Campus Development

Campus Development >> Remodelled Gymnasium at TIS

By Nicholas Strong, TIS Athletic Director

On Monday, October 10th the doors were officially opened to the newly remodelled gymnasium at Tianjin International School (TIS). Dozens of students and staff came into school that Monday morning to see for themselves the transformation that took nearly 5 months to complete. The Physical Education (PE) Department loved being able to use the gymnasium for classes again and the gym opened just in time to kick off Season 2 Athletics at TIS.

In recent years, we had discovered a variety of issues with the gymnasium including various leaks in the roof, a foundation in need of repair, and various cracks in our gym floor creating safety hazards to all students and athletes. To correct these issues, a major construction project began in June to repair the roof, completely tear out and lay a new foundation for the gymnasium, install a new gymnasium floor, and install the first rock wall that TIS has ever had.

Of course, everyone was motivated for the construction to happen in anticipation of the end result, however, a 5-month construction project on a school’s gymnasium does not come without a cost. Our staff and students together dug deep to find some grit and creativity to get through 3 months of school without a gymnasium. We are proud of the patience displayed by many as we shared limited spaces for PE classes, entertained our students during inside recess without a venue for them to adequately run and release pent up energy, shared office spaces while PE offices were off limits due to the construction, and even held volleyball practice outside on the soccer field 3 days a week for our fall high school volleyball teams. The TIS Eagles now have a beautiful gym to call home again and we love being able to use the gym for PE classes as well as host athletic competitions in our gymnasium. Each one of our high school basketball and middle school volleyball teams have been able to enjoy a home game or two in the new gymnasium. There seems to be an added excitement in each of our teams and maybe a small bit of home court advantage as we enjoy these first games inside the new TIS gymnasium. That added excitement and home court advantage might not be enough to help us win every contest on the schedule this year, but win or lose we will surely look good inside our new gymnasium.

As of the writing of this article we have been using the new gymnasium for one month, but it sure seems much longer than that. It is amazing how the normal school routines of our students and staff can fall right back into place while enjoying the beauty and comfort of the new gymnasium. The frustration and annoyance for all involved during the construction project is quickly becoming a distant memory and just maybe a time where we bonded together through a difficult situation while waiting on a beautiful end result. Go Eagles!

Campus Development >> The Third Teacher

By Sarah Gaughan, Leader of Learning Foundation Stage Bangkok Patana School

Why is the learning environment so crucial to effective Early Years practice? Yes, it’s true: good teachers can, and often do, make the most of any learning space. They do this by applying their knowledge of how children learn when considering setting up learning opportunities.

However, to have had the privilege to take this knowledge and implement theories about learning into the design of the building, right down to the colour scheme, is a chance many teachers seldom get throughout their careers.

So, what does this mean for our youngest learners? In the Early Years, we refer to the learning space as an ‘Enabling Environment’. This is exactly what our new environment here at Bangkok Patana does. It enables our students to develop in all areas of learning; from communication, personal, social and physical development to reading, writing, mathematics, understanding their world and creativity. The large indoor space has enabled us to create cosy, curriculum-themed spaces where children can learn alongside one another, communicating, making friends and following their own interests. These cosy spaces, alongside a neutral colour scheme, are designed to replicate the home environment where children feel safe and comfortable enough to explore and be independent.

The new outdoor space enables children to have direct access to the natural world, discovering plants, animals and weather as well as sensory experiences like water play, mud and sand that are otherwise unavailable day to day. Research tells us that children communicate more outdoors than they do inside and that sensory play increases the rate at which neurological pathways are formed in the brain. So, let’s get them outside!

The fabulous kitchens are again part of the ‘homely’ design where children can cook, set the table, explore what a healthy, balanced diet looks like and share meals together. The amphitheatre enables children to express themselves, sing, dance, tell stories and perform. The upstairs mezzanine provides even more space to explore musical instruments and movement as we begin to take learning opportunities there. The rest and sleep areas enable children to self-regulate, understanding the importance of other aspects of healthy living – including the need for rest in order to be at our best when we return to learning.

What an absolute pleasure it is to watch our youngest, most inquisitive students, explore and discover in this new ‘Enabling Environment’! The possibilities are endless.

