2015.12.03 University Convention

"On Thursday, Sotogrande was visited by nearly 40 Universities as part of our University & Career Programme. We also hosted 8 other international schools from along the coast, who came to participate in the event. Over the course of the day there were numerous opportunities for our students to question the Universities, and in the afternoon we ran 4 application seminars for our Diploma students to attend. Many parents were also able to visit the event in the afternoon, and the Universities can be quoted as saying, “that we all agreed that today was the best [university convention]” that they had attended this year! There was positive feedback from the students, with excellent support from Diploma students in many different roles. One parent of an M5 student summed up the importance of the convention from their perspective with these words, “It is really helpful that you start this process [university choices] early, as they need time to consider their options and focus their minds prior to selecting their diploma subjects.  It is great that they have time to reflect and that it isn't a rushed decision.The University Convention helps bring this decision making, to life and gives us all an opportunity to understand what the universities are looking for in their applicants.  I am sure this familiarity with the requirements and processes gives the students an advantage when applying.” It was also a positive step in raising our profile, with Universities globally. It is unquestionably true that if admissions staff are aware of SIS, and the calibre of our students, then it will add to our students application profiles. Mitchell Stevens, a renowned Harvard Professor wrote that, “high school guidance counsellors in particular are crucial brokers of applicants at selective colleges because they have enduring and reciprocal beneficial relationships with admission officers.” and it is these events that develop that link, not only with the counsellor but also with the student. Chris Turner from Winchester University Admissions concluded yesterday by saying, “the fair was brilliant!  We have been touring Spain visiting about 12 international schools in five days and the fair at Sotogrande was by far the best”.

SIS University Convention December 3rd!

Sotogrande international school at CIS university admissions conference

Meet the University and Career Coordinator!

A really enjoyable meeting today with parents from M5 and D2. It was an opportunity for me to explain the University and career programme and promote the upcoming Universiy convention on December 3rd. I´ll probably organise a follow up in the new year!

November 9th Visit from Bard College, Berlin and M3 Career Investigator Pathways launch

This Monday saw the launch of Career Investigator with the M3 students, as part of their pathways programme prearing them for university and career choices. Students and advisors took part in the survey and this will be a key start point for research into their future long term goals and give them an insight into the best pathways forward in their academic studies. We also had a visit from a representative of Bard College, Berlin. He was able to present the entrance requirements and course structure of Bard, as well as give an insight into studying in Berlin to a select number of interested students from M4 to D2.

Sotogrande University Convention: December 3rd

Sotogrande University Convention: December 3rd

SIS U&C is delighted to welcome you to attend the second annual University Convention at Sotogrande School. The Convention will take place in the Gym and will be open to all secondary students and parents at specific times in the day. 


Seminars for applying to specific countries, will take place in the Secondary building for Diploma students only.

11-12:30 For SIS Secondary Students

12:00-15:00 Other International Schools

15:00-16:00 Application Seminars for DP students.

15:00-17:00 SIS Parents (An opportunity for parents to find out more about the higher education process)


Who should attend? SIS Secondary Students and Parents.

University of Navarra & Carroll College visit

"Today we were able to have two presentations from two very distinct and respected Universities from Spain and the USA. The University of Navarra presented their programmes of study to a number of Diploma students, concurrently with Carroll College who are also now offering a 3+1 course. The first year being a year of study in Seville before completing a degree at Carroll in Montana, USA. Our students were able to ask a number of useful questions and provide up to date information on these specific courses, as well as the wider application process for the US and Spain."

M1 Career Investigator Launch

"Last week saw the launch of a new addition to the University and Career Programme, a package called: Career Investigator. The purpose of Career Investigator is to engage students with the the real world and to get them thinking about potential career choices. This also helps them focus their minds on their current courses and will be invaluable in guiding them through the pathways programme as they move towards M3. In M3 they will need to consider elective subject choices, in conjunction with their parents and the support of staff.

To date the students have had an introduction to potential careers, and had some interesting conversations with each other and their teachers. They have since completed an online questionnaire that asks them a series of questions based on a variety of areas related to careers. Once completed all of the students are sent a personalised career profile to promote discussion and this will be returned to in discussions with their Advisors, and the U&C Coordinator over the coming weeks.

Career Investigator will be rolling out to M2 and M3 over the coming weeks.

What is Career Investigator Link?

Italian university: courses in English Bocconi

Why you might decide to study in Italy on an English language degree programme

Bocconi university is No.7 ranking globally, in specific courses, many opportunities for study abroad with some of the best universities in the world. Major exchanges with UK USA China and other key countries.

Focus on business and economics courses, with a highly developed internship programme and dual degree programme. International politics degree also now available.

English language level required in Italy B2 based on the European framework. Generally though IB English qualification will suffice. They accept all main Selts and toefl.

Founding partner with CEMS, Themis and member of PIM. 

Offers many double degree initiatives 

Requirement to complete ECDL test something for SIS to investigate. Computer literacy test.

