The summer is gone in a blur of travel, presentations, workshops, flat classroom business and planning, book writing, and ....some rest and relaxation, but possibly not enough. However here I am in the first week back, staff week, at Beijing (BISS) International School, starting my second year at the school and in China.
Lots of plans, ideas, discussions, and an exciting time as we shape the coming year. BISS is also going through a major face-lift which is not finished so we are stepping over cables, dust and debris and stepping around the many workmen who are madly finishing stairways, hallways, the new reception, the kindergarten playground and more! My new office (moved from 4th to 3rd floor) is almost sorted out, but needs brightening up. The bust of Mao I bought at the Dirt Market last Saturday has started to give it more character at least. I encourage you to check out the new BISS website as well.
This is shaping up to be a big year already. I have an increased teaching load with Grade 9 and 10 MYP Technology as well as re-introducing ITGS (Information Technology in a Global Society) to BISS. Very excited about teaching ITGS again, and about how my colleague Madeleine Brookes and I will be 'flattening' our classroom walls and joining our 2 ITGS classes together. We have started a blog, Inside ITGS, and will be documenting and sharing our classrooms with the world. More about this later. In addition BISS will be hosting the next Flat Classroom Conference, February 25-27, 2011 and will welcome guests from all around the world to Beijing.
Earlier this week I was invited to speak to teachers at BISS about my vision, well our vision really as this is a shared vision, for learning and 21C teaching.
Teachers were invited to backchannel and participate in discussion opportunities during certain key points in the presentation.We looked at the role of e-learning at BISS, digital citizenship, digital learners and how we can improve classroom practice to best cater for their needs in a digital world. I also gave an overview of Flat Classroom Projects and played the Flat Classroom Conference documentary so that everyone at BISS is aware of what is coming in February.
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