Professional Development for teachers at CISS

World schools need to face continuous challenges, be it in the form of new students with different needs, changes in the content, new technologies, etc. In effect, there is no “perfect school” or “perfect plan”, and even the best schools need to continuously improve and adapt and become even better. That is what makes a good school great, the will and effort put forth to revise and reflect in our own methods and find ways to inspire more our students.

Here at CISS, we take very seriously education, be it for our students or our teachers, and we strive to find, together as a team, teaching strategies and activities to use in class with our students. In this spirit our school organized the PD days (Professional Development) in which our Principal, Mr Douglas Prescott, came once more to Shenyang and gave us 4 of the workshops he teaches to admin and teachers from all over China.

We started on Thursday morning by taking a closer look into the IB system. We reviewed the PYP and proceeded afterward to delve into the MYP and DP systems. It is true that our teachers already know intimately their own part, but it is better to know the IB system as a whole so we can advise our parents on the future choices and options of their children.

We never forget at CISS that we are educating the leaders of the future, and our teachers need to lead them by example. How can we show students to be the leaders of the future is our teachers are not great leaders too? Resilient and dependable leaders need to be emotionally, mentally and physically strong, and our teachers need to understand how to be not only good teachers, but also great leaders. For this reason Mr Prescott’s Thursday afternoon workshop dealt with the skills and qualities that great leaders share, going from how to deal with setbacks and stay positive, how to face challenges and how to learn to relax!

On Friday we had possibly the most important workshop of the week, how to become a great teacher. CISS does not just stand for teaching the New Brunswick curriculum, for wearing a uniform or giving homework in time or for writing student reports. At CIS, we are about nurture children into being the best versions of their selves that they can be, to help them write the best story about their life that they can. As teachers, we need to understand the strengths and areas for growth of our students, we need to help them discover what they like and why, and, most importantly, who they are, and that is the biggest lesson and our challenge. We do not produce generic students, we help grow unique individuals and inspire them to become more than just students. They will become leaders of their own communities.

In these short but intensive 2 days, our teachers work admirably together communicating openly their own perspectives. Just as it happens in our own classes, these perspectives come from very diverse people with unique experiences in life from many different countries. As the learning environment that we are creating, our teachers worked together to find realizations that would not have been possible reflecting by ourselves. By working together, we enriched ourselves so much more. Indeed, together is better!