JAN 2022

Dear current and upcoming students, parents and other stakeholders

Photos from International Day
News from IB & Pre-IB Coordinators
IB - The Movie
Parents' Night IB2
An IB2 student's EE advice for IB1 students
AGT from the perspective of two exchange students
Get to know your teachers: Brian Carn
Subject spotlight: Pyschology

News from the IB Coordinator

When I was a child, my mother listened to Bob Dylan, and I remember the atmosphere listening to The Times They Are A-Changin'. Let me quote:

Come mothers and fathers - throughout the land - and don't criticize what you can't understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command - your old road is rapidly agin'. Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand. For the times they are a-changin'...

Why old quotes?

Different issues are at stake compared to my mother's youth - or/and my own.
Here you can see a picture from a morning assembly in December, where students from our climate committee encouraged all students and teachers to reuse paper and the like for Christmas Decorations.

I am impressed by the initiative and engagement among our students. We also have a very active student council contributing with constructive input for little and large.

It is sometimes necessary to refresh some rules, and here follows a short version of a longer letter the students received from me a couple of weeks ago:
When you follow a youth education in Denmark, there are mandatory attendance and requirements for study activity. Therefore, students at this school are enrolled for an entire day from 8:30 to 15:40 (sometimes till 16:30). As an IB student, you must work structured and independently on your IAs, homework, etc., in the free modules. There is no excuse for not coming to school; even though you only have one class on a specific day, there are always many tasks. There is an explicit cohesiveness between a low absence rate and good learning results.

We are obliged to react to a 5-7,5% absenteeism level. Due to the COVID-19 circumstances, we have been very soft regarding the 5% absence limit so our students will not miss their opportunity to graduate due to a world pandemic. At the same time, we are obliged to make sure that all students graduating from this school have received the correct amount of teaching so that the school can vouch for the quality of your education. Exams are one method to measure that, but they never display the overall picture of what a student has learned. So if a student misses more than 10-15% of classes, it becomes challenging to guarantee that the student has been given the proper teaching in all subjects.

Thus the sweet with the bitter - in that order :).

Kind regards,

Malene Sørensen

Your way into the
wider world

Download our new brochure

News from the Pre-IB Coordinator

While the calendar year had a more chaotic start that we had hoped, we are starting to return to a sense of normalcy. The number of corona cases among the pre-IB students has fallen drastically following the four days of online teaching and we look forward to lifting corona restrictions at the school. As of yet, we do not know what the corona rules and regulations will be at school from February onwards, but we are eagerly awaiting information from the Ministry of Education. In the pre-IB, we have also experienced two teacher substitutions, and while we don’t take such changes lightly, our best efforts are always put into choosing the right teachers and making the transition as smooth as possible. The students are now back at school, we have had a few new students join us and are looking forward to what awaits us this spring.

The first half of the pre-IB was very much about settling in and getting a feel for their subjects. This spring we start looking forward to the IB awaiting them next school year. In February, the students will be given a thorough introduction to the IB Diploma Programme and the IB subjects available at the school. At the same time, they will meet our two further study counsellors as having a rough idea of their further study interests will prove beneficial when choosing their IB subjects. There will be an introduction for the parents in the latter half of February and the date will be announced shortly.

Best wishes,

Maria Friis Lindinger

IB - The Movie

Ok, that may be overselling our new ad a little. But we're proud of our latest production and wish to thank Fiona and Noah for their time.

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 earlier in the newsletter.

IB2 Parents' Night

Each year the IB Seniors – IB2 go on a study trip to explore Theory of Knowledge and perform CAS activities.

These past years the trips have taken us to Italy (Modena, Milan), Germany (Weimar, Erfurt and Berlin), and Portugal (Lisbon, Cascais).

The aim of the study trip is to explore History as an Area of Knowledge, and to expand our horizons on a cultural, social and personal level. Each year the trip is celebrated with a Parents’ Evening, where the knowledge gained from the trip is displayed to parents and other guests at the school.

Just as in an art gallery, the audience is invited to show their appreciation of each of the displayed, and an overall winner is selected by audience votes.

An IB2 student's EE advice for IB1 students

What would I have liked to have known when starting the EE process?

I think it is important to know that even though it might seem like a daunting task at first, it doesn’t have to stressful and super hard. While you definitely have to challenge yourself and put in the work there is still lots of help to get from your supervisor and at times also fellow students.

If I had to redo it, what would I do differently? One of the main things I regret not doing more was to start the research and writing early. Once you have your topic, it is a good idea to begin to conduct research and find quality sources even if your topic is in a scientific subject and you have not yet done your experiment. Parts of the EE can be written early on such as the introduction and methodology and when the process is divided into smaller steps it becomes much more manageable. Some deadlines are also set by the school, so while definitely following those I would suggest to also do a little more than just those. That way it is much easier when you get to the writing days in June as you will already have most of the EE first draft completed. Another thing (more specific to EEs written in a science subject) is that if you do not have a lot of experience with writing research papers or reports, it is a good idea to leave a lot of time to analyze the data from your experiment. I underestimated how time-consuming the data processing was, especially because I had to learn to use Excel properly and to extract relevant data from the graphs and calculations I did.