Curriculum Initiatives >> Co-Constructing Thinking Through a Layered Approach By Briton Coombs, Grade 4 Teacher Shanghai Community International School

Most recently, in our Unit of Inquiry How We Express Ourselves my students were using Visible Thinking Routines to evaluate and document their understanding of how Harriet Tubman and The Underground Railroad were part of a greater system of people and parts. Through the lens of the Parts, People, Interactions routine we questioned the relationship and the interconnected layers of the Underground Railroad. Students sketched, designed and graphically illustrated a map of their interpersonal connections.

Documentation is not what we do, but what we are searching for. - Carla Rinaldi

As educators, we are challenged to structure and create environments that foster meaningful learning for our students. One of the areas I am passionate about is designing student learning through an active pedagogical program of inquiry which includes practices that promote the unpacking of ideas through a layered approach. Using both the Reggio Emilia approach and Harvard Project Zero Visible Thinking Routines I act as a documenter of student experience, designing learning environments to help children inquire and think critically using a visual form. These processes which foster a dialogue rich in critical literacy can then be integrated and applied by students across the curriculum at large as well as individual environments, further enhancing their knowledge and connection to the world around them. Creating a visual representation of the system of the Underground Railroad opened up a critical discussion amongst each group, allowing the children to develop an intellectual ‘map’ of the underground railroad system further enhancing its analysis and broader implications. Through this map of their language, words and images they were able, for example, to analyze what would happen if one person or group of people were removed from this system, a system that symbolized qualities and traits of a hero, which we could analyze, reflect and relate to our own lives. This routine gave them a view, a lens to access knowledge that was not based on bias or presupposition from the teacher.

As an educator, I find these routines an invaluable tool, operating as a strong visual literacy platform to help engage students in critical discussions. By acting as a receiver of student knowledge I am able to look at ways to approach learning across the curriculum, using these routines as a visual record of student understanding and as a resource to stimulate reflective inquiry. As their teacher, this formative assessment process becomes an essential barometer helping me to look at and design a variety of approaches for how to engage a meaningful active process of inquiry.

Providing opportunities for children to think critically though individual and group inquiry processes allows them to develop and recognize their ability to identify as individual thinkers and participants and empowers them with pride of ownership as contributors to their learning experience.

Middle School Art Celebration

Kaohsiung American School (Left) Tessellation & Self Portrait Arielle Shih, Grade 6

Curriculum Initiatives >> Bringing Project-Based Learning into the Classroom By Brett Snipes, Senior Marketing Officer, brett.snipes@bj.ycef.com Yew Chung International School of Beijing

of subjects in order to find a solution. The learning is very much on going, as is the assessment. Children show their learning throughout the journey rather than only at the end of a unit.

Workshop organizers James Sweeney, Anne Dwyer, and Alana MartinHaggarty

Yew Chung International School of Beijing recently hosted a twoday conference for teachers titled, “Inquiry Through Project-Based Learning”. Utilizing the space of YCIS Beijing’s newly renovated Learning Communities, the workshop was joined by teachers and administrators from other Yew Chung Foundation schools, as well as international schools around Beijing.

At YCIS Beijing, educators know that providing learning programs that incorporate good inquiry both engages students and provides opportunities for deeper and authentic learning – that is, learning that makes the connection between school and the outside world. Project-Based Learning (PBL) provides a framework that equips teachers with the tools, understanding and skills to design and implement such learning opportunities.

Below, Anne Dwyer, Professional Development Coordinator, James Sweeney, Year 3 Learning Community Team Leader, and Alana Martin, Years 6-8 Learning Community Leader, share more details about what they learned during the workshop, including the ways in which project-based learning helps students to develop soft skills.

Solving Real-World Problems Project-based learning is a teaching method in which children, over a period of time, will work on one project to gain knowledge and increase their skills through it. Children’s projects will respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.

It differs from a traditional approach in that the learning is crosscurricular and ongoing. If we were to think of a traditional approach to a subject, taking maths as an example, children would sit in maths class and learn the skills the curriculum dictates. They would then be asked to show their understanding of these skills by completing a task or test for the teacher to assess.

Project-based learning, however, revolves around responding to a real-world problem, where the children would gain skills in a variety Developing Soft Skills Problem-solving is key in order to be successful with project-based learning. Children also need to be excellent collaborators and speak with others in order to see how the problem they’ve identified has been tackled before. They need to be incredibly creative in order to find a solution to the problem. They also need to show great perseverance, as this will be the first “larger project” many of them have faced.

