Spring 2023

Dear current and upcoming students, parents and other stakeholders

IB Life: MUN + Winter Festival + Ugly Run
News from IB & Pre-IB Coordinators
The IB team school year 2022-2023
Group 4 project
Pre-IB Music insight
A CAS Experience
After the IB: Volunteering experience
Get to know your teachers: Kristen Kirk Nygaard
Subject Spotlight: Economics & Danish A Lit.

News from the IB Coordinator

Spring brings contradictory emotions. It feels like the storks delivered them yesterday – now they can soon fly away from the nesting site. I am talking about the IB2 Cohort, of course. May is equal to Exam Month for them. In 1940 the Danish author Scherfig published his possibly most well-known novel, Stolen Spring, a satirical protest against the old, authoritarian school and the heavy-handed discipline Scherfig himself experienced during his childhood in Denmark. Oh, sure, times have changed, but every year I spare a thought for a least the title when I look at the IB2 students. So busy! But at the same time, so full of hope.

We have worked on various pedagogical development projects in the current school year. The projects have, of course, included our students to different extents. Furthermore, we would like to be much better at including parents in our school community – if you have any suggestions or good ideas, you are more than welcome to email me.

Many of you visited us in January to enjoy our Winter Festival, a development of the classic musical concept e.g., including an escape room and a creative space. This spring, we have also had the pleasure of pre-IB and IB students performing various musical presentations for us in the morning assemblies. And when IB2 students presented their Visual Arts Exhibition in March, some pre-IB students played their own compositions. Our Music Teacher Michael is very proud of them. The same music teacher has composed a school song titled: We are here! Sing-along is a concept that splits up the teacher group, but all hearts are softened when all the students belt out:

…Each morning we’ll find our way

to learn something new today

The spirit is all for one

Before the day has just begun…

Friday, we held the Gala party at the school for the graduating students across the educations: IB, HF, STX. Everybody was in a nice mood, and after a slideshow of the teachers’ childhood and youth pictures, we concluded that all teachers have been cute once, and also that the 80s and 90s rock the most!! (or… 😉). One of the beautiful experiences that evening was seeing the students dancing Les Lanciers on the dance floor, representing a community of so many different types of people, a diversity of nationality, ethnicity, gender/non-gender, clothing style, etc.

When you read this, we have held the first exam of the year. We will continue in exam mode culminating Wednesday, May 24, at the graduation. All IB2 parents are welcome at 2 PM.

Best wishes,

Malene Sørensen

IB Coordinator

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News from the Pre-IB Coordinator

This spring months mark the final stretch of the pre-IB year, where the students begin to truly understand what awaits them next year in the IB. This realisation was initiated by the Term 2 grades which are used to determine a student’s readiness for the IB programme. Many students are ready and will move on without any difficulties, while some need to spend the last weeks of the pre-IB programme focusing on their studies and improving their work ethic. Following the release of the Term 2 grades, we were forced to part ways with some of the pre-IB students. It is always hard when students have to say goodbye to their classmates, but many teachers have reported that there has been an increased focus these past few weeks. Keep up the good work! You’re approaching the home stretch…

…but not quite there yet. The students finish their regular classes at the end of May, after which there is still a History Research Project to defend orally, 3 end-of-year tests to sit under exam conditions, a final round of pre-CAS. They will be kept busy until the end.

So, dear parents, remember to support them in their final pre-IB months so that we together can ensure they are well-rested and well-prepared for the IB.

Best wishes,

Maria Friis Lindinger

Pre-IB Coordinator

Source: Creation of the IB Department at AGT, 2023.

IB at AGT appetizer

If you know of any young people getting ready to choose a youth education, or of families relocating to Aarhus, please do share our video. You can also find our new IB brochure a little further up in the newsletter.

IB Life

Our First 'UGLY RUN'

Recently, we had the school’s traditional ‘Ugly Run’. A run around the school where you had to be dressed in an ugly way, which means: weird accessories, clothes that don’t match, weird color combinations and anything that you can think of. As pre-IB students, this was our first time participating in this school tradition. We started with a fun warm-up coordinated by the teachers. Most of the teachers also participated in the run and wore ‘ugly’ and funny outfits. The main idea of the run is that material things are not important, in this case the clothes, in order to have a good time and feel good. It was also such a good physical activity after a long week full of classes. On the day of the Ugly Run, the laughs are in the air as students prepare for the run. The campus was full of bright colors as students chatted and admired each other's outfits. When the run finally started, the energy was infectious. Students of all ages took part, from the IB, HF and STX. We ran through the streets, shouting and cheering each other on, and waving to the teachers who couldn't help but be drawn into the fun. The Ugly Run is more than just a chance to dress up in silly outfits and run around. It's a reminder of the importance of community and connection, the Ugly Run offers an opportunity to let loose, have fun, and embrace our own ugliness and weirdness. It was an amazing experience, and we look forward to next year.

