Host School
The International School of Tianjin (IST) is a non-profit, parent-governed school for N-G12 students of the international community in Tianjin, China. Accredited by both the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and in the USA and the Council of International Schools (CIS) in Europe, IST is an IB World School authorized to offer all 3 IB Programs: the PYP, MYP, and the Diploma. Complementing IST’S dynamic curriculum is its world class, purpose-built school campus that consists of 7.2 hectares of park-like grounds in a residential zone, and has 30,000m2 of outstanding facilities to support its academic, cultural and sporting programs.
Head of School: Steve Moody
International School of Tianjin
No. 22 Weishan Nan Lu, Shuanggang, Jinnan District, Tianjin 300350
+86 22 2859 2001
http://www.istianjin.org/
Hotels
The host school will provide transportation from the following hotel:
Email: Cynthia.Wei@Shangri-La.com
Reservation Link (in Chinese): http://www.shangri-la.com/reservations/booking/sc/...
The above rates are inclusive of ten percent (10%) service charge, 6% value-added tax, and Breakfast.
Highlights
Keynote Speakers
Tan Huynh
Tan Huynh, Vientiane International School
Tan loves meeting new colleagues. Please find the time to introduce yourself and have a chat with him while at ACAMIS, or send him a tweet to start the conversation.
Keynote#1: Shifts Happen: Embracing Changes that Empower English Learners
The ESL classes that I was placed in when I first arrived in the U.S in the 1980s look quite different than those many ELs have now. This keynote address will discuss the different shifts in EAL instruction in past 30 years, from pull-out to sheltered instruction, from self-contained to co-teaching, from low-challenge work to high-support learning, and, most importantly, from the “can’t do” to “can do” mindset. Participants will learn how to design instruction that honors the shift towards more inclusive instruction.
Breakout Session: Soups vs Salads: Using Talk-Read-Talk-Write to Develop the 4 Language Domains
Learning language can occur while learning content. Learn how to use Nancy Motley's Talk-Read-Talk-Write approach to teach speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in every lesson. In this interactive workshop, you will leave with a clear framework to share with content teachers to help them be teachers of language.
Nicky Bourgeois
Nicky Bourgeois has over 15 years of elementary teaching experience in New Zealand, Vietnam and currently at NIST International School in Thailand. Nicky holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education and Sociology and has recently completed the IB Leadership Series. She collaborates globally in a variety of ways, such as being a member of the Advisory Board for The Wonderment and as guest speaker for a Teaching as a Profession class at the University of Washington. Additionally, she has shared her thoughts on global education at the 2016 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference, in Denver, and after presenting her Conceptual Co-teaching model at both the IB Annual conference and EARCOS in 2016; she has now developed this into a two-day workshop. Conceptual Co-teaching brings a unique spotlight on multi-teacher collaboration, de-privatization of practice, and equity within the international classroom. Nicky is known as a creative, conceptual thinker yet her extensive classroom experience brings a practicality to her educational consulting. She tweets as @bourgeois1 and endeavors to only share what is truly evident in her classroom and teaching practice.
Keynote: The Kaleidoscope of Collaboration: Harmonies, Contrasts and Combinations
Breakout Session: Start the Conversation!
Building effective collaborative relationships is enhanced when we become more aware of our beliefs about practice. Why do we do what we do? What are our values? What are our intentions? What do we think is important to pay attention to? By articulating the beliefs driving our practice, and working to share and align them with those we are collaborating with it is our students who benefit. This workshop will be a guided, interactive session that leaves you ready to start the conversation!
Peer Presenters
- John Astbury
- Marcella Cooper
- Dr. Maureen McCoy
- Addie Loy
- Emma McBride
- Chris McCarthy
- Melanie Sanchez
- Julie Anne Vielma-Clegg
- Irish Farley
John Astbury
John Astbury, Dulwich College Beijing
John comes from the UK, has lived in Northeast Asia since 1999, with a couple of periods spent back in the UK for study. John has spent all of his teaching career with children from 2-7 and recently completed his second MA with a focus on working with families and on cultural differences. This is his 10th year in Dulwich Beijing.
Us and Them? How we can begin to understand cultural differences
An overview of various approaches offering perspectives through which to view school relationships where there are two main cultures, e.g. Chinese families attending with all teacher being foreign trained. How can we explain and understand some of the things that make us feel uncomfortable?
This will be a chance for practitioners to reflect on their own learning since being here and how they can view the relationships and interactions between the Chinese families and themselves. This matches your theme of culture into the classroom, by means of teachers being encouraged to be reflective on what they see and feel.
Target Audiences: Teachers, leaders, anyone who is in a setting with the majority of children being from East Asia.
