1st Professional Development

Topics were carefully chosen to ensure that teachers and administrators could connect with them. The collaborative sessions have the following topics: “Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century” by Mr. Aman Rejepov, “Learning Facilitator” by Mr. Naryman Jambayev, “The light in the Jungle” by Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, and “Instructional Design and Quality Assurance in Education” by Mr. Azat Yazgulyyev.

The meeting started at 1 in the afternoon as Mr. Aman reiterated the HIBS ultimate goal. It was followed by sharing of ideas using the padlet as to how teachers view different generations using QR codes which elated teachers to find what’s behind the code. Mr. Aman has explained the unique characteristics of Generation Z that teachers are expected to know and understand to provide an atmosphere suitable for them which was balanced by presenting the continuum of learning process. He also emphasized to design a lesson that is intended for the learners and be a facilitator who could provide a collaborative community within the class.

TPACK Framework (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) was also presented which lead the participants to know their pedagogical, content, and technological aspects. The discussion has lightened by presenting the rainbow of 21st-century skills which encompasses the following: Life and Career Skills, Learning and Innovation Skills, and Information, Media and Technology Skills. 4C’s of Learning (Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking) were also tackled then teachers were asked to make priorities as to which skills students should learn the most. The first session has ended with a game called “Two Truths and a Lie” and was participated by two energetic teachers, Mr. Marphie Yusuke Tabata and Ms. Josslyn Downing.

Mr. Nariman started the second session by asking the teachers of their roles in the classroom whether they are a teacher, a facilitator, or a teacher-facilitator. Sub-topics such as students’ differences, learning processes, and motivation were also tackled. The session was made interactive when teachers started using google jamboard as they give 3 types they wish to teach, they can teach and things that can make them change their profession. The presenter elucidated that the activity is aimed at looking at the background knowledge about the content to know the level of the students. According to the presenter, if a teacher asked something that students could not understand he is just making things more ambiguous. A colloqui had challenged many teachers with an infographic presentation which entails that good teaching is 25% preparation and 75% theatrical. Since the school has a heterogeneous type of setting, class preparation should be higher as compared to the theater part. The presenter also reiterated that another way of becoming a good learner-facilitator is through classroom management. The session has become more productive when teachers were able to exchange ideas on the challenges for teachers and facilitators.

Two heavy talks brought teachers to have a 15-minute coffee break and socialize with others. The third presentation is a light talk by Ms. Tam. She started it by asking if we have travelled and how we felt about the experience with the place and people. According to the presenter, a long trip is not just to travel and seize a good environment but the most important thing is communication among the people within the area. She then narrated the trails and experiences where less than 90 people residing within the area. As she talked with the natives she found-out that people study for their family and parents forced them to do so. She also found-out that villagers have no goal in education. Ms. Tam and the local teacher shared their ideas on the needs of their students where the emphasis is on the need for technology and character education among their students. She ended her talk by saying that “I am a teacher, not only a Math teacher” which inspired colleagues to go beyond their comfort zones.

The time is ticking so fast that teachers are excited to go home and relax but the presence of the last presenter made them excited to stay for a bit more. Mr. Azat started his talk by saying that many people have done research and designed a lot of approaches and methodologies. When people ask what is IGCSE, AS and A level, etc. we should have at least a small idea about them. If we are educators, we should know something about it. Nowadays, we guide our students properly. When we design our lesson, we need to be flexible and we need to design it carefully. To better understand the concept, presentation of UDL(Universal Design for Learning) was made. He emphasized that it is intended to design equal access to technology to everyone. He also reiterated that we have to design something accessible to our students so it will become understandable for them. He added that teachers need to design and develop programs to attain customers’ satisfaction. Teachers need to keep themselves abreast of updates to design a lesson properly because even if we have good programs and facilities if teachers cannot deliver it properly everything turns out into nothing.

The session was ended by an activity where teachers need to associate the word education and technology to any word. The results of the respondents were gathered using wordart.com. After the assessment, “Learning” appeared to be the most common among the words followed by the words “Good” and “Engage”.

The meeting has ended at exactly 4:01 in the afternoon as Mr. Aman put all the talks in a nutshell. The meeting equipped teachers with pedagogies that they can use to deal with 21st-century learners. The next professional meeting was also announced which will happen on November 30, 2019.