An interview with Dr Siva Kumari, the head of the International Baccalaureate

Dr Siva Kumari, the head of IB since January 2014, is also the first woman to be appointed to this position. Dr. Kumari is keenly aware of the data used by schools today to measure student attainment, and intends to use this data and technology to transform IB into a world leader by adopting 'Strategy 2.0'.

"My personal ambition and the organisation's strategy is to be able to get really good at quickly sharing what's working well in a certain type of school,” she said. “We have so many different types of schools all around the world, so I hope we get really precise about saying we know a certain type of school in a certain setting will need a particular kind of thing, and we can be predictive. And with data the way it is right now, and what you can do with it, in future we'll be able to use it much better. "Our future ambitions are at some point, if we get really good at using this technology, we don't want to restrict those best practices to only IB schools. We are a not-for-profit with a mission and we want to be able to open up those practices to anyone who has a device essentially.” "Besides just teaching in schools, we give teachers opportunities to teach each other. So we train them if they want to go and teach someone else. We also train them to go see other schools. Why this is important is because it's different than what a school offers. A school offers them the chance to teach other students, and there's an art to that and it's their responsibility. "What we're offering them in addition to that is professionalization. So if you go see another school, you become an evaluator, you're a peer evaluating another school. And when you go teach another teacher, you're also doing something other than teaching in a school. So I think what we try to do is give all those sorts of experiences to teachers as well."

“What I want the IB to become is this great connector of students and educators. If a student is studying environmental sustainability or building the tallest building in Dubai, there's no reason why they can't collaborate with someone in south-side Chicago or Yokohama Japan.”

For more information, go to http://www.ibo.org/news/news-about-the-ib/the-ibs-director-general-on-her-vision-for-the-ib/

31 Boulevards selected by EnglishUK as one of the key agents representing Asia Pacific

From Thursday, 30 November to Saturday, 2 December, the EnglishUK Regional Fair for the Asia Pacific region will be held at the Intercontinental Grand Stanford in Hong Kong.

This event is a major gathering of agents from the Asia pacific region so they can meet representatives from EnglishUK. This fair is especially important to us as 31 Boulevards has been selected as one of the key agents to represent this region.

Thirty UK institutions will be coming to Hong Kong to establish relationships in the Asia Pacific region, including universities, further education colleges, boarding and summer schools, and English language schools.

Supported by the Department for International Trade and British Council, EnglishUK Regional Fairs have an excellent reputation in the industry. EnglishUK, which is the national association of English language centres in the United Kingdom, has a membership accredited by British Council. EnglishUK members have set and raised the bar in all aspects of English language teaching.

Go to http://www.englishuk.com/overseas-events/asia-pacific to learn more.

Using digital tools to enrich your learners’ vocabulary

A rich vocabulary range is important for English language learners as they need to learn so many words to make themselves understood. But what do learners need to know about vocabulary?

There are certain areas that teachers need to focus on: meaning; how words are pronounced; the forms of words, e.g., plurals, countable/uncountable nouns, dependent prepositions; how a word is used; collocations; different levels of formality; connotations; frequency of use; and what level they should be learnt at.

But what vocabulary is appropriate for each level? For exams, looking at the resources for teachers at the Cambridge website will provide you with word lists. These lists are organised alphabetically and by topic. They are a useful starting point for teaching words tested in the Cambridge exams, and include full lists for YLE’s Starters, Movers and Flyers.

But how do you find out the level of a word? You can use the English Vocabulary Profile resource that was created in 2012 and based on research on vocabulary learning. It is a good tool for decision making on what vocabulary to teach learners as they progress and how to assess them. You can create a free account to access this resource.

Another online resource is the Cambridge Online Dictionary. It also contains information about word level, and you can listen to audio files to learn how words are pronounced and any collocations and synonyms they may have. Online dictionaries are useful for lesson preparation; to help analyse vocabulary; to prepare pre‐listening or pre‐reading activities; to practise pronunciation; to provide vocabulary extension tasks for quick finishers; for team games; and as independent learning activities,

Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajGtomf80_o to learn more.