A guest article by TEMC Certified Tutor Mitchell Cooper
One of the many things that makes Hangzhou International School (HIS) such an appealing place for expatriate and local staff to work, are the professional development opportunities on offer. Teachers are afforded the opportunity to build their personal skillset through university courses, peer-led workshops, attending conferences, joining webinars and much more.
In addition to individually driven development, the school also has wider strategic goals to build the collective efficacy of all staff and therefore provide a better education for our students. One of the many professional development opportunities that staff have access to, which I teach alongside Lower School Librarian Ingrid Majoos, is ‘Teaching in English in Multilingual Classrooms (TEMC)’.
The TEMC course is a comprehensive and innovative program that supports teachers looking for a pedagogical approach that puts language and literacy at the heart of teaching and learning. It aims to improve learning outcomes for all students, regardless of their level of English, whilst simultaneously addressing diverse learning needs in holistic, sustainable and manageable ways.
The aims of the TEMC course are met through some of the following ways:
- Developing teachers’ awareness of the linguistic diversity and experiences of their students.
- Showing that language is central to the construction of knowledge and learning.
- Highlighting the importance of students building repertoires of language, through foregrounding learning about language.
- Ensuring teachers provide their students with a rich set of resources (linguistic and visual) within all curriculum areas and grade levels to ensure sustainable teaching practices.
- Providing teachers with the opportunity to critically reflect on their teaching, enabling them to trial suggested strategies within their learning spaces.
At Hangzhou International School, veteran teachers have sat alongside those just beginning their careers, to build their understanding and further develop their pedagogies.
Altogether 20 teachers embarked on the most recent course that took several months to complete across the 2023 to 2024 school year. Our most recent cohort included teachers from Early Childhood Education all the way through to Middle School, and included members of the Physical Education and Arts departments, and even our Student Support Team. The diversity of the group allowed for brilliant vertical and horizontal collaboration, that otherwise would rarely happen in a busy school environment. Teachers loved experimenting with the pedagogical strategies introduced within the course, and it was clear from some of the work samples that the students did too!
Congratulations to all of the outstanding teachers at HIS that dedicated many hours of their time to complete the TEMC course. It was a massive commitment, and the students and wider community appreciate your dedication to building the collective capacity of our learners. I appreciate the opportunity to teach the course here at HIS and thank my co-tutor Ingrid for supporting me to do so.
