GAC Newsletter
February 2021
This Month
ACT GAC Academic Committee News
Effective Online Teaching
New GAC Centers in China
New Approved Teaching Center in Indonesia
First-Ever Online GAC Center
5-Year Partnership with Prospects Academy in Delivering the GAC
New GAC School in Mexico
New Partnerships in Brazil
Pathway University in Focus
Sign Up to Receive the
GAC Newsletter
An innovative, project-based learning project with cross-country collaboration has been established by ACT® Global Assessment Certificate™ (GAC) partners in Brazil (Edify College Prep) and Mexico (Moebian). GAC schools in Mexico and Brazil will collaborate to connect students from the two countries, conducting a project-based learning initiative from February to June 2021.
The project uses GAC’s new computing course, Computing for Academic Study, to provide a learning and assessment framework for digital communication, online project management, and online collaborative writing and presentation. Students can select the project of their own interests from four global and intercultural contemporary topics in culture, inequality, environment, and education. At the end of the project, teams from both countries will produce a video of their inter-cultural non-profit organization research activities. The video can be included in the student portfolio for extracurricular activities for college application.
The Brazil-Mexico Connection Project aims at promoting GAC competencies of creativity and innovation, collaboration, cross-cultural understanding, critical thinking, communication, and computing skills. ACT GAC Academic Committee members, regional partners, and leaders of schools from Brazil and Mexico are excited to launch the project in February 2021 with hopes of achieving full success in June.
We anticipate the project will create learning opportunities for cultivating students' self-reliance, developing students’ education and career interests, and developing their global self-awareness, as well as their sense of personal and social responsibility.
ACT’s ambition is to build lifelong learners. When one of our prominent schools in Indonesia, belonging to PPPK Petra, approached us to train its teachers on effective online teaching, we jumped at the opportunity at the beginning of the new year.
On January 9-16, 2021, ACT-GAC Southeast Asia collaborated with EfeX Center to host a two-day web conference on effective online teaching. Training topics were derived from consented video recordings of teachers’ classroom conduct, as submitted by each school.
On the first day, Petra’s teachers were reintroduced by David Thomas to the action of planning through different stages of education, as illustrated below.
The trainer also shared meaningful and practical ways of being prepared for and running a digital classroom. Participants were briefed on the proper use of digital applications to improve online appearances and to promote collaborative work. Event facilitators were also present to give a helping hand to teachers through explorative tasks assigned. Feedback from the first day were assessed, and improvements were made to the flow of the final day of training. Tasks submitted by teachers were also broken down and incorporated into the training topics. In committing to teachers’ growth, a help desk was created so that participants could ask the trainer questions regarding to the topics shared throughout this web conference.
Through the meticulous planning and adaptability to their needs, participants were truly engaged and thankful for this training. Petra School teachers now feel more prepared to digitally facilitate and to inspire their students from the EPP and GAC program.
GAC Center News
| Name | City | Website |
|---|---|---|
| Beijing 21st Century International School |
Beijing | www.21cis.com.cn |
| Beijing Bayi School |
Beijing | |
| Beijing National Day School |
Beijing | |
| Broad Wesley Academy |
Beijing |
|
| Chongqing No. 2 Foreign Language School |
Chongqing |
www.cqew.com.cn |
| Guangdong Experimental High School |
Guangdong |
|
| Guangdong Overseas Chinese High School |
Guangdong |
|
| Hejia GAC Academy |
Shanghai |
https://www.ssbs.sh.cn/ |
| High School Attached to Shandong Normal University |
Shandong |
|
| Jinan Foreign Language School |
Shandong |
http://www.jnflsic.com/ |
| New Oriental Foreign Language School at Yangzhou |
Jiangsu |
|
| Sendelta International Academy Shenzhen |
Guangdong | |
| Shandong Experimental High School |
Shandong |
http://sdshiyan.jinan.cn/ |
| Shanghai Southwest Weiyu Middle School |
Shanghai |
http://xnwy.xhedu.sh.cn/cms/ |
| Shanghai Honor School |
Shanghai |
http://www.honor-edu.com/ |
| Shanghai New Epoch Bilingual School |
Shanghai |
www.shnebs.com |
| Shanghai Overseas Education Exchange Center |
Shanghai |
|
| Shanghai Pinghe School |
Shanghai |
www.shphschool.com |
| Shanghai World Language Academy |
Shanghai | |
| Shenzhen Middle School |
Guangdong |
|
| SSBFF-Britain China Education Center of the Middle School affilicated to SXNU |
Shaanxi | |
| Suzhou North American High School |
Jiangsu |
www.sna.edu.cn |
| Xiamen Haicang Experimental Middle School |
Fujian |
https://hcsyzx.xmhcedu.cn/ |
| Yantai Whitson Preparatory Academy |
Shandong |
New Approved Teaching Center, ACT GAC
SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Yogyakarta (SMA MUHI YK)
On December 11, 2020, SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Yogyakarta signed an agreement with ACT Education Solutions, Ltd., (AES) to implement the GAC Program at SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Yogyakarta International Curriculum, starting during the year 2021-2022 school year.
SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Yogyakarta not only combines the program with the Islam, Kemuhammadiyahan, and Arabic Curriculum (ISMUBA) but also the national curriculum for social and science majors. It is a triple-degree program in which student will have ISMUBA certificate, ACT-GAC certificate, and national graduate certificate.
For this program, GAC students obtain highly developed research and independent learning skills, as well as proficiency in English, advance computing skills, a practical understanding of the strategies needed for successful study in English-speaking universities. The national curriculum helps students gain knowledge that contributes to future learning and building Islamic and Leadership characters for being a future leader of the Muhammadiyah cadre.
