The International Schools Review Forum

I am looking to get some training in the IB 'curriculum' and am curious if schools value a certificate MUCH higher than one of the IBO workshops? There is a significant cost and time difference. I do not have IB teaching experience and I am interested in PYP and MYP.

Can anyone recommend a particular intro to PYP workshop or certificate? I am currently looking at Bethel University's online certificate program (>$5,000 for a 5 month course) and the 'Making the PYP happen in the classroom ' IBO workshop ($600 for 1 month).

Thank yoU!

About the only practitioners that really value an IB T&L certificate is the IB organization and a few of the classic IBWSs. The T&L certificates (Teaching and Learning) fill three needs:

1) Many IBSs are DSs and many of them private/independent DSs that dont have a regulatory requirement to employ credentialed DTs, the IB T&L certificates were a means for those DTs to obtain a certificate that was more practical to their teaching environment.
2) They offered a more in depth PD option than workshops, which by their format are limited.
3) The T&L certificate does provide for all the PD training requirements of the IB regardless of subject (though they are restricted by program/division at level 1). For an IT who teaches across a wide variety of subjects (such as individuals and society) which contains 11 subjects, it might make sense to obtain a T&L certificate over individual workshops.
The general rule however is no amount of training equals any amount of experience and this is especially true int eh PYP which for many DTs is a very different planing/integration approach within meds/peds/asst.

The fundamental training requirement for PYP is the workshop "Making the PYP Happen" (including the early years version). It will meet all authorization requirements, however ANY of the CAT 1 workshops in the PYP including:
- An introduction to the IB program standards for administrators new to the PYP
- An introduction to the IB program standards for administrators new to the PYP in the early years
- An introduction to the PYP curriculum model
- An introduction to the PYP curriculum model in the early years
Will also meet the authorization requirements in CAT 1. Though, any "relevant" workshop regardless of category will also meet authorization requirements. A PYP Librarian could take the workshop "The Role of the Librarian" a level 3 workshop which would meet the authorization requirements for all program (PYP/MYP/DIP). They could also take "Making the PYP Library the Hub of Learning" also a level 3 workshop though exclusive to PYP. A specialist (non-HRT) PYP Art IT could take the CAT 3 workshop "The Role of Arts" and meet the program authorization requirements. The key to PD authorization requirements is relevance to role and program. As long as the workshops recommendation is relevant to the program (PYP/MYP/DIP/CRP) and the role of the IT in the IS than its acceptable to the IB for authorization.
Though I strongly recommend the Making the PYP Happen workshop as its the most recognized, and most inclusive. There is no role in a PYP program/IS from leadership to specialist that wouldnt be met my Making the PYP Happen.

MYP is a little different as it has undergone significant changes relatively recently. It used to be that MYP wasnt much of anything, little more than canvas, frame and gesso. It could really be anything an IS wanted, and for most IB ISs it was a program the ISs bought into so they could market themselves as IB "World Schools" (IBWS). Then the MYP became a little more prescribed setting a minimum contact time of 50 hrs/yr in each of 8 subjects as well as various project options.
As a result the PD authorization requirements require that one member of the faculty be trained in each subject group (IE.. An IS has an MYP program with a maths department that contains 4 faculty, only one of those 4 faculty are required to have attended the subject specific training.) The subject specific workshops are the CAT 1 workshops with the title " Subject - Implementing the MYP curriculum" Which if you were going to take an MYP workshop that would be the workshop Id recommend.

Wow, thank you so much for all the information! It seems to me, that with my current teaching experience at a British international school, the PYP workshop would be the safer/cheaper/easier way to go for now, especially since I do not know the exact city my husband's job will take us to next.

@getoutside

I would advise you save your coin, and not do any of them. PYP is very different from the meds/peds that the vast majority of ITs/DTs learn. This idea that you have a unit of inquiry that is going to involve X number of subjects that are going to center around a theme, that youre going to approach as a project while still teaching the other subjects traditionally (stranded) for anywhere from a few days to a month (with a week being average). Its not just making a worksheet based on the theme and calling it a day (though that does happen). In addition the behind the planning that goes into it takes a year before you even know what you are doing. No recruiter/leadership that has worked with PYP before believes that you get anything other than the lexicon of terminology out of a CAT 1 workshop.
Unless you are going to take the workshop and then start implementing the PYP independently in your classroom and your going to document it with bubble planers and video and exhibits you can show to a recruiter under the guise of being some type of Pre-IB startup program your leadership wants to experiment with than the workshop certificate wont be worth much.
The idea that a CAT 1 workshop saves the IS coin is really somewhat of a myth. IB is expensive and the ISs that go forward with it have the resources to spend on training, and having the CAT 1 certificate just means the IS is going to send you to another workshop such as CAT 2. The true in the claim is that ISs that are entering or in the authorization stage really dont know what they are doing and as they realize the cost of the IB any little bit of savings is beneficial. Working at a pre-authorization IB IS in PYP though is a nightmare. Very heavy growing pains, and nothing you get out of the CAT 1 workshop will prepare you to mentor anyone or answer anyones questions who hasnt been to it. The only other truth to it is in the large number of EC ISs that use IB as a marketing strategy and really dont care about the IB or the PYP they just like the benefit the logo brings to their advertising and pitch to parents, in which case saving them some training is a benefit to them, but I doubt those are the ISs you are looking for.