Nourishing Learning | TIE Newsletter 10 December 2025 | The International Educator (TIE Online)

10 December 2025

The Four Components of Community Engagement

By Kathryn T. Berkman, Meredith Robinson, and Megan Vosk

Let’s unpack each of these learning objectives, discuss what it might look like in practice to teach into these objectives, and set a bar for what we aim to uphold... more

From Intuition to Evidence in Teacher Hiring

By Stacy Stephens

Five evidence-based strategies that move hiring beyond intuition, using structured systems and proof of impact to recruit teachers who elevate learning for every student... more

When SEL Doesn’t Translate: Teachers’ Perspectives from East Asia

By Dr. Jennifer Sylvester

When Western SEL programs enter East Asian classrooms, cultural gaps emerge. Teachers share how to adapt SEL so it truly resonates across cultures... more

Leadership Matters More Than Ever in Sustaining Safeguarding

By Jonah Rosenfield

Safeguarding in international schools depends on sustainable systems, empowered leadership, and collaboration to protect student wellbeing amid evolving global challenges… more

PEARLS OF WISDOM

Imperfection Is Not Failure, It’s Growth

By Teresa Araujo

Embracing imperfection is essential for authentic growth, for ourselves and for the learning communities we lead... more

Copying the Masters: Learning Not Plagiarizing

By Dr. Debjani Mukherjee

One study at a time the students begin to see like an artist, ask like a learner, and create like themselves... more

Making Music Composing More Accessible Through Numbers

By Shayok Banerjee

Numeric note systems and pentatonic scales empower novice students to compose confidently, boosting creativity, identity, and musical expression... more

EMPATHY TO IMPACT PODCAST

A Student-Led Carbon Audit To Quantify Sustainability and Measure Impact

By Scott Jamieson

How might we empower students to take the lead on sustainability initiatives within our school community... more

From Surface Change to Deep Transformation

By Emma Ahmed and Sam Passeport

Why aligning culture and climate matters, and how four transformative movements can reshape schools into healthier, more equitable places to learn... more

Feeding Minds, Nourishing Learning

By Ahmad Fadli

How a simple meal can transform learning, equity, and community, and what international schools can learn from Indonesia’s nutrition initiative… more

Redefining How We Value Growth in Learning

By Courtney Carreon

Grades show what students did, not who they’re becoming. Evidence-based story assessments help them reflect, connect, and make meaning from growth... more

Puzzled by the Paradox of School Attendance

By Matthew Piercy

Sometimes I feel trapped inside Catch-22s, seeing both sides but not clearly aligned with either. Catch-22s are seemingly ubiquitous, prevalent in many ways within our education system. The term Catch-22 dates back to 1961 and Joseph Heller’s satirical novel, where U.S. Army bombardier Captain John Yossarian attempts to avoid flying more combat... more

Why I Stopped “EdTech Coaching”

By Matt Brady

A moment of obligation is when you see something so fundamentally wrong that you can’t unsee it. Eighteen years ago, on my first day as an international school computer lab teacher for elementary students, I watched an eight-year-old try to log on to a lab computer. Before she could open the browser and start class, she had to click through the entire Windows XP “fresh install” setup... more

Safeguarding Voice: Who Gets Heard, and Who Gets Silenced?

By Lianne Dominguez

I’ve been thinking a lot about this third and last piece in my safeguarding series — what to bring into the light, what to hold space for, and what has become so normalized that it deserves attention. And the more I sat with it, the more I realized that this next part of the safeguarding conversation is not about students directly... more

The Hidden Iceberg of “Fancy Diplomas”

By Shwetangna Chakrabarty

In recent years, a troubling trend has begun to surface across international education: schools and private institutions creating their own “alternative diplomas,” “innovative pathways,” and “future-ready certifications” that are not validated, recognised, or externally quality-assured by any legitimate educational body... more

Popular Kids and Likeable Adults

By Nicholas Alchin

There are few things more energising than feeling connected, part of a group, accepted, liked; and there are few things as dispiriting as feeling rejected, isolated, excluded. As parents and teachers, we see this play out time and time again with our children and our students, sometimes heartbreakingly so. In schools, some of this can centre around talk of the ‘popular kids’, who can seem to define the in- and out-groups... more

Global Book Recommendations: Fun New Titles That Deal With Animals

By Margriet Ruurs

All of these fun, new titles deal with animals. And all of them were created with lots of imagination, stories that kids will love. Have fun sharing these tales with your students... more