Recently I spent a week at one of my partner schools, ISM in Manila. it was a joy to finally connect with colleagues f2f, to see teaching and learning in action, and to get a truer sense of the culture of the school. How I spent my time across the week was diverse. I co-planned lessons with teachers. I co-taught lessons with teachers. I led workshops for the entire high school staff. I led workshops for the leadership team. I facilitated listening conversations with three groups of stakeholders: students, parents, and teachers. And I spent a lot of time with my close colleague Sarah Tudge, HS Curriculum Coordinator at ISM. The entire week was richly informative, inspiring, and productive.

One offering I am grateful for was a session specifically designed for parents and guardians. ISM hosts monthly coffee-style morning learning sessions where parents and guardians attend offerings on a variety of school related topics. They typically have 30ish parents in attendance. My particular session was to focus on student-centred assessment, curiosity, and the work ISM high school staff are engaged in to best support the students.

Over 130 parents and guardians showed up!

The 1.5 hour session included table-talk time, provocation, lifting up of ideas in the room, sharing of the sort of assessment work teachers are engaged in, surveying the room in a hot-dot survey, an overview of the ISM family of competencies titled the Learning Skills, and sharing some of the vision moving forward at ISM.

It was a very successful offering, one that gave us a chance to listen to parents, share with them what is happening in classrooms, and shed light on future steps, all whilst inviting them into the work and having their ideas and needs impact what we do.

Just a few photos from the session: