It's a big elephant | TIE Newsletter 9 June 2021 | The International Educator (TIE Online)

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TIE NEWSLETTER

23 June 2021

Learning from Women Who Lead

Addressing the Elephant in the Room: The Old Boys Club in International School Leadership

By Kim Cofino

The Head of School announcements every year reveal that top leadership positions at international schools often seem to be passed around within the same small circle of mostly white men. How can women move into leadership despite feeling excluded from this network?... more

Whiteness Accountability Group for International Educators

By Emily Meadows & Tamara Friedman

White international school educators are collaborating to cultivate antiracism accountability in our schools. We can only achieve racial equity and justice if we relentlessly hold one another accountable for collectively transferring our learning and commitments into action... more

Following the Silver Linings of a Pandemic into a New Version of School

By Ryan Hopkins-Wilcox

21 years into the 21st century, we are still talking about how to teach 21st-century skills and dispositions. Among educators who are ready to explore the ideas of creativity, passion, identity, collaboration, & self-directed learning a new version of school can emerge... more

The Value of

Restorative Practices

By Alistair Goold

The final article in a three-part series exploring the role restorative practices can play in both personal and professional contexts, beta-tested as the author's family underwent a perfect storm of challenges in the midst of a global pandemic.... more

They Built It, Will You Use It? A Significant Enhancement to Virtual Recruiting!

By Chip Barder

TIE is uplifting the profession by presenting a more substantial view of what an outstanding educator looks like. Those seeking positions can now showcase their candidacy through a standards-based lens, supported by evidence of their own choosing... more

The Learning Principle

Affectively and Socially Healthy Environments Promote Learning

By Dr Karen L. Taylor

Thanks to developments in neuroscience we now know much more now than we did in the past about the interplay of emotion and cognition, feeling and thinking. What could this interconnectedness mean for us in terms of our classroom practice?... more

A Letter to Covid

By John Mikton

For John Mikton, the pandemic has felt personal. In the epistolary tradition, he has written a letter to COVID from the perspective of an educator and school leader charged with heading up his school's COVID Task Force and juggling the complexity of the situation... more

Short Story:

Fenced // Isabelle

By Alec Roisko

This short story was produced by Alec Roisko at Frankfurt International School's Writing & Art Symposium, where authors and artists worked with students on a bilingual interschool publishing project... more

Stronge & Associates

Picking Up After the Pandemic: Preparing for a New School Year

By Dr Rachel K. Ball

How do we reacclimate to the in-person classroom? What technology lessons learned can we apply in the in-person classroom? What virtual practices can we carry forward? Rachel Ball outlines instructional silver linings to help move your school, classroom, and learners forward... more

Not Light But Fire:

A Book Review

By Kelli Powling

Not Light but Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom by Matthew R. Kay is a critical read for any educator interested in building authentic classroom community and makes a particularly good text for study by a PLC... more

Team Commitments

Made by a High-School

English Department

By Kim Marshall

Alexis Wiggins and the English department she leads at their Texas school recently agreed on a series of commitments for the coming school year. Kim Marshall offers a summary... more

Conversations With an

International Teacher of Colour

Dominique Dalais interviews Dana Watts, Director of Research and Development at ISS and co-chair of the Diversity Collaborative's Education Committee.

In Conversations With an International Teacher of Colour, Dalais asks members of international schools, international organisations, and international recruitment agencies about the systemic changes they are making with respect to racial equity.... more

What elephants would you like to us to talk about?

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TELL TIE

Coaching and Mentoring:

A Need in the New Normal

By Shwetangna Chakrabarty

Today, change is the only constant and decisions are fluid and unpredictable. Ensuring student and staff wellbeing requires strong emotional anchoring. Coaching and mentoring is a great way to establish emotional resilience and moral support... more

Heroes Down the Homestretch

By Daniel Kerr

So here we are, finally staring down the last few weeks of school, and as I think back over the last ten months or so, the only thought that I can come up with is, wow, that was quite a year. I guess what I really want to share this week with all of you is a heartfelt thank you, and a joyous congratulations, for your Herculean and heroic efforts throughout arguably the most difficult year of our professional lives... more

Global Book Reviews

Books and the Environment

By Margriet Ruurs

From simple concepts to complicated science; from preschool to high school, (picture) books can serve as a means to discuss and discover information about the environment, including climate change and endangered wildlife... more

Communities of Belonging

By Matthew Piercy

Teaching internationally sometimes is like being inside a cocoon. School days typically in English. The comforts, routines, and rhythms in our new "homes" are similar; often little difference whether in Cairo, Shanghai, or Rio de Janeiro. We're typically so comfortable, in fact, that we may even have to go out of the way to feel vulnerable. Still, the fact remains that always outside the doors of home or school is something "different." And this is why we're here... more

WORTH A GLANCE

Dubai to get 10 new schools in 2021-22 academic year

Khaleej Times

Racism & Intersectionality in Europe & International Schools with Helena Gordon-Agbaje

Reset Revolution

TEDx Talk:

Finding Myself through Language Barrier

Dana Shpak

APPOINTMENTS

Nikolas Bishop has been named Interim Director at the International School of Stavanger, in Norway. He has been involved most recently with International School Board Training, has spent nine years leading an IB school in Africa, and spent 17 years in British curriculum schools in the Middle East and Asia.

Sarah McCormack has been appointed as the Primary Principal at Bangkok Patana School. She has been the School Principal at St Andrew's College Junior School, Dublin since 2017. She was also the founding principal of Discovery Mind Primary School (DMPS) in Hong Kong.

Donnah Ciempka is the Incoming Head of School at Ascot International School. She was previously Head of Primary at Mentone Girls' Grammar, Melbourne. An experienced educational consultant in the areas of curriculum and strategic innovation, she has worked extensively in school across South East Asia.