AISA Connexions Newsletter August 2013

INSIDE

AUGUST 2013 P1 GISS 2014

P5 VA Programme

P12 Next to Snakes

P16 This is my Story, What’s Yours?

P1 Welcome Note!

P6 Hard Conversations

P12 Librarian’s Exchange

P18 Learning in Today’s World

P2 Onsite Moodle Training

P7 Tribes

P13 Leadership through a Living

P19 AISA Art Challenge Winners

P3 Sustainability & AISA GISS 2013

P9 The Teaching Revolution Dgen

P4 Enhancing Literacy Through SIM

P10 Socratic Seminars

Systems Lens P14 VA Programme

P20 Congruency Checks P21 Accreditation – Award or Status?

P23-46 AISA 2013 Conference information

And welcome to the August 2013 edition of the AISA Jambo!

ConneXions Newsletter. This edition contains information about AISA’s upcoming professional development events including our 2013 AISA School Leaders Retreat, Business Managers Institute and Educators Conference in Accra, Ghana. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Dennis Larkin and the team at Lincoln Community School in Accra for assisting AISA in hosting these events this year.

Many of the presenters coming to our 2013 conference have submitted articles for this edition of ConneXions. I hope these will provide you with an inkling of the wonderful learning opportunities that will be available to all of you attending the conference this year. In addition to the usual variety of presenters we offer, you will see that AISA is placing a special emphasis on Child Protection this year. We will also be launching a major child protection initiative at the conference this year. In the interest of ensuring a quality PD experience to our members, AISA will be limiting the number of spaces available at our conferences in future. We have introduced a quota system to help ensure a more equitable access to our PD events. So don’t delay – register soon.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new members including the new Heads of School, (see page 10 and 30 for details) and all the teachers who have come to live and work in Africa. Those of us who have been here for a while know how special and diverse the African continent is. We also know what a great learning experience it is for our students and ourselves. One such experience will be the AISA Global Issues Service Summit (AISA-GISS) that will take place in Ghana in February 2014. This is fast becoming one of the most popular student events in our region. More details are available inside this edition.

AISA prides itself on being a community focused learning organization whose members actively seek each other out and share their knowledge.

I hope you will make a special effort to register in one our online Communities of Practice (CoP) where you can join in professional conversations, share ideas, success stories and challenges with your colleagues across Africa. If members of your Community would like to submit articles for the next edition of AISA ConneXions in April 2014 please send them through to us. More details about how to join our CoPs are available on our website.

I’d like to formally welcome two new members of the AISA team: Hima Keshav is our new Communications and Marketing Coordinator [this is Hima’s first edition of ConneXions – feel free to let her know what you think] and Barnabas Suva our new Office Administrator.

Finally, on behalf of the AISA Board of Directors and staff, I wish you a successful year, filled with much learning, diversity and joy. 3 Dr Peter Bateman Executive Director (AISA)

AISA Global Issues Service Summit: 13th – 15th February 2014

Sharing

ideas, building relationships, and empowering the youth to make change. These are three fundamental principles specific to the AISA Global Issues Service Summit. Held in a different country in Africa every year, this conference has become one that students look forward to annually as it helps students realize they can make a difference and empowers them to work with their peers to consider and develop solutions for global issues. These young adults become more aware of the issues in our world, and more aware to the fact that anyone can make a positive difference.

In 2013, this conference was held at the International School of Kenya (ISK). It was organized, and executed perfectly in terms of the experience it gave to all attending. In 2014, Lincoln Community School (LCS), in Accra, Ghana, will be taking on the challenge of trying to live up to the high standard set by ISK. LCS hopes to preserve and build on the positive collaborative atmosphere that was created this year through a diverse offering of panels and cultural experiences.

Planning has already begun and LCS would be thrilled if you would consider participating in next year’s conference in Ghana. The conference will be held over three days in February. Let’s spend next year’s Valentine’s Day coming together and using our love to make a positive impact. The LCS community is already working together to make sure we are the best hosts possible to all who want to attend this exciting conference, the logo for the conference can be seen on the right.

We would love to see you at the 2014 conference.

For any questions, please feel free to contact any of LCS student leaders. We want this conference for students led by students. 3 Contact information: Eran Amiel: eamiel@lincoln.edu.gh Zein El-Chami: zel-chami@lincoln.edu.gh Senna Punjabi: sennapubjabi@lincoln.edu.gh Sahil Kirpalani: skirpalani@lincoln.edu.gh Nishant Roy: nroy@lincoln.edu.gh Katy Dix: kdix@lincoln.edu.gh

Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA) P.O. Box 14103-00800 • Peponi Road • Nairobi, Kenya • Tel: +254 20 269 7442 or +254 20 8076067 1 Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA) Email: info@aisa.or.ke • Web: www.aisa.or.ke • Facebook:

On-Site Moodle Training for Teachers -

Professional Development at the International School of Ouagadougou

By Jeremy Schwartz, AISA Moodle Consultant, World Virtual School Project a proactive approach to emergency Taking preparedness and technology integration, the International School of Ouagadougou’s Director, Sean Goudie, recently arranged a 2-day school visit with AISA’s Moodle consultant Jeremy Schwartz in Burkina Faso. With financial support from AISA, the International School of Ouagadougou organized a rotating daily schedule consisting of five 90 minute training sessions per day for teachers and administrators to increase their knowledge and skills using Moodle.

Considering the recent political developments in the region and local bandwidth constraints, Mr. Schwartz developed a school-specific training program aimed at providing the International School of Ouagadougou staff with useful and innovative technology tools in Moodle. The primary focus was aimed to enable teachers and staff to communicate, post assignment descriptions and online resources, deadlines, and other important school information via Moodle. Workshops were carried out in a computer lab facility at the International School of Ouagadougou, allowing teachers the opportunity to practice “hands-on” throughout the training sessions.

ISO has recently joined the AISA SchooLink Moodle network and adopted Moodle as its virtual learning environment in 2012. Since Moodle is “something new” for most of the ISO staff, the training sessions was geared for

the “beginner” level user. During the first part of the training, teachers were presented with an overview of standard Moodle tools that can be used to share resources with students. One of Moodle’s most fundamental uses is allowing teachers to post resources for students online.

Elementary school teachers were separated from their middle school and high school colleagues during the trainings at ISO, since the uses of Moodle at the elementary school level are unique in many ways. Emphasis at the elementary school level was placed on a variety of techniques available to change the look and feel of a standard Moodle course so that it lends itself to both better pedagogy and a more age-appropriate and inviting appearance.

Intermediate and advanced Moodle users (teachers) practiced using several new activity modules to create online text assignments.

The big advantage for teachers and students using these features is that no file uploading/ downloading is required. Also, students can submit written assessments without the need for external software. In schools like ISO where internet bandwidth constraints continue to limit technology integration, these innovative Moodle tools provide a welcomed alternative.

Administrative personnel (secretarial, business & guidance offices, etc.) were also invited to attend workshops at ISO where Moodle tools for non-teaching administrative tasks were introduced. In general, as Moodle plays a larger role in a school community, not only are

students and teachers logging in to Moodle, but also administrative staff and parents too. For example, the ISO administration participated in activities to simulate online scheduling of parent-teacher conferences, holding student council elections in Moodle, as well as other innovative and efficient Moodle strategies.

Coming back to Africa soon, AISA has invited Jeremy Schwartz to present a 2-day “Moodle for Teachers” workshop at the upcoming AISA Annual Conference in Accra, Ghana on October 18-19, 2013. This conference will be held in the computer lab facilities at the Lincoln Community School in Ghana. He will present a wide-range of applications and strategies for using Moodle in a classroom context, primarily aimed at intermediate-level Moodle users. Participants should already be familiar with the basic skills required to develop online content (adding resources) to Moodle courses. That said, highly motivated beginners should not be discouraged from attending. Last year, Jeremy presented a similar workshop at AISJ at the AISA Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. 3 When Jeremy is not training teachers on Moodle use in Africa, he works as a Regional Project Manager for the MAIS Virtual School Moodle consortium, based at the American School of Madrid, Spain.

Schools are encouraged to contact Jeremy directly (JeremySchwartz@asmadrid.org) to inquire about arranging on-site professional development Moodle training workshops at individual schools.

Find Out More: SchooLink is AISA’s reliable and secure Learning Management System (LMS) available to AISA member schools.

Please visit www.aisa.or.ke for more details.

AISA 2013 Conference: Jeremy Shwartz will present a 2 day “Moodle for Teachers” wo r ks h o p at t h e AISA 2013 Conference. Please see the Conference section of the newsletter for more information.

www.aisa.or.ke

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Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

Sustainability and Partnerships Grow With AISA-GISS 2013

by LeeAnne Lavender, International School of Kenya, Nairobi 2013 AISA-Global Issues Service Summit, ThE hosted by the International School of Kenya, is the fifth event of its kind in Africa. The summit saw some issues – such as sustainable approaches and partnerships – grow in a significant way. As the summit gains momentum, each year sees new and exciting growth and development.

Of particular note were partnerships with Nairobi-based NGOs, a new plan for creating a sustainable approach with the Golden Hearts scholars, and a carbon offset program that resulted in a minimal carbon footprint for the event. This was a major feat considering that just over 240 people traveled to Nairobi, many from far-flung points in Africa and the Middle East.

backgrounds. The host school selects a number of applicants to attend the summit and these participants receive a full sponsorship to participate and attend.

ISK selected 17 local Kenyan students to participate as Golden Hearts for the 2013 summit. Based on a unique partnership with the Jump! Foundation, these students were able to participate in a special leadership session before the summit and also for a full day after the summit. During these sessions, the Jump! facilitators led leadership training sessions and also helped the Golden Hearts create goals and action plans for fostering change in their own communities. The Golden Hearts were focused on issues such as access to education, gender equality, access to health care and drug awareness, and each participant left the summit with a clear plan for creating change in their home areas in and around Nairobi.

This was the first time that the Golden Hearts have engaged in such powerful and meaningful additional training sessions, and the results were incredible. The Golden Heart students were empowered and passionate about following through with their action plans.

In planning for AISA-GISS 2013, conference co-ordinators brainstormed ways to partner with local NGOs. One major perk of hosting the conference in Nairobi was being able to access so many talented and experienced people for the summit’s expert panels, and many NGOs and United Nations groups were represented.

In addition, Me to We, an amazing Canadian NGO with an office in Nairobi, partnered with the ISK team to lead a full-group simulation, two workshops to provide participants for an expert panel. The Me to We team also staffed a booth for the duration of the summit where they distributed information about their programs, sold merchandise and built relationships with summit participants. It was a fabulous partnership. Another youth organization, Camps International, supplied representatives for an expert panel and served as a sponsor for the summit.

The Golden Hearts program is a special component of the African Global Issues Service Summits. Each year, the host school accepts applications from local students, who are making a difference in their communities, to attend the summit. The applicants are high school students who come from disadvantaged

To add to this, the ISK team is endeavouring to add even more sustainability to the Golden Hearts program by maintaining contact with the Golden Hearts and by hosting additional leadership training days on campus for the Golden Hearts. On Saturday, April 20th, the Golden Hearts returned to ISK to engage in a full day of sessions with Jump! facilitator Tito Kuria and with members of the ISK student leadership team. Another leadership training day is anticipated for the fall of 2013, and the Golden Hearts will also be encouraged to attend a one-day Global Issues Service Summit at ISK in November, 2013. This event will be focused on Nairobi schools.

A third initiative for 2013 that enforced the idea of sustainability was the introduction of a carbon

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offset program. The ISK team determined how many carbon credits would be needed to offset the footprint of the summit.

A corporate sponsor, Total Gas, then provided enough seedlings to balance the equation.

These trees will be planted by ISK students and teachers before the end of this academic year, and the goal is to plant trees in several locations where ISK service projects take place.

