CMIS
Chiang Mai International School offers educational opportunities for students from Preschool to Grade 12. We provide instruction that is closely aligned to an American standards-based curriculum while also building upon the diversity of our international students and teachers using best practices from around the world. Our highly-qualified teachers provide differentiated instruction that is research-based and engaging. CMIS provides academically rigorous courses in all grades, and our Advanced Placement (AP) courses help to prepare our graduates for admission to outstanding universities and colleges around the world.
The school year is divided into two semesters. The first runs from August to December, and the second spans from January to early June. There are 180 instructional days, with a week break in October as well as extended breaks in late December and April. School begins at 7:40 AM and ends at 2:35 PM.
For over sixty years, Chiang Mai International School has provided a uniquely challenging, caring, and supportive environment that nurtures our students’ physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual growth.
Preschool at CMIS follows the inquiry-based Creative Curriculum, which emphasizes discovery and exploration as a way of learning. Through creative play, we promote our students’ social and emotional development by showing them how they can deal with their emotions. We also help the children to establish positive relationships and interactions in their new school environment. Students practice pre-reading, pre-math, and writing skills while also enjoying physical education, art, Thai language, music, and library classes outside their regular classroom. All classes are taught in English by certified international teachers.
The curriculum in Grades K to 5 provides a challenging and developmentally appropriate program of study. CMIS uses curriculum standards and benchmarks, including the Common Core State Standards for Literacy and Mathematics, Next Generation Science Standards, and College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies Standards. Students are instructed by certified classroom teachers in core subjects and by specialist teachers in computers, art, music, library, PE, and Thai language and culture.
Aiming to develop the whole child, CMIS Elementary School is dedicated to providing a vibrant, engaging, and student-centered learning environment. Our child-friendly program, with its small class sizes and differentiated instruction, provides each child with the tools required to reach their academic, emotional, and social potential. We care deeply about the families we serve, and we seek to ensure that our students develop into happy, confident, and caring members of our learning community.
CMIS understands that the middle school years can have a profound impact upon the cognitive, social, and emotional lives of adolescents. To help students with the transition to high school, we have developed a school model that includes a strong awareness of social emotional learning through mentor relationships between teachers and students, close-knit learning groups, and community outreach projects. Our middle school includes instruction in the core subjects of English, mathematics, science, social studies, and world languages while also offering courses in PE, wellness, art, computers, music, and drama. All students are provided with a laptop and authentic opportunities to use technology in their content subjects and electives.
The CMIS high school delivers inquiry-based, rigorous instruction in the core subjects of English, mathematics, science, and social studies. Our high school also acknowledges the importance of electives, with a great variety of offerings in PE, health, art, technology, music, drama, and world languages. Our American, standards-based curriculum provides a college-preparatory education, suitable for university acceptance throughout the world. With several Advanced Placement (AP) offerings, CMIS gives students the opportunity to undertake various first-year college-level courses. The high school also offers an AP Capstone Diploma program that seeks to ensure college readiness and solidify students’ academic skills before transitioning to university.
CMIS Student Success Department (SSD):
At CMIS, we are committed to providing educational excellence, and our team respects and celebrates our students’ diversity. Our Student Success Department (SSD) works cooperatively with teachers, parents, and school administrators on issues affecting students’ ability to succeed personally, socially, and academically at CMIS and beyond. The school provides learning support to help students with diagnosed mild learning needs. Support services are not intended to provide an alternative course of study, but to help struggling students more fully participate in general education classes.
Classroom teachers and Learning Support Specialists work together closely to meet student needs, which may include tutoring, explicit skills instruction, assistance with study habits and organization, and other needs identified in an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Learning support is provided through direct support in class, small group instruction, and one-to-one teaching. There are no additional costs for learning support services, although the number of students requiring support is limited.
For more information about student support, please contact <success@cmis.ac.th>
The CMIS School Counseling Program follows The International Model developed by the International School Counselor Association. In congruence with the International Model, CMIS counselors endeavor to “impart specific skills and learning opportunities in a proactive, preventative manner, ensuring all students can achieve school success through academic, career, personal/social and global perspective experiences.” The counseling department includes the ES, MS, and HS counselors working as a team to ensure that all students have access to the support they need. At CMIS, the counselors design programs and services to meet the needs of students at various growth and developmental stages. We help students establish goals and meet expectations while offering support systems and experiences for all students.
As school counselors we believe it is important to do the following:
- Advocate for students striving to meet the challenges and demands of the international school system. An important part of this advocacy involves preparing students for transitions that take place regularly in their lives.
- Work as a team to bring attention to situations that create barriers to the students.
