SUIS Qingpu has a dedicated team of Chinese and expatriate teachers who love their students, possess deep professional expertise, and constantly pursue progress and innovation. The school’s Teacher Development Academy recently organized another “Teacher and Student Professional Development Workshop” event – on this occasion, over 30 teachers (and some student representatives) led workshops covering a wide range of topics.
This event took place on March 31 and provided an opportunity for teachers from different departments to exchange, learn, and share with each other, while also giving students a chance to highlight their talents and share their ideas. It was a creative and interactive event that fostered mutual learning and growth; participants gained unique experiences and valuable insights. SUIS Qingpu is committed to providing such educational opportunities for its teachers and students.
A total of ten workshops were held covering six different categories: art, education, sports, technology, career development, and mental health. These workshops have become a platform for cross-divisional and cross-disciplinary cooperation and exchange as well as the promotion of in-depth communication among teachers from different divisions.
Teachers from different departments shared their own educational experiences and expertise and discussed the latest trends and practices in subject education as well as strategies and methods for interdisciplinary education. Some teachers discussed the future development of SUIS Qingpu students from an international perspective, while other workshop discussions considered the meaning and purpose of education from a philosophical perspective. Some presented the results of their implementation efforts with the new curriculum standards through thematic and project-based learning. The teachers’ creative workshop designs and professional skills left a deep impression on participants. These experiences and reflections not only inspired teachers and provided more teaching ideas, but also demonstrated the school’s continuous exploration and innovative practices in educational methods and approaches, showcasing SUIS Qingpu’s efforts at integrating Chinese and Western educational philosophies and practices.
In addition to the workshops provided by teachers, several workshops were led by students and became a highlight for the event. Two student presenters stood in front of their teachers and shared their topics in both Chinese and English, allowing the teacher audience to gain a deeper understanding of the students’ extra-curricular work. The students shared their learning and growth experiences in different fields with great confidence and professionalism, which not only helped the teachers better understand the students’ innovative efforts, but also inspired the students to have more enthusiasm and creativity in learning. This interactive teaching and learning approach facilitated the transmission and understanding of teaching content and resulted in a more profound and meaningful learning experience.
SUIS Qingpu School has always been committed to providing better education and teaching platforms and opportunities for teachers and students. This semester, we continued to focus on the professional development of teachers, constantly improving their professional skills, expanding their international perspectives, and strengthening cultural exchanges. We believe that with such a platform, teachers and students will continue to grow and make progress, injecting more vitality and momentum into the development of the school.
A Glimpse into the Workshop Activities:
《Introduction and first experience of golf》初中部学生讲师 金君泓Liam 庄颜
《Professionalism》小学部David Scott Robert Hockley
《Using phonetics as an aid to vocabulary learning and retention》高中部Simon Macbeth
《How do we recognize International Mindedness?》高中部Doruk Gurkan
《Lesson design and reflection on the theme of ‘Learning should be connected with application’》小学部 Ron Fu-符荣荣、张晓蕾 Shirley Zhang 、潘泽浩 Bill Pan
《Capturing the Beauty of Campus Life Through the Lens》初中部 Gary Peng-彭家晔
《Global Perspectives: What global issues should we teach? Why does it really matter?》——高中部Roger Bruce Groenink
《Practical Experiments and Project Based Learning》高中部 Tan Kien Sing（右一）
《A basic understanding of string instruments 》小学部Manuel Alberto Lamberti Zabala
《Machine Learning》小学部Eidde Xia 夏翀
After the workshops, teachers received positive feedback from the workshop speakers and participants, some of which are provided below, taken from the surveys distributed to participants after each workshop:
I was honoured to lead a workshop, my session entitled, “An Introduction to and Initial Experience with Golf”. Golf is one of my favourite sports, but teaching it, especially to teachers, was a great challenge for me. It was my first-time teaching teachers, and the applause and encouragement from the teachers made me feel very warm and less nervous. I would like to thank the school and teacher Yu for providing this valuable workshop platform, and I also wish to thank my classmates for their immense help – it benefited me a lot! – Liam Jin, Class 7C
For all the preparation leading up to the delivery of this workshop, we would like to express our gratitude to Ms. Ron Fu, Mr. Bill Pan, and Ms. Shirley Zhang for their invaluable help. We had multiple meetings to discuss and prepare the worksho content, and finally decided to introduce the concept of ‘learning by doing’ through financial literacy cases for 4th graders and measurement cases for 1st graders. Several language teachers also joined in on the discussions and shared their own perspectives on integrating learning across different subjects. It was indeed a great opportunity for cross-disciplinary teacher exchange. ——Ron Fu-符荣荣、张晓蕾 Shirley Zhang 、潘泽浩 Bill Pan
