School Blog

Professional Development


Two sessions of Professional Development were held at HQIS this week. HQIS Professional Development courses are addressed to teachers to improve their skills and to keep constantly updated the teaching methodology with the newest educational tools. The course took place both in the morning and in the afternoon.
The first day the course included child development and education led by CDA Ms. Wendy Watson for nursery and early childhood teachers, with special parts dedicated to children with exceptional needs, while for K-G12 teachers the session, led by Ms. Kaarin Averill, focused on the Three Pillars of HQIS, converging on curriculum mapping, logic, and unit design.  
The first day the course included child development and education led by CDA Ms. Wendy Watson for nursery and early childhood teachers, with special parts dedicated to children with exceptional needs, while for K-G12 teachers the session, led by Ms. Kaarin Averill, focused on the Three Pillars of HQIS, converging on curriculum mapping, logic, and unit design.  

In the afternoon the PD session included Units of writing, focused on each grade creating a unit of writing for UOI 2 specific to a text type to mastery, grammatical focus, texts type features and writing process.

As for middle and high school teachers, the participants worked on Instructional Strategies for Reading and Vocabulary.

On the second day, Ms. Watson’s early childhood course continued with documentation and observation, and in the meantime, teachers under the guidance of Ms. Janice Sigrist could get notions of literacy for K - G5, structured in various parts such as learning and reading styles, classroom management goals and the successful NRSI Carbo Method. 

During both the first and second half of the day, Ms. Averill’s course was about Inquiry, sharing out on progress for the new unit and Modified Tuning Protocol for teachers from grade 6 to grade 12.

All the sessions, enriched with moments of discussion and analysis, were really useful and educational for all the teachers and the participating staff, absolutely essential for the development of the teacher's individual skills and knowledge and nevertheless an integral part of the HQIS philosophy for the formation of new generations of teachers.