On 8th and 9th September, four teachers, including Mr. Bryan To, Ms. Priscilla Ngai, Mr. David Woo and Mr. Peter Woodhead joined the D.I. Summit in Singapore organised by the Academy of Principals (Singapore).
Other than the scrumptious food and spectacular scenery, we also enjoyed the eye-opening experience and interaction with different educators from all over the world. It was a very special occasion for us to share our visions on how we use differentiation practices to cater for the diverse learning needs at LTPSS. Renowned scholars, such as Drs. Harry and Rosemary Wong and Dr. Kathy Perez, shared theoretical and practical examples of differentiation in various teaching and learning contexts in the keynote sessions.
In the spotlight sessions, the speakers demonstrated innovative instructional strategies. The hands-on experiences during the lectures helped teachers to understand the strategies from the perspectives of students. We thought the examples of the strategies are very useful and considered some challenges we may encounter in implementing them! There was a lively and productive interaction between teachers from Singapore and Hong Kong. We felt very inspired by engaging in the professional dialogue and successfully established connection with each other. The following are some of the reflection of our teachers.
“I did learn a lot of pragmatic instructional strategies and will adopt it in my classroom. I particularly like the way the speakers integrate assessment, learning objectives and pedagogical methods! It is one of the most inspiring conferences in my life! Highly recommended!”
Mr. Bryan To
“I never thought organizing classroom management plan would be such an important strategy for my classes. While we thought many of the principles seem to be common sense, it’s indeed essential to make them all explicit since Day 1 of your class. While there were always students who may be sleeping or having a world of their own under the table, it is time for us to reflect on our means of instruction and the importance of differentiation to cater on these often neglected ones.”
Ms. Priscilla Ngai
“I have been teaching for many years and still found myself having an Aha moment during the keynotes and spotlight sessions. This was a conference that benefited all teachers and reminded us all that we are the most significant influence on student achievement. Teacher with classroom management plans are effective teachers!’
Mr. Peter Woodhead
“I was pleased to see that the humanities panel has already implemented many FIP practices that were mentioned at the conference, including the use of timers, small group roles, learning targets, exit cards, and other classroom management routines. I find the real challenge of differentiated instruction is implementing the appropriate differentiated instruction practices for my students. I have found that my students have had difficulty comprehending instructions for differentiated instruction, perhaps not least because differentiated instructional strategies are totally foreign from them, and their instructions are more complex than rote instructional strategy instructions. Differentiated instruction is not intuitive! Furthermore, a wide range of language abilities has proven to be a challenge to effective pair and small group work. I do know my students and I have a great opportunity to unlearn. For instance, I gave students vocabulary cards and I noted that rather than draw their understanding, almost every student wrote words!”
Mr. David Woo
