Meet our New Primary Coordinator | 与我们新上任的小学部主管见面

We would like to welcome Ms Jane Martuneac Kang as the new Primary Coordinator alongside Ms April Peng, Primary Chinese Vice Principal. Having been a part of the YCIS Beijing community for 12 years this role was seen as a perfect fit for Ms Kang given, her comprehensive knowledge of both the curriculum and core school values.

Ms Martuneac Kang, who is originally from the United States, has had extensive experience working and living abroad since she was a teenager. “Having grown up in many different cities in the US and South Africa, I was naturally inclined to choose to live and work abroad,” she says. Beijing became the city she settled in after some initial time in Inner Mongolia where she started her overseas career.

“Once I settled in Beijing at YCIS, I felt that I was in a place where I could grow professionally,” she says, “while enjoying the many wonderful experiences that China has to offer.” The School's bilingual and multicultural aspects also resonated with her.

Her professional development is well chronicled in our school's dynamic Learning Communities where she has applied the knowledge she gained during her M.Ed in Educational Leadership, Organisation and Policy from the University of Illinois.

Adds  Ms Martuneac Kang, “My team and I developed our Learning Community approach that is used across the Primary School now. We believed that we could achieve our best as professionals, and in turn, our students could become the best versions of themselves through this collaborative and flexible approach to learning and teaching.”

Several years later and with a YCIS Learning Community Guidebook that she co-authored, Learning Communities have now been introduced to our Secondary School following their success in Primary.

Thrilled at her new role as Primary Coordinator, this former YCIS-BJ Upper Primary Learning and Teaching Coordinator is looking forward to leading the Primary School and reinforcing our school's MPPs, which aim “for each student to become the best possible version of themselves and grow into a kind and productive global citizen.”

To achieve these goals, Ms Martuneac Kang shares some key priorities for the coming year:

01

Firstly, it is to enhance parents' sense of connection to our school community but more importantly to their child's learning and development. I highly value our parents' input as I truly believe that a child will ultimately develop best when school and home are working in a partnership.

02

Secondly, to enrich our English Language and Literacy learning and teaching to meet the needs of our language learners at all levels. A clear progression of language development as well as providing our students with tools to access the content being taught in English will see our students take more ownership and become more active in their learning.

03

Lastly, to ensure that even during this unique time and under certain health and safety regulations, our Learning Community model is at its core maintained and moved forward so that our students can continue to benefit from it. 

On her vision for students, the mother of two children (one in Year 3 and one in K4) says, “Ultimately, no matter our own unique dreams for our children's future, we likely all foundationally want something very similar: for them to become kind, happy, and productive global citizens.”

从新学年开始，Jane Martuneac Kang将担任我们新的小学部主管。她将和小学中方副校长彭曼女士一起负责小学部。Martuneac Kang女士已经在北京耀中工作了12年，对我们的课程以及学校秉承的价值观和理念有全面的了解，这个职位是非常适合她的。

Martuneac Kang女士来自美国，她从少年起就在国外工作和生活。她说:“我在美国和南非的许多城市定居过，自然而然地倾向于选择在国外生活和工作。”她在内蒙古待了一段时间后，选择定居在北京，开始了她的海外教学生涯。

“当我在北京耀中安顿下来后，我感觉找到了一个可以发展我专业的地方，我享受在中国的美好体验。”学校的双语和多元文化也引起了她的共鸣。

她的专业在我们学校充满活力的学习社区中得到了很好的发展，在那里她能够应用她在伊利诺伊大学进修教育学硕士期间学习的教育领导、组织和政策。

 “我和我的团队开创了学习社区教学法，现在在整个小学部实施。我们相信，作为专业人士，我们一定能做到最好，而透过这种协作和灵活的教学方式，我们的学生也能得到最好的发展。”几年后，随着她与人合著的《耀中学习社区指南》的出版，学习社区已经在小学部取得了成功，并推广到了我们的中学部。

作为前北京耀中小学部高年级教学主管，她十分期待小学部主管这个新角色。她期待着领导小学部并加强履行我校的使命、理念与实践“让每个学生成为最好的自己,成长为一名全球公民。”

为了实现这一目标，Martuneac Kang女士分享了她在未来一年的重点工作:

01

首先，为了孩子们的学习和发展，我希望增强家长与学校社区的联系。我非常重视家长的参与，因为我真的相信，当学校和家庭合作时，孩子会得到最好的发展。

02

其次，我希望丰富我们的英语语言和读写能力的学习和教学，以满足各个层级语言学习者的需求。提供一个清晰的语言发展进程，并为学生提供英语学习工具，将使我们的学生在学习中更加主动和积极。

03

最后，我希望确保即使在这一特殊时期，在特定的健康和安全法规下，我们的学习社区模式仍处于核心地位并继续向前发展，以便我们的学生能够继续从中受益。 

关于她对学生未来的憧憬,这位两个孩子（一个三年级和一个幼儿园四岁班）的母亲说,“最终,无论我们对于孩子的未来有多么独特的梦想,我们也都有着非常相似的想法:让他们成为善良、快乐和有作为的全球公民。”