Ongoing Professional Development
Path to Leadership
IMS keeps its best teachers, many of whom have stayed at IMS since their particular class was founded. We are committed to those talented and creative individuals who want to continue their own journey of development, and it is the IMS mission to make our school a “home” for our team. Most of the IMS faculty leadership has grown with us, and taken on leadership roles as the school has grown.
As a result, every member of faculty has a chance to bounce ideas off of others, and also has access to and support from a full-time experienced curriculum leader who is available in each campus to help parents, teachers and children alike.
This commitment to hiring and training exceptional teachers who are native Putonghua speakers means that today:
Gourmet PD - Teachers Teaching Teachers
With so much talent in-house, we work hard to encourage faculty members to share their wealth of knowledge, and have developed programme of Professional Development (PD) we call “Gourmet PD” as each educator can choose from a “menu” of options addressing a variety of questions which have been raised in reviews which faculty members. Gourmet PD occurs regularly throughout the year, and seminar topics are selected based on identified learning goals a number of faculty are interested in pursuing. Each member of staff is welcomed to contribute their expertise on a topic of particular interest as well.
Conferences and Visiting Experts
IMS has always been fortunate that AMI teacher trainers and experts who have visited the school, observed classrooms and provided training to our faculty, From Sue Birdsall, to Susan Stephenson, to Shannon Helfrich. More recently, we have had Jean Miller train the entire faculty in Montessori Bells and Tone Bars, had Allyn Travis visit, and we are scheduling more such visits soon. In 2014, IMS worked with the International Montessori Council (IMC) to create the inaugural Hong Kong Montessori Conference “Life is a Journey, Not a Race!” which was a 3-day event for Montessori educators and leaders from around the world, and included a parent education workshop. The Conference was such a success that we held a second conference in October 2016, and are planning the third conference for October 2018. These Conferences offer such an invaluable Professional Development opportunity for all IMS faculty and staff, and directly benefited each child under our care. All IMS faculty are sponsored to participate in these PD opportunities to refresh and reignite your passion for Montessori education.
