Exceptional Awareness Week at CISK
CISK proudly celebrated Exceptional Awareness Week, a campus-wide initiative dedicated to fostering inclusion, empathy, and a deeper understanding of neurodiversity and varied abilities. The week united faculty, staff, and students under a shared commitment—proudly wearing pins and stickers emblazoned with the powerful messages: “Don't ‘diss’ my abilities,” “Be extra-ordinary,” and “Differences not Deficits.”
Building Understanding & Empathy
Dr. Sarah Salazar, Executive Principal at CISK, shares her views on the celebration of Exceptional Awareness Week. “Not everyone can be an expert in all areas, nor should they be expected to. At CISK we regularly talk about areas we excel and areas we need to develop. Being open and not avoiding this topic encourages meaningful conversations and facilitates productive work groups. When leadership views one another in this fashion they are then able to turn around and work with teachers’ abilities and development under this same perspective. This shared understanding further trickles down to how teachers see and work with each individual student. This becomes a part of the school culture – not just a week-long awareness campaign.”
Learning Through Experience
The week launched with an interactive “Diversability Lab”, where PYP and MYP students engaged in games including Fairy Prank, Team Three, Lift It, and How About You. These activities were carefully designed to build empathy and critical thinking around the use of senses and abilities. Throughout the week, teachers implemented individual classroom activities using resources from the Inclusive Schools Network .
As part of the week, members of the REACH Club from Duke Kunshan University hosted an interactive sign language workshop for Grade 2 students. Through games such as Sign Bingo, Sign Telephone, Rainbow Light, and Twister, students learned basic signs including greetings, numbers, and colors in a fun and engaging way. Beyond vocabulary, the workshop introduced the idea of inclusive communication, encouraging students to explore different ways of expressing and connecting with others. The session was both meaningful and engaging, fostering curiosity, empathy, and a deeper awareness of inclusion.
Demonstrating a commitment to faculty development, teacher representatives from all programmes attended a training at Duke Kunshan University (DKU) titled, Inclusive Teaching with Universal Design for Learning (UDL), led by Ginna Daza with Novak Education. Later in the week, DP students, accompanied by the DP Coordinator, explored how to Unlock Your Cognitive Capital as a Learner facilitated by Glory Goh and Daisy Wang from Mind Matters in Suzhou. CISK extends sincere thanks to our partners at DKU, Dr. George and Jinfeng Sun for including CISK in their events and the on-campus hospitality.
Sustaining Impact Beyond the Week
To ensure lasting impact, new titles were added to the school library, including: The is How We Talk: A Celebration of Disability and Connection and Usborne’s All About Diversity. The week culminated in a Free Dress Friday, where students and staff continued to wear their pins with pride.
The final professional development session on Friday afternoon featured Mr. Monte Rosen, founder of ELG Shanghai and a 20-year veteran in special education in China, who shared lived experiences and fresh perspectives with all faculty. We hope for further collaboration and training from this well-established organization in the future.
Exceptional Awareness Week was more than an event—it was a reaffirmation of CISK’s commitment to recognizing that what we see, what we think, and what we do is uniquely shaped by our backgrounds, genes, personalities, neurodiversity, and culture. We carry this spirit forward throughout the year.
“Every single person can contribute and be successful in their own area of talent and interest– it is up to the educator to identify each students’ preferred learning style and strengths and tailor their education to fuel their future impact. We recognize and celebrate that all of us are unique and will continue to strive to meet all of our students’ individual needs.”
– Dr. Sarah Salazar
昆山加拿大外籍人员子女学校成功举办 “卓越多元意识周”（Exceptional Awareness Week），这是一次面向全校的主题活动，旨在促进包容与共情，深化对神经多样性及个体差异的理解。活动期间，教职员工与学生共同参与，佩戴印有“Don’t ‘diss’ my abilities” “Be extra-ordinary” “Differences not Deficits” 等标语的徽章与贴纸，以实际行动表达对多元与尊重的认同。
CISK执行校长Dr. Sarah Salazar分享了她对本次活动的看法：“没有人需要、也不应该在所有领域都成为专家。在CISK，我们经常讨论自己擅长的方面以及仍需提升的领域。以开放的态度面对这些话题，而不是回避它们，有助于促进有意义的对话，并推动高效的团队协作。当管理层以这样的视角彼此理解时，也能够以同样的方式支持教师的发展。这种共识进一步延伸至教师如何看待并支持每一位学生，从而逐渐融入学校文化，而不仅仅是一周的主题活动。”
本次活动以互动式“Diversability Lab”拉开序幕。PYP与MYP学生通过“Fairy Prank” “Team Three” “Lift It” “How About You”等游戏，在体验中理解不同感官与能力的使用方式。这些活动经过精心设计，旨在培养学生的共情能力与批判性思维。与此同时，教师们也结合Inclusive Schools Network的资源，在课堂中开展多样化的主题活动，让理念真正融入日常学习。
作为本周活动的一部分，来自昆山杜克大学（DKU）的REACH学生社团成员走进CISK，为二年级学生带来了一场互动式手语工作坊。通过“Sign Bingo” “Sign Telephone” “Rainbow Light” “Twister” 等游戏，学生们在轻松有趣的氛围中学习了问候语、数字、颜色等基础手语表达。更重要的是，这一体验引导学生认识到沟通方式的多样性，鼓励他们探索不同的表达与连接方式。整个活动不仅生动有趣，也在潜移默化中培养了学生的好奇心、同理心与对包容性的理解。
在教师专业发展方面，来自各学段的教师代表前往昆山杜克大学（DKU）参加了“基于通用学习设计（UDL）的融合教学”培训，由Novak Education的Ginna Daza主讲。随后，DP学生在项目协调员的带领下，参与了由苏州Mind Matters的Glory Goh与Daisy Wang开展的学习工作坊——“Unlock Your Cognitive Capital as a Learner”。CISK在此向DKU团队、Dr. George 及 Jinfeng Sun的支持与热情接待致以诚挚感谢。
为延续本次活动的影响，学校图书馆新增了多本相关主题书籍，包括《This Is How We Talk: A Celebration of Disability and Connection》和《All About Diversity》。活动在“Free Dress Friday”中圆满落幕，师生们继续佩戴主题徽章，以行动表达对多元与包容的持续支持。
周五下午的教师专业发展活动邀请到 ELG Shanghai 创始人 Monte Rosen 先生进行分享。他在中国特殊教育领域拥有20年的丰富经验，通过真实案例与专业视角，为全体教师带来了深刻启发。我们也期待未来与这一成熟机构展开更多合作与培训。
“卓越多元意识周”不仅是一项活动，更是对CISK教育理念的再次确认——我们所看到的、所思考的、所行动的，都会受到个人背景、基因、性格、神经多样性及文化的共同影响。这一理念将贯穿全年，持续引领我们的学习与成长。
“每个人都可以在自己擅长与热爱的领域中取得成功并作出贡献——关键在于教育者是否能够识别每位学生的学习方式与优势，并据此提供支持，帮助他们实现未来的影响力。我们认可并庆祝每个人的独特性，并将持续努力满足每一位学生的个性化需求。”
——Dr. Sarah Salazar
声明：本文内容为国际教育号作者发布，不代表国际教育网的观点和立场，本平台仅提供信息存储服务。
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