- Continue training and professional development, individually and as a team, ensuring that we provide the best services for our students and the school. We collaborate with other international school counselors and take part in regular meetings of the Chiang Mai International School Counselors’ Association.
- Collaborate with teachers to review data identifying patterns of achievement and behaviors affecting student success.
- Form strong partnerships with parents/guardians as we guide students to achieve their goals.
- Facilitate individual and small-group guidance.
- Coordinate with the Student Support Department and Health Office to offer a full range of services to students and identify different needs.
Service Learning at CMIS seeks to combine the two foundational elements of our vision - responsible global citizenship (service) and courageous learners (learning) - into an engaging experience that benefits both our students and the broader community. Student-driven with adult input and support, service learning opportunities meet a number of service needs in our community.
The service learning experience seeks to give Grade 8 - 12 CMIS students a chance to actively participate in the community as they learn how to be responsible, global citizens. Over the years, students have spent countless hours serving at local orphanages, teaching English at various schools, working with refugees, caring for neglected animals, planting trees, helping senior citizens, and working with students with handicaps or disabilities. We are proud of our students and their hard work and dedication in seeking opportunities to care for others in their community.
Student Stories and Opportunities:
To learn more about current and past service learning projects, please visit our Service Learning site. You can contact the Service Learning Coordinator at <service.learning@cmis.ac.th>.
Departments
The English Language Arts Department encourages students to become learners who can explore, acquire, use, and manipulate both language and knowledge. With these key tools, our learners construct meaning in many subject areas, incorporating practical application and analysis while exploring creative possibilities.
Students develop their global mindedness by applying the skills of reading, writing, analysis, and oral expression to make connections across the wider playing field of intellectual and creative thought in order to contribute to the ongoing discussions of human political, philosophical, scientific, social, and artistic thought and action.
Our curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards for ELA and is designed to develop literary analysis through the close reading of both fiction and nonfiction works from classical to modern times. The curriculum encourages critical thinking by helping students make connections between texts and subject areas to construct larger meanings.
Our English Language Arts instruction encourages students to think creatively and answer challenging questions. They grow as writers able to artistically use the mechanics of composition, diction, syntax, and figurative language to express themselves and their ideas in explanatory, narrative, poetic, and persuasive pieces. Throughout their ELA instruction, they learn to articulate arguments using the schemes and tropes of modern rhetorical practice in speeches and recitations while exploring the possibilities of literature.
The IT Department is committed to developing learners that can use information technology to improve their lives. To thrive as global citizens, our students need to be able to adapt to the rapid pace of technological change and leverage technology to solve complex global problems. Our IT instruction encourages students to actively develop their knowledge and skills through technology-enabled problem solving.
Our curriculum is aligned to the Computer Science Teachers Association standards and is designed to integrate computer science fluency and competency. The program thus provides academic coherence to the rapid growth of computing and technology in the modern world while contributing to the need for an educated public that can utilize technology effectively to benefit humankind.
The Math Department supports students in becoming mathematical thinkers who dedicate themselves to accurately and creatively using reasoning. These analytical thinkers apply the skills they learn to solve problems and make decisions about their world. We are committed to finding and highlighting natural connections between subjects—integrating math content with curriculum from other classes to emphasize the utility and relevance of mathematical understanding. Our curriculum is aligned to the Common Core Standards for Mathematics and is designed to build on and reflect the skills and knowledge students will need to succeed in college, career, and life.
We believe that physical education is an integral part of the overall education of every learner, and we also recognize the unique developmental levels, needs, and interests of learners. Accordingly, the Physical Education and Health Education programs at CMIS seek to develop the values, knowledge, skills, and competencies needed to create and maintain a healthy, active, and balanced life. Physical and Health education at CMIS encourages individuals to make healthy, active choices that are both beneficial to and respectful of their whole self, others, and their environment.
Our curriculum aligns with the Washington Physical Education K-12 Learning Standards and provides students with the knowledge and ability to maintain active, healthy, and productive lifestyles. Our P.E. instruction emphasizes performance-based activities that require students to collaborate, problem solve, and think critically. Ultimately, we seek to help young people develop into physically literate individuals who can move with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical and health-related activities and in multiple environments.
Music
Music classes at CMIS focus on developing students who have the ability to carry out the three artistic processes of creating, performing, and responding. To thrive as global citizens, our students are required to respect each other's cultures and individuality in a collaborative environment seeking to achieve a unified goal. Our music instruction is characterized by students synthesizing and relating knowledge and personal experience to make music. The curriculum is aligned to the National Core Standards for Arts and Music and is designed to reflect the actual processes in which all musicians engage, whether they be professionals, amateurs, or students.
