Honorary Titles for BIS Excellent Educators

Warm congratulation goes out to Mr. Brian Rotunno who is BIS Academic Principal on winning the honorary title of Excellent Educator of the Year 2019-2020 in Xin Wu District, Wuxi. The honorary title of Excellent Educator is to acknowledge and encourage the educators in district who played an important role as a benchmark and a model for promoting the coordinated development of regional education, and to contributed to the work of fostering high-quality schools and promoting education in Xinwu district to a higher level.

Warm congratulations go out to Mr. Brian Wallace who is an IB PYP Teacher, Ms. Kate Dore who is an IB PYP Teacher and Ms. Gina Smith who is an IB MYP&DP Teacher and I&S Coordinator of Boston International School on winning the honorary title of Excellent Teacher of the Year 2019-2020 in Xinan Community of Xin Wu District, Wuxi. The annual selection and award of Excellent Teacher is aimed to recognize and encourage the excellent teacher who has been playing a role model to other teachers in terms of full self-dedication to education and innovative concepts and teaching technologies in education continuous development.

 

BIS Academic Principal Won Honorary Titles of 

Excellent Educator

As the Academic Principal of Boston International School, Mr. Brian Rotunno has a strong educational background with Bachelor of Education in Integrated Language Arts and Master’s degrees in both Educational Leadership and Educational Policy Studies. Before joining Boston International School, he has worked the past 17 years at different educational sectors in America and UAE and previously has held numerous positions, including head of IB Curriculum Team, teacher for English Language and Literature and Principal for 6 years for one international school in UAE. To recognize his great achievement during the past 17 years, he has won lots of honor and professional skill certificates. He was awarded as Annual Excellent Educator for times and he holds the ‘Principal Qualification Certificate’ issued by State of Texas, America.

Mr. Brian Rotunno has been working at Boston International School for 1 year since August 2019 when it was at the important development stage of the opening for the second school year. As the Academic Principals, he has made a broad and deep contribution in terms of enhancing the communication channels with student parents and school evaluation model based upon best research practices at BIS. With his solid previous working experience in IB curriculum accreditation and teaching, he concentrates onenhancing the quality of teaching system and the continuous development system for both teachers and coordinator at BIS.

Mr. Brian Rotunno has his own understanding about education. He always thinks that everyone is a learner and can learn something every day. As teachers and educators, it is important that we model best practices to students by willing to learn something new and that we are willing to admit when we don’t know something. Just like Chinese old saying says: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, he believes that this is also why it is important that educators do not only teach knowledge, such as facts, but also skills because skills are transferrable to different areas and situations. In the 21st century, anyone with a smartphone is able to find knowledge very quickly; however, by teaching student necessary skills such as research and collaboration, they can use these skills in any situation that they come across to be successful in their work.

Mr. Brian Rotunno loves life in Wuxi and is willing to contribute more to international education in Wuxi. Specially during the outbreak of the coronavirus, he showed up many times in local mainstream media to express his trust in local prevention policy and measures and his safe and warm feeling to keep in staying in Wuxi. He encouraged all foreign teachers to keep up and go through hard times together. As a parent, he also shared with parents in local community about how to guide the children to take this time to grow and gain, he encouraged all the kids and family to take full use of this special period to enjoy a memorable moment with family members.

 

BIS Teachers Won Community Honorary Title of 

Excellent Teacher

 

 

Secondary Teacher

As one of the most popular teachers at Boston International School (BIS), Ms. Gina Smith has a strong educational background with Bachelor of Science majored in History and Master of Education endorsed in Secondary Social Studies. Before joining BIS, she worked for Asian-American Youth Leadership Conference as G10 US History Co-Teacher and later was promoted as a member of Leadership Team & Facilitator.

At BIS, as a Secondary I&S Coordinator, her passion for the subject of history extends beyond the classroom. As Model United Nations director at BIS, she has taken students to several MUN conferences in China for the past 2 academic school years and support them to get excellent achievement. She also guided students to raise microloans throughKiva to contribute to the UN Sustainability Goals so they can make an impact on any community they can relate to in the world. She also organized students to visit history museums to enable students to see the relevance of the part of China that we are living in the context of WWII and created an informative memorial together with students in collaboration with the art department in order to pay respect to the victims of WWII in Asia.

