KIS, Jeju has enjoyed a great progress in admissions over the past six months. The KIS, team, led by MK Kim launched a highly successful admissions campaign that resulted in approximately 600 families applying from the greater Seoul and Jeju Island area. What is equally impressive is that every student and their parents were interviewed during the admissions process. The goal of opening school in the fall of 2011 with 300 students is on target. Having interviewed these students ourselves, the KIS, Jeju Team can honestly say that these prospective students will be a treat to teach. They are intelligent, well spoken, disciplined and eager to come to KIS, Jeju.
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| KIS, Jeju Admissions Team in Busan. Go Team Go! |
For centuries, K-12 education around the world has been organized at the municipal, provincial or national level with educational institutions rarely operating in a meaningful way beyond their country’s boundaries. This state of affairs is likely to continue in publicly funded schools, as they are tasked to serve students and families within certain geographies. However, trends in the macro economy are giving rise to private educational institutions that upend these familiar boundaries and provide services on a global basis.
Chris Whittle writes in The Rise of Global Schooling (2009)
Korea International School, Jeju seeks to be a leader in this new global educational trend that Chris Whittle refers to. What is a global education? What is a global curriculum? What is a total human development approach to global education? The answers to these questions will inform the overall strategic design of KIS, Jeju. KIS, Jeju will be a boarding and day school enrolling predominately Korean students from the greater Seoul and Jeju Island area.
KIS, Jeju has begun the process of designing an all-school curriculum that will inspire KIS, Jeju students to think locally and globally. In the coming weeks and months the Curriculum Design Leadership Team will examine what makes a great school curriculum. The Leadership Team will explore in what ways the academic curriculum can be integrated throughout all aspects of school life including athletics, arts, music, advising and boarding to enhance learning. Toward these ends, KIS, Jeju will employ the Understanding by Design (UbD) and the Total Human Development (THD) Models of education. One way of understanding the synthesis of these two educational models is by viewing UbD as the academic map and the THD as the co-curricula and boarding guide. Taken together, UbD and THD create a systemic and integrated educational roadmap for all school life decisions, policies and programs.
The purpose of this report is to update the entire KIS, Jeju family on our progress and to share with you where we plan to go in the next few months. Welcome to the KIS, Jeju family!
