Professonal Development in Hong Kong

I attended my first Category 3 PYP, MYP and DP Continuum Workshops in Hong Kong at the Chinese International School from 22 October - 24 October. The co-ordinators were Yvonne Barrett from Japan and Gary Green from Australia, and the event was attended by thirty-eight librarians and teacher librarians from countries such as India, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, UK, Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia.

Besides the exchange of ideas, brainstorming, self-reflection and making new contacts, many new ideas and suggestions were raised and discussed. Some of the specific and more general points were:

• have combined librarian and teacher workshops, including a focus on inquiry and investigation
• have a librarian or teacher librarian representative in IBO to oversee standards and PD authorization terms [The final phrase needs explanation.]
• discuss the consequences of what the IBO terms “malpractice" [comma] which includes plagiarism and collusion
• refer to http://www.worldmapper.org/, which is simply amazing, and presents the world through various lenses.

The workshop was a wonderful experience for me. I learned so much and got to think "out of the box" in so many ways. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and will definitely benefit from us librarians networking and having seen each other face-to-face.

Sarita Wadhawan
Librarian