All of these developments were exciting and innovative, taking the Global Issues Service Summit’s mandate and vision a step further. It will be wonderful to see how this continues to develop in the years to come. 3

Find Out More: The AISA GISS is a summit held annually at an AISA member school. AISA GISS 2014 will b e h e l d at Lincoln Community School in Accra, Ghana from Feb 13-15. The summit inspires and supports service learning and the integration of global issues education within participating schools. Please visit www.aisa.or.ke for more details.

Enhancing Literacy Through SIM (Strategic Instruction Model)

by Jean Piazza and Sue Woodruff the expression and performance strand. The Paragraph Writing steps are: Set up a diagram, Create a title, Reveal the topic, Iron out the details, Bind it together with a clincher, and Edit your work. Again, the mnemonic reflects the goal of the strategy – SCRIBE. Regardless of levels of literacy skills, all students must be able to access and master critical content. literacy at the elementary level While has been the focus in education, the need to address adolescent literacy has finally come to the forefront. The need to be a learner, and not just a collector of knowledge, is now vital to being successful in the adult world. The University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning has engaged in and addressed this through research for over 35 years. This work has resulted in the development of the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM). Enhancing literacy through SIM is about engaging in effective instructional practices that address student needs, meeting the demands of the curriculum, and development of a learning community.

SIM addresses all levels of literacy needs from the student needing basic reading and writing strategies to all students, including the highest performers, mastering content in specific disciplines. Addressing those students with literacy needs involves intensive instructional steps that include pretesting, describing, modeling, levels of practice, post-testing, and generalization. These steps can be delivered more or less intensively depending on the needs of students. This instructional process is applied to specific learning strategies for acquiring, storing, and demonstrating and expressing knowledge. Acquiring information requires the ability to decode multisyllabic words, interact with and comprehend a variety of types of reading materials, and make inferences about what is read. Storing information includes the ability to recall critical content and vocabulary.

Expressing and demonstrating learning is being able to write well and take tests successfully.

Specific SIM Learning Strategies have been developed to address all of these basic literacy demands. An example of an acquisition strategy is The Self-Questioning Strategy. The purpose of the strategy is to teach students to engage in reading through focusing on clues in the text, which lead to formulating questions and predictions thus giving a purpose to reading. The steps of the learning strategy are constructed in a sequential set of statements that reflect the thinking process to be internalized through the stages of instruction. The Self-Questioning steps are: Attend to clues, Say some questions, Keep predictions in mind, Identify the answer, Talk about the answer. The mnemonic learned highlights the goal of the strategy – ASK IT. Another learning strategy example is The Paragraph Writing Strategy that demonstrates www.aisa.or.ke

More importantly, all students must learn to think and perform at higher levels. To this end, SIM provides a variety of instructional routines that enhance content through mindful planning, exploring information, teaching concepts, and increasing performance. The instructional process is two pronged. The first involves teachers leading meaningful, engaging experiences for students that allow them to construct understanding of new and difficult information.

The second, and less obvious, focus involves modeling and engaging students in specific thinking processes. Teachers engage in planning the outcome of any routine prior to actual instruction. For example, The Framing Routine is a very versatile routine that falls within the “exploring information” category. It is co-constructed with students through examining a topic, evaluating the information for main ideas, discriminating between relevant and irrelevant details, pulling it together by creating a statement of deeper understanding, and then extending that understanding to unique situations.

FRAME Example - Middle School level Another example of a Content Enhancement Routine is Concept Mastery designed to teach deeper understanding of difficult and complex concepts. Again, this routine is co-constructed with students. The teacher focuses students on the targeted concept (mammal) and sets it within a context (vertebrate). Students are guided to share their knowledge of the concept through brainstorming. Together the teacher and students sort and analyze the information generated to determine attributes critical to the targeted concept. Along with this, attributes are determined which never belong to the concept. For clarifying purposes, attributes which are sometimes present are also identified. Once the targeted concept has been taken apart and discussed, students identify what the concept looks like through the evaluation of examples and nonexamples. Students apply this thinking process to a novel example to determine whether it is or is not an example of the targeted concept. Finally, it is all pulled together through creation of a definition statement that is developed in a strategic way that highlights the essence of the concept.

Besides addressing direct learning strategies and acquisition of content, SIM offers specific routines and processes for developing effective Learning Communities. Developing social skills, collaborative problem solving, working together, self-advocacy, and self-motivation are also included. In teaching these social strategies, the direct instructional approach is used in a lesson-by-lesson format making it easy to implement by teachers. An example of

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Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

a social skill strategy is The SCORE Skills. Instructionally each lesson focuses on one of the SCORE Skills. They are Share ideas, Compliment others, Offer help and encouragement, Recommend changes nicely, and Exercise selfcontrol. In Collaborative Problem Solving, a problem is identified, options are put forward, consequences of each are explored, a solution is agreed upon which includes specific actions and deadlines, and the resolution expected is identified.

SIM, whose singular mission has been and continues to be improved adolescent literacy, is a comprehensive structure of practices that can have significant impact on a school. It is much more than implementation of a few strategies or routines by a few individuals within a school. When schools address adolescent literacy, the system must have a shared and focused goal. All energies, professional development, resources, and decisions are directed towards reaching this focused goal. For those schools who believe that literacy is not an option, but a requirement, investigating SIM more closely at the AISA Conference may provide further insight and direction. 3

Example of Concept Diagram

AISA 2013 Conference: Jean Piazza and Susan Woodruff will present a “Delving into SIM Learning Strategies” workshop at the AISA 2013 Conference. Please see the Conference section of the newsletter for more information.

Visiting Author Nicola Davies: Scheduled Visits to East Africa in January-February 2014

Nicola

is the author of numerous nonfiction picture books that are wonderful examples of LITERARY NONFICTION, as well as a series of early readers and novels for elementary-aged children. Her books have a NATURAL HISTORY theme and many are about animals, reflecting her passion for animals and her background as a ZOOLOGIST. Her picture books include ones about whales, dolphins, bats, owls, polar bears, ducks, turtles and sharks, while her nonfiction for slightly older children includes intriguing titles such as Just the Right Size: Why Big Animals are Big and Little Animals are Little and Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures.

Her fiction includes the Silver Street Farm series and a soon-to-be-published novel set in Africa,The Lion Who Stole My Arm, which has a conservation theme. She has been working with children longer than she’s been a writer and is comfortable working with ALL AGES. She has worked as a TV and radio presenter, so you can be guaranteed she will be a very professional and engaging visiting author.

To learn more about her, visit her website: www.nicola-davies.com.

When January / February 2014. The detailed itinerary will be decided among participating schools and depends on the number of days each school wants to host the author.

How can your school participate?

If you are interested in being one of the schools she visits, contact Barbara Jones, the elementary school librarian at ISK: bjones@isk.ac.ke as soon as possible.

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Find out more: The AISA Visiting Author Programme enables international schools who are full or affiliate school members of AISA to pool resources to source and invite an author from Africa or from any another continent to visit each of the schools for about a week. The author works with students and teachers to share stories and experiences as well as run training sessions for teachers and librarians. AISA coordinates this programme whose objective is to provide professional development opportunities to international schools that are designed to save costs and achieve maximum impact.

Please visit www.aisa.or.ke for more details.

Hard Conversations: Finding Our Voice Around What Matters

By Jennifer Abrams, www.jenniferabrams.com

Hard

conversations come in all forms and sizes. At school, they might involve teachers, administrators, parents or students. They take place behind desks, meeting with a colleague and in team meetings. They can range from a formal evaluation, in which you tell someone he or she isn’t meeting expectations, to the briefest comment to a colleague about being on time to a meeting. They are difficult to have whether you are giving feedback or receiving it. But having hard conversations in schools is essential.

When faced with having hard conversations, for many of us our first impulse is to avoid speaking up. If we are honest with ourselves, we know that this response doesn’t help us improve teaching and learning, and it doesn’t make our schools thrive. As teachers and administrators, we know both support and challenge contribute to growth for students. So why don’t we use a healthy balance of both support and challenge when working through difficult issues with our colleagues?

Whether you’re faced with a colleague who doesn’t want to work collaboratively, a supervisor from whom you need support and you feel isn’t providing it, or a teacher who needs to meet the needs of all learners and is not, there is a set of questions that if asked might help you be more intentional and strategic in planning your hard conversation. It will still be hard, but if one thinks through these questions, the conversation has a good chance to be humane and growth producing as well. This list of questions isn’t exhaustive, but a good beginning to your thinking process prior to speaking up around what matters.

A good starting point is to understand clearly what your feelings are regarding the problem. Ask yourself:

Jennifer Abrams is an educational consultant and author of Having Hard Conversations and the upcoming book, Being Generationally Savvy: Learning and Leading Across the Generations. She can be reached at jennifer@jenniferabrams. com. This article was adapted from one of her Voice Lessons newsletters, all available at www.jenniferabrams.com.

• If I am hesitating, why?

• How can I get to a place where I feel ready and comfortable sharing what needs to be said? What information do I need?

• What emotions do I need to deal with?

• What am I trying to accomplish, and if I speak up, will it move me toward or away from my goal?

• Am I willing to experience the discomfort that might come as a result of bringing up this topic?

AISA 2013 Conference: Jennifer Abrams will present a “Having Hard Conversations” workshop at the AISA 2013 Conference. Please see the Conference section of the newsletter for more information.

Then think about what to communicate: • What explicit professional teaching or work behaviors am I

focusing on?

• Is there specific and reliable evidence that I can share?

• Once I share my thoughts, what are my suggestions for next steps in order to fix the problem?

• How will I continue to be of support as the problem is corrected?

And finally, think about how to communicate: • How might I write up my first few talking points and/or

sentences?

• What language will work for this conversation and what words might just trigger the individual and thus stop her/him from listening?

• Where should I have this conversation so it has the best chance of being effective?

These questions are just the beginning, but provide an initial framework for the internal discussion you need to be having before you speak up. My personal threshold of urgency as to whether or not I move forward with a hard conversation is ultimately measured by three questions.

• Is this professionally or educationally unsound?

• Is this physically unsafe?

• Is this emotionally damaging for students or staff?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes and I don’t think coaching is the right way to start this specific conversation and yet the urgency is apparent, I start on my list of questions and move deliberately into the work of speaking up around what matters. 3

Are your students performing to international standards?

Introducing the International Schools’ Assessment (ISA) Each year, the ISA is used to assess over 60 000 grade 3-10 students from over 75 countries in mathematical literacy, reading and writing. The ISA makes it possible to monitor your students’ performance over time and to confirm that your internal assessments are aligned with international expectations of performance.

“Last year we used the ACER test for the first time . . . We were very impressed with the tests, the feedback/report from yourselves and how these tests really fit into our school. With this said we will be using the tests again this year.”

James Hamilton Director of Elementary Education, Riverstone International School, USA

“As a senior assessor for a large international educational organisation, and in various roles in international schools, I have some experience in assessment matters, and am hugely impressed by the tests and the reporting systems. I was initially a bit sceptical about their value, but having seen the system through once, am a convert and believe that they are a superb tool. The longitudinal graphics are arresting and serve as an excellent method of drawing staff into a statistical analysis that would otherwise be rather impenetrable for many.” nick alcHin Dean of Studies, Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa, Kenya

www.acer.edu.au/isa Australian Council for Educational Research

www.aisa.or.ke

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Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

Learning in a Caring Culture Called Tribes

By Judi Fenton, Fenton International Consulting, www.judifenton.com

I

began my overseas career a seasoned educator from the United States. I entered international education totally sold on the Tribes process. However, it wasn’t until I began teaching in China, and subsequently in the Dominican Republic, that I realized truly how important resiliency and the Tribes process was. The need to be resilient and to feel connected is especially important for students whose support systems are fragmented.

Author’s note: This article is written for teachers and administrators who understand the fear and vulnerability many new students feel when they step into a classroom in a foreign country for the very first time, and the importance for all students to feel connected and accepted as caring, capable, young people.

During my first year in China I team-taught a small group of middle and high school students in grades 6-11. Five of my students had brothers and sisters in the class. Instruction was in English, yet only 25% of my group were native English speakers. I quickly realized the task ahead of me went well beyond teaching my students content using the English language. My students desperately needed to feel included … to feel a part of a community. Brothers and sisters in the same classroom, high school students mixed with middle school students, adolescents, multi-cultural diversity, language barriers; a challenging combination. Would the Tribes process be effective here?