My last piece of advice:

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you get stuck somewhere in the process or just need some advice, make sure to reach out to your supervisor so you can keep the process going.

Emilie Borch Lanther, IB2

AGT from the perspective of two exchange students

Our year at AGT has been great so far, and we would like to share a little bit about our experience here.

Our expectations when coming to Denmark were mostly based on what we had heard from our mom who was an exchange student in Denmark twenty-five years ago. While Gelisse expected that there would be less restrictions on students in Denmark than what she had experienced in the US, Byron’s expectations were mostly based on what we saw in the new ‘julekalender’ that we could watch on dr.dk each December (our mom translated for us as we did not know Danish). Last year we watched “Julefeber”, and he thought that the school was going to look more like an apartment because that is what the school in the show looked like to him. When we got here, some of our expectations were met. Gelisse quickly realized just how much independence students had at AGT, however, the school did not look like an apartment like Byron had thought.

During our first week of school, we quickly realized the many differences between school in Denmark and in the USA. Byron noticed that there was a lot more free time in Denmark, especially in between classes. In our school in the USA, we had ten periods, including lunch, and a homeroom of sorts at the end of the school day. We had four minutes in between classes unlike the two thirty-minute breaks and one ten-minute break that we have here. We also noticed that it is much easier to walk or bike to school than in the US. We do not have walking and biking paths in the USA. There also are no school buses in Denmark, which is how most students get to and from school in the USA. Gelisse noticed that the students had more freedom here than in the USA. Students are able to leave school once they finish classes, and they do not have to check into a main office if they have an appointment. Students can go to the bathroom when they need to. The doors to the school are not locked all the time like they were at our last school. There also appears to be a mutual respect between teachers and students in Denmark.

The biggest thing that we have “contributed” to the school since coming here has been providing the “American” perspective. We have often shared this perspective with the other students. We have also shared our experiences with the STX classes as they were the most curious about school in the USA.

We have had the unique experience of being able to be in both pre-IB/IB and STX classes. We have not noticed any huge differences between the two. The biggest difference is probably that the STX classes are in Danish, but that is to be expected. Since I, Gelisse, follow IB1 classes, I experience more of the differences between the two. In STX, I’ve noticed that the class stays together for more classes. In IB1, more of the students are mixed together and do not have all classes together. For me, my IB1 experience falls somewhere in between STX and my experience in the USA.

Overall, our experience has been a lot of fun so far. A lot of the students have been very accepting of us and are fun to be around. The school has a nice environment, and we will be sad to leave. We will be taking back the Danish perspective to school in the US. As well as the memory of how great school could be.

Byron and Gelisse Seidel

Get to Know your Teachers

Brian Carn - IB TOK teacher

How did you come to teach at AGT?
I had taught in Kolding for some years on the IB line. I found the experience to be quite good, so when I saw that AGT was looking for an English and psychology teacher, and that there is an IB line, I jumped at the opportunity. So far I have not been disappointed. The students are just as openminded, curious, and invested as the IB students I have previously had the pleasure of teaching.
What strikes you as being interesting about AGT?
I find the blend of nationalities amongst the students and teachers to be great for expanding one’s own understanding of teaching, both subject and teaching wise. It fosters an insight in to whether or not the ways things are “usually” done, is the correct way, or if there is a better way of doing it. Plus it keeps one on one’s toes as teacher.
What about your subject excites you?
What I enjoy most about my subjects is that they challenge the way we see the world, and make us question if what we “know” is true or not. They also foster empathy, as they make us see situations through the eyes of others. I find that literature to be particularly good at this.
Which of the learner profile attributes is your favourite and which could you yourself improve on?
Inquirers is hands down my favourite. I have a firm belief that curiosity is the foundation for all human progress. The drive to figure out why, is what drives us to broach new areas, and figure out what’s on the other side of the mountains. I could be better as a communicator, ironic as a teacher, sometimes I assume that students understand what I am talking about, and in the process forgetting that I am much older and have an understanding that they don’t always have.
What culinary dish says something about?
The dish that describes me the best?? Hmm, that’s tricky, maybe curry. As it’s a blend of different spices from many areas stirred together.

Subject Spotlight: IB Psychology

Why do you keep making bad decisions when it comes to late night snacking? Or in your choice of partners? How is it that sometimes things we remember vividly and in detail never actually happened? In what ways does your culture shape who you are and the way you behave?

IB psychology at AGT deals with these and many more questions. Psychology tries to figure out how our biology, our thinking and our environment make us do what we do. In other words, psychology studies human behavior. This means that it is a subject that has a leg in both the natural and social sciences and knowing the research methods of these sciences is a big part of classes. The fact that you cannot just make assumptions or speculate about people's behavior is something that is often a surprise to students when they start out. At the end of the two years psychology students will know about 80 empirical studies about everything from gender identity to stress hormones. Students like that they can always win an argument at the dinner table when they throw some empirical evidence in there. Generally, psychology students are knowledgeable and curious and engaged in the topics. Only in psychology will you hear a student spontaneously yell out: "OMG! Anchoring bias is the coolest bias!".

Maja Nielsen, IB psychology teacher