Annex 4: Professional Development
John Hattie’s Visible Learning with Gilbert Halcrow: As a continuation of ISY’s commitment to the practices of John Hattie’s research, Halcrow facilitated workshops on feedback, developing assessment capable learners, and mindframes for impact. This was subsidized by the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) as part of an EARCOS Professional Learning Weekend. At ISY’s invitation, teachers from around the EARCOS region and local Yangon schools attended the weekend workshops.
Inclusive Teaching and Learning Practices with Dr. Belinda Karge: Dr. Karge worked with ISY’s Inclusion committee to review the progress made in inclusive teaching and learning practices since her visit last academic year. Dr. Karge also facilitated a faculty-wide workshop on differentiating to meet the needs of all learners and worked with grade level and subject teams to provide advice and guidance specific to the successes and challenges of those teams.
Progressive Literacy (Reading) Practices with Joneen Walker: Ms. Walker worked with Elementary teachers to explore the integration of reading into other parts of the curriculum and the most effective ways to meet the reading needs of every student.
Technology Integration with Kim Cofino: Ms. Cofino facilitated a faculty-wide, one day workshop on integrating technology into units of study. She then provided two days of follow up sessions with grade level and subject teams to assist them in the planning units.
Teachers Teaching Teachers (TTT): Two TTT sessions were organized for teachers to share ideas with their colleagues around general education practices and technology integration. Teachers presented workshops based on what they had learned from workshops and conferences or their own experimentation.
Professional Book Groups: The following titles were studied in small faculty groups:
- Service Learning and Social Justice: Engaging Students in Social Change
- The Innovator’s Mindset
- The OIQ Factor: Raising your school’s organizational intelligence
- Becoming an Emotionally Intelligent Teacher
- More Working in the Reggio Way
Professional Development Survey: Teachers were surveyed on what they considered to be effective professional development, what their professional development interests are, and what professional development would have the most impact on students and in meeting strategic objectives. The professional development interests of teachers are diverse, and these will be used to foster innovative teaching and learning practices. Faculty identified professional development around Inclusion, Service Learning, and twenty-first century skills such as communication, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking as being of most relevance to the needs of ISY students. In response to this survey, and to build upon the progress made this year in these areas, professional development will be provided in the teaching of English language learners in mainstream classrooms, integrating service learning into the curriculum, and integrating twenty-first century skills into the curriculum. Professional development on collaborative and adaptive planning and teaching practices will also be provided so as to ensure that administrators and teachers are working as purposefully and efficiently as possible in meeting the needs of ISY students.
Online and international courses, workshops, conferences, and school visits:
Eight International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBDP) teachers attended international IBDP workshops to receive up-to-date training on new and existing courses.
Two teachers attended a workshop in London to qualify as trainers in Teaching ESL Students in Mainstream Classrooms. These teachers will train ISY teachers in this pedagogy.
Two teachers attended a Google Apps Summit in Bangkok and three technicians attended a Google Cloud Summit in Bangkok. The Director of Technology, a Technology Integration facilitator, and librarian attended the 21CL Conference in Hong Kong. These workshops and conferences provided opportunities for attendees to learn and collaborate around new educational technologies.
The Communication coordinator and a teacher attended the TedEd conference in Kuala Lumpur with a view to setting up a similar event in Yangon.
In support of EARCOS, delegations were sent to the EARCOS Leadership Conference in Kuala Lumpur and the EARCOS Teachers’ Conference in Bangkok. An ISY teacher presented at the teachers’ conference.
The Secondary School principal, Service Learning coordinator, and five teachers attended the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools (NESA) Educators’ conference Integrating Service Learning into the Curriculum. The Elementary School principal attended the NESA Educators’ conference: Coaching and Coachability in Bangkok.
Two elementary teachers attended the Nurturing Agency Through Inquiry workshop with Kath Murdoch in Singapore.
Elementary teachers were provided access to Singapore Math in Focus training via live webinar.
One teacher attended a language assessment workshop in the United States with a view to becoming a qualified assessor of the proficiencies ISY students are working towards.
The Elementary and Secondary School counsellors attended workshops on child protection and college counselling respectively.
Seven members of the ISY security team received online training in security practices.
ISY Early Childhood Section teachers began implementing Reggio Emilia inspired practices. Teachers visited a school in Vietnam to observe the program first hand. A Reggio Emilia book study promoted conversations on our approach and through this, the team created a philosophy statement that will drive future planning. Teachers focused on creating new environments in the Early Childhood Section and are very proud of the wonderful environments that have been established to promote student centered learning. So far, we have seen investigations on numbers, flight, boats, animals, and insects.