On April 16, we were thrilled to welcome over 30 participants from eight schools to Guangzhou Nanfang International School (GNIS) for a ManageBac Social. We were also happy to see several attendees who traveled from Hong Kong for the event!
The afternoon began with food, drinks, and socializing among the participants, followed by a company update & presentation from Managing Director Angelica Nierras.
Next, the Head of Primary at GNIS, Majesta Bianco, presented on the school’s experience with ManageBac. GNIS chose to move forward with ManageBac for the whole school in May 2014. After allowing teachers time over the summer to play around with the system, the school implemented ManageBac fully for all year levels when school started in August 2014.
She noted that the senior leadership team acted as “internal salesmen” selling ManageBac to the board, teachers, administrative staff, and parents. The arguments were different for each group, but centered on the system saving time and reducing the amount of manual data entry.
During the Q&A, participants asked about achieving buy-in, how to best upload unit planners, and how to use the system effectively in Chinese. Other colleagues from GNIS in attendance included PYP Coordinator Scott Whitely, ICT Coordinator Andrew Gill, Head of School Michael Urquhart, Head of Secondary John Benson, and several PYP teachers, all of whom were able to also address questions.
“One year down the line even our most reluctant IT users in the secondary school are comfortable,” said Head of Secondary John Benson.
After a quick break for food and beverages, our final presenter Lance King, founder of the Art of Learning, took the stage to walk participants through the process of developing an ATL skills program at their schools. He challenged participants to focus more on “doing” rather than planning, and to focus on just one ATL skill at a time, school-wide.
For more resources on ATL from Lance, please click here.
It was truly a pleasure to visit Guangzhou and meet the vibrant IB community there!
Click here to see what we have planned in May!
