Dalian American International School has kicked off the 2021-2022 school year online. It is not the way we wanted to start the year, but unfortunately the Local Education Bureau has requested that we keep our doors closed during this recent outbreak of COVID-19.
Two weeks prior to the start of school, our teaching staff were busy planning and preparing for the 2021-2022 school year. Teachers were engaged, both online and offline, in various professional development programs:
Teachers prepared onsite and digital learning spaces and developed their skills to better support our students.
This year we provided an online event for our families. In the Elementary Division Mr. Row and Mrs. Beach introduced our teaching team and DAIS’ educational philosophies. After that students then had an opportunity to talk to their homeroom teachers.
In Secondary School, students could also meet all their teachers (including advisory), and parents were encouraged to join their son or daughter in their Microsoft Teams meetings. Students and teachers followed the daily block schedule during the virtual Open House – 10 minutes per class, just enough to get to know each other.
From Monday, August 16 our students started to study at home. We follow the regular school schedule, and students are expected to attend all lessons, no matter that they are taught online. Our teachers are working hard to keep them engaged, create memorable moments, and let them learn new topics every day.
Elementary students really enjoy using toolkits again that their moms and dads bring to them from school every week. It’s fantastic that they have all tools and materials for studying and experimenting, books, journals and so on even at home!
It is amazing to see how technologically literate our students have become. We are so proud of our kids and the effort they are putting forth in their synchronous and asynchronous work.
We cannot wait to meet everyone on campus on September 1st when we’re allowed to reopen our doors.
