Common Core Standards to align with, the planning process can feel like assembling a massive puzzle with its pieces scattered across several dark rooms.
Your teachers may shuffle through numerous tabs and still struggle to identify meaningful connections between the different requirements. This is where Toddle can come in to shed some much-needed light!
With Toddle’s visual planners, you can easily view local, state, and national standards alongside the IB requirements. This makes it a lot simpler for your teachers to design lessons that cover both IB and CCSS requirements.
Here’s an example of how Toddle’s planning insights helps you track the coverage of the Common Core Standards for Writing across IBDP units.
4. Plan comprehensively, all in one place
Ever had so many sticky notes plastered all over your desk that you can’t even remember what each one is for? IBDP planning can be a lot like that without the right tools.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the several components of the curriculum that need to be planned – from rigorous assessments to common core connections and everything in between.
And it doesn’t help if you’ve got these components spread across multiple platforms, spreadsheets, and documents (lesson plans in one place, assessment criteria in another, and subject guides elsewhere). Or if your IBDP teachers are working in their own little silos, not knowing where to find each other’s work.
With Toddle’s planners, your IBDP teachers can have complete visibility on each other’s work and collaborate in real time, seamlessly:
- Organize unit plans, lesson plans and assessments, all in one place:
Your teachers can create and manage unit plans, lesson plans, assessments, and student activities all within Toddle. This not only improves visibility but also comes in incredibly handy when you need to collect evidence for your IB visit! - Access stepwise IB guidance throughout the planning process :
Relevant excerpts from IB guides will be available at each step of the planning process. Want to see some best practices for integrating ToK into your subjects? Need help with picking a differentiation approach for your unit? You’ll find all the necessary information and more, right within the planner! In addition to helping your new teachers navigate the planning process, this also helps ensure that the IB guidelines remain at the forefront of your school’s unit plans at all times.
- Plan collaboratively within the unit planner:
Toddle’s planners come with an inbuilt chat interface so your teachers can exchange ideas for assessments, and leave feedback on each other’s units – all in real time. You’ll also notice that reviewing units becomes a lot easier for you as a coordinator. - Leverage auto-generated insights on curriculum coverage:
With thorough analytics on curriculum planning, you will be able to automatically track which ATL and learner profile you’ve touched upon, how many CAS and ToK connections you’ve made in each unit, and all other such important metrics. With all of these insights at your fingertips, building a balanced curriculum just got a whole lot easier!
5. Access professional development on-the-go
Your IBDP teachers have their hands full trying to help students balance a wide range of subjects and the several requirements of IBDP Core. Finding time for their own professional development on top of all that can be quite an uphill battle.
But that’s also what your hardworking team needs the most!
Sit down with your IBDP teachers for a chat, and you’ll find out just how eager they are to learn more about integrating ToK into their subjects. And uncovering best practices to assess Extended Essays. And understanding the unique IA requirements for each subject. And designing assessments that are challenging and authentic…
There’s much to learn, and so little time.
This is why Toddle supports professional development on the go. So your IBDP teachers can work on bettering their craft as they go about tackling day-to-day tasks.
6. Explore 1000s of IB-style assessment tasks across IBDP subjects in a click
Creating high-quality, effective assessments to help students prepare for the IBDP exams is a rewarding, yet challenging task. You are often thinking – is it rigorous enough? Is it what the student needs at this stage? Is it in line with IB specimens?
Well, things are about to get a lot simpler for you, with the launch of Toddle’s Assessment Companion only a few months away!
Featuring 1000s of ready-to-use questions across IBDP subjects, the Assessment Companion will make creating assessment tasks easier than ever. You will be able to choose from IB exam-style questions across content topics and address various learning stages and needs. From deeply reflective questions on Shakespearean sonnets to challenging problem statements on thermodynamics, we’ve got it all covered for you!
Stay tuned for the launch of Toddle’s Assessment Companion in the next few months, and get ready to design IBDP assessments faster than ever before.