The first Online GAC Approved Teaching Center – Global Learning Center, Inc.
COVID-19 has forced the closure of much in-classroom teaching. This is why Global Learning Center (GLC), headquartered in Korea, is
the first approved teaching center to offer the complete GAC program online. GLC offers hybrid live and recorded classes online, backed up by state-of-art learning management systems and dedicated student pastoral and academic care both online and offline. The GLC team boasts rich GAC operation experience as it has successfully operated the single-largest GAC center in the past decade in Korea, along with the career and college counselling team. The virtual learning center is committed to provide quality GAC program and to guide each of its student to the university of his/her choice and beyond.
AES proudly announces a 5-year partnership with Prospects Academy in delivering the ACT® Global Assessment Certificate™, the world’s leading university preparation program.
Prospects Academy is a leading and well-established higher education institution located in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Prospects Academy has been in operation for over a decade and has developed a reputation as a leading provider of internationally recognized qualifications, from foundation, diploma, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in areas such as business, banking and finance, psychology, education, teaching English as a second language, and early childhood education.
Prospects Academy intends to roll out the GAC program in one year for the incoming college students in the University
Foundation Program.
“This is our first foray into Sri Lanka,” said Dr. Eng Han Tan, Regional Director of Asia. “We are very excited with the immense opportunities the region brings and envision the empowerment of students by promoting equity and access in their learning journeys to college and career success. We are confident our new partner, Prospects Academy, will deliver high-quality teaching and professional standards to ACT GAC students and develop many success stories in Sri Lanka!”
Colegio Euro Texcoco
Moebian, ACT’s partner in Mexico, is very proud to announce our new GAC school Colegio Euro Texcoco, a leading innovative school located 25 kilometers northeast of Mexico City. Today in Mexico, young people look at themselves as citizens of the world; they experience a mixture of cultures, languages, and skills that are expressed in their digital environment. Euro School provides a solid
digital base to allow Euro high school students to acquire a pre-university education congruent with their environment. We are excited to work with Moebian to implement ACT GAC global courses to meet our students’ needs. Being prepared for the future requires learning to work collaboratively, to think critically, to communicate effectively and solve problems, adapting to changes with a global vision and with motivation to empower the students to forge their own future.The combination of ACT GAC and our international academic program, teaching team and online / face-to-face program, enable students to develop critical thinking as well as global awareness. The high quality of the GAC curriculum, the international academic program, and our teaching team also equips our students with academic, technical, and soft skills so that they will become part of a positive force of society transformation.
New Partnerships in Brazil: Recreio Christian School and Cultura Inglesa
On December 14, 2020, Recreio Christian School signed an agreement with Edify College Prep to implement the GAC starting in 2021. In addition, we also announce an agreement with Cultura Inglesa to provide GAC disciplines to its students. This new partnership assists the entry of the GAC program in the Brazil English Culture and language education.
Recreio Christian School is a leading school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. RCS aims at preparing students to enter in colleges and universities in Brazil, the United Sates, and around the world. In addition to teaching the national curriculum and preparing for international exams, RCS looks for the full development of the student in activities that are not part of the common curriculum, such as cinema and social media, among others. It reinforces the implementation of the GAC, which seeks to develop skills in students to have a successful university life.
Cultura Inglesa is an institution with over 80 years of experience. With its expertise, Cultura translates excellence in the teaching of English, through trained teachers and state-of-the-art educational technology. This makes Cultura one of the best known in teaching English in Brazil. Uniting tradition, vanguard, and quality, Cultura students will have the opportunity to improve the language and develop other important skills for their academic and professional lives, through GAC modules learning.
In addition, we would like to celebrate a year of partnership with the following schools: Escola Dinâmica (Florianópolis – SC), Fórum Cultural (Niterói – RJ) and Guilherme Dumont Villares (São Paulo – SP). Developing many success achievements through the last year, they delivered high-quality teaching and professional standards to ACT GAC students in Brazil.
Acsenda School of Management - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
International Thinking, Individual Focus: Acsenda School of Management is an institution founded on the idea of connecting people and professions. Located in the vibrant business district of Vancouver, inside one of the most prestigious buildings in the city, Acsenda is surrounded by business professionals and opportunities. With competitive undergraduate degrees in both business administration and hospitality management, Acsenda prepares students for entry into the global job market through small classroom learning, internship opportunities, conferences, networking events and more.
With students from more than 43 different countries, Acsenda prioritizes the global job market collectively, proudly relying on a learning philosophy that successfully prepares students for the international business climate of tomorrow.
Beautiful Vancouver: There is more to an education abroad than study. Surrounded by lush forests, beautiful mountain ranges, and sparkling water, there is no better place to pursue your academic journey than Vancouver. Some favorite outdoor activities include skiing, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, whale watching, and beach volleyball.
Connecting People and Professions: Acsenda’s priority is to prepare students for successful entry into the global job market. To do this, Acsenda leverages powerful industry partnerships, dedicated to building long-lasting relationships with influential business organizations and Vancouver’s private sector. In 2020, Acsenda students presented papers at the International Conference on Tourism, assisted in the organizing of the American Standards for Quality conference, and participated in the BC HR case competition.
Recently, Acsenda announced that it has been added to the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Education’s list of recognized institutions, illustrating that Acsenda’s programs have been assessed and approved by the MOE.
Online Delivery: Acsenda remains a leader in online delivery. With a robust digital infrastructure, Acsenda’s online learning takes place in real time and simulates that of a regular classroom experience. In addition, Acsenda students have access to a wide range of engaging digital events and activities, making the online learning experience social, accessible, and fun. If you are unable to travel to Canada right away, Acsenda’s digital tools make it easy for students to begin their studies from their home country, too.