IB Asia Pacific Newsletter

Quarter Three, 2008

Message from the Regional Director

Welcome back to many of our IB schools – we wish you all a good start to the new academic year and trust that your students and teachers had an enjoyable and safe mid-year vacation.

23nd IB Asia Pacific Annual Regional Conference

17-20 October 2008

Shangri-la Kerry Centre Hotel, Beijing, China

Support for this year’s Regional Conference has been strong. Please note though Registrations are still open. The theme of the Conference is "Educating for Social Responsibility", our second Conference in a series aimed at developing further the IB community theme “Sharing our Humanity”.

Registration details do include advice and advocacy for participants who wish to offset their travel and contribute to making this a carbon neutral event.

CALL FOR PAPERS!
3rd IB Asia Pacific Teachers' Convention

“Assessment for Meaningful Learning”

17-19 March 2009

Furama Riverfront Hotel, Singapore

We invite you to submit a short proposal for a presentation on the conference theme by 1 Dec 2008.  For more information on the Call for Papers, please visit http://www.ibo.org/ibap/conference/

IB Asia Pacific Staff Changes

Nigel Forbes-Harper has been promoted into the new role of Regional Head of Programmes. Nigel will assume responsibility for the support services offered to schools implementing the programmes and for the quality assurance of the authorisation and evaluation of schools. This is a key role regionally and globally as the IB seeks to harmonise systems and processes across programmes and globally.

Curtis Beaverford has assumed the role of Middle Years Programme (MYP) Regional Manager following Patrick Ritters' departure to take on the Headship of Beacon School in the Phillipines.

Six new staff members joined us in August. Three of these are new roles in the Regional Office as we continue to expand not just regional school operations but also back-end global functions from our Singapore base.

A Warm Welcome to:

Ashish Trivedi, MYP Associate Regional Manager

After earning my degrees in Computer Education, I started my teaching career in 1996. Since then, I have had the opportunity to work for schools in India, Indonesia and Japan.

I began my IB journey in 2002 with Gandhi Memorial International School in Jakarta as an MYP coordinator. Year 2004 brought me the exciting opportunity to become an MYP workshop leader and since then I have had several opportunities to participate in in-school MYP workshops, Evaluation and Authorization visits.  I continued my IB experience by taking up a position at K. International School in Tokyo in 2005.

Over all these years I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the IB World community and now I look forward to working at the IB Asia Pacific office as I enter a new phase in my IB journey.

Kathy Derrick, PYP Associate Regional Manager

My teaching career began in 1986 and since then I have taught in schools in Singapore and Australia, taking on a wide variety of roles during that time.  My experience in classroom teaching has spanned the Elementary age ranges of 4-11 year olds and specialist teaching experience in the fields of Library, Art and PE.  Most recently I was employed at the International School of Singapore, where I experienced all stages involved in the implementation of the Primary Years Programme.  For the past two years I was a full-time PYP coordinator and last academic year I was also the Chair of the Singapore PYP Coordinators Network.

As a PYP Workshop Leader, I have facilitated workshops and worked on visiting teams in Australia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Indonesia and Syria.  I am excited to be part of the IB Asia Pacific PYP team and look forward to working with more schools in this region.

Guy Roberts, Associate Professional Development Manager

I was the Middle Years Programme Coordinator and an English teacher for both the Middle Years and Diploma Programmes at Mira Loma High School in Sacramento, California, USA. Over the past ten years, I have worked closely with IB North America in various roles including Andragogy Coach, Workshop Leader, MYP Field Representative, and Site Authorization and Evaluatiion. I have also worked closely with the Curriculum Design Team at IB Cardiff to articulate the IB unit plan between the MYP and the Diploma Programme. I have travelled around the world including Canada, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts in English from California State University, Sacramento, a Master's of Science in Education with a focus on Curriculum Design from National University, and have just completed my doctorate in International and Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco. I am extremely excited about the working with the IB in the Asia Pacific.

Lee Hwee Ping, Analyst Programmer

I am born, bred, and educated in Singapore, hence I always enjoyed travelling out of the country to visit new places and explore different cultures.

My first trip was during my first year in my Computer Science degree study, with three other like-minded friends. I still have warm feelings towards Bangkok and the lovely beaches of Thailand from that time.

Over the years, I had the opportunity in my work to explore exciting technologies and IT concepts from overseas visitors. I am excited at the prospects that IB offers, and look forward to contributing towards the global organization.

Loke Khin Kai, Analyst Programmer

Having graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering, I started out in a development role, and had the opportunities to try out administration and reporting responsibilities over the years, gaining rich and valuable insights during the process. My preference still lies with development, and with that, I stepped into the IB in end July 2008.

In addition to all things related to computers (naturally?), my interest also lies in the great outdoors. I am game for most sports, particularly tennis, badminton and volleyball, and have recently started to take on the challenges of local run events.

Stuart Jones, DP Associate Regional Manager

I have worked in international education for the last 15 years, in the Middle East and Singapore and have experience of US, and UK education systems as well as the IB Diploma Programme.

In my previous role, I was the Assistant Head of High School/ DP Coordinator at International School of Singapore, where I helped introduce the Diploma Programme and oversaw its development. Key areas of focus have been: using the Diploma Programme to raise standards across the school, improving access to the DP and articulation of the three IB programmes.

I have also been an IB Examiner (Physics) and Workshop leader (for DP Coordinators).

I am very much looking forward to working with schools in Asia Pacific, supporting their implementation and development of the Diploma Programme.

We invite schools to provide articles to the fourth quarter 2008

Newsletter with the latest happenings at your school or if there are any special events, please email ibap@ibo.org by latest 20 October 2008.   

Our best wishes to you all.  

Judith Guy, Regional Director

Email: ibap@ibo.org