Marcella Cooper
Marcella Cooper, Keystone Academy
Marcella taught in Canada, her home country, for many years before moving abroad to teach in Thailand, Japan, and now China. Although she has taught English Literature for most of her career, Marcella has developed a love of teaching English Language Acquisition after doing her Master's Degree with this focus.
Command Terms in Assessments
The overall goal of this workshop is to create clear assessment instruction to be used across the curriculum. Teachers will review IB Command Terms and have a greater confidence in using them in both formative and summative assessments.
These command terms are universal to the IB. If students are regularly exposed to these command terms across their curriculum, their understanding of the assessment will increase and so will their achievement level.
Target Audiences: Any teacher who wishes to improve on the clarity of their assessments will benefit from this presentation. As well, any teacher who wants to share assessment ideas or be exposed to how other teachers are assessing at the secondary level will benefit.
Dr. Maureen McCoy
Dr. Maureen McCoy, Keystone Academy
Maureen is the head of middle school at Keystone Academy in Beijing, where she also teaches MYP grade nine Language and Literature. Before her work as an administrator, Maureen taught ELL, French, and History in the United States for more than twenty years. She says that she can't help teaching language, since we use language in all our teaching. Her doctoral dissertation was on Mainstream Teachers' Experiences with English Language Learners' Acquisition of Academic Language.
Help me! I want to give feedback, but all I can see are the English errors
This workshop will talk about and provide hands-on experience with ways that you can give meaningful feedback without feeling obliged to correct all of your students' English language errors.
It connects with the theme because it recognizes that language and language goals are part of our teaching, but don't have to overwhelm our other content-area or skills-related goals.
Target Audiences: Subject area teachers and English teachers will all benefit from the presentation.
Who will benefit from the presentation:
Students of intermediate or higher level of language proficiency are the subject group.
Addie Loy
Addie Loy, International School of Nanshan Shenzhen
Addie is from Detroit, Michigan and received her undergraduate degree in teaching with an emphasis in social sciences from Eastern Kentucky University. She developed a passion for teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL). Addie holds a Master's degree in Teaching, with a focus English as a Second Language (TESOL) from Western Governor's University in Utah. She has taught English Language courses, was a Director of an ESL/EAL program and she is now the IB Director that oversees teaching and learning at the International School of Nanshan Shenzhen.
Exploring Collaboration Models that Support Co-Teaching
Emma McBride
Emma McBride, Nanjing International School
The Culture Map: Here’s what, Now what?
Collaboration between teachers and between students is key to getting the job done! I will be presenting research from “The Culture Map" a book by Erin Feyer, so that you can find out why collaboration may be trickier than you first thought. With these new and fascinating insights in to different cultures, we will consider how this knowledge can empower us to strengthen our collaborative relationships with colleagues and students.
Target Audiences: Anyone who is working in a team or partnership in an international school setting.
Who will benefit from the presentation: Teachers, and students
Chris McCarthy
Chris McCarthy, Qingdao Amerasia International School
Chris is a veteran international school teacher-leader, having worked with ELLs in mainstream classes for over 25 years. Chris has taught in private and public schools in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as an ELL teacher, mainstream Language and Literature teacher, as well as a grade level coordinator, team lead and writing coordinator.
Power of Independent Reading as a Collaborative Tool
An often-overlooked component for ELL instruction is developing a robust independent reading program. This workshop will make the case for independent reading as a center-piece of English language development, sharing current research that illustrates the power of independent reading while offering resources to ELL teachers and mainstream teachers who want to work together to bring a focus on independent reading to their schools.
Target Audiences: ELL, Mainstream teachers, school leaders
Who will benefit from the presentation: Primary, Secondary
Target age level/Language proficiency level: Grades 1-10, all proficiencies
Melanie Sanchez
Melanie Sanchez, International School of Tianjin
- 2 Continents She Calls Home
- 2 Subjects - ELL and English
- 2 Languages
- 7 Countries
- 5 International School
- 18 Years Teaching and Learning
- And a Creative Drive for Curriculum that Never Ends
She teaches her students the way she wants to be taught using humor and a variety of ways for students to engage not only in language, but in content as well. She enjoys collaborating and believes that the best way to reignite teaching and that passion for learning is by sharing it with others.
Vocabulary and Content – One in the Same
This workshop focuses on vocabulary enhancement using lessons already developed by content teachers. Embedding language into lessons supports the idea that content and the vocabulary that goes with it are equally important to the teacher and the student. Having the language lesson seamlessly flow into the content supports ELL and MT students by giving them a different perspective on the same topic. They then use these activities to develop their academic word banks and understanding of key concepts in the subject area and MYP/DP.