This workshop was essentially about learning how to put yourself in other people’s shoes or situations, and understanding and practicing universal values. The session was magnificent work – I would love to see this session continued, and possibly implement this in my classroom to see how my students would respond to the content. Would they become engaged and learn to adopt an internationally-minded mindset? —Doruk Gurkan
The teachers were very enthusiastic. They came in not knowing what to expect but were extremely excited to try new things. The session was interactive and creative as well. — Tan Kien Sing
The words “Professional” and “Professionalism” are much-used in teaching and learning. However, as with any concept, our understanding of their meaning is self-constructed and subjective. While we may not arrive at a full consensus on precise terminology, we can increase our conceptual understanding of the terms as well as adjust our behaviour and expectations accordingly. Being a part of this workshop was, of course, useful to me as an educator as it assisted and improved my understandings of the perspectives of others. By the time we finished our short session, the whiteboard was covered in notes, ideas, synonyms and multiple connections to the concept of professionalism that I had not conceived before, and I was very proud to be part of the shared learning experience with my valued colleagues. — David Scott Robert Hockley
We also received some feedback from other attendees.
I enjoyed the topic; the first activity was interesting and prepared the group for the topic being discussed.
The key benefits of workshops like these are that they can help to broaden our horizons and challenge our assumptions about the world. By exploring diverse cultural values and beliefs, we can gain a greater appreciation for diversity and learn how to effectively communicate and collaborate with people from all occupations.
I really enjoyed the student-led workshop and felt that the student did an excellent job at presenting his topic. He was a little nervous in the beginning, speaking amazingly fast. However, once he calmed down and spoke naturally about his favorite sport, this was when everyone was listening. He did an excellent job overall. Perhaps next time he could consider adding pictures to his PPT or display the different golf clubs when explaining the differences.
This workshop was about being creative with colours. Objects found in nature were used to make different colours, and the addition of chemicals to change their colours was interesting.
This workshop was about being able to write using phonetics. It was harder than I thought – a remarkably interesting workshop!
Thank you for creating such a comfortable and pleasant learning atmosphere. I really enjoyed this professional development session.
The photography workshop was truly exceptional and very enjoyable! As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and the work produced by Gary and his students was breathtaking. It was a visual feast for the eyes – thank you, Gary, for sharing your knowledge and skills. I have always been interested in photography, and finally I had the chance to learn and understand more about it through this workshop. Learning about the capturing of the little moments and memories of campus life through photography was amazing! ——《Capturing the Beauty of Campus Life Through the Lens》
The impromptu violin performance by music teachers was very beautiful! Thank you so much to both music teachers for preparing such an amazing workshop for us. It was full of useful information! Excellent job! ——《A basic understanding of string instruments》
I attended a subject-specific workshop on mathematics, but many aspects of education and teaching were discussed through this topic. I learned about some successful case studies from the mathematics group and then tried to transfer the methods discussed to my own language arts subject, combining them with the characteristics of our bilingual school and utilizing mathematics lesson plan designs. I designed a theme related to the inheritance of traditional culture. Although it was only a preliminary idea, it opened my thinking and enabled me to apply the methods to my daily teaching design. Enabling students to use what they learn in Chinese class to real-life situations, supporting their practical language output and comprehensive ability and demonstrating the practicality and usefulness of Chinese language, can all serve to promote their love for learning Chinese. Thank you to the teachers in the mathematics group for their hard work in preparing and generously sharing their knowledge. ——《Lesson design and reflection on the theme of ‘Learning should be connected with application’ 》
This workshop gave me the opportunity to pause and think about how I teach global issues within the economics subject. Topics such as migration often arise in economic discussions. However, we don’t tend to explore these issues with empathy, usually only concerning ourselves with the potential impact on the economy. I think it would be beneficial for all subjects to have a deeper understanding of Global Perspectives so that we can look at how this discipline can support our own subject discussions; the workshop also reminded me of the importance of cross-subject collaboration. l appreciated very much being reminded of some classroom activities that I have not used for some time! I am thankful to Roger for this session and look forward to his next one – it was inspirational and well-organized. I admire his passion for the topic; I will strive to make my own workshops this engaging!
