On the work front year 3

Since our time here is not ALL about travel and adventures because I am here to work I thought I would share some "Miles-stones" of this time of year, now my third year as principal of BSCIS. 

The school is quite a vibrant center of learning for our students with a whole range of learning styles and environments. We had balloon powered cars in Physics 11...

We studied about and responded to Residential schools in Socials 11...

We integrated aboriginal concepts and visuals in most of our subject matter...

And we also continue to celebrate the bi-cultural education that we provide here for our students. This is the grade 12 students taking their tea ceremony class, the "final exam" being a tea ceremony for their parents. 

We also continue to invite a series of presenters to share their lives and inspire our students as to what is possible. This is Ambassador Ishikawa, who was the Japanese ambassador to Canada, to Egypt, who represented Japan in G8 negotiations and who graduated from Ecole Nationale in Paris.

He had a very powerful message about the most important skills in his life was to learn to be flexible, to work with opportunities as they arose and to celebrate all cultures... not just Japan. 

We were thrilled to have Akiko Kuno come to do a workshop with the grade 11 English class. She wrote a book about her great-grandmother who was sent by the Meiji emperor to study in the US at the age of 12. She lived there for 10 years then returned to Japan to marry a great war hero and Minister of War and to educate Japan about ways in the West. Students were mesmerized by her stories. 

Here are pictures of her great-grand-mother in full Western outfits. 

Our grade 10 students honed their presentation skills by presenting to the entire 200 grade 9 students about their summer in BC.

Mid-October is also our annual inspection time. This is the time that the BC Ministry of Education sends an inspector to our school to review every aspect of the function of our school including finances, curriculum, contracts, teaching methodology, assessment methods etc. It is a busy time before the inspection with lots of ground work to prepare and then an intense week when both the MOE inspector and my supervisor from MOE are with us.

Ed, our inspector this year, had the chance to visit many areas of our school.

He met with our team at various points. Here is part of the team at the morning meeting. 

At the end of the inspection our school for the third time in a row received an excellent report with only commendations and no requirements!

Ah yes... three excellent inspection reports in three years; yeah!

And then, of course, Halloween hits us like a storm... even here in Japan. Students had a great time:

While we enjoyed having some of our Japanese and BC staff get into the spirit as well:

Most recently we are participating in a promotional film by the BC MOE about Offshore schools where they had professional cinematographers film both interviews with our students and some of our parents. 

I continue to have amazing opportunities to connect with people from around the world, this time hosted at the Canadian embassy (again) for the Study in Canada Fair. Here again, in the main hall maybe 500 people.

The honoured guests at this event were the JP Minister of Education and the Assistant Minister.

In the beautiful gardens I had the opportunity to meet the Minster and to talk about our school.

It is a beautiful setting in Tokyo and the garden spread was striking. 

Inside the residence it was fun to meet up with a young Pole representative. 

And to enjoy the view of downtown Tokyo from the top floor. 

As I bicycled the 12 km back to our home I picked the specific route through the fall colours to really enjoy this season here in Tokyo. I also reflected on the wonderful opportunities I have had in my work here and how much I have enjoyed my time as principal of BSCIS.