New school year approaching, new school!

Went in to my new school today to meet the other "newbies" and the senior management. It is so good to be back in an IB environment again. There is just such a different feel, positivity every step of the way, open mindedness...I am feeling inspired again and can't wait to get started.

I will be working with Destiny for the first time and I love it already. The interface is easy to use and very visual for the kids. Our OPAC can be accessed from http://library.wiss.cn I have started to enter a couple of reviews and plan to get some of the upper Primary going on adding some more once term starts.

This will be the first time I have actually started with the other new members of staff, kind of scary to think this is my 4th school in almost as many years. Time to slow down and consolidate some learning in one place now. Previously I have started part-way through a year or slightly after the others like last year so this is a great opportunity to meet everyone at the start and not feel like I am playing catch up all the time.

Plus there is a new library to plan. The space is still being finished and the school director wants CiCi (the Asst Librarian) and I to start visualising how we want the final space to be. Exciting!!
There is to be one glass wall which will open on to a lawn space and I already have ideas about rugs, parasols and deck chairs for some outdoor reading fun.

It will also be a challenge working with Middle School and High School, especially as we are looking at pre-authorisation for the MYP programme later this year. Sure I will be calling on all my colleagues in HK for advice. Luckily the school is still small and one of the new IB English teachers is a Teacher Librarian so I should be able to ask her advice when I need it. We have already had a lively discussion about Graphic Novels, we are both very pro so this is good news.

All in all, a great start to the week. I am going back on Wednesday for the start of the formal orientation and will be immersing myself in the PYP again. Can't wait!!