And now, with the recent focus on the 21st Century skills, teachers and administrators are also realizing that this exceptional process is helping students go above and beyond the 3R’s by supporting the super skills of the 21st Century, the 4 C’s - communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity!

Each morning I held a community circle and each day my students worked in cooperative groups using the Tribes TLC learning experience format as a guide to lessons. The Tribes agreements proved to be a powerful tool, as they gave all students an understandable framework with which to relate. It didn’t take long for the students to begin to support one another and for my non-English speaking students to begin to feel safe. Not surprisingly, the right to pass was the agreement most used at first; it ensured safety. I’ll never forget the joy my class felt when my most timid student, a boy from South Korea, risked speaking for the first time during community circle! The following year, as a ninth grader, this same boy ran for a student body office and won. The protective factors of caring and support, positive expectations, and active participation were fully realized through the implementation of the Tribes process in my classroom. I saw the effects of this daily. The Tribes agreements used by brothers and sisters at school spilled over into their homes. High school students modeled kindness and sincerity when working with middle school peers. Strong, lasting friendships were forged. High levels of trust and mutual respect led to rapt attention when classmates shared information about their home countries.

Students new to the classroom were embraced and made to feel welcome and safe. Laughter and learning developed as the norms.

It wasn’t until the students became completely immersed in the stage of inclusion that I began to realize their full potential, not just as honorable caring citizens, but as human beings capable of building bridges to world peace and global interdependence. My students were from many different cultures, with differing political perspectives. Yet they had become best friends, had mastered attentive listening, shared a common language, and demonstrated respect for differing points of view. When the class began moving into the stage of influence, I made a conscious effort to step back and transfer responsibility to the group. As the students gained more experience in solving problems and in resolving classroom conflicts, they began to branch out, bringing issues from outside of the classroom to community circle.

Problems that occurred on the bus and playground, as well as issues from the housing units where they lived were discussed and resolved. Their ability to approach conflict in a non-aggressive manner was key to their growth as future leaders.

From our international schools will come young adults most likely to live and work abroad throughout their careers – resilient, fully bilingual, politically astute young people who possess world awareness and cross-cultural understanding. Having practiced and internalized the Tribes TLC collaborative skills in an atmosphere of mutual respect, they will also possess the problem solving skills, pro-social behaviors, and autonomy necessary to function as citizens of a multi-cultural, global society.

Will my students become global leaders? Will they be instrumental in bringing about world peace? Not all of them, but I feel certain some will. As their teacher, I know in my heart that they are different. Along with their global perspective, I know that these students possess the ingredients needed to achieve a balance between the mind, the heart, and the soul…. the very ingredients needed to build bridges between nations.

For more information, see the AISA Pre-Conference Institute description and/or visit the Tribes website at www.tribes.com. 3

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If the article piques your interest, I hope you’ll join me during the AISA Pre-Conference Institute to learn, first-hand, how to implement the Tribes process in your classroom or school.

Join me October 18, 19, 20, 2013. I promise it’ll be interesting and fun!

“We, as educators, must find that balance between the world of the mind and that of the heart and soul. It is the mind that preoccupies my time and that will take us to the information age. But it is the heart and soul that will allow us to remain connected to my own humanity, that will build that bridge between us…and create a good society.” By Paul D. Houston

AISA 2013 Conference: Judi Fenton wi l l present a “Staying Ahead of the Success Curve” workshop at the AISA 2013 Conference. Please see the Conference section of the newsletter for more information.

Visit us at the AISA Educators’ Conference, Accra. October 20-23, 2013

gins e b g in n r a le Real m... o o r s s la c e h outside t

Study & Service Based School Trips Contact us Contact us for more information about how your school could get involved: T: E: W:

+ 254 (0)733 604 422 info@campkenya.com www.campsinternational.com

Activities include: • • • • • • •

Community Service Wildlife Conservation Research Bush Craft Skills Team Building Outdoor Trekking & Hiking Environmental Education

Tailor made programs to fit curriculum based requirements.

Association of International Schools in Africa Associate Member

Visit us online: www.campsinternational.com

The Teaching Revolution and the D-generation

By Lance G King

I

work with students in many high schools around the world and over the last two years I have asked every class the same question – “How many of you have a web-capable phone?”

Two years ago the response was about 5%, today it is usually around 80% and just recently I had my first 100% response. This is significant.

How long will it be before every child in every classroom has a web-capable phone............that they’re not allowed to use?

Right now there are: • 6 billion cell phones in the world (world total population is 7 billion) • 85% of new phones are web enabled • 2 billion broadband subscriptions • 255 million websites • 150 million blogs • 8 trillion text messages sent in 2011 • 107 trillion emails – 89% of which were spam How long will it be before: • every piece of subject matter is available to every student on the internet, and • they all have access to internet linked devices, and • they all have access to high speed broadband all day?

What will teaching look like then? What will be the key skills students will need to cope with and take advantage of, this environment? This is not the future, this is today!

Imagine a school where: 1) the entire focus of teaching is on the processes of learning, where the aim of every lesson is the development and improvement of the skills of effective learning, using the subject matter of the lesson as the material for the student to practice their learning skills on 2) in every class students work in groups of 3-4 with one high-speed internet linked data tablet device per group 3) the objectives for each lesson are stated by the teacher as: - the learning skills to be practiced - the subject matter to practice those

skills on and the best web-based sources to use to find that subject matter - the questions to be answered 4) where learning is by truely collaborative exploration and inquiry.

I believe that right now we stand on the brink of a revolution in education which is not a revolution in learning because everyone has always learned best this way, what it is, is a revolution in teaching! Maybe the most significant one since Gutenberg.

The teaching revolution involves teachers abandoning ‘transmission’ teaching and adopting principles of skills based, guided inquiry learning. This means teachers teaching the skills of good learning using their particular subject matter as the ‘meat’ for students to practice their learning skills on. It involves students utilising net-capable devices, working in small groups, accessing subjectbased websites, practising cognitive skills like searching, selecting, verifying, validating and corroborating information as well as social skills of collaboration, communication, team work and affective skills like perseverance and selfmotivation. In this scenario, teaching becomes about making explicit all the processes of learning and guiding the students on a pathway of inquiry to achieve specific measurable content and process based outcomes.. Helping the students to ask the right questions but never providing the answers.

What this new type of teaching is not about is teachers using the internet as just one more textbook.

When every student has access to all the information in the world 24/7 then the most marketable skills will be the skills of good learning. How to find the right information, process it well, extract what you need and move on having learnt something new. These are the skills of the self-regulated learner and in order to become competent in these skills children need to practice these skills – they need, on a regular basis to take over self regulation of their own learning.

If creating ‘lifelong’ learners is the aim of schooling I believe that right now, through the confluence of five important factors we have the best opportunity yet to achieve that aim.

• The development of a ‘learning-skills’ curricula within the school qualification systems of 11 countries and throughout the IB • The proliferation of high quality school subject based websites • The ubiquity of internet accessible devices • The availability of high speed broadband • The high level of comfort today’s children have with the digital world

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And it is probably the last point that is the most critical and the most difficult for traditional teachers to get to grips with. Right now we, as teachers, are teaching the very first digital generation – the D-generation if you like. These are the very first children ever in the history of the world to grow up with the internet, to have all the information they need at their fingertips 24/7. They are so comfortable with that world and it is only us – the previous generation that find that world to be challenging. It is us who need to change, not them.

Prior to 1450 teaching tended to be more of an apprenticeship process than what we today would recognize as teaching, where the important knowledge was inside the head of the ‘Master’ whose students were priviledged to be the recipient of that specific wisdom. After 1450 when the Gutenberg press revolutionized the availability and distribution of previously restricted knowledge teaching changed to being an elucidation of the wisdom, experience and knowledge of the teacher combined with what was available in the ‘textbook’. Five hundred and sixty three years later, in most classes, in most schools around the world, it is still the same – all the important knowledge to be explored is still only to be found within the teacher and within the textbook.

This is what must change. By enabling students, in small groups, to work collaboratively to find the information they need through access to the best internet resources, achieving clear objectives and answering well constructed questions, we can revitalize teaching, improve learning efficiency and student motivation and help students develop the skills they need to be successful in the worlds outside of school, the worlds of business, higher education, service and enterprise.

Surely this is what schooling is for? 3

AISA 2013 Conference: Lance King will present a “Learning Skills Approach” workshop at the AISA 2013 Conference. Please see the Conference section of the newsletter for more information.

Socratic Seminars: Helping Students Become Better Thinkers and Readers

By John Zola, Boulder Valley School District, johnzola.com

An

administrator walking around the school happens by a classroom where she hears student voices. Stopping, she ends up staying for almost an hour during which she observes a rich conversation—sometimes slow-paced, sometimes lively—about a short story the class had read. The conversation’s direction is determined by the participants themselves, with the teacher asking clarifying questions and urging participants to refer to the actual text for supporting evidence. Kids are polite and earnest. Students are “making meaning” instead of trying to figure out the “right answer” they believe the teacher wants.

The conversation ends as time demands, although the administrator notices that student questions and discussion linger out into the hallway after the bell.

What the administrator observed was a Socratic Seminar. Socratic seminars are teacher-led classroom discussions that promote higher level thinking, more careful reading of texts, and increased classroom and civil discussion skills. A significant difference between Socratic seminars and more “traditional” classroom discussions is that students are expected to have read the text in advance and the “work” of the seminar is to explore the various issues, ideas, and values in the text collaboratively. Coming to a single, teacher approved and agreed upon interpretation is not the work of a Socratic seminar! Seminars are tightly aligned with the Common Core State Standards and the Project AERO standards for international schools that support students learning to read more carefully and critically and to express their ideas thoughtfully and civilly. Best of all, teachers report students, in seminars, find a new freedom to really think creatively and bring up interpretations that are the equal of those commonly provided by the teacher or textbook. Socratic seminars are appropriate, and effective, in elementary and middle school classrooms and in nearly any content area.

Let’s go back to the Socratic seminar the administrator observed. The desks are in a circle and in front of each student is a name tent and a carefully read and annotated copy of the short story. The teacher, who is also in the circle, begins: “Is the main character admirable?”

After a moment’s pause, a student offers, “I think so…he seems to care about the other kids in his classroom…he’s like a friend.” From the other side of the circle, another student tries out an idea: “But it seems that when the group was confronted by the bully, he was afraid to stand up for the kids he was hanging around with and that doesn’t seem admirable.” The teacher asks that participant, “Where is that in the text?” Pages flip and someone suggests a paragraph on the third page of the story. Once everyone finds that page, the student begins to read from the text. Ideas continue to build and are challenged by some students or enriched by additional references to the text. A shared sense of intellectual work begins to pervade the room. Kids are engaged, some more verbally; others silently, but carefully listening to and following the discussion. Finally, when there is still a sense of ambiguity, the teacher ends the seminar and allows a moment for the class to reflect on its work.

do the actual work of preparing for and leading seminars. Plenty of time is also devoted to the nuts and bolts of implementing seminars in actual classrooms.

Learning to conduct Socratic seminars in this deeply rich and engaging way can be transformative for teachers; and, ultimately, transformative for their classroom pedagogy. Teachers are able to more readily shed the role of “sage on the stage” and open themselves up to the creative and intellectual power that resides in the class as a whole. When we think about it, students are in school for a relatively brief percentage of their lives. We must prepare them to be meaning makers and thinkers for the great span of years that they act as citizens, friends, employees and family members. Socratic seminars are one tool to support the life long processes of thinking, reading for meaning and civic discourse! 3 Portions of this article are derived from: Hess, Diana and John Zola; Professional Development as a Tool for Improving Civic Education; in Making Civics Count: Citizenship Education for a New Generation; ed. Campbell, David E, Meira Levinson and Frederick M. Hess; Harvard Education Press; 2012.

