Teachers of Gateway attend two of the most renowned International Education conferences
View(s):Five Hundred and Forty teachers of the Gateway Colleges took part in a week long Professional Development programme by attending the World Education Summit and the Microsoft E2 Conference.
The Management of Gateway made a decision to give a week’s break to all the teachers to invest their valuable time in Continuous Professional Development (CPD), an important aspect that did not have due attention during the year long Pandemic. In doing so, Gateway invested substantially to enroll its teachers in these conferences that were held online this year.
The World Education Summit (WES) is a 4-day event that is considered to be one of the best, biggest and costliest educational summits in the world that celebrates achievements and developments in education with provocative and stimulating debates on current and emerging challenges. The event provides access to over 100 hours of professional learning on demand for a full year, under 10 unique themes: impact, values, digital, culture, cognition, curriculum & assessment, inclusion & support, inspection & turnaround, implementation & evaluation and talent development. This year’s summit featured over 200 speakers from around the world, including education giants such as Professor John Hattie, Professor Dylan Wiliam, Professor Guy Claxton, Dr Shirley Clarke, Professor Sugata Mitra, Professor Michael Fullan, Sadhguru and Dame Alison Peacock to name a few.
Education Exchange or E2 as it’s popularly known, is Microsoft’s flagship Education event that is held every year exclusively for exceptional MIE (Microsoft Innovative Educator) Experts. Being the only Microsoft Showcase School in Sri Lanka and one among only 325 in the world, Gateway took the advantage of enrolling all its teachers since this year’s conference was open to all Educators. In fact, 2021 has been very significant to the Gateway Colleges since a hundred of their teachers were recognised by Microsoft as MIE Experts. The event offered an unparalleled opportunity to learn together and celebrate the achievements of extraordinary changemakers–both leaders and educators–who are transforming education to ensure students can achieve more in their lives today and in the future. The event offered 5 tracks of learning: Build your career, Student-centered learning, STEM, Student engagement & well-being and School & System leadership.
Education itself continuously evolves and has been transformed over the course of the past three decades by the digital revolution. Gateway stays abreast of these developments by encouraging and giving prominence to the CPD of staff. Research and study of education systems and standards across the globe helps the school discover new trends, better methodologies, and innovative approaches.
Teachers of Gateway are expected to log their training hours through the Performance Management Portal which enables them and the school to track progress. They do not stop with their initial educational qualifications or prior teaching experience: instead engage in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) throughout their careers. Discussing plans for next year, during which Gateway College will celebrate her ‘Silver Jubilee’, Gateway’s Chairman says that Gateway is, and will always be, ‘a Place for Every Member of Staff to Grow’.