Target Audience: · Grade 6– 12, All language levels
Julie Anne Vielma-Clegg
Julie Anne Vielma-Clegg, Yew Chung International School of Qingdao
Equal Access for Learners with Limited English
A group of secondary teachers at YCIS Qingdao collaborated on a differentiation learning communities project. We agreed that a major cause of the lack of progress in their science, humanities, maths and arts classes was the students' poor vocabulary. They couldn't access class content because they didn't have the words. How can we ensure equality of access for learners with limited English?
The presentation looks out how 'pre-loading' vocabulary and key words can help. It reports on how YCIS implemented this across lower secondary and how this changed our classroom approach. It also examines the resulting student achievement. The workshop shares tried and tested strategies for busy non-language teachers to use with their students – practical vocabulary worksheet takeaways.
Target Audiences: Lower secondary non-language specialists.
Target age groups/language proficiency level: Teachers of Lower secondary students of all language proficiency levels.
Irish Farley
Irish Farley, International School of Tianjin
Irish has a master's degree in ESL and a master's degree in Special Education. She taught for 10 years in public schools in Denver, Colorado, USA then 4 years at Korea International School in Seoul. For the past 2 years Irish has been in Tianjin, China teaching at the International School of Tianjin.
Using Music Technology to Develop Vocabulary
Music is a very effective way to help students remember vocabulary words, but the songs available on the internet for basic English vocabulary are aimed at young children.
My older students rolled their eyes and wouldn't participate in singing these songs and I couldn't blame them. This year my students and I have taken matters into our own hands and started making our own songs and music videos to help remember vocabulary words using imovie and garageband. I am a terrible singer, but have figured out a way to make this work for us and I'm happy to share this fun and creative way to teach vocabulary.
This topic is related to the theme of the conference in a couple of ways. These songs could be written to help students with content area vocabulary words, which would help all learners.
Target Audiences: Upper elementary and middle school ELA and classroom/content area teachers
Schedule
Friday - April 20
Please refer to the Guidebook app as the final version.
Time | Activities |
8:00 - 8:45 | Registration and Coffee |
8:45 - 9:15 | Welcome |
9:15 - 10:30 | Keynote Speaker - Tan Huynh Shifts Happen: Embracing Changes that Empower English Learners |
10:30 - 10:45 | Coffee Break |
10:45 - 12:00 | Breakout Session #1 1. Soups vs Salads: Using Talk-Read-Talk-Write to Develop the 4 Language Domains - by Tan Huynh 2. The Culture Map: Here’s what, now what? - by Emma McBride 3. Command Terms in Assessments - by Marcella Cooper |
12:00 - 1:00 | Lunch |
1:00 - 1:30 | IST Literacy Lab Presentation |
1:30 - 2:45 | Breakout Session #2 1. Soups vs Salads: Using Talk-Read-Talk-Write to Develop the 4 Language Domains - by Tan Huynh 2. Power of Independent Reading as a Collaborative Tool - by Chris McCarthy 3. Using Music Technology to Develop Vocabulary - by Irish Farley |
2:45 - 3:00 | Coffee Break |
3:00 - 4:00 | Breakout Session #3 1. Equal Access for Learners with Limited English - by Julie Anne Vielma-Clegg 2. Exploring Collaboration Models that Support Co-Teaching - by Addie Loy 3. Help me! I want to give feedback, but all I can see are the English errors - by Dr. Maureen McCoy |
4:00 - 5:30 | Reception |
5:45 | Buses Return to Hotels |
Saturday - April 21
Please refer to the Guidebook app as the final version.
Time | Activities |
8:00 - 8:15 | Announcements/Housekeeping |
8:15 - 9:15 | Keynote Speaker - Nicky Bourgeois The Kaleidoscope of Collaboration: Harmonies, Contrasts and Combinations |
9:15 - 9:30 | Coffee Break |
9:30 - 10:45 | Breakout Session #4 1. Start the Conversation! - by Nicky Bourgeois 2. Exploring Collaboration Models that Support Co-Teaching - by Addie Loy 3. Power of Independent Reading as a Collaborative Tool - by Chris McCarthy |
10:45 - 11:30 | Job A-Like |
11:30 - 12:30 | Lunch |
12:30 - 1:00 | School Tour |
1:00 - 2:15 | Breakout Session #5 1. Start the Conversation! - by Nicky Bourgeois 2. Us and Them? How we can begin to understand cultural differences - by John Astbury 3. Vocabulary and Content – One in the Same - by Melanie Sanchez |
2:15 - 2:30 | Coffee Break |
2:30 - 3:00 | Conference Conclusion & Closing Comments |
3:15 | Buses Return to Hotel IST Staff can arrange taxis to Airport |
Subject to further updates