Gabriela and Gabriela, 1j

Group 4 Project 2023 (Class 2022-24)

AIM of Group 4 project: “To encourage an understanding of the relationships between scientific disciplines and the overarching nature of the scientific method.”

The natural science students (Bio, Chem, ESS, Phy) were presented with the overall theme: Food and inspirational ideas. Fifteen groups were formed to represent different combinations of subjects. The groups were asked to develop their own research ideas to investigate experimentally. At a poster seminar on Thursday, March 2nd, the groups presented their work for both teachers, pre-IB, and fellow IB1 students.

Manogna Madugula (IB1 student): “The Group 4 project was a wonderful experience. I learned how to collaborate with my teammates and gained new knowledge regarding the relation between chemistry, biology, and food. In addition, it was an interesting and great opportunity for me to design experiments and draw conclusions independently.”

Teacher Prize

Group 13: Rojina, Caroline, Milosz, Timothy

RQ: How well does Lactobacillus thrive in different drinks?

Pre-IB Music Insight

We have had a unit in music with the headline: ´Write your own song together in your bands! ´. As guidelines, different chord progressions were presented for us and the mood/sound of them, but other than that, we had free reins. Rather quickly, our group chose the main chords for the song and started to combine them to get a nice groove. The process of creating a sense of rhythmical movement through the song was really challenging. We needed to listen to each other, both the way we played, but even more important the ideas we had. More than once, we discovered that the ´go with the flow´ or even the accidental things we tried worked.

We were an instrumental band, and therefore Michael had proposed the idea that we could use a melody or riff as lead, which was an element that took us some time to find. Around the middle of the unit, we had had a few lessons without that much progress, and eventually felt a bit stuck. Then our bass switched to a guitar and started improvising over our groove, which worked for us, so we kept the impression of improvisation along with a more set melody. Even though our final piece of music wasn’t ´perfect´, the process of making it was definitely interesting and creative in a way that required us to work together as a band to try making music.

Laura Basu, 1i

Laura and her bandmates bravely played their self-composed song at the year's last morning assembly in front of the entire school.

After the IB: Volunteering experience

Manon Dehoorne

2022 IB graduate

Volunteering in Costa Rica, at Toucan Rescue Ranch release site, has taught me a lot about life, especially with imperfections. While volunteering I had to step out of my comfort zone, and deal with things that I never thought I would be okay with. These imperfections include harassing birds, monkey feces, and having insects crawling all over my body.

Since I was in the middle of the jungle there were many wild birds around. There were two wild species of birds that would harass us the most, the toucan, keel-billed, and paraquettes. The toucan would attack our shoes, peck our heads and occasionally release its feces on us. The paraquettes would team up on us, so we would have three parakeets flying to us and trying to get whatever food we had in our hands or nearby. Sometimes even our birds in the enclosure bother us specifically when we were cleaning their enclosure or when we were giving their enrichment*. The reason for their harassment was because they were impatient to have their food or to enjoy their enrichment.

We have two enclosures with monkeys in them, one has four and the other has three. However the number of monkeys does not relate to the amount of poop or pee that you could get showered onto you. On a daily basis, I would often get monkey poop or pee on my clothes, and sometimes more than once throughout the day. The bad thing about monkey feces is that it stinks and the smell stays for long. It also seemed like a game to them, because you are most likely to get monkey feces on you when you bend down, which is what you have to do when cleaning or giving them their food for the day.

During our working days we would often have to go foraging for leaves as enrichment for sloths, monkeys and birds. We would go into the dense forest, and get branches. Sometimes while cutting these branches we would shake the tree, causing all the insects to fall off of the tree and land onto our clothes. The worst is the Guarumo plant, which monkeys love. This plant has a symbiotic relationship with ants. When cutting this leaf, thousands of ants would crawl and bite us, because the ants live in the hollow tree.

