During November 6 to 7, 2021, a two-day in-school IBPYP teaching workshop was conducted in the affiliated school of JNU for Hong Kong & Macao students in Guangzhou. All teachers in the primary department took advantage of the weekend break to attend this workshop. This is another round of intensive learning and training activities since last teacher training workshop in August.

#为什么培训？#

The IB program is a kindergarten to university preparatory curriculum offered by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) for students worldwide, providing students ages 3-19 with the intellectual, emotional, personal development, and social skills to learn, work, and survive in the world. The IB program requires such a high level of teaching competence as we can see from the above description. In order to ensure that authorized schools provide a high quality curriculum that is aligned with IB requirements, schools must ensure that they meet the professional development training for IB curriculum implementation staff during the pilot period of the program to be aligned with the latest IB curriculum documents. This is also in accordance with the requirements of the IB Annual Review. All teachers, regardless of seniority, are required to attend the Development PYP in-school training.

Professional trainings must be done by professionals, so that we can trust the teaching quality. Appointed by IB officials, the school had the pleasure of welcoming Ms. Cherie Montalla, a senior IB trainer, for a 2-day in-school training.

Cherie Montalla

Ø 17 years of teaching experience

Ø 13 years of teaching in the International Baccalaureate program

Ø Reviewer of IBPYP application school documents

Ø IBPYP Visiting Team Member

Ø IBPYP Study Group Leader

Ø Officially recognized by IBO as a PYP Program Training Officer

The teaching philosophy of the IB program is to develop lifelong learners. We are not only educators of the IB, but also practitioners of the IB's goal of lifelong learning education. We are in a fast-changing world, where technology is developing and knowledge is innovating, and experienced teachers need to have a brainstorming session at the right time. All teachers and administrators in the elementary department were actively engaged in this very valuable training opportunity.

What are the respective roles of schools and teachers? What pedagogical tools are used to develop students' internal motivation? How is learning assessed? How to help students achieve their summative assessment goals step by step? When to reflect? How to achieve effective reflection? Whenever you take a step back, considering the primary aim of school makes us go longer and further. Wherever we are, professional leadership, let us go more smoothly and more solidly.

The IB training is about restoring the curriculum to its original form. The teachers were able to experience what it is like to be a student in the classroom. The two-day in-school training presented a lively picture of the classroom in action.

Flexible grouping according to the activities, partners and roles always change to provide different thinking perspective. Non-stop discussions and questions, inspiration bursts forth and resonance is created at a moment's notice. The class is orderly, listening and discussing with enthusiasm. Group collaboration are emphasized, everyone showed their efforts and charm on the stage.

Ms. Grace is a high-end English teacher in elementary school, and also the director of PYP. She has nearly 20 years of teaching experience. Here is her reflection:

The main teaching method of IB PYP is inquiry. In this training, Ms. Cherie talks about several methods of the inquiry cycle, trying to sort out the steps of the inquiry cycle. Different methods of inquiry can make a big difference in learning, and it allows students to grow from passive to active learning. For the English subject, English learning should leave aside the boring grammar indoctrination teaching, so that students can take the initiative to explore the language laws of English, such as cooperative group learning, discussion among members, independent reading, so as to generate the ability, which can really achieve the synthesis of knowledge, analysis and processing and other abilities to improve.

Tracy Liu is from Hong Kong and has many years of experience teaching at IB schools in Hong Kong. Here is her reflection:

During the training, all the elements of the PYP were presented in the classroom to the teachers in the form of a framework. Through the presentation of these different activities, the teachers were very active and the training became interactive. There are several ideas that inspires me. First, the creation of learners’ profiles. Teachers combine the profiles with the class, so that teachers can use the learner profile as a guide when creating class rules, making the goals clearer and more directive. Secondly, the time-friend strategy is a very good way to promote more interaction among teachers. Thirdly, we continued to reflect ourselves throughout the training. At the end of each quarter, we reflected on what the inquiry interactions were for that div, how to apply the inquiry to our teaching.

Originally from Singapore, Mr. Danie has extensive experience in teaching English in Singapore and China. As a native English-speaking foreign teacher, here is his reflection:

During the preparation of the school, the school had already done a month-long training for us, but at that time there were no students, thus little understanding of the actual teaching situation. What we had was some basic understanding of the concept and theory. Through this training, when looked back at the theoretical knowledge I had already acquired, and the truth dawns on one in a flash. I am able to better integrate theory with practice, and on the basis and support of theory, the way the teachers themselves did things was changed. I experienced the importance and diversity of reflection. I want to implement the school's philosophy in my teaching and put my own experience in the IB's teaching philosophy to daily practice.

Ronnie is a high-end math teacher in elementary school. She has 4 years of experience in teaching math and has a calm and friendly teaching style. Here are her reflections:

I am a math teacher. Through this training, I deeply feel that this training has overturned my impression of traditional math teaching, which used to be a traditional subject, and it is not attractive in the form of inquiry courses. But through the training I realized that no matter language and math classes, these traditional and seemingly boring basic classes can actually be given to students in the form of workshops. Let them fully explore, let students enjoy learning and discover mathematical principles and laws with an inquisitive curiosity. I will use the workshop format in teaching mathematics, and this learning has stimulated my understanding and inspiration for the whole teaching of mathematics IB.

Jason is a native English speaker from South Africa who loves his students and enjoys his time teaching in China. Here are his reflections：

I learned a lot of important concepts and key information about "Making the PYP happen". During the two days of training, I am interested in the content presented and actively participated in the discussions. The IB PYP training taught me that I should give students more autonomy when it comes to learning and exploring. By doing so, we can help students become more open-minded.

Gery & Ivy are both young teachers from Hong Kong, and both of them play an important teaching role in their respective teaching areas. Here are their reflections:

Grey: Through this training, I have gained a better grasp of the IB curriculum. I have a deeper understanding of the objectives, teaching methods, and inquiry. The Speed dating approach inspires me most. This activity stimulates students' thinking and participation, and I will use this method in my future teaching.

Ivy: I learned a lot of different teaching formats that I can bring into my classroom and enrich my lesson models. For example, I gained a deeper understanding of how to ask students questions in class and how to understand the 6 IB cycle topics. Some concepts became clearer, especially the abstract ones.

The two days of intense yet enjoyable training and learning finally came to a successful end. The teachers come home loaded with knowledge and new ideas. The two days of training and the two days of reflection not only gave the teachers a deeper understanding of the implementation of the IBPYP curriculum, but also allowed the school management department to reflect on the current status of the program and to think about how to better support the implementation of the PYP program. Our teaching team will continue to refine our profession to meet the challenges with a better posture, a more determined and confident stride. So that we could help our students become lifelong learners for the future.