Socratic seminars can be lead by any teacher, but they challenge some common assumptions teachers have about their role in the classroom. A Socratic seminar workshop both teaches the skills required for leading seminars and provides time for teachers to explore the nature of their role as discussion leaders in classrooms.

The workshop is highly participatory and interactive. The “hands and minds on” aspect is extremely powerful as teachers in the workshop

AISA 2013 Conference: John Zola will present a “Socratic Seminars” and “Shifting the Burden” workshop at the AISA 2013 Conference. Please see the Conference section of the newsletter for more information.

AISA would like to Welcome New Members: Associate Members

Affiliate Members

African Regional Educational and Evaluation

Aga Khan Academy Mombasa

Anthony Millard Consulting Limited

Oshwal Academy Nairobi

Cairo American College CS Campus Educomp Solutions Limited Equip MySchool.com Furlong Business Solutions Limited Usborne Publishing Limited

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Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

Next to Snakes…..

Learning to be a Teacher Presenter

By Jaye Zola

Next

to snakes, public speaking is the #1 fear of most people. Educators are always talking in front of students and faculty yet, many are cautious about presenting in front of their peers. Many educators have great strategies, curricula, or programs to share with others, but are hesitant to present it to others.

At this year’s AISA conference in Accra, participants will have the opportunity and support to design a workshop, Job-A-Like or presentation in the Institute “Becoming a Workshop Presenter.” This one full day and morning session helps “wanna be” presenters learn how to structure a workshop using similar methods to lesson planning. Participants can alleviate some of their concerns about presenting to peers when they know more about adult learners. Spending time on how to troubleshoot issues that are of concern will make new presenters more confident of their skills. If you have read this far, you must be interested in developing your own workshop!

You will explore facilitation, discussion, and presentation skills in the Institute, which are many of the skills you already have as an educator. You will also have time to plan and run ideas by others to get feedback on your workshop agenda and strategies. At the second morning session, you will have a chance to present part of your workshop and get support, encouragement, and feedback in a supportive environment. As you design your workshop you will have lots of troubleshooting and practice.

Participants MUST sign up for BOTH the Institute AND the Workshop session. Bring ideas and materials you want to develop so you can leave the Institute well on your way to doing your presentation. Most people can present – they just need the time and support to start. This Institute and half day workshop will give you a chance to begin that postponed desire to share what you know. Sorry, we won’t be doing anything about your fear of snakes! 3

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AISA Librarian’s Exchange: from Brookhouse School in Kenya to Corona Schools in Nigeria

By Ms Faith Muturi, Head Librarian, Brookhouse School AISA School Exchange Program is a professional development opportunity offered to AISA The or full affiliate school members. The objective of the program is to enable participating schools to collaborate and share expertise. I am the Head Librarian at Brookhouse School in Nairobi, Kenya and in February 2013 I had the honour of benefiting from this program with a week–long visit to Corona Schools in Nigeria.

As I flew out of Kenya, my expectations were that this trip would promote international dialogue, the sharing of know-how and cooperation between Brookhouse School, Corona Schools and their information service providers. My itinerary included a stop at the Corona Schools Trust Council head office and in the following five days, a visit to all the seven schools.

Looking back on the four weeks I spent in Nigeria the impressions that come to mind are diverse.

Not only did I learn a lot about the important role that libraries play in schools, but I also got to speak with many people about topics as diverse as school timetables, professional development, budget allocation and organization, website design, places of learning, events, displays and much more. I would, therefore, be hard pressed to even attempt to summarize my whole experience in this brief article.

As part of my visit, I was keen to learn how librarians in Nigeria were coping with the increasingly changing role of the librarian. Of particular interest to me were the challenges faced especially when it comes to automating the school library. My visit to the Corona Schools revealed that there are probably as many school library management solutions as situations and needs. Finding the software that is right for you and your library is the challenge most librarians face.

For most librarians, tooting their own horn does not come naturally. However, all the librarians I had an opportunity to interact with in Nigeria agreed that, in order to be relevant in any school, librarians have to aggressively market themselves and the library. It has to be about what we do for our students, our teachers, our communities and why it is important. It has to be about outcomes and we have to care just as much about student success as any other educator in the school.

This made me consider just how well do school librarians integrate the library into the curriculum?

Collaboration has become a 21st Century trend and whether you are integrating information literacy into the curriculum or developing a reading promotion, collaboration is essential for a school library to run successfully. Yet this is one of the most difficult tasks for many school librarians to achieve.

What was clear to me, as I toured the different schools, was that in order to think and work together with the teachers in your school, a librarian needs to (1) Be confident, (2) Make the connection, (3) Reinforce the connection, (4) Build the relationship, and (5) Go collaborate.

It was refreshing to note that whilst we are all struggling to go high-tech in our libraries, the Corona Schools have retained some traditional ways of encouraging a love for reading. In one of the prep schools, I was fortunate to sit in a storytelling session. To my amazement, the librarian came dressed for the part and the story was accompanied by song and dance. It reminded me of an AISA workshop I had attended in Kenya where the theme was ‘African Griots’. A ‘griot’ is a historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet and musician; a repository of oral tradition, and is also often seen as something of a leader in society due to his traditional position as an adviser to royal personages. We are in Africa; let’s put some drum beats into our stories!

As I moved from one school to another, I could not help admiring the warmth, traditions and culture and of the Nigerian people, the markets that showcase the handicrafts and sculptures and the calm and peaceful environment that enhances the beauty of the country. These memories of Nigeria will remain with me forever.

I would like to thank AISA for facilitating this exchange, Corona Schools Trust for hosting me and making me feel so welcome and Brookhouse School for their support and giving me time off to go to Nigeria. It was a great learning experience. 3

Find out more: The School Exchange Program is a professional development opportunity offered to AISA Full or Affiliate School Members.

Please visit www.aisa.or.ke for more details.

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Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

Leadership Through a Living Systems Lens

By Chris Jansen, Senior Lecturer, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Schools

are swamped with change initiatives. In a study of schools in New Zealand, it was found that it was common for staff to have three to four professional development topics to focus on in any given year (Hill, Hawk & Taylor, 2001). Several questions come to mind: ‘How do we design the processes within organisations and schools to support change so that we don’t need to reorganise them for every new initiative?’, ‘Can schools become more open, dynamic systems that can adapt and respond to change and challenge while holding true to their core values and purpose?’ and ‘Can this flexibility and responsiveness be achieved without chaos and confusion?’. This article describes answers to these questions that emerged from a leadership research project in New Zealand and are now written up in the papers listed at the end of the article.

The concept of ‘complex adaptive systems’ was formulated in the early 20th century and grew initially out of the fields of physics, biology, and computer programming (Davis & Sumara, 2006). Physicists began to see that linear Newtonian physics couldn’t explain some phenomenon and that there scientific ‘rules’ began to break down, for example in the field of quantum physics. Biologists in their studies of species such as birds, ants and fish began to observe that although their collective behaviour was not predictable, that neither was it chaotic, and proposed that ‘complex’ behaviour did in fact have internal characteristics that influenced the collective behaviour (Wheatley, 2006).

Complexity thinking/theory describes the characteristics of these complex adaptive systems (Davis et al, 2006; Wheatley, 2006). These characteristics include being self-organised, having nested structures with self similar patterns or fractals, decentralised control, short range relationships, ambiguous boundaries, fluid, unpredictable and emergent and constantly adapting and learning. In complexity models, human systems such as organisations (schools) more closely mimic ‘living’ systems than the rational, structured linear-based structure that is used predominantly for organisations at present (Wheatley, 2006).

The Christchurch NGO Leadership Project was initiated in 2008 as part of a doctoral study targeted at increasing leadership capability in adolescentfocused non-government organisations (NGOs) operating in Christchurch that cover a range of settings including education, recreation, and residential and community therapeutic support. The project involved 25 directors of NGOs with staff numbers ranging from 20 to 80 people. It allowed the directors to explore their leadership beliefs and values and how they expressed these in their leadership roles. The participants explored their leadership in a peer-supported learning community that made use of appreciative inquiry processes, informed by two major themes; focus on the positive and collaboration. (Jansen, Cammock, Conner, 2010) As a part of the ongoing self exploration that these leaders engaged in during this project, they began to draw strong connections between characteristics of complex adaptive systems and their own organisations. This lead to a range of implications for their leadership of a complex ‘living’ system.

The first implication explores the need for proactive mentoring, ie: creating space to empower our colleagues. The second is the imperative to develop a professional learning community or learning organisation (Senge, 2002). Fullan (1993) supports this idea when he states; “for complex changes you need many people working insightfully on the solution and committing themselves to concentrated action together” (Fullan, 1993, p. 34). Peck (1998) goes further when he states; “A healthy organisation is one in which all participants have a voice” (Peck, 1988, p. 62).

Thirdly, the study suggests that leaders in these settings looked carefully at ways in which they shared power and decisionmaking within their organisations. Fullan (1993) believes Figure 1: Starlings flocking in response to the presence of a predator that it is not possible to control a complex organisation from the top; “we have known for decades that top down change doesn’t work, yet leaders keep trying because they don’t see an alternative and they are impatient for results” (Fullan, 1993, p. 37). Fourthly, the role of the leader within such a decentralised setting is explored, in particular the tensions of ambition and humility (Collins, 2005). Pascale, Millemann and Gioja (2000) suggest that the leader’s role in such organisations is that of ‘context setter’ whereas Brafman and Beckstrom (2006) describe the leaders role in decentralised organisation as a catalyst.

The following papers explore these findings in detail and extend the complexity principles to leadership of schools where fostering learning organisations or ‘living systems’ involves teachers, students and parents working together as collaborators to develop a more adaptive, creative and resilient professional learning community. The author will be collaborating with Dr Cheryl Doig in offering two leadership retreats at the AISA Conference in Ghana in October. These leadership retreats entitled ‘Juggling multiple perspectives: Leading complex change’ will explore these findings in more detail and work with leaders to apply the concept of a ‘living system’ to schools in Africa. 3 Jansen, C., Cammock, P. & Conner, L. (2011). Leadership for emergence: Exploring organisations through a living system lens. Leading and Managing, 17(1), 59-74. https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#folders/0B1uDI_d-HdkXNEtlckVWNHNGU3M Jansen, C., Conner, L. & Cammock, P. (2010). Leaders building professional learning communities: Appreciative inquiry in action. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 25(2), 41-54. https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#folders/0B1uDI_d-HdkXNEtlckVWNHNGU3M

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References Brafman, O. & Beckstrom, R. (2006). The Starfish and the Spider. New York: Penguin Group Inc. Collins, J. (2005). Good to great and the social sectors: why business thinking is not the answer. New York: HarperCollins.

Davis, B. & Sumara, D (2006). Complexity and Education: Inquiries into Learning, Teaching and Research, London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Fullan, M. (1993). Change forces: Probing the depths of educational reform. New York: Falmer Press.

Jansen, C., Cammock, P. & Conner, L. (2010). Schools as learning communities? – Leadership through Appreciative inquiry, University of Texas John Ben Sheppard Journal of Leadership, Spring.

Hill, J., Hawk, K., & Taylor, K. (2001). Professional development: What makes it work? Paper presented at the annual conference of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education. Christchurch, New Zealand.

Pascale, R., Millemann, M., & Gioja, L. (2000). Surfing the edge of chaos. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Peck, M. S. (1991). A different drum: Community-making and peace. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Senge, P. (2002). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organisation. Sydney, NSW: Random House.

Wheatley, M. (2006). Leadership and the new science: discovering order in a chaotic world, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.

AISA 2013 Conference: Chris Jansen will present a “Leading Change” workshop at the AISA 2013 Conference. Please see the Conference section of the newsletter for more information.

Chris Jansen is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury, where he works with leaders studying in the Masters of Educational Leadership and Post Graduate Diploma of Strategic Leadership.

Through his consultancy, Idea Creation, (www.ideacreation.org) Chris works alongside organisations in the education, health, business and community sectors in a range of projects. These include design and delivery of leadership development programmes, change management initiatives, organisational capability and strategic planning. Chris is also involved in executive coaching and regularly facilitates workshops and presentations for a range of organisations around New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific and Asia.