At YCIS Beijing we place a great emphasis on learning dispositions; they are a vital part of our programme. If we were to take collaboration as an example, it is clear to see how Project-Based Learning lends itself to the development of this disposition more than in a standard instructional approach. Children would need to work with those around them and communicate with outside experts to resolve the problem on which they are working. PBL requires them to work with members of the larger community in order to be more successful. It allows for deeper use of the skills with a wider audience. If we were to ‘just’ be learning maths we might have to work with a small group or a partner, but the subject wouldn’t allow for us to connect with others outside of the maths classroom.

Tips for Teachers: Implementing PBL The first challenge we face as educators is creating a problem in which all children have an interest and in which they intrinsically want to do well. However, we can overcome this by working with the local community and the children themselves in order to understand what problem they could solve best.

We also need to ensure the projects have the right balance. Academic competency in reading, writing and maths are just as critical as collaboration and creativity, and it’s important to strive for excellence in each.

Teachers collaborate to ensure we achieve this. At YCIS Beijing, activities such as Teapot Time and Sharing Our Practice allow teachers the opportunity to brainstorm together and share ideas. Through this communal approach, teachers undergo continuous professional development, which, most importantly, leads to better learning outcomes for students.

Curriculum Initiatives >> BAIS Middle School Pastoral Care: A Model for Small Schools

By Jeremy J. Thomas, Secondary Principal Bandung Alliance Intercultural School, jeremythomas@baisedu.org

“This was the weird part with me and Miller. We both hated each other, but even more than that, he wanted my money and I wanted my notebook back. Neither of us had said anything about it to Stricker, even when we both got suspended. It was like middle school Mafia or something,” writes James Peterson in his book, Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life. Being a middle schooler is hard! Hormones are all out of whack, your body wants nothing more than to still be asleep at 8:30am and wide awake at 11:00pm! What can schools do to provide pastoral care leading to students excelling through the supposedly “worst” years of their life? BAIS implements a comprehensive multi-faceted model catering to the many unique needs of middle schoolers. While the school provides pastoral care through a proactive, Christian approach, the model can easily be applied to other small schools, often through character formation and counseling.

At BAIS, Bi-weekly chapels are core to the pastoral care model. The teachers and administration selected “Growing Together” as our theme for this school year. All students in Pre-K-12th grade are experiencing this theme connected to the Bible verse John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Secondary chapels are broken into three parts: welcome and worship, a sermon from the school chaplain, and small groups. The small groups are an opportunity for teachers to disciple and mentor their students and apply what was taught during the sermon. Small groups are determined by grade level and gender.. Male teachers lead the male small groups while females lead the female small groups. This year BAIS has transitioned to same-gender small groups which has allowed greater closeness and honesty between members.

Weekly chaplain and counselor time is also built into the class schedule for all middle school students. The chaplain and counselor time uses a well-defined curriculum assisting students in goal-setting. 6th graders focus on study skills and choices. 7th graders learn personal, social, emotional development, and responses to spiritual experiences, while 8th graders receive their first lessons in college, career planning, and maturity.

All secondary students create an ePortfolio using Google Sites. While there are some non-negotiables included such as MAP goal creation and reflection, biannual writing assessment goal setting and planning, and Expected Student Outcome reflection and goal setting, students are also given the freedom and creativity to create pages that reflect who they are and what they are passionate about and talented in. For students who might feel insecure in the tumult of the middle school years, this gives them a creative outlet with a finished product they can be confident in and proud of. In our model, the secondary principal creates the ePortfolio lesson plans and teachers deliver the lessons during monthly homeroom meetings.

Enveloping these initiatives and the entire middle school student experience are the Expected Student Outcomes. The community is consistently seeking to integrate the ESOs in all we do in a way that leads to continued growth in the following four ESOs:

1. Biblical Application - Understand what the Bible teaches and demonstrate ways to apply Biblical truth to all areas of life. 2. Active Living and Learning - Know how to physically apply learned skills in ways that develop a healthy, active, and/or balanced lifestyle. 3. Innovative and Informed Thinking - Demonstrate innovative and informed thinking in order to solve problems and/or communicate effectively. 4. Social Responsibility - Develop an awareness of other individuals, cultures, societies, and worldviews in order to identify personal, local, and global opportunities for service resulting in active and engaged citizens.

With misunderstandings with friends, disagreements with parents on expanding boundaries, and new academic expectations, the middle school years have the potential to be the worst years of students’ lives. However, when schools implement comprehensive models that focus on pastoral care, discipleship and mentorship, and a welldefined curriculum, the culture of middle schools can be transformed into a safe space full of secure and confident students taking intellectual risks.