Welcome to Greenwich Country Day School from the USA

This week, we are excited to welcome GCDS to our campus in Tianjin. We are proud to introduce the wonderful students of GCDS to our student broadcasting experience. Throughout the week, they have had the opportunity to observe our broadcasts in action from our studio. Additionally, they were invited to participate in one of our MIST leadership meetings, where they could watch our leaders reflect on their experiences and further develop the core principles that guide our organization.

At MIST we are committed to following a philosophy of "experiential learning" where students learn resilience and problem solving in real-time situations of significance. Our student media organisation provides a wide range of rich learning opportunities for students. Students practice communication skills in the context of teamwork and collaboration. They learn technical skills in the use of broadcasting equipment, and for the purposes of creating and editing their own videos. Students exercise critical thinking skills as they plan and execute each broadcast, while also adapting to problems and issues in the lead up to the broadcast, and as they arise during the broadcast. The media organisation provides a creative outlet that encourages innovative and original ideas.

The nature of coordinating a medium sized group of students requires that student supervisors learn management and leadership skills for which they are constantly receiving feedback from their teachers – and more importantly from the results of their attempts to lead. Finding a balance between maintaining standards and building community requires students to follow a nuanced approach to reminding, following up with, and where necessary, warning students who aren’t fulfilling their responsibilities appropriately. Conversely, students need to learn to identify opportunities to provide authentic praise and encouragement to each other.

All of these skills are practiced in a live feedback loop that will continuously inform students as to the efficacy of their decisions and actions. Therefore, students’ learning experiences constantly include the possibility to learn from natural consequences, mistakes, and successes.