Visiting Author Marc Tyler Nobleman:

Superman you know. Batman you know. Nobleman...you will.

MARC

Tyler Nobleman, author of 70+ books, will be making his first appearance in Africa to speak in schools.

• Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman: ALA Notable; made front page of USA Today • Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman: covered by NPR’s All Things Considered, Forbes, Washington Post, MTV; led to an invitation to give a TED talk • Nickelodeon: numerous humor pieces for the magazine Marc has been invited to speak at hundreds of schools and conferences internationally. His talks are part motivational, part educational, and all entertaining.

“To say that [your] presentation was outstanding is almost an understatement. I’ve been the Head of Lower School for 30 years. All of the adults agreed that [you are] the best presenter we have ever had.”

—Dana Hahn, Head of Lower School, Wheeler School, Providence, RI “That was one of the best presentations we’ve had EVER! Not only did you inspire kids to love writing, which is great, but you promoted their development as human beings.”

—Laura McKone, 5th grade teacher, Mark Twain Elementary, Centennial, CO Want to join the tour?

• Dates: From January 20th, 2014 for approximately one week (bookings will be made on a first come basis).

• Rates: $1,800 per day, plus a portion of travel (to be split among all schools on the trip, so the more bookings taken, the cheaper the cost is for all) and travel from Washington DC. • Past school visits (skim for photos and recaps): http://noblemania. blogspot.com/search/label/school%20visit • To request more information (more testimonials, press, TV interviews) and to book: please contact Marc Nobleman directly at mtnobleman@ gmail. com 3

www.aisa.or.ke

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Find out more: The AISA Visiting Author Programme enables international schools who are full or affiliate school members of AISA to pool resources to source and invite an author from Africa or from any another continent to visit each of the schools for about a week. The author works with students and teachers to share stories and experiences as well as run training sessions for teachers and librarians. AISA coordinates this programme whose objective is to provide professional development opportunities to international schools that are designed to save costs and achieve maximum impact.

Please visit www.aisa.or.ke for more details.

Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

This is My Story, What’s Yours? Lessons in Sustainable International School Management David Willows, Director of External Relations, International School of Brussels

I

am not sure precisely where or when this particular story began; but, looking back, I’d say that it was just around my tenth birthday when I first stumbled upon writings of C.S. Lewis and his imagination-absorbing tales of Narnia.

Each of us may focus, because of what we do, upon different aspects of this life-cycle. From a storytelling point of view, however, it is crucial to understand that we really are all involved in the same process: telling the story and helping people – students, parents, donors, partners – find their place in that story.

External Communications 6. Release

Since then, I have been fascinated by the power of narrative and the way in which we tell stories to make sense of the world around us. Even in our work-a-day lives, stories are the ‘stuff’ of most good conversations and unique in their ability to bring meaning, pattern and order to the otherwise disconnected fragments of day-to-day life.

5. Retention

1. Attraction

Telling the story of our school and helping others find their place in that story

2. Recruitment

3. Induction

Internal Communications

4. Engagement

Not convinced? Well just try and think of any recent, meaningful conversation with your colleagues in which you did not tell a story to illustrate your point, contribute an idea, raise an issue or make a connection with somebody.

For me, I’ll be honest, it’s all about stories.

Figure 1: A life-cycle approach to school engagement.

Figure 1: A life-cycle approach to school engagement.

And that story needs to be coherent. Parents, for example, need to feel that the story that was ‘sold’ to them during the admissions process is Those of us who have any kind of communications the story that they experience as they join and function within our school will know this already. get to know the school. It is one thing to have We are, as it were, a band of storytellers: a story posted on a website, it is quite another narrating the story of our school and helping to see it lived out in every aspect of who we other people find their place in that story. We are and what we do. understand that, in the end, all our advertising, brochures, emails, social media campaigns, Key questions: At which stage of this process to videos, and elaborate websites, really all boils you excess at telling your story? Where is the down to just one thing: telling stories that story of your school lacking coherence? express who we are as a community, engage people with an exciting learning vision that Lesson 2: A sustainable international school they understand, and invite those around us has a story that changes by listening to join the party.

Effective storytelling, I want to say, is critical to any school’s brand, reputation, and long term sustainability, and here’s three reasons why.

Lesson 1: A sustainable international school is one in which there is a coherent story It’s the moment you first notice that, despite the best laid plans and awe-inspiring publications, inconsistencies have appeared like bubbles on a freshly painted wall. In the school where I work, with 1500 students from 70 countries and 300 employees, inconsistencies are everywhere.

So where to start?

Let’s perhaps begin by recognizing that every member of our school community is on a journey and writing their own story from first ‘attraction’ to ‘release’ (See Figure 1).

www.aisa.or.ke

A wise man once wrote that ‘if a story is not about the hearer he [or she] will not listen …

A great lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting – only the deeply personal and familiar.’ From a storytelling point of view, the idea that a story is as much about the listener as the narrator is hardly new. Yet it was only a few years ago that many of us were reading books like The Cluetrain Manifesto (Levine et al, 1999), transfixed by the suggestion that this truly was the end of business-as-usual; pondering that audacious proposal that markets are now conversations and that ‘in just a few more years, the current homogenized “voice” of business—the sound of mission statements and brochures—will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court.’

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A little more than ten years on, sitting in our schools, it is easy to see how insightful this manifesto actually was. The Internet, to say nothing of web 2.0 and social media, has changed everything – forever. Even in our schools, we have become accustomed to a world of daily Google alerts and moderated Facebook or YouTube comments. Via our website and other online platforms, we have got used to the fact that we can no longer get away with the digital equivalent of our dusty, old brochures, but instead are required to offer a space where conversations about learning take place; a dynamic environment in which people feel that their questions are pondered, opinions heard, and values, well, valued.

Personally, though. I don’t believe that we are there yet. We haven’t fully understood how to transition our static, information-driven digital spaces into arenas that invite meaningful learning conversations. We use words, but our audience doesn’t have time to read. We create videos that fail to engage, let alone entertain.

We build motorways of information, but they only ever allow one-way traffic. Lesson 2 is still a work in progress.

Key questions: How is the story of your school demonstrating its ability to listen to those around? Do you even know what others are saying about you are your school?

Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

Lesson 3: A sustainable international school is prepared to tell their story differently If effective communications is all about storytelling, then it also follows that there must also be an innate playfulness to our art. This association is not new. As we think about the tales we are telling about our schools, however, it may be that playfulness is not the first word that comes to mind. Innovation, however, is key. We can never forget the importance of deconstructing and reinventing the story almost on a daily basis – like a child rearranging Lego™ bricks to mirror constantly the imaginations of his or her mind.

There is a chance, of course, that a story under such pressure of re-invention will shatter into a thousand tiny fragments. At the same time, as C.S. Lewis once wrote, it is only by playing that we can break the story and begin to tell a truer tale.

Sustainability, in other words, is not – as some people will mistakenly assume – about maintaining the status quo. As in the natural world, it is all about our ability to evolve, adapt, and the courage to tell the story of our school differently. The fact is, people have stopped reading our educational clichés. They have stopped noticing our adverts full of happy, smiling children.

It’s time for a change.

AISA 2013 Conference: David Willows will present a “Finance and Business Managers” institute at the AISA 2013 Conference. Please see the Conference section of the newsletter for more information.

Key questions: What are the stories that need to be retold in your school? What are the pieces of your school’s story that you would fight to keep or love to change? 3

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Learning in Today’s Challenging, Interdependent World

By Anne Keeling, Media Relations, Fieldwork Education, www.greatlearning.com

In today’s challenging, interdependent world, it is so important for our children to receive a good education. Getting a curriculum right is essential to prepare children for their future learning and responsibilities, and yet it’s more difficult today than it’s ever been because it has to meet so many crucial goals. This will be the focus of one of the workshops at this year’s AISA conference as workshop leader, Katherine Tucker explains: Of all the priorities for a curriculum today, it needs to deliver high levels of children’s engagement, rigorous learning, international awareness, the development of personal dispositions and support for teachers and schools.

A curriculum that thoroughly meets each of these priority areas is not easy to produce. However feedback from schools around the world, including Greenoak International School, Oshwal Academy and Educare in Africa, suggests that one curriculum – the International Primary Curriculum – is well on the way. Let’s look at the IPC in the context of each of these essential goals.

Engaging Children Teachers know that children learn best when they want to learn. That’s why thematic learning is so important; to engage children and help them to remain motivated through the learning of such subjects as science, geography and history. A thematic approach also enables students to make purposeful links throughout their learning and to see how their subject learning is related to the world they live in.

The IPC takes this approach, providing over 80 different thematic units of learning for primary children. These are all child-friendly, modern-day topics appealing to children of all cultures; themes such as I’m Alive, Inventions and Machines, and Global Swapshop.

Each IPC thematic unit incorporates most primary subjects including science, history, geography, ICT, art and PE and provides many opportunities to incorporate language arts and mathematics. Each IPC theme suggests many ideas for collaborative learning, active learning, learning outside the classroom, role play, and for children to learn from each other.

Rigorous Learning As well as being engaging and creative, learning must be rigorous. That’s why learning goals are so important; to ensure the most rigorous learning outcomes.

The IPC has a comprehensive range of learning goals that are deliberately explicit. Every IPC unit suggests a range of learning tasks relevant to the theme which each meet some of these learning goals. The learning goals are designed to make sure that teachers distinguish clearly between children’s learning of knowledge, skills and understanding.

Intercultural Awareness So many of our problems, the world over, at local and global level are caused by different groups not knowing or respecting each other. This is why the IPC places such priority on the teaching of international mindedness; to help children to develop a greater appreciation for others.

Each IPC unit includes learning-focused activities that help children to start developing a global awareness and gain an increasing sense of the ‘other’. Every unit creates opportunities to learn through a local, national and international perspective, helping children to identify the similarities as well as celebrate the differences between people and cultures. With schools learning with the IPC in over 80 countries, opportunities abound for children to share their local experiences related to an IPC unit with children in dramatically different environments.

Developing Personal Dispositions The personal dispositions we form as individuals are established over time with constant use. That is why it’s important that schools don’t just include a few ‘add-on’ lessons about such elusive personal skills as morality or respect, but instead, provide children with frequent opportunities to experience and practice very specific personal dispositions.

That’s how the IPC views children’s learning of personal skills. The opportunities to practice and develop specific personal dispositions including cooperation, enquiry, resilience and adaptability are built into the learning tasks within every IPC thematic unit. Many of these tasks are group activities which encourage children to consider each other’s ideas and opinions, share responsibilities, respect other people’s views and communicate effectively.

Supporting Teachers and Schools Teachers need support to ensure they are delivering the very best learning. That’s why each IPC unit has a very structured yet flexible teaching framework. This provides teachers with learning tasks that achieve rigorous learning outcomes through creative, meaningful and memorable learning activities that are relevant for all children of all abilities. However, these tasks are purely a guide for teachers and offer them plenty of scope for differentiation and personalisation to suit the class, the school and the locality.

An Assessment for Learning programme, as well as teacher training, conferences, online community support and regional events also support all IPC member schools.

www.aisa.or.ke

18

Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

Measuring Success So what do schools think of the IPC? “The International Primary Curriculum has definitely changed our approach to learning,” says Jackline Aminga, Headteacher at Oshwal Academy in Mombasa, Kenya which has been learning with the IPC since 2007. “We now focus on a theme for six weeks of learning and discovery. During each theme, children are exposed to practical activities that build up their knowledge, skills and reinforces their understanding of what they are learning. This means much deeper progression of knowledge, skills and understanding that is all connected,” she says. “Classrooms have become alive. There’s been an outburst of knowledge as children take responsibility of their own learning. And the teacher has truly changed to who he or she was always meant to be which is a facilitator, not the sole owner of knowledge.” 3 AISA 2013 Conference: The International Primary Curriculum is part of Fieldwork Education which, since 1984, has been helping schools around the world to develop children’s learning. Because of the growth of the curriculum in schools throughout Africa, Fieldwork Education has now opened an office in Uganda to support all new and established IPC member schools. Fieldwork Education’s Katherine Tucker who leads the Africa office will be presenting a workshop on the Nine Principles Your Curriculum Needs, at the AISA conference. For more information about the IPC visit www.greatlearning.com/ipc or call Katherine directly at 07833 232206.

