Over 220 teachers and trained educators from 26 international schools in Klang Valley met at the Australian International School Malaysia (AISM) for the first Association of International Malaysian Schools (AIMS) teacher professional development conference. AIMS is a non-profit making membership organisation, dedicated to the advancement of international education in Malaysia, via the provision of services to its member schools. The objective of the conference was to provide quality professional development to teachers enhancing teaching practices. As the increasingly high cost to send teachers to external conferences, and with inconsistent quality of experiences, it was a unanimous decision to tap into the collective expertise of educators already within the existing association.
Visitors were greeted by AISM’s student leaders, who took on the role of hosts introducing and thanking the presenters in each of the sessions throughout the day. The conference began in the School Auditorium AISM’s Year 8 students playing a beautiful piece of music on the Gamelan, a traditional ensemble music from Indonesia. This was followed by a spellbinding keynote presentation by the Guest Speaker, Mr Ronald Stones O.B.E. who spoke about the variety of ways that teachers and education leaders can continue to make a positive contribution to education once they leave the classroom. Participants shared their collective expertise in a range of topics such as the use of technology in classroom, 21st century learning toolkit, integration of STEM design processes in Science classes, meta-cognition and many more.
“Mr. Stones captured the audience’s attention as he recalled his leadership strategies in his various roles,” says Dr Deborah Priest, Principal of AISM, who played host to the inaugural event this year.
The Australian International School Malaysia was indeed honoured to host such an inspiring event at the school and the school team look forward to collaborating with AIMS in other collaborative opportunities in future.
