Education Newsletter June 2020
Après des semaines de confinement sous un temps étrangement beau, une pluie réparatrice est venue rafraîchir la terre. Je partage avec beaucoup d'autres l'espoir qu'avec la pluie viendra un renouveau bienfaisant, à la fois pour la terre et pour la société.
As a school, we faced the challenge of the pandemic with collective strength, agility, creativity and empathy. I have been deeply moved in recent weeks by the professionalism of my colleagues and the humanity of our community. But the pandemic has also brought to the surface painful truths about inequity and injustice that we need to address. Let us hope that we will find in this experience an opportunity for positive change for a more humane, just and sustainable world. Ecolint further articulates its mission in our Statement on Inclusion and Diversity.
Challenges pour nos élèves de l’année 13
Pour la première fois depuis la naissance du BI ici à Genève, nos élèves de 13e année n'ont pas passé leurs examens et ne sont pas retournés à l'école comme les plus jeunes élèves. Au début du mois de mai et dans toute la Fondation, plusieurs enseignants et administrateurs ont mis en place des programmes complémentaires afin de s'assurer que les derniers mois de la scolarité secondaire de ces élèves soient significatifs.
I was very fortunate to work for seven weeks with a small group of students who wished to learn more about how to undertake social science research in preparation for university. Together they devised a student survey and engaged in substantive and thoughtful analysis of the results. I am incredibly impressed with their commitment and engagement in seeking also to explore a subject of increasingly obvious importance: global citizenship. Here is a link to their extraordinary work on Ecolint and Global CItizenship.
RIPE online Network Conference - 27-30 juin
L'Institut d’apprentissage et d’enseignement organise sa deuxième conférence RIPE (Research Informed Practice in Education) en ligne le 27 juin, avec pour thème "L'éducation et la diversité dans un contexte pluriculturel".
Les trois jours de conférence comprendront des interventions d’orateurs spécialisés ainsi que des tables rondes pour les participants qui souhaitent partager leurs projets de recherche en cours.
Nous aurons le grand plaisir d'accueillir des participants de l'Ecolint et du monde entier: Etat-Unis, Amérique du Sud, Asie et Europe!
Il reste encore des places, inscrivez-vous!
New Institute catalogue for 2020-2021
Language courses, online training and more...
With the Institute of Learning and Teaching team, we have begun to prepare our professional development offering for 2020-2021. The Institute website will be updated for registration when you return to school in August. Many core courses will continue to be offered, such as classes in English and French provided by ACS Languages on all three campuses. However, the experience of living and learning online has pushed us to think in new ways about professional learning both in terms of the areas of focus and delivery. In January 2021 we will offer a pilot course on Teaching Multilingual Learners in collaboration with Eowyn Crisfield and Oxford Brookes University. This course will extend over two terms and will principally be online with small group tutorials woven into the pattern of the course.
L’Université de Genève ouvre le MAS en Éducation Internationale et Recherche à une nouvelle volée d’étudiants. Les collègues qui souhaitent poser leur candidature pour le MAS à partir de 2021 et qui souhaitent bénéficier d’une bourse entièrement financée sont invités à écrire une lettre de motivation adressée à Karen Taylor (karen.taylor@ecolint.ch) avant le premier août, expliquant pourquoi ils pensent mériter de recevoir cette bourse et comment le MAS améliorerait leurs performances professionnelles. Ecolint accordera trois bourses au total.
PGCE (International)
Another successful year for the Ecolint / Durham University PGCE (International) and the 15 cohort members this year.
This year saw the trainee teachers take on the additional challenge of adapting to teaching online and they demonstrated their resilience and success in supporting the Ecolint community of learners and teachers through their creation of high-quality resources and opportunities for their classes, mentors and other teachers in all of the foundation schools to use.
Thank you for the support that so many of you have given to the Ecolint and Durham University initial teacher training programme this year. The PGCE International course is so successful thanks to the support from many of you in the Foundation. We would like to thank everyone who has been a mentor, or has offered a workshop session to the trainees, and to our links in each school, as well as to everyone else who has contributed to this Foundation programme. If you would like to be a mentor please let the PGCE International link in your school know.
The graduates of this year's course leave us at the end of June ready for new adventures in teaching posts in China, Brussels, Geneva and Vaud.
CIS reaccreditation
Many of you will have heard by now that our request to CIS for an extension of the self-study process was granted. For our final report, due in December 2021, we will be using the 2020 Standards and Practices for the IB programmes and the 2019 CIS protocol for school evaluation.
We will officially take up the self-study process again in the fall. Throughout the academic year 2020-2021 we will use Pedagogical Days to bring self-study committees together to continue their work. Membership of the Steering Committee and self-study committees will remain the same. However, anyone wishing to join the process is warmly welcomed to do so.
I look forward to our future work, knowing that the challenges we have met together will only serve to strengthen our Foundation and our service to the students in our care.
Annexe VI final reports
Veuillez trouver ici les rapports finals des projets d’Annexe VI 2019-2020.
Useful resources and suggested reading
Harvard University Graduate School of Education Professional Education Online
Anti-racism resources and links
Tahar Ben Jelloun, Le Racisme expliqué à ma fille
Robin Diangelo, White Fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism
Theisen-Homer, V. (2020). Preparing Teachers for Relationships With Students: Two Visions, Two Approaches. Journal of Teacher Education. https://journals.sagepub.com/action/cookieAbsent