Announcing the AISA 2013 Art Challenge Winners The AISA Art Challenge is an exciting annual competition that seeks to foster and strengthen the connections amongst students in our member schools through Art. Each year the AISA secretariat receives submissions from our member schools and the best 12 are then selected and featured in AISA’s Calendar.

This year we received over 100 submissions. The judging was quite difficult as all submissions were extremely interesting and each artist’s enthusiasm to illustrate AISA’s philosophy, mission and goals was clearly evident.

AISA would like to congratulate the following 12 students whose art will be published in the 2014 AISA Calendar: 1. Kimotho Adriance - International School of Kenya 2. Ella Shoup - American International School of Johannesburg 3. Ala’a al - Kayyali - International Community School Abuja, Nigeria 4. Larissa Rocha Price - American International School of Mozambique 5. Nicole Bagsican - Ibadan International School 6. HaYeong Kim - International School of Uganda 7. Leon De Carvalho Erikkson - American International School of Lusaka 8. S. Gowtham Vigneshwar - Oshwal Academy Nairobi 9. Bettina Loreen Marsh - Rosslyn Academy 10. Sara Giovinazzo - St. Constantines International School 11. Astha Sood - Lincoln Community School 12. Nina Bicknell – American International School of Lusaka AISA would like to thank all the schools, supervising teachers and students who participated in the challenge. The project has revealed that within our diverse AISA community lays a rich reservoir of creative talent.

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Congruency Checks: A Focus on What is Important

By Dr Cheryl Doig, Think Beyond Ltd, www.thinkebyond.co.nz Introduction Change initiatives should be congruent with the direction and vision of your international learning organisation. A first stage is to undertake strategic thinking, know what your school is all about and have clear values from which to base new ideas. Once you have your vision and purpose in place it is your responsibility, as leader, to ensure the organization has:

Congruency, consistency and relentless focus on what is important What is a Congruency Check?

A congruency check focuses on what is important in your school (eg key values, pedagogical practices, a key driver, a new direction) and whether policies, programs and practices are congruent with this focus. It acts as a stocktake of the current reality, from which you can move forward. A congruency check is absolutely focused on the few things that make the biggest difference – the non-negotiables in your school direction. It aims to reduce clutter, open conversation about what matters and create a focus for future development.

How does it work?

Key ideas in the school’s direction all warrant a congruency check. Determine the key beliefs that underpin your school and that are non-negotiable first.

When you have your focus(es), create a congruency check for each. Be clear about why your emphasis is important, how it reflects the future focused international school, and how it helps develop the internationally minded learner. A congruency check is best done by a team, sharing ideas and engaging in open conversation. It can be completed by a leadership team or, used in conjunction with facilitation processes, to seek feedback across a staff.

1. Begin by brainstorming all the things that support this focus, from a macro to a micro level, using the format shown in diagram 1. These are the policies, programs and practices that are already in existence and move the idea forward.

2. Repeat this exercise with the things that work against the focus, again considering policies, programs and practices.

3. This will have generated some rich conversation! Take this a step further by crossing out any barriers you have no control or influence over.

4. Now consider the possibilities under the Outcomes – Now What? These are: • Strengthen existing practices • Instigate new ideas • Minimise barriers • Purge cherished habits that no longer align with new focuses • Find out more eg how widespread? Does practice meet rhetoric? What is our starting point data?

Once you have used the congruency check you may want to summarise this on a congruency circle with the focus on growing congruency ie the drivers. In the example below the focus is on learner voice. The importance of learner voice has been developed around the belief that “When learners have a say in their own learning they are more likely to engage in their learning and the school in general.” And “learners who feel confident to give feedback about their learning help the school and its staff to improve.”

Learner Voice has been placed in the middle. The next circle relates to those elements of national/ association policy and programs that support this.

Circle three relates to the school wide practices that enhance learner voice. The outside circle relates to what happens in specific classrooms/ learning spaces. This circle has other ideas yet to be added.

‘Online student forum’ and ‘involved in setting evaluation criteria’ are in italics because these are areas the school is developing.

Whenever new ideas are introduced, they are checked for congruency. This helps avoid the tendency to add work that does not contribute to the school direction. The direction must be powerfully connected to the development of the school and its international community.

Change can be complex. Having a clear vision and direction can provide some support for leaders juggling multiple perspectives. 3

AISA 2013 Conference: Dr Cheryl Doig will present a “Leading Change” workshop at the AISA 2013 Conference. Please see the Conference section of the newsletter for more information.

Diagram 1: Congruency Worksheet

www.aisa.or.ke

What will you do to keep the laser light beam on your key direction? The completion of this check, and subsequent follow up, can be used as a starting point in your change process. It ensures that your changes are connected to the school’s vision and direction.

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Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

Accreditation – Award or Status?

By Maria Lesser Council of International Schools (CIS) is a membership organisation of schools and colleges, with more than 660 school members in 104 The countries as well as more than 490 university and college members who are keen to use their international profile in partnership with similarlyminded schools. In Africa, there are 44 member schools with 34 accredited. Figures 1 and 2 show a rising trend in the numbers of CIS member schools1 in Africa that are accredited or going through the accreditation process. In common with AISA, CIS now insists that its member schools are CIS-accredited, or accredited with another reputable accreditation agency (one of the agencies validated as members by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Commission on Accreditation (US) or the school can demonstrate its proven qualities through a recent, current external quality assurance report such as that provided by one of the OFSTED-commission UK inspection agencies. An accredited school has been awarded accreditation but has been and remains part of a continuous school improvement process.

A CIS-accredited school has also proven its credentials in relation to its internationalism, significantly, measured not only by its provision for internationalism, such as through providing for school links and exchanges or through a curriculum, but by the outcomes in developing the international citizenship of the students in its care. Poore (2005:353) reinforces the view that internationalism, or intercultural literacy, as he terms it, cannot be taken for granted: “effective cross-cultural engagement is dependent upon possessing the understandings and competencies, attitudes and identities which comprise intercultural literacy. And while intercultural literacy is at the very heart of our reason for being, it seems that this most important element is largely taken for granted in shaping the culture of our (international) schools”.

So, why pursue international accreditation? Evaluation leading to accreditation necessarily involves: • a process of reflection; • a self-scrutiny of the evidence to support strengths, measured against internationally-recognised and rigorously applied standards; • identifying areas for development and acting upon them; • an openness to peer evaluation that begins not from a blank screen or from what is known and recognised as a model for successful school improvement elsewhere, but from the school’s self-study.

The cycle of accreditation (see Figure 3) recognises that although school improvement would ideally be a continuous rising curve, it may have interruptions as schools go through peaks and troughs in the improvement. To mitigate against this, for the benefit of the students’ sustained quality of education, the accreditation cycle features face-to-face visits to the school at four episodes in the ten year cycle, the Preliminary Visit at the outset of an accreditation process, the Team Visit of peers from international, accredited schools, the Five Year Visit and the Preparatory Visit, prior to the next Team Visit leading to re-accreditation.

The three drivers of the CIS accreditation process are: • the school’s guiding statements (its mission, aims, values, vision, however expressed); • internationalism, the development of international citizenship in the students; and • the quality of teaching, learning and the well-being of the students, as a result of the education they receive (see Figure 4).

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

In their recent synopsis of the economic considerations affecting the education industry, The Economist tracked how the nature of international schools has changed significantly, from their origins after World War 2, catering for the middle and upper class globally mobile population of business families and diplomats, to the development of such schools for local resident populations of all countries and nationalities. ‘’National” schools offering international programmes, including internationalism in their aims and developing international citizenship in their students help to foster a growing demand for international accreditation. The notion of host country and host country nationals is becoming increasingly redundant, as more and more people from the localities in which schools are situated, take advantage of the opportunities given to young people from this type of schooling. We see, increasingly, the economic shifts taking place in the world are reflected in the uneven regional growth of international schools. As the World Bank reported back in 2007, “By 2030, 1.2 billion people in developing countries – 15% of the world’s populationwill belong to the ‘global middle class’, up from 4,000 million today. This group will....enjoy access to international travel, purchase automobiles and other advanced consumer durables, attain international levels of education and play a major role in shaping policies and institutions in their own countries and the world economy”. The italics are mine, but

21

what CIS is seeing is the growth in proprietary schools, owned by a family, foundation or company, and a growth in what may be seen as national government or independent schools offering international programmes: associated with this are increasingly diverse models of governance and the rise of international schooling in the Middle East, South-East Asia, China and, why not, Africa? With around 55% of the population being under 18 years of age (c.f. The European Union-20% and the United States - 35%), the demographics and the economic indicators point to likely growth in many African countries. Perhaps all schools may be considered as international schools, since all students are being prepared for global citizenship in a world in which mobility, the exchange of ideas and information become routine and not confined to traditional boundaries. As Bates (2012:262) describes in in his critique of global citizenship, ‘’those seeking such migration for themselves or their children invariably turn to education as the primary mechanism through which high-level skills can be developed and demonstrated, and through which access to advanced education and membership in first world countries can be gained”.

Ultimately, why are international schools increasingly numerous (6300 according to recent figures published)? Of course, actual numbers depend on definition but it is clear that the educational provision on offer through international schools is highly marketable: however, as with any school, its proven quality is everything. CIS accreditation provides a hallmark of proven quality for international schools, a standard that has credibility with parents and potential parents, staff, including those who may be considering joining an international school, as well as universities world-wide.

Through being curriculum-neutral and independent of any country or regional base, objectivity is provided through the consistent application of rigorous standards. However, process is as important as product: a process that is based on a commitment to partnership with schools in a process of continuous improvement, through self and peer evaluation, reflection and action. 3

10-Year CIS Accreditation Cycle Preliminary Visit Preparatory Visit

Three Driving Ideas Integrated into the CIS Standards and Process

Self Study

Mission-driven Vision-led

2nd Self Study in Year 8 2nd Team Visit in Year 10

Students’ Learning and Well-being

Internationalism

Team Visit 5 Year Visit & Report

5 Year Report on Process & Planning

1st Report: 24 Months After Team Visit

Fig. 4

Fig. 3

1. CIS Membership Analysis (CIS 2011) and CIS data (2013) 2. School culture: the space between the bars; the silence between the notes, Poore, (P) JRIE 4(3) 351-61 3. Main Guide to School Evaluation & Accreditation CIS 8th Edition (Version 8.1) Jan 2013. School Improvement through Accreditation “Journey to Excellence in International Education”. The Main Guide to School Evaluation and Accreditation (CIS/NEASC) 4. “On the Playing Fields of Shanghai” The Economist (04/05/13:30-31) 5. Is global citizenship possible, and can international schools provide it? Bates (R) JRIE 2012 11:262 6. The International School Consultancy Group (ISC) 2013 Graham Ranger, 30th May, 2013

Find out more: AISA requires that all Full School Members be internationally accredited or be in the process of receiving accreditation from a recognized international accreditation agency. Please visit www.aisa.or.ke for more details.

www.aisa.or.ke

22

Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)

23

AISA 2013 Conference In October 2013, AISA will hold its annual conference in Accra, Ghana at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel with the following key events: • • • •

AISA Pre-Conference Institutes AISA School Leaders Retreat AISA Business Managers Institute AISA Educators Conference

At each of the above events there are also many social events planned, including the opening reception, the craft fair, and the final gala celebration.

Further details on all of the events as well as conference details are available in the Conference section of this newsletter.

Travel and Health Information If you are visiting Ghana for the AISA 2013 Conference, please note the information below on the requirements for entering Ghana. Please note that requirements for entry into Ghana differ from country to country and are subject to change. Always make inquiries before travelling to Ghana.

