IB Happenings Newsletter
October 2025
October ... it brings the changing colors of leaves, the end of Royals baseball and the heart of Chiefs football season, and the transition from tank tops to sweatshirts. For our IB seniors, it means a shift from the laid back days of summer to the intensity of college and scholarship applications and essay wriitng. For our juniors, it means learning about IAs and other new features that IB courses introduce to their lives.
With these changes often times come feelings of overwhelmedness and increased stress. For some students, this is the first time they've felt this way in school. It is important to help them focus on the things that are within their control. They may not be able to change a due date, their work schedule, or family obligations; however, they do have control over how they manage their free time and how they break down those larger projects.
We encourage you to sit down as a family and take a look at the Important Dates Calendar, as well as your own personal calendars, to help your student map out their plans for success! We also encourage students to talk with their teachers and IB Coordinators if they begin to feel their school load is becoming too heavy to carry. We can also help them to break down tasks and manage them in a way that will bring about their success!
Whether or not seniors and their parents want to admit it, college application season is upon us! To reduce stress and make the process run smoothly, it’s best to start early and check communication often.
Applying to College
College applications are done on-line. From the homepage of the college, links to applications are easy to find. Many colleges use a tool called the Common Application. This is nice because it allows to students to fill out one application and send it to multiple colleges.
School Links is a tool we use here at school to manage your school documents. Teachers and counselors submit letters of recommendation, transcripts and school reports through School Links. If using the Common Application (CA), students will need to connect the School Links account with their CA account. It’s a few easy clicks!
Pay attention to deadlines. Early Decision and Early Application deadlines are set; there is no flexibility. In addition, regular application deadlines are rarely extended.
Financial Aid
After a few years of chaos, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) seems to be running well! The 2026-2027 application is now open. Each student needs to set up their own account. Parents also need to set up an account. If there are multiple children in the family, parents can use their same account for all children. A quick word of warning ... filing the FAFSA is always free. There are organizations that claim to file it on your behalf for a fee; however, you must give them all the same information, so it’s really not a time-saver.
Scholarships
Many students are looking for scholarships to help fund their educational expenses. Fortunately, there are many organizations that are excited to help students access money to pay for school. Our College Adviser, Mr. Corbin Smith, regularly sends emails about scholarship opportunities. Pay close attention in January when the North Kansas City Education Foundation opens their scholarship portal. It’s an excellent resource for students in our district. Also, the college a student ultimately chooses to attend will be the biggest source for scholarship money. Once students apply, they will have access to the college/university's scholarship portal. This will be the place to look for scholarships that are available specifically at that school.
We are lucky at NKCHS to have many resources to help students through this process. In addition to school counselors and Mr. Smith, Mrs. Nessa and Dr. DeVries are available to assist. Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us.
As was mentioned in the previous section, we have a great NKCHS human resource to introduce you to! As a matter of fact, if you check your student's email inbox, you will probably find MANY emails from him. Corbin Smith, an NKC alumnus himself, is our new College Adviser. His primary role is to walk students through the process of college admissions. (finding schools, applying to schools, and finding financial aid to support their journey). Mr. Smith is a great resource in helping students with decisions regarding all aspects of their postsecondary education.
The easiest way for students to get in contact with Mr. Smith is to send him an email at corbin.smith@nkcschools.org to set up appointment to meet.
This year, our professional development goal for IB teachers is to focus on helping students learn the skills associated with self-management. Throughout the year, teachers are explicitly teaching students strategies for managing their learning to maximize their academic success.
One useful tool is chunking. We often think of chunking in terms of breaking down larger tasks into smaller ones with progress checks throughout the process. Our teachers do this with students when assigning large projects. Students are probably talking about IAs (Internal Assessments), which are IB-required work in each IB class. Students are given an extended periods of time to complete the project, but if left to their own devices, many would delay the process until the last minute.
Our teachers work with students by setting mini-deadlines throughout the development of the final product. For example, IBCP seniors started working on their Reflective Project (RP) last year. At this point, they should have completed most of their research and created notecards to refer to during the draft process. Teachers are currently confirming students have completed those first steps as they set deadlines for early drafts of the RP.
Breaking down tasks is only one aspect of chunking. It is also a great tool for breaking down large concepts. Returning to the RP example, once those notecards are created, students can literally “chunk” related information together which will aid in organizing their thoughts as they plan for the draft of their project. Skipping chunking makes the writing process feel disjointed and can result in work that lacks focus.
While teachers utilize chunking as they direct students, the goal is that our IB students will learn to use this method for themselves. Not only will this assist them with large assignments, but it will also help them organize information as they study for exams. Once students master this self-management technique, they will have an additional tool to help them find academic success.
Language and Literature HL 1
Psychology HL 2
Visual Arts HL 2
A crowd favorite, IB's annual Amnesty Weekend, is back! Oct. 30 - Nov. 2 will be a time when IB teachers agree to assign no additional homework to students. This is designed to give students who are caught up a chance to relax a bit. It also provides students who have fallen behind a bit a chance to play a little catch-up. Enjoy and take advantage of Amnesty Weekend!
Please remember that you have access to "all things IB" in our International Baccalaureate Canvas course. As a parent observer, you also have access to all of your student's classes, as well as this course. We keep meeting presentations, important dates, exam information, course syllabi, program policies, and so much more in this course. Please take a moment dig into all that's available to you!
IB Career-related Progam Coordinator
Dr. Martha DeVries is joining us in her second year as the IBCP Coordinator (with the largest CP classes EVER!). She can be reached at 816.321.6584 or martha.devries@nkcschools.org.
IB Administrative Assistant
Ms. Jourdan Martinez joined us in August as the new IB Administrative Assistant. She can be reached at 816.836.9207 or jourdan.martinez@nkcschools.org.
IB Diploma Program Coordinator
Mrs. Mitsi Nessa is serving in her fifth year as the IBDP Coordinator. She can be reached at 816.321.5805 or mitsi.nessa@nkcschools.org.
Contact Us
Email: jourdan.martinez@nkcschools.org
Website: https://nkhs.nkcschools.org/programs/ib
Location: 620 East 23rd Avenue, North Kansas City, MO, USA
Phone: 816.321.6508