Dr. Phakdee Mangmiwatthana, the owner and co-founder of American Prep International School, recently visited our school campus to assist our local management team with strategic planning for the next few years. During his visit he also found the time to give an inspirational talk to the school staff. In this talk he told a story of how the hunters of an African village had to join forces in order to move an elephant that was hunted far away from the village closer to the village. 
The moral of the story is that a big task cannot be performed by one man only. It is only when a group, who has a common goal, finds ways of working together and supporting one another, that the goal can be achieved. This is very wise counsel and was really appreciated by the staff. After Dr. Phakdee’s departure the staff of the school unanimously voted to adopt the slogan: “Let’s Move the Elephant” as our school motto for the year. With this motto in mind and with the commitment to
implement it, we know that great things will be achieved at American Prep International this year!
Category: Director’s Blog
Blended Learning is the norm at APIS
Blended Learning at APIS
American Prep International has positioned itself as the trend-setting e-learning elementary school in Thailand, following a “blended model” of teaching and learning.
Parents, and others, often ask: “What does all of this mean?” “How is American Prep International different from other schools?”
The infographic below gives a short overview of what “blended learning” is as defined by various well known educational scholars of our time.
The infographic will be followed by some comments about blended learning at American Prep International today.
What is Blended Learning?
Blended Learning at APIS
At American Prep we follow the “enriched virtual model ” of blended learning as described in the infographic above. In practice this means that:
- At American Prep International, middle school students all have their own laptops.
- Each student has on his/her laptop the e-learning textbooks for the year.
- Teachers make use of either Moodle or Edmodo to structure their course materials and lessons.
- In short, it boils down to a situation where the specific lessons and teaching materials are loaded (lesson by lesson) on to the student’s laptop (using either of the programs mentioned above).
- Often students are expected to access these lessons at home and go through them for the next day. At school the teacher then spends class time discussing and applying the principles prepared at home!
- This is the essence of “blended teaching and learning” at APIS.
- This form of teaching is supplemented by a wide variety of e-learning techniques and digital resources.
At APIS we are proud of the fact that we are a trend-setter in Thailand with this way of teaching!
New beginnings
2016/2017 is truly a year of New Beginnings at American Prep International School, Hatyai, Thailand.
This new year APIS has really moved into a “Blended Education” model of teaching. In the blended model of teaching, learners receive some of their instruction in a face-to-face classroom situation. The other part he/she receives by means of video or other media at home. In practise it means that the learner studies some of his work at home through e-learning while the practical application takes place in the classroom. This model of education at APIS is especially applied to teaching in the middle school grades.
English Speaking Emphasis
Learning English language pretty well may mean at least 5 years of solid English immersion. Even so-called native speakers struggle with their English grades. To increase the students’ English proficiency level is a felt need. Undeniably, this is one of the most challenging academic mountains to surmount. The medium of instruction in an international school is English. Hence, there is no other option as far as the “classroom language” is concerned but English-English-English. Academic survival implies a solid grasp of the English language. Basically, any student must have a sufficient level of English comprehension. To this end, we need to work out a system to raise the English proficiency level of our students by forcing our students to “swim”.
First, the school puts in place an Early Reading Intervention Program which is enforced school- wide. This is envisioned to provide the language immersion to the students and “water to swim”.Speaking skill is learned by speaking just as swimming is learned by swimming in the water andnot on dry ground. Thus, the school encourages parents to work with the teachers by encouraging the children to watch English movies and English TV programs. Motivating students to read English books and leveled readers may help. If we get our children to love reading good books, learning will be really fun and enjoyable. Success is brighter! Second, friendly and reasonable punishments or demerits are integrated to serve as deterrents for students who blatantly refuse to cooperate with the English Speaking Policy on campus. In addition a 3% to 5% grading weight may be integrated in all subjects to serve as a motivator. It is important that we encourage our children to always speak English in school and at home if possible. Since we desire academic success in an international setting we need to get serious with how we help students. We need to employ various approaches to “drill or practice” our students/children just like great athletes who must win. Thus, swimming must be done in the water rather than on dry ground.
There is a great call for all teachers to help improve the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills of the students. Without these skills, how can students develop the critical thinking skills?
The Early Reading Intervention Program may spell out the tasks/emphases of the elementary teachers in addition to the prescribed standards for mastery learning. Priority tasks for the elementary teachers as regards language development are as follows:
- Grades 1 & 2: Inspire and instill in the children the love for reading good books
- Grade 3: Emphasizing the Early Reading Intervention via various reading strategies with team-teaching
- Grade 4 & 5: Following through the Early Reading Intervention with modified “loafing” and team-teaching
Teachers are required to produce narrative reports or descriptions of each student which include the student difficulty or deficiency in English. This will help the next grade level teacher to follow through and support intelligently any at-risk students. Save them from future failure!