There are no visas issued on arrival in Ghana. The visa application process may require you to send your passport to a Ghanaian Embassy or High Commission. This may take several weeks so please ensure you plan accordingly.

Also be sure to visit your personal physician or a travel health clinic at least 4-8 weeks before your departure as Ghana requires yellow fever vaccination for all travelers. Depending on your itinerary, your personal risk factors, and the length of your visit, your health care provider may offer you vaccination against hepatitis A, typhoid, hepatitis B, rabies, meningococcal meningitis, influenza or a one-time polio booster if you haven’t previously received one for travel. You should also speak to your doctor about malaria prophylaxis.

Please email conferences@aisa.or.ke to obtain your visa invitation letter.

La Palm Royal Beach Hotel is the main conference hotel for the AISA 2013 Conference.

About the 2013 Conference Logo The 2013 Conference logo is taken from Adinkra symbol of knowledge used in Ghana. The symbol represents knowledge and has been used to communicate that knowledge comes from learning over the centuries. The logo fuses this symbol with AISA’s Making a Connection theme within it.

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AISA 2013 Conference Sponsors AISA would like to recognise the generous support of the following sponsors:

Platinum

Gold

Bronze

Keynote Speaker

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AISA 2013 Conference The AISA 2013 School Leaders Retreat, Business Managers Institute & Educators Conference will take place in Accra, Ghana in October.

This section outlines the key events, programmes and information that attendees will need.

Registration

The conference registration process is as follows: Step 1: Delegates can submit their registration online at www.aisa.or.ke.

Step 2: Once your registration is received and processed, an invoice covering your registration fees will be issued to your institution (for AISA members) or to the registered individual (Non-Members). This will include payment information.

Step 3: Once payment is received, you will be invited to select the workshops and institutes that you would like to participate in during the Leaders Retreat and Educators Conference (If you are attending the Business Managers Institute and the pre-conference institutes, you need not go through any additional selections in this step). The AISA 2013 Conference has over 120 workshops and institutes to choose from. You will also be invited to opt into social events like the Gala Dinner. The selection process opens on August 15, 2013 00:00 EAT (GMT+0300) and closes on October 15, 2013 16:00 EAT (GMT+3). After closure, changes can only be made at the secretariat which will be set up at the conference venue.

AISA 2013 Conference Fees The conference fees are as follows:

Full School Member

Affiliate School Member

Associate Member

Non Member

US $

US $

US $

US $

Pre-Conference Institutes Venue: La Palm Hotel Accra, Ghana Early

Regular

Early

Regular

Early

Regular

Early

Regular

AISA SchooLink Coordinators Institute (By Invitation Only)

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

IB MYP Workshop Leaders Training (By Invitation Only)

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

IB - Education for international-mindedness (PYP/MYP/DP)*

950

975

950

975

N/A

N/A

1,050

1,075

IB - Maths SL and HL: A focus on internal assessment (DP)*

950

975

950

975

N/A

N/A

1,050

1,075

IB - TOK Integration across the Subjects (DP)*

950

975

950

975

N/A

N/A

1,050

1,075

Moodle Training for Teachers

100

110

100

110

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Professional Learning Communities - Building Face to Face or Virtual Communities of Practice

405

405

405

405

N/A

N/A

455

455

Tribes TLC速 - Connecting Hearts and Minds

500

515

500

515

500

515

550

565

* Confirmation on whether the IB workshops will go ahead or not will be given on September 18, 2013. The decision depends on minimum number of registered participants, so register now.

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School Leaders Retreat Venue: La Palm Hotel Accra, Ghana Date: October 18-20, 2013

Early Bird Fees (Before August 31st, 2013, 23:00 EAT) US$

Regular Fees (Before October 12th, 2013, 15:00 EAT) US$

Full School Members

705

725

Affiliates School Members

775

800

Associate Members

705

725

Non-members

845

870

Exhibition Space at Leaders Retreat and Educators Conference (Cost Per Table)

Business Managers Institute Venue: La Palm Hotel Accra, Ghana Date: October 18-20, 2013

270

Early Bird Fees (Before August 31st, 2013, 23:00 EAT) US$

Regular Fees (Before October 12th, 2013, 15:00 EAT) US$

Full School Members

435

450

Affiliates School Members

505

535

Associate Members

435

450

Non-members

555

575

Early Bird Fees (Before August 31st, 2013, 23:00 EAT) US$

Regular Fees (Before October 12th, 2013, 15:00 EAT) US$

Full School Members

435

450

Affiliates School Members

505

535

Associate Members

435

450

Non-members

555

575

Educators ConferenceVenue: La Palm Hotel Accra, Ghana Date: October 20-23, 2013

Social Events AISA School Leaders Retreat Opening Cocktail AISA Educators Conference Welcome Cocktail AISA 2013 Film Night Executive Director’s Reception (By Invitation Only) Closing Gala Dinner

Friday 18th October Sunday 20th October Monday 21st October and Tuesday 22nd October Tuesday 22nd October Wednesday 23rd October

Important Deadline Dates • Early Bird Deadline: August 31, 2013 23:00 EAT (GMT+0300) • Fees for Early Bird Registrations MUST be received by AISA before August 31, 2013 23:00 EAT (GMT+0300)

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AISA 2013 Pre-conference Institutes October 17-19 8:30 - 17:00 Register 7:30 Day 1 Conference Centre Foyer

October 17-19 8:30 - 17:00 Register 7:30 Day 1 Conference Centre Foyer

October 17-19 8:30 - 17:00 Register 7:30 Day 1 Conference Centre Foyer

October 17-19 8:30 - 17:00 Register 7:30 Day 1 Conference Centre Foyer

October 17-19 8:30 - 17:00 Register 7:30 Day 1 Conference Centre Foyer

October 18-20 8:30 - 17:00 Register 7:30 Day 1 Conference Centre Foyer

October 19-20 8:30 - 17:00 Register 7:30 Day 1 Conference Centre Foyer

October 18-19 8:30 - 17:00 Register 7:30 Day 1 Conference Centre Foyer

October 18-19 8:30 - 17:00 Register 8:15 Day 1 Lincoln Community School

October 20 La Palm Royal Beach Hotel

IB - MYP Workshop Leaders Training La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 7:30 - 8:30 Arrival Coffee

10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch - Continental Restaurant

15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

IB Education for international-mindedness (PYP/MYP/DP) - Helen Chatburn-Ojehomon La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 7:30 - 8:30 Arrival Coffee

10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch - Continental Restaurant

15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

IB Maths SL and HL: A focus on internal assessment (DP) - Satyadeep Srivastava La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 7:30 - 8:30 Arrival Coffee

10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch - Continental Restaurant

15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

IB - TOK Integration across the Subjects (DP) - John Plommer La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 7:30 - 8:30 Arrival Coffee

10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch - Continental Restaurant

15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

Tribes TLC® - Connecting Hearts and Minds - Judith Fenton La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 7:30 - 8:30 Arrival Coffee

10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch - Continental Restaurant

15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

Professional Learning Communities - Margaret MacLean & Tima Nisbet La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 7:30 - 8:30 Arrival Coffee

10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch - Continental Restaurant

15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch - Continental Restaurant

15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

AISA SchooLink Coordinators Institute - Neven Soric La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 7:30 - 8:30 Arrival Coffee

10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) - Terri Howard La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 7:30 - 8:30 Arrival Coffee

10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch - Continental Restaurant

15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

Moodle Training for Teachers - Jeremy Schwartz Lincoln Community School 10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch

15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

Web Tech Africa – Web Strategies for Schools La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 10:00 - 10:30 Morning Coffee Break

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch

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15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Coffee Break

AISA 2013 School Leaders Retreat Friday October 18, 2013 Morning Meetings

8:30 - 12:30

(By Prior Arrangement)

Secretariat Opens

12:00

Damba 1

AISA School Leaders Retreat Registration

12:30 - 14:30

Conference Centre Foyer

Administrators’ Job-A-Like Sessions La Palm Royal Beach Hotel 14:30 - 16:00 Large Schools Small Schools

Elementary School Principals

High School Principals

School Board Members

WAISAL Venue

ISSEA

Exhibition Opens / Coffee with the Exhibitors

16:00 - 16:30

Adae Kesie Foyer

Annual General Meeting Damba 3 - AISA Full School Members Only 16:30 - 18:00

• Executive Director’s Report • Treasurer’s Report • A/OS Report • Wine and Cheese

• Welcome and Update by the Chairperson • Approval of the previous AGM minutes • Approval of the amendments to the Articles of Association

Next AGM Meeting: Nairobi Kenya 10/11 October 2014

AISA School Leaders Retreat Opening Cocktail (Exhibition Opening)

18:30 - 20:00

Adae Kesie

Saturday October 19, 2013 Early Morning Networking Coffee & Tea

7:30 - 8:30

Conference Centre Foyer

Secretariat Opens - Late Registrations

8:00

Damba 1

Morning Plenary Session

8:30 - 9:30

Damba 3

Coffee with the Exhibitors

9:30 - 10:00

Adae Kesie

School Leaders Retreat - Parallel Sessions Day 1

10:00 - 17:00 12:30 -13:30

Lunch Break Continental Restaurant 15:00 - 15:30

Afternoon Coffee with Exhibitors

The ‘Learning Skills’ Approach - Developing SelfRegulated Learners

Why Do I Need a Teacher (or Head Teacher) When I’ve Got Google?

LANCE KING

IAN GILBERT

Juggling multiple perspectives: Leading complex change CHRIS JANSEN & CHERYL DOIG

Adae Kesie

Dinner with Friends

Evening

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Teaching and Learning at AISJ: Rethinking Professional Learning ANDY PAGE-SMITH, LIZ HARGREAVES & FRED BIGGAR

Sunday October 20, 2013 Early Morning Networking Coffee & Tea

7:30 - 8:30

Conference Centre Foyer

Secretariat Opens

8:00

Damba 1

Morning Plenary Session

8:30 - 9:30

Damba 3

Coffee with the Exhibitors

9:30 - 10:00

Adae Kesie

10:00 - 17:00

School Leaders Retreat - Parallel Sessions Day 2

12:30 -13:30

Lunch Break Continental Restaurant 15:00 - 15:30

Afternoon Coffee with Exhibitors

The ‘Learning Skills’ Approach - Developing SelfRegulated Learners

Why Do I Need a Teacher (or Head Teacher) When I’ve Got Google?

LANCE KING

IAN GILBERT

Juggling multiple perspectives: Leading complex change CHRIS JANSEN & CHERYL DOIG

Child Protection in International Schools DENNIS LARKIN & LOIS ENGELBRECHT

Adae Kesie

School Leaders Retreat Wrap-Up Plenary Session

16:30 - 17:30

Damba 3

AISA Educators Conference 18:00 - 19:30

OPENING PLENARY Marquee

AISA offers a special Welcome to our new Heads of School: Name

School Name

Kathryn Carter-Golden

Harare International School

Simon Otieno

Aga Khan Academy Mombasa

Brad Adams

Bingham Academy Addis Ababa

Graham Stothard

Lagos Preparatory School

Jim Gerhard

American International School of Freetown

Ben Snyder

Haven of Peace Academy

Ayoola Akinyeye

Grange School

Brian Gordon Roach

International School of Kigali

David Marriott

St. Andrews' International Primary School

Michael Dickson

The Regent School Abuja

Sheena Nabholz

American School of Yaoundé

Martin Gough

The International School of Lusaka

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Accredited.

College-Prep.

Online.

