The Silk Road International School in Bishkek is training their teachers in how to teach under pandemic conditions.

“[Last school year] we did our best under the circumstances, but we were not happy. Students were learning something, alright, but the results were not meeting our high expectations in education quality.” explains Ms. Shelly Gupta, the school’s director. So she continues, “To teach at our usual quality level, we knew we needed a brand new concept.”

So before the beginning of this school year, SRIS organized workshops and training for its teachers. “We exchanged experiences from the last school year and analyzed what worked well and what didn’t”, says Mr. Paul Radenhausen, the high school coordinator. “We also screened a lot of research and reports about new teaching techniques”.

The SRIS teachers understood to be able to use all these new and exciting approaches in the classroom, they needed additional training.

The training covered teaching techniques like “flipped classroom” and discussed how students can be supported on days when they have to learn at home.

Teachers were also trained in the more advanced use of Google Classroom, Zoom Online Communication, Edupage, and learning tools like Quizlet.