This is a speech written for the last HS Assembly of October
Photo taken in late October 2022, with Chinese national flag, SABS flag, and O House banner flying in front of the high school building
In October, the high school community experienced many things together and students and teachers in it grew together again. It was a short month, yet another very busy one. It meant a productive month if you devoted yourself to your learning and growth. According to the theme of October, many of you exercised skills of inquiry through various learning opportunities and perhaps did some formal research in the projects that you or your teachers chose to focus.
Right after the National Day holidays, we sent 1/3 of our student population home because of a case of COVID close contact. We really appreciated all students’, parents, and teachers’ cooperation, which ensured the difficulties to be overcome by the community smoothly. It was a learning experience for all of protecting ourselves and the community against potential harms.
In the previous month, we saw a series of engaging and joyful activities during the World Mental Health Day, which was organized by Group 3 teachers and supported by many kind students. A team of excellent student volunteers also supported the celebration ceremony of the 8th school anniversary, while all students enjoyed the happy afternoon at the celebration festival, which was full of student exhibitions and fun activities. Still, as part of the school anniversary, the high school organized the third Fun Run on Oct 28th afternoon to celebrate our love of sports and strengthen our belongingness to Houses. In these school activities, many students improved their skills while contributing to the learning community. They learned to do things that benefit themselves and others.
Photo taken at the 8th SABS anniversary on Oct 21 2022
At the same time, you made sure significant amount of time and energy of you would still be spent on your academic study. While ‘learn to do’ is important, ‘learn to know’ should be always the utmost priority of your life in the high school. The new knowledge and skills that you learned in a variety of subjects needed your close attention and consistent effort. In late of the month, you were guided by your teachers to review the knowledge and skills that you learned and prepared for the upcoming mid-term exams. I came across a few student leaders in HSSA who had to spend much time on organizing student activities, they confessed that they had to sleep less, eat faster, and study more efficiently. I observed that, although they appeared busier, they were happier and their academic learning was not necessarily compromised because their potential was activated by the involvement in all the excitements happening in the school.
Learning essentially is the process of making meaning of the world around you and within you; therefore, the process of inquiry and research initiated by the learner is the most important and probably the only way to prepare you a powerful mind that will enable you to live a happy and successful life in the future. I observe exemplar students in this room understand this purpose of learning more and become better at learning as they grow from junior students to senior students in this school. I would like to encourage all other students always set a mind to learn to know and learn to involve more in the rich lives in the high school.
Looking at the beginning of the month of November. The HS principal’s office would like to promote a new theme, which consists two key words Reflective and Thinking Skills.
Reflective
You give thoughtful consideration to your own learning and experience.
You are able to assess and understand your strengths and limitations in order to support your learning and personal development.
Thinking skills
You are able to think critically by analyzing and evaluating issues and ideas;
You are able to think creatively by generating novel ideas and considering new perspectives;
You are also able to transfer skills and knowledge across disciplines.
I think reflection is the natural next step for inquiry, research, and extra-curricular activities. It is also an important part of review at the end of one cycle of new learning. For example, before the AS re-take exams, our teachers helped Grade 12 A-Level students review what they had learned in Grade 11 and reflect on what they really understood and what they needed more work. Mid-term exams begin in this week. Your reflection and review in previous weeks define your performance in the exams as this process enhances learning and aims at improvement.
Grade 11 A-Level students are taking a course titled Critical Thinking and Writing. Basically, it teaches you research skills that you will need today and in the future. You will see reflection and thinking skills will be an important part of the course. I know DP 1 students have started their Extended Essay journey. This process will be full of reflection opportunities. You will be asked to meet your supervisors and reflect on the issues and progresses of your research. You will also have to reflect on every step of your inquiry to make sure, for example, the experiment design is fine, the data collection method is appropriate, the calculations are accurate.
Reflection is also a part of extra-curriculum learning. I had a CAS interview with one DP1 student. I heard a range of interesting activities from the student. But when I asked him “Do you have a bigger purpose of taking part in these separate activities?”, “What did you learn from these activities on the top of only enjoying swimming?”, he had to sit still and ponder for a few minutes before giving me a rudimental answer. Then I probed further and he provided more clarification of his understanding. This was an example of reflection. You look back and consider the plan, process, purpose, and outcomes of the learning so that you will become better self when you are about to participate in another new round of learning.
Photo taken in Shanghai Auto Park, SABS HS students participating the 3rd Fun Run, Oct 28
In IB CAS, there are seven learning outcomes, which guide you through the learning and reflection processes. In our high school, we try to use the twelve learner attributes and monthly themes as the anchors for our students’ learning and reflection. At the end of day, learning, be it for each individual students, or for this high school learning community, will be more purposeful, meaningful, and focused when we share a set of agreed education goals and aspirations. This is the value of the monthly theme.
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