Ms. Gina Smith takes the initiative to share her teaching methodology to other teachers viaworkshops or regular academic highlights. Her lesson plans, PowerPoints, handouts, and exams are acknowledged by other teachers as a very useful and creative teaching approach. In addition to teaching, Ms. Gina Smith has been involved with volunteer work, she joined in multiple global social topic research via workshops and inaugural volunteer in the Asian-American Youth Leadership Conference and the Korean American Coalition .She has also volunteered for multiple crisis phone lines for several years where she did her best to speak to people undergoing mental health crises and to encourage them to believe that life is still worth living. Using multiple teaching techniques to consistently meet the needs of every learner is at the heart of her Universal Design for Learning pedagogy.Her goal is to build towards a world where people caught between multiple cultures do not feel that their minority characteristics are deficits, but instead, are enhancements and a source of empowerment. She believes that being a teacher allows me to help work towards this world where the IB learner profiles are actively and consistently pursued.

 

Elementary Teacher

As a member of faculty team at Boston International School (BIS), Mr. Brian Wallace has a good educational background with a bachelor’s degree of Science (Community & Information Technology) and Graduate Diplomas in both Business and Education. Before joining BIS, he has spent time in both private and public schools in Western Australia while going through his teaching qualification and got highly appraised by his mentor for the professionalism, enthusiasm, and passion he exhibited as a teacher. Mr. Brian Wallace is a passionate educator of all people, not just children.

At BIS, in addition to his teaching duties, he has been a member of the inaugural IT Steering Committee. With experience and skills abstained from his previous IT career. he helped BIS staff to use technology in their classrooms more effectively via multiple trainings. He loves his students and invests time to build rapport with them. His dedication and the impact on the students got a very positive feedback from the parents. As one of members who joined in BIS at the very beginning since 2018, Mr. Brian Wallace has commenced his second 2-year contract at BIS. He loves his job at BIS and life in Wuxi. He is willing to contribute more to international education for local community. He supported local schools to take a listening material record for English Language Teaching. He also actively represented BIS at numerous international culture communication activities in Wuxi to support to build international community.

 

Elementary Teacher

Ms. Kate Dore has a bachelor’s degree in Teaching & Learning and more than 6 years working experience in Education. As one of the young teachers at Boston International School (BIS), she exhibited her passion and strong responsibility in teaching. She is proactive to implement program creatively and systematically into her classroom to encourage learning and development and ensures that all students are provided with an education that respects their individuality and challenges them to reach their highest standards of personal achievement. She has been establishing and maintaining professional and respectful relationships with all students and their families by providing the prompt and regular updates about the learning that was happening inside the classroom and social and academic achievement by their children.

At BIS, in addition to her teaching duties, Ms. Kate Dore is proactive to build relationships with the wider school community through a range of avenues. Coaching the girl’s senior basketball team, being a house captain and implementing a new program called Passion Projects in Grades 3 – 5 have all been highlights. She showed her enthusiasm and passion on education in every aspect that she is actively getting involved and sets a good role model for both her students and other young teachers at BIS. She tries her best tounderstand and support every student in her classroom and let them know that they are trusted, valued, and can succeed. She believes that it is important to educate children in life skills that are going to be required for the unpredictable future and incorporate these skills into our classroom learning program.

Congratulations again to the excellent teachers above! Boston International School continuously takes focus on the international faculty team make-up and uses best practices in the screening and recruitment of international teachers worldwide.

The excellent teacher awarding ceremony was held in district performance center on Sep.8th, BIS Executive President Ms. Sue Su, BIS Academic Principal Mr. Brian Rotunno, BIS EY Coordinator Ms. Bibiana Garcia. etc were invited as VIP guests to attend the ceremony. Mr. Brian Rotunno was invited as the awarding guest to present the last award together with Mr.You  who is the top leader from community management committee, and principals from other schools.