AUP Paris University Counselor Conference April

A two day seminar for European based School Guidance Counselors at the American University of Paris 

My impressions of AUP were that they were a very professional and organised University, with a clear vision of the type of students they sought to recruit. The Admissions department is led by Tim Rogers, formerly the head of Admissions at LSE. I felt priviledged to have been asked to attend the seminar being the only Counselor representing any international Schools from southern Spain. It was a great opportunity to meet their Staff and Students, as well as have the opportunity to meet fellow School Guidance Counselors. 

Entrance requirements for AUP, we were informed are on average a 3.3 GPA with approximately 3300 applications this year for 200 places. The University has links with George Washington and UCA universities in the US and an exchange system with them.
They are actively looking to recruit IB students over AP Students as they see them in their own words as more rounded "global explorers". As part of that strategic vision they are offering automatic scholarships for DP students, based upon their final point score with the highest point scores being potentially offered full scholarships to attend. This trend is definitely on the rise with a number of Universities that I have come into contact with this year.

Their methodology is based around research, and links with industry and is in turn flipped back through links with their own post-grad programme.

In relation to DP courses in general they have no specific subject interest in the dp courses and what subjects they choose, as they are offering a broad spectrum "liberal arts" programme in line with the rising demand for these in US Universities. Nonetheless the single biggest Major is in Business.

They do not profess to follow a teaching model: The Students need to be independent, learners, following syllabus outlines but pursung their own answers with the Professors facilitating the education. This flipped classroom model, and independent learning style resonates with the learning style we are pursuing at SIS.

Their academic support system uses a system known as Ebray for e books that perhaps we need to look at as it appears to be a very interactive method to work with published articles. 

I look forward to developing our links with AUP and they will almost certainly attend our University Convention in December. I have signed up one of them to lead  a seminar at our event on US applications and have made some valuable contacts.

Brighton University Seminar 15.4.15

"On Wednesday I was delighted to welcome Sue Perry from Brighton University, who presented and took questions from M5 and DP students on the process of applying to the UK, and in particular Brighton University. She also gave an overview of the study programmes and life at Brighton University, and the new methods that they have developed to support students through their degree and into their future careers. I was impressed with the modern methods that Brighton University uses, that are very much in line with our educational practice at SIS. For example turnitin.com the plagiarism checker is at the heart of the Universities academic rigour, mirroring our use of Managebac with turnitin. The move to online support sites in their VLE with the resources for each course, also mirrors our teachers work in developing google sites. Finally the support for their students to establish internships and work placements whilst still at University, in part through their Ambassador programme, is in line with our programme of Conventions that allow students to make connections for M5 work experience. Thanks goes to Sarah Burgess for making this link, and we look forward to seeing Brighton University return for seminars in the future." Jason Munges U&C Coordinator

Career and University Convention 19.3.15

“On Thursday over 40 organisations representing both careers and universities assembled in the cantina for the Career and University Convention. The aim of the convention is to bring the world of work and university study, into the School and stimulate thought and discussions amongst our students, as part of a process that will enable them to prepare for their future. All M3 to D2 Students were able to attend from 3-5pm, giving them an opportunity to connect to the wider world of work, and study. Concurrently with the convention a number of seminars took place in the theatre and adjacent rooms, giving a more in depth look into particular career choices and the university application process. These seminars proved highly popular and informative, with a lot of very positive feedback from those who attended. There was also a lot of very valuable feedback from the participants in the cantina, who noted how inquisitive and prepared our students were. A large amount of the material that was available at the convention will be added to my website which is linked here University & Career Site. Thanks again goes to all the staff, external guests and students who were part of a great team  effort in providing support for the Career & University Programme.”

U&C Coordinator

Dp2016 history trip

Article for history trip:dp2016

Early On Saturday morning we departed for London. We arrived to beautiful weather and after checking in to our hotel, at lunchtime we then headed off to visit the British museum and then did an extensive walking tour of London, taking in the river, parliament, buckingham palace and back through Leicester square to covent garden. On Sunday we visited HMS Belfast, the refurbished imperial war museum and then the natural history museum. The first two being integral to our course in 20th century history. The quote of the trip was then given to us by Franco. In his words,"

This is mind blowing, i never knew dinosaurs really existed" on entering the natural history museum! Monday started with a visit to the cabinet war rooms and Churchill museum followed by a visit to Madame Tussaud's and then the academic bookshop for research into the students internal assessments. The evening then ended with a regular visit on the history trip to China towns  Wong  kei's restaurant! Tuesday comprised a day of history lectures on the Cold War from eminent historians at British universities. Wednesday will see us travel back to Spain, after an enjoyable and informative trip.

BETT 2015

Betts 2015: notes taken from a variety of seminars.



Day 1

DIGITAL LEADERS

A Big idea: that we develop a group of students titled digital leaders. These students would develop sites as resource areas for teachers. The history Archive structured by me and my web collection is part of this process but we can take this further. This in turn links back to many of the speakers ideas about empowering students to become teachers themselves and to step away from content driven "flipping". Some of the ideas were focusing on redressing what it means to "flip" the classroom and how to avoid bad practice: the 3 sins of extending the curriculum from the classroom rather than innovating with new pedagogy.