Even though I had to deal with these three main imperfections, the animals I was working with always made it worth it. Because of the fact that I could work so closely with a variety of wild animals, and see their reaction to our work was fascinating, and warmed my heart. Whether it be helping bottle feed the baby monkeys, being able to participate in surgical procedures, or seeing their happiness to the food and enrichment. The absolute best feeling was when I was able to participate in an animal release, because this showed that all the hard work is worth it in the end. Nothing will beat the feeling of releasing an animal and knowing that you helped get them to that stage. My time in Costa Rica taught me that no matter how much “mess” I will have to deal with will always be worth it to be able to work and have such a close relationship with wildlife, which is my passion. So never let something get in the way of what you are passionate about.

If you are interested in learning more about Toucan Rescue Ranch (TRR), you can follow their instagram page: toucanrescueranch, or check out their website: https://toucanrescueranch.org/.

Enrichment*: could be leaves for monkeys and sloths that resemble the leaves that they would eat in the wild. Or it can be something to help the birds ensure that their beaks are not growing too long.

IB Visual Arts Exhibition Spring 2023

A CAS Experience - Astrophotography

Astrophotography is the craft of producing images of space, it has been a hobby I have been passionate about ever since I was a child originating for my fascination of space.

During my time at IB I have continued to learn and improve my photography.

Gustav Schaarup Bertelsen, IB2

Get to Know your Teachers

Kristen - Economics and Danish A Lit

How did you come to teach at AGT?

I’d been working as a teacher north of Copenhagen for some years, but I never really felt at home there. The husband of one of my colleagues was a principal at a school over there and he knew the principal at this school. He arranged for me to meet him at the train station in Copenhagen before he was going home after a meeting. He couldn’t promise me a job but said he would get me to an interview – I had to persuade the teachers myself. And here I am.

What strikes you as being interesting about AGT?
Diversity. There is not one uniform way of doing things, one way of thinking. It’s normal to be abnormal – like the world outside.

What about your subject(s) excites you?

Both literature and economics is about being human. It’s about wants and needs, desires, and dealing with unfulfillment.

Which of the learner profile attributes is your favourite and which could you yourself improve on?
My wife tells me, that I am ‘caring’ and ‘open minded’. I’m the younger brother in a family of very explicit emotional people. So I learned to be an emotional seismograph from a young age. I consider myself a semi-imbecile, so whenever I hear, read, or see things I don’t know anything about, I pay attention. Curiosity got me so far. It was definitely not written in my blueprint, that I should become an IB-teacher. My mother still pinches herself when I tell her about my job. I could, without a doubt, improve on my ‘principled’ skills. Think before speaking would get me far. Plan before I do, ever further. I tend to fight chaos with chaos. Often that’s a bad idea.

What culinary dish says something about you?

Fried monkfish. On the outside it looks like a beast, but it’s a very pleasant bite. Served with a decent glass Pinot Gris or Risling it can be quite delicate. Or I’m like lasagne; you eat too much and feel sick.

Subject Spotlight

What is cool about your subject?

Literature is in by opinion the most important subject. Literature – or stories – is the basics of everything human. Without that, we would still live in caves and speak only in vowels. When that is said, Bill Clinton was right: ‘It’s the economy, stupid’. If all the resources are spent on wars and big buildings, there’s no music or party – or literature for that matter.

What do your students think that your subject is/is about vs. what is really is/is about?

In econ, they think I can make them rich. If I could, I would sit on my yacht eating monkfish. In litt, they think there is an answer. We read to find the big questions. There are only questions.

What knowledge/skills will your students obtain?

If you’ve seen the movie ‘The Matrix’, then you know. They will see green code all around when I’m done.

In what ways can they use your subject later on in life?

One day, they will realise that grades, school, and titles aren’t all. Literature can give you a horizon of experience that can teach you what it is to be human – a subject you will not get grades in. Econ will teach you what makes the world go round.

Notable quotes:

‘Should I invest in crypto?’ (the answer was, No!).
‘The thing you said last time, in a context, it was almost appropriate’.
When I ask them if they are ok, since they look like sedated tigers in a circus… ‘fine’.
‘So, what you’re saying is that I’m only a resource, a member of the labour market, a consumer in a well-oiled machine, a pawn in the economic game. I’m not an individual, with a free will, education is only a means to make me a wanted asset, my dreams, wants, and needs are merely a construct set to satisfy the eternal desire for economic growth?’ … and I reply; ‘correct’.