IB MADNESS

A CAS Blog for the 2016 IB Class in Paris. Surviving the IB one croissant at a time.

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Student Council

Being the President of the Student Council had been an absolutely wonderful experience. Don't get it wrong, it's had its moments where I wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and give up. What I've learnt over the past two years is definitely the value of perseverance, that failure is not inevitable, but it isn't the end of the world. Henry Ford once said, "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." At the beginning of this school year, I had a million ideas I would have liked to have implemented, but in retrospect, not all of them weren't particularly realistic to achieve in 6 months. That being said, quite a bit has been achieved by the student council, from selling candygrams and valentines roses, to organising the upcoming events of Spring Fling and Prom. By far, the most important event we've been pry of this year is the tribute we did for the victims of the attacks in Paris on the 13th of November last year. Being able to feel the solidarity between us I. That time was truly extraordinary in a time filled with doubt and uncertainty. That which didn't achieve this year now at least has the ground work to occur in the future, to allow our little community at EiB to become closer, and to also strive to better ourselves. The best part for me personally, has been interacting not with students who I normally wouldn't even talk to under different circumstances due to being in different grades. It's been wonderful to be able to connect with other students and find something I love to do. -Zoë I

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EIB Senior Trip 2015

The seniors of EIB The Victor Hugo School in Paris went to Barcelona for the school trip!

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The Trailer for the 2016 senior school trip!

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CAS Managers’ Update

CAS is coming to a close and so will all the joy that has been enlightening our IB years. The previous CAS Managers have done a great job creating a wide variety of activities for the students to take part in. In order to follow this path, full of creativity and entertainment, the newly elected managers have created a range of activities from ice skating in the winter season, to raising awareness about breast cancer during the month of October (which is internationally dedicated to it). Alongside the mentioned activities, a festive drinking night will take place where CAS Students will have the opportunity to create their own non-alcoholic drinks as a celebration to end of the first IB2 term. 

As an international school, raising awareness against bullying is necessary, as students from around the world may be discriminated against for being different. In order to avoid such incidences, an activity dedicated to this matter will take place under the theme of an anti-bullying week. 

To end our CAS experience in a memorable way, a Valentine’s Day themed event will take place, which will be more of camaraderie than a relationship-based event. 

This is not to mention that along the upcoming months, the students, which will add to the excitement of this stressful year, will initiate many more activities.

-Haya & Mia

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Senior School Trip to Barcelona 2015

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I find it slightly ironic that I am writing a post on organisation, especially one advising others on how best to do it. Thankfully, that isn’t quite what our goal here is, because if it was, my first advice would be to forget everything I’m about to tell you. What we want to do is try and show people who might, like me, have a little breakdown every time they look at a studyblr, or who might have no idea what that is, that there are a million ways of “organising” an agenda, note or even your life. If it works for you, even if you may not realise it, I say go with it.

Being in the IB program you quickly recognise that any organisation is better than none at all. Despite my lack of “conventional” ways of organising, I have found my ways of not going clinically insane with all the deadlines and assignments that IB2 drowns us in. There are ways of turning that suffocating waterfall into a gentle, yet aggressive drizzle. Seeing as I am more humanities based in my subjects, my HLs being History, Literature and French and my SLs being Spanish, Maths studies (<3) and Biology, I suppose mine offer more freedom of interpretation, or maybe that’s just how I like to think of it. With subjects such as mine, you do a lot of writing, from long essays to notes and commentaries and so it is important to have a little notebook that you can feel inspired by and that can make the dreariness of work more personal.

As Zoë has said, it differs from each person, and I know that I could never keep up a system like hers although I find it fascinating how a person could. Personally, I need visuals, so I work with coloured post its, pens and sometimes whatever I can find as it represents something to me. It may not make any sense to others, but when I look at the colour purple, that for me can mean urgent or completed. Another tip is if you take languages such as me, to alternate the language in which you write down your to do list, that way you keep it fresh in your mind. These are just some basic tips on how I do things, and in the next few posts I will be sharing more on how I go about surviving the IB :) 

À Bientôt,

-Lisa ^^

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One of the first things I was told going into the IB, was that it was going to be hard. Now I’m not going to lie to you and tell you otherwise, because it really is. As a senior now, I’ve had my fair share of days where I wanted to do nothing but throw the towel in; and that was just in the first year of IB. (If anyone tries to tell you that IB isn’t hard, just look at them for a little while until they understand what they just said.)

This being said, the main thing which makes IB quite so stressful is possibly the workload. I am saying this as someone who is taking Maths HL, Chemistry HL, Biology HL, English A L&L HL and then my SLs are Economics, French A L&L as well as Physics Self-taught. Now this is on top of being the President of our Student Council. You could say I’m a little busy. But one of your most critical skills is Time Management. Hence your agenda/ day planner/ scribble book. This is my best friend. To the extent where I would literally fail half my classes because I would forget everything I would have to do if I didn’t have it. To do well in IB, I’d generally recommend trying to keep yourself as organised as possible.

My biggest tip: write it down. With all the details about deadlines and anything specific about how the teacher wants it presented. Now where you write it down is something that can be a bit more complicated: everyone learns in very different ways. For example if one took Lisa and myself, we get similar grades, but our agendas are day and night. I need a lot of structure in what I’m doing. Lisa occasionally varies between an agenda, to post it notes to pieces of paper. This is going to take a few tries, but do what’s right for you. Just because it works for one person running a studyblr doesn’t mean it has to work for you (but it always worth trying new approaches.) Over the next few posts, I’ll be updating a bit more on how I keep myself organised. For now, here’s a little stop-motion of my day planner.

Bisous!

-Zoë I x

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Only you can control your future

Dr Seuss

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I wish you could live in my brain for a week, it's washed with the most violent waves of emotion.

Virginia Wolf 

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...her wings are cut and then she's blamed for not knowing how to fly.

Simone de Beauvoir (Le Deuxième Sexe) 

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Eco Club

In many ways, the work of a manager is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our orders. We thrive on projects going smoothly, which is fun to see and report. 

But the bitter truth that we managers must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, our words are no more of meaningful than what an everyday person say on the street. But there are times when a manager truly risks something, and that is in the process of questioning one's dedication to the group. 

For the past few months, I learnt something new, a completely different point of view from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the opinion and its owner have challenged my preconception is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of disdain for Mrs.Buxton's famous motto: It's not about the hours. But I realise, only now do I truly understand what she meant. It's not about how long you work on something to get the hours, it is how much effort you put in and the lesson you learn from doing so. 

It is difficult to imagine more dedicated beings than those of the geniuses now studying at EiB, who are, in this manager's opinion, nothing less than the finest students in France. I will be returning soon, not as a manager, but a member, dedicated as ever.

-Ryan

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RECYCLING CLUB 

As managers we cannot believe this will be our last recycling club post this year. We are very thankful to those who devoted so much time on the recycling club activities and we appreciate every single bit of your effort! Thank you!

We have been through so many successful and rough moments at the same time, but we think these are all part of our memories now and will make us laugh in the future, after we are finished with the IB. I hope everyone was able to have a new perspective towards the planet and towards our companionship.

To those who are interested in continuing to be a member or maybe a manager, I hope you were able to see from the third perspective our management skills and our creativity (maybe in a good way or critical) and do better than us next year! See you there and good luck!

Again thank you so much for your commitment! I, as a manager, am proud to have you as our team!

-Nana

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ECO  CLUB

UNICEF YOUNG AMBASSADORS

PROJECTS....INSPIRATION...

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ECO CLUB

Project

Inspiration

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ECO CLUB

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Mrs.B ;-)