This question is one we could all ask of our students and flip that to what do they want to develop. Many of the student presentations were innovative and creative. Student led: what do I want students to develop? What do they want to develop?

My areas of development to franchise out:

1:U&C site. Pages. Student developing.
2:TOK and history development.

Then there were some new apps and plugins not used but they seem really good.

• Flubaroo is a plugin that auto marks
• TeachEats is a blog. We at SIS ought to have a blog for teachers to share good practice
• Action: make a Blog for all teachers
• Why? Sharing good practice
• This platform might do this for us: Teach meets.

I went to a presentation on students making: Online video tutorials made by students for safety on the Internet. We could do that. (delivered session on internet safety post BETT 2015)

Links with kindred project possibly: The business portal: student subject area all developed by students: google classroom used

Other ideas: Morning email notes / Teacher tool kit

Day 2

TWITTER IN THE CLASSROOM

Twitter @KiraOConnor

Tips for Twitter

Using history or political accounts
Paradoy accounts
@KingHnryviii Henry Tudor

Need to create research group to find relevant Twitter accounts

• Tweet pals
• Ask questions
• 140 summary sum up books etc concise language set as hmwk task
• Breaking news
• Netiquette engage with parents get parents to follow me
• Exchange ideas @teachingideas
• #elemchat
• Vine mini films need to look into this
• Create # for university and career info
• Using to learn English
• Following celebrities to correct English   Red balloon school

GOOGLE CLASSROOM

Session using google classroom

Digital leader group
Creating student digital leaders

Survey of the use of IT amongst staff
Student made tutorials
Need to do this for university

Google classroom app
Use for u and c classes by country (Done: we now have a U&C google classroom for every secondary year group)

PODCASTS IN THE CLASSROOM

Using podcasts in the classroom
Spreaker dj
Audioboom
Book creator
Creative book builder

Video collaboration in the classroom
Morfo booth
Lego movie creator (make history revision)

Robotics in the classroom
Sphero
Ozobot

Documents in the classroom
G docs
Post-it plus

Curation in the classroom
Pinterest (all teachers should use)
Pearltrees

Explain in the classroom
Explain everything (not free) 1.50
Tellagami

Back channel in the classroom
Twitter (make a hashtag for your classroom)
Todaysmeet

Digital leaders in the classroom
Promote students in these roles

Support digital learners
Dlchat Twitter

Learning together
Google +
iTunes U

Marki
Padlet

Righting the wrong flipping classroom

Dr Ashley tan: Education consultant

Using a backchannel is good: set this up ( discuss with colleagues ) Link about using backchannels

• Flipping is not about changing homework. Thinking about flipping is an Opportunity to question why we are giving homework.
• Voice thread: Perception of flipping can be to extend curriculum time. A bad idea.
• Flipped presentations made by students in advance for peers ( making students teachers)
• Learners as content creators: externalising using internal schema
• Learners as teacher: teachers become better at their content by teaching it, thus teachers should get students to teach
• Vertical learning: an SIS example would have been the core celebration.
• 3 sins of bad flipping: Same thing, question nature of homework, extend the curriculum

• Fostering student collaboration
• Active inspire software
• Collaboration ideas

Using mobile phones in the classroom.

• Ambit tac
• BYOD strategies
• Use of mobile phones
• Contradictions in school rules
• Use of mobile phones by adults setting examples
• Rethinking to allow them and teach students how to use them
• George c Marshall example

1/focus on pedagogical values and responsibility
2/Encourage but respect privacy rights
3/Students learn how to use them

Protocol discussed with staff

A code access with permission
R code recreation
P code prohibit exams
S code external use

Rethink

Student involvement
Visual information

Create school apps by students
Parents using phones and QR codes around the school

LINKS
http://www.teachhub.com/how-use-cell-phones-learning-tools
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/sep/10/mobile-phones-classroom-teaching
http://gettingsmart.com/2013/01/part-1-44-smart-ways-to-use-smartphones-in-class/


The power of blogs for problem solving

Ken Robinson

Pisa program international student assessment

The last presentation today is by Sir Ken Robinson

National education systems worldwide are being reformed to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. As a respected adviser to governments in Europe, Asia and the United States, Sir Ken argues in this powerful presentation that many countries are pushing reforms in the wrong direction. Drawing from his groundbreaking book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, he explains why too many are locked into a model of education shaped by the Industrial Revolution and a narrow idea of academic ability. Urging schools and colleges everywhere to rethink their basic assumptions about intelligence and achievement, Sir Ken focuses on the vital questions: Why is it essential to promote creativity? What's the problem? Why do so many adults think they're not creative? Most children are buzzing with ideas. What happens to them as they grow up? What should be done? Is everyone creative or just a select few? Can creativity be developed? If so, how? In exploring these questions, Sir Ken argues for radical changes in how we educate all students to meet the extraordinary challenges of living and working in the 21st century. Takeaways include: How education wastes more talent than it saves The three core objectives of 21st Century education.  Why we're all smarter than we think. What schools and colleges should do, and how governments should help