Over 220 teachers and trained educators from 26 international schools in the Greater KL area met at the Australian International School Malaysia (AISM) for the first Association of International Malaysian Schools (AIMS) teacher professional development conference. AIMS is a non-profit-making membership organisation, dedicated to the advancement of international education in Malaysia via the provision of services to its member schools.

The objective of the conference was to provide quality professional development to teachers enhancing teaching practices. Given the increasingly high cost to send teachers to external conferences, and with inconsistent quality of experiences, it was a unanimous decision to tap into the collective expertise of educators already within the existing association.

The conference began in the School Auditorium AISM’s Year 8 students playing a beautiful piece of music on the Gamelan, a traditional ensemble music from Indonesia. This was followed by a spellbinding keynote presentation by the Guest Speaker, Mr Ronald Stones O.B.E. who spoke about the variety of ways that teachers and education leaders can continue to make a positive contribution to education once they leave the classroom.

“Mr. Stones captured the audience’s attention as he recalled his leadership strategies in his various roles,” says Dr Deborah Priest, Principal of AISM, who played host to the inaugural event this year.

This post was originally published in The Expat Magazine (May 2016) which is available online or in print via a free subscription.