American International School of Johannesburg
Vol. 4 No. 8
December 5, 2013
Together we dare to imagine, inspire to succeed, and courageously make a dif ference
School Director’s Message
What’s Inside...
Dear AISJ Community, For the past month we have been midst of what we term in international education as the “recruiting season.” The very nature of international education is such that recruiting for the next academic year, which starts in November, is generally done and dusted in February. This work centers around many virtual interviews and attending a range of recruitment fairs around the world. In reflecting upon what I would like to share with you about recruiting - I thought it was worth sharing some excerpts that I wrote last year on to how the role has changed and what qualities and skills we seek in teachers at our school.
School Director’s Message 1 Teaching and Learning News 2 Construction @ AISJ 2 AISJ is now on Facebook 2 Service Learning @ AISJ 3 AISJ Counselors’ Corner 5 School Lunch Menu 6 Mistletoe Marketplace Success 6 AISJ’s 1st Carols by Candlelight 7 Johannesburg Campus Eagle Shop 7 Elementary School News - Johannesburg Campus 7 Wake up & Learn! Coffee Morning 9 Pretoria Elementary and Middle School News 10 Middle School News - Johannesburg Campus 14 High School University & Career Communicator 15 High School News 16 Activities and Sports 19 Johannesburg Parents Association News 20 Pretoria Parents Association News 20
I am sure we can all remember a teacher who really made a difference in our lives, either by how they inspired us or where they were able to help us make sense of some content or skill that we were unable to master. In that sense, a teacher’s job has not changed - we are always looking for that person who can make a difference, make the critical connections, and who truly understands their students. What has changed or developed, however, is the desire to find teachers who have the skills to make learning accessible for all students or in an educator’s words, to differentiate learning – giving each student what he/she needs for optimal learning. We also want to find teachers who integrate the content with other teachers and across subjects, so that students can see the connections and make learning more meaningful and relevant. Another major change in education is teaching for conceptual understanding with an emphasis on an inquiry approach. Much of what is taught in schools, to quote David Perkins, “just doesn’t matter” and isn’t “life-worthy”. This is particularly pertinent in our own school where our statistics of 1200 students of 107 nationalities beg the question: whose history do we teach? Rather than delivering content alone, we now know it is better to teach the skills of problem solving, researching and investigating new content through multiple sources, so that it has purpose and relevance in our students’ lives. To do this, teachers need a really extensive toolbox of approaches and strategies, assessment approaches, and a genuine passion for the curriculum. The days of rote learning are hopefully behind us, the new approach of teaching and learning does require a teacher to explore the best methods in teaching their subject discipline to the class, group and individuals. Teachers need to be differentiating homework and assignments to make sure it suits their students’ needs. I am pleased to say that AISJ invests heavily in finding teachers who, if not “masters” at this new and changing world of teaching, are certainly well on their way. We also invest heavily in supporting teachers in continuous improvement through our intensive professional development offered by our own Teaching and Learning coaches. In the next few months I will be sharing details of our new recruits as we aim to replenish our faculty and add to our ranks. Next year faculty turnover will be approximately 14% of our teaching staff with 6-7 new positions due to grow th. Our search has started well as we have already secured the services of some talented teachers, we will now attend recruitment fairs in JohanWe are a diverse, international communit y providing a balanced and nur turing learning program that fosters personal growth, provides meaningful oppor tunities for achievement, and promotes positive contributions to societ y. Page 1