Art
Our art classes encourage learners to apply practical and theoretical knowledge about a broad range of visual activity, both past and present. To serve as global citizens, CMIS students are encouraged to be critical thinkers and collaborative problem solvers. Our art students practice "big picture" and "out-of-the-box" thinking. Their creativity makes them innovators, independent thinkers with the motivation to develop new solutions to old problems while viewing challenges as opportunities for personal and collective growth.
The curriculum is aligned to the National Core Art Standards for Art and is composed of courses in drawing, painting, print media, sculpture, and electronic art; students are also encouraged to pursue interests in many other contemporary media and technologies. Our instruction encourages students to dig deeper and move beyond superficial interpretation. Students learn to recognize their own biases and to make sound conclusions based on carefully gathered evidence. As critical thinkers, they are able to process abstract ideas, examining issues from many different perspectives.
Theater
Theater Arts provides the opportunity for students in Grades 7-12 to experience a lifelong relationship with theatrical expression in various forms. Aligned to the Next Generation Standards, the curriculum encompasses appreciation and demonstration of technical theater craft, acting and critical thinking, as well as the study of theater history, dramatic literature, and critique writing. Through such activities, our students develop their interpersonal, interpretive, and emotional skills. In order to thrive as global citizens, CMIS students must be able to work together, collaborating with peers to revise, refine, and adapt ideas to fit the given parameters of a drama or theater work. Students participate in a variety of writing and acting exercises and techniques that can be applied in a rehearsal, drama, or other forms of theatrical performance.
Theater Arts instruction at Chiang Mai International School is characterized by the positive outcomes we achieve and the high level of performance to which we strive. The program shows a strong appreciation for diverse points of view, establishing strong human bonds that transcend racial and ethnic barriers. With positive student interaction and a sequentially-developed program, we present a broad cultural perspective, providing unique opportunities for cross-curricular connections.
The CMIS Science Department is committed to developing learners who are scientifically literate and able to use critical and creative thinking both to understand the natural processes of the world (the domain of science) and to design solutions for practical problems (the domain of engineering). To thrive as global citizens, our students need to be able to evaluate the scientific aspects of many of our contemporary issues while also understanding that science alone does not prescribe how society responds to these issues.
Our science instruction involves students posing questions, designing and conducting investigations, and analyzing and interpreting data using appropriate mathematical tools. Students are given opportunity to learn and to show evidence of learning through a variety of activities including individual, pair, and group tasks.
The core curriculum is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards and is designed to develop conceptual understanding, skills, processes, and attitudes through scientific inquiry and engineering, with a focus on the central, powerful, and illuminating ideas of each discipline. These ideas form the basis of scientific literacy while preparing students for advanced courses in science.
The Social Studies Department supports students in making informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world. Our Social Studies instruction is characterized by engagement with rigorous, intellectual work that encourages historical thinking skills, inquiry, depth, and relevance. Through integrated explorations of history, government, geography, and economics, students are given authentic opportunities to think critically, to develop informed opinions, to research topics effectively, to express ideas both orally and in writing, and to listen to others who believe differently than themselves.
To act as global citizens, our students need to be able to critically evaluate the merits of competing claims, understand multiple perspectives, engage in responsible civic action, and make knowledgeable decisions as valuable participants in the world. To this end, CMIS students participate in National History Day every year, a contest that encourages more than 500,000 students around the world to conduct historical research on a topic of their choice. Each year, CMIS sends about 15 projects to Singapore for the regional competition, with approximately 20-25 students participating. In the past, CMIS has sent approximately 20 students to the National competition in Washington, D.C.
The CMIS social studies curriculum is designed to develop literacy skills and an understanding of the key social sciences concepts. Our 9-12 Social Studies curriculum uses content standards from the National Center for History in the Schools and is also aligned to the C3 Framework, seeking to develop the concepts, skills, and disciplinary tools necessary to prepare students for college, career, and civic life.
The World Languages Department teaches students how to communicate in the target language while being sensitive and open to the cultural specificity of the various social groups they will come in contact with throughout their lives. CMIS currently offers Mandarin, French, Spanish and Thai as foreign languages.
To succeed as global citizens, CMIS students are expected to develop an in-depth awareness of various aspects that make up the target culture and language as well as their own. Through this dual investigation, they build the connections necessary to achieve a better understanding of the international, global environment to which they are bound as students of an international school.
Our curriculum is aligned to the American Council of Teaching Foreign Language (ACTFL) standards and encourages student reflection. We seek to empower students to manage and further their knowledge through interactive and independent learning opportunities.