- 100+ core, elective and AP courses - Self paced courses - Fits any schedule— available 24/7

(402) 472-3388 highschool.nebraska.edu highschool@nebraska.edu The University of Nebraska is an equal opportunity educator and employer. HS029.14

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AISA 2013 Business Managers Institute Friday October 18, 2013 Business Managers Institute Registration

12:30 - 14:30

Conference Centre Foyer

Finance and Business Officers Job-a-Like

14:30 - 16:00

DAVID WILLOWS

AISA Business Managers Institute Opening Cocktail (Exhibition Opening) Adae Kesie

18:30 - 20:00

Saturday October 19, 2013 Early Morning Networking Coffee & Tea

7:30 - 8:30

Conference Centre Foyer

Secretariat Opens - Late Registrations

8:00

Damba 1

Morning Plenary Session (with School Leaders)

8:30 - 9:30

Damba 3

Coffee with the Exhibitors

9:30 - 10:00

Adae Kesie

The business of learning: lessons in sustainable international school management (Day 1) DAVID WILLOWS 10:00 - 17:00

Lunch Break

Afternoon Coffee with Exhibitors

12:30 - 13:30 Continental Restaurant

15:00 -15:30 Adae Kesie

Sunday October 20, 2013 7:30 - 8:30

Early Morning Networking Coffee & Tea Conference Centre Foyer

Secretariat Opens - Late Registrations

8:00 8:30 - 9:30

Damba 1

Morning Plenary Session (with School Leaders) Damba 3

Coffee with the Exhibitors

9:30 - 10:00

Adae Kesie

The business of learning: lessons in sustainable international school management (Day 2) DAVID WILLOWS 10:00 - 17:00

18:00 - 19:30 (see full programme next page)

Lunch Break

Afternoon Coffee with Exhibitors

12:30 - 13:30 Marquee

15:00 -15:30 Adae Kesie

AISA Educators Conference OPENING PLENARY Marquee

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AISA 2013 Educators Conference Sunday October 20, 2013 AISA Educators Conference REGISTRATION

13:00 - 16:00

Conference Centre Foyer 14:30 – 16:00

Coffee will be served in the Marquee Foyer

18:30 - 20:00

JOB-A-LIKE SESSIONS

Athletic Directors and PE Counsellors Curriculum Coordinators Development Officers

Foreign Languages

MS Social Studies

High School Mathematics

Music

High School Science Humanities Language Arts

Drama Teachers

Library and Media

ESL

Lower Elementary

Service Learning & CAS Special Education Technology Upper Elementary Visual Arts

AISA Educators Conference 18:00 - 19:30

OPENING PLENARY Marquee

AISA Educators Conference 19:30 - 21:00

WELCOME COCKTAIL La Palm Royal Hotel – Marquee Lawn

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AISA 2013 Educators Conference Monday October 21, 2013 SECRETARIAT OPENS

8:00

Damba 1

EARLY MORNING NETWORKING COFFEE & TEA

7:30 - 8:30

Marquee Lawn

KEYNOTE: Changing the World One Child at a Time - the Teaching Revolution 8:30 - 9:30

LANCE KING Marquee

COFFEE WITH THE EXHIBITORS

9:30 - 10:00

Adae Kesie

FULL DAY INSTITUTES

12:30 - 13:30

LUNCH BREAK Marquee

15:00-15:30

AFTERNOON COFFEE WITH EXHIBITORS Adae Kesie

Educators Conference Full Day Institutes

10:00 - 17:00

Session Title

Presenter

Developing a Comprehensive Counseling Program in International Schools using the International Model (Foundation and Guidance Curriculum)

Brooke Fezler & Cheryl Brown

Designing and Implementing a Teacher Action Research Project

Donna Kalmbach Phillips

Psychological First Aid for Schools

Douglas Walker

Exploring Cognitive Complexity of Classroom Assessments

Erma Anderson

Is Talking Discussion? How to Bring Student Voice Into the Classroom

Jaye Zola

Having Hard Conversations: Finding Your Voice Around What Matters Most

Jennifer Abrams

Socratic Seminars: Creating Authentic Classroom Conversations

John Zola

9 things you should know about your curriculum including the IPC and IYMC?

Katherine Tucker

Redesigning Classroom Environments for Learning Innovation – Make Learning Matter

Laura Malbogat

Developing Strong Narrative through the writing and oral presentation of poetry

Michael Salinger

Developing an Inquiry-Based College Level Biology Course

Michael Schaab

French Language and Culture : The 21st Century Approach

Mona Mulhair

Calculus before calculus!: Activities to deepen student’s understanding of mathematics

Ron Lancaster

Writing as a Vehicle for Literacy and Learning Across Content Areas

Sara Holbrook

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AISA 2013 Educators Conference Monday October 21, 2013 Presenter

Spoken Word Poetry in the Classroom

Sarah Kay

Delving into SIM Learning Strategies (Strategic Instruction Model): Part 1 SIM and Reading

Susan Woodruff & Jean Piazza

Think Child, Think Parent, Think School. Partnership and Communication with Families

Veronica Pickering

A practical journey through personalised learning and thinking skills

Yvonne Burke

Advancement Through Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships

Warren Buford

CfBT Quality Assurance and Schol Improvement Institute

Philippa Leggate

17:15-18:15

SPECIAL INTEREST SESSION

Do you need space for a SPECIAL INTEREST SESSION? (Come to the ASIA Secretariat)

18:00 19:30

AISA 2013 Film Night (TBC)

10:00 - 17:00

FULL DAY INSTITUTES

12:30 - 13:30

LUNCH BREAK Marquee

15:00-15:30

AFTERNOON COFFEE WITH EXHIBITORS Adae Kesie

Educators Conference Full Day Institutes

Session Title

• Licensure and Graduate Degree Programs

Where InnovatIon Is tradItIon

Advance YOUR Teaching Career Advanced IB Studies English as a Second Language

Evening

Dinner with Friends

Elementary Education Special Education

• Online and Intensive Summer Courses • In-State Tuition Rates • Serving International Teachers for 20 Years ®

Phone: 703-993-2794 • E-mail: fastrain@gmu.edu

Web: http://fasttrain.gmu.edu 35

AISA 2013 Educators Conference Tuesday October 22, 2013 SECRETARIAT OPENS

8:00

Damba 1

EARLY MORNING NETWORKING COFFEE & TEA

7:30 - 8:30

Marquee Lawn

KEYNOTE: You Are Not Alone - Stories to Engage, Change, Heal and Transform 8:30 - 9:30

LAURA MALBOGAT Marquee

COFFEE WITH THE EXHIBITORS

9:30 - 10:00

Adae Kesie Session Title

FULL DAY INSTITUTES

12:30 - 13:30

LUNCH BREAK Marquee

15:00-15:30

AFTERNOON COFFEE WITH EXHIBITORS Adae Kesie

Educators Conference Full Day Institutes

10:00 - 17:00

Presenter

Developing a Comprehensive Counseling Program in International Schools using the International Model (Responsive Services and System Support)

Brooke Fezler & Cheryl Brown

Designing and Implementing a Teacher Action Research Project

Donna Kalmbach Phillips

Skills for Psychological Recovery

Douglas Walker

Exploring Cognitive Complexity of Classroom Assessments

Erma Anderson

Becoming a Workshop Presenter (Part 1)

Jaye Zola

Having Hard Conversations: Finding Your Voice Around What Matters Most

Jennifer Abrams

Socratic Seminars: Creating Authentic Classroom Conversations

John Zola

How do we know they have learned?

Katherine Tucker

Redesigning Classroom Environments for Learning Innovation – Make Learning Matter

Laura Malbogat

Developing Strong Narrative through the writing and oral presentation of poetry

Michael Salinger

Developing an Inquiry-Based College Level Chemistry Course

Michael Schaab

French Language and Culture : Speaking and Writing across the curriculum

Mona Mulhair

Connecting the mathematics curriculum to the world around us

Ron Lancaster

Writing as a Vehicle for Literacy and Learning Across Content Areas

Sara Holbrook

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AISA 2013 Educators Conference

10:00 - 17:00

FULL DAY INSTITUTES

12:30 - 13:30

LUNCH BREAK Marquee

15:00-15:30

AFTERNOON COFFEE WITH EXHIBITORS Adae Kesie

Educators Conference Full Day Institutes

Tuesday October 22, 2013 Session Title

Presenter

Delving into SIM Learning Strategies (Strategic Instruction Model): Part 2 SIM and Writing

Susan Woodruff & Jean Piazza

Think Child, Think Parent, Think School. Partnership and Communication with Families

Veronica Pickering

A practical journey through personalised learning and thinking skills

Yvonne Burke

Differentiation in Mathematics: approaches and resources to make it happen

Clare Orlando

What makes a lesson great? A step by step guide to effective teaching and learning

Ryan Krause

18:00pm - 19:30pm

17:15-18:15

AISA 2013 Film Night (TBC)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S RECEPTION

By Invitation Only Labadi Beach Front

Dinner with Friends

Evening

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AISA 2013 Keynote Speakers Every year, AISA carefully selects the best international speakers to deliver keynotes at our conferences. The following is a list of keynotes at the AISA 2013 events.

Sarah Kay Founder, Co-Director, Project V.O.I.C.E. Sarah Kay has been performing her spoken word poetry since she was 14 years old. She was a featured poet on HBO’s Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry Jam in 2006, and that same year she was the youngest poet to compete in the National Poetry Slam. Sarah is the founder and co-director of Project V.O.I.C.E., an organization that uses spoken word poetry as an education and empowerment tool. Since then, Sarah has shared her poetry in conferences, venues, and schools on six of the seven continents, and is currently yearning for Antarctica. She is perhaps best known for her talk at the 2011 TED conference, which garnered two standing ovations and has been seen over two million times online.

Sarah holds a Masters Degree in The Art of Teaching from Brown University. Her first book, “B” was ranked #1 Poetry Book on Amazon.

Keynote Considering Breakthrough Description

When

What does it mean to have a breakthrough? How can we embrace breakthroughs in and out of the classroom? How can breakthroughs guide us in the right direction? Spoken word poet Sarah Kay is an educator who teaches and performs in schools all over the world. She shares stories of her personal breakthroughs and asks us to consider our own.

Educators Conference Opening Keynote - October 20, 2013

In addition, Sarah will also be presenting a full day institute (Spoken Word Poetry in the Classroom) and a 3-hour workshop (Spoken Word Poetry in the Classroom + Performance).

Lance King Founder, The Art of Learning Lance G King is an internationally recognized author, teacher and workshop facilitator who, in the last 17 years, has worked with over 150,000 students worldwide. He is the creator of the Art of Learning programme taught in over 200 schools in eight countries and is a specialist in the direct teaching of ‘learning skills’. Within the IB he has been instrumental in the development of the IBCC and the new MYP programme with particular focus on reformulating ATL. He is married with four children, lives in Raglan, New Zealand and divides his time between teaching and presenting workshops for teachers, parents and students around the world and writing.

Keynote Changing the World One Child at a Time - the Teaching Revolution Description

When

If the purpose of schooling is developing lifelong (self-directed, self-managed, self-regulated, autonomous, independent) learners, how well are we doing? Does the teaching/learning dynamic of the modern school support the development of such individuals? My contention is that we are at a confluence of history where the proliferation of school subject based websites, the ubiquity of the internet and connectable devices, the comfort all students have with the digital world and the rise of learning skills based curricula are combining to bring about a revolution in teaching.

Morning Keynote - October 21, 2013

In addition, Lance will also be presenting a full day institute (The ‘Learning Skills’ Approach - Developing Self-Regulated Learners).

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Laura Malbogat Educational Consultant & Coach, Champlain College & Think Possible Consulting Laura Malbogat, M.Ed. (McGill University) has dedicated her career education and consulting. Her career has spanned across elementary to university, from teaching to consulting and coaching. She has taught in the Education Department of McGill University and was a full time professor at Vanier College prior to relocating and working overseas.

While working overseas, as an administrator, teacher, and educational consultant in South Africa, Malaysia, and Zimbabwe, Laura gained invaluable international experience that has deeply influenced her holistic, open minded and innovative approach to education and consulting Learn more about Laura by visiting her website: www.consultingforeducation.com

Keynote You Are Not Alone - Stories to Engage, Change, Heal and Transform Description

When

“Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.” - Alan Kay How many of you can remember statistics from a presentation? article? Or discussion? Perhaps a handful? Now think of all the stories you have heard. The ones your grandmother told you, a bedtime story, a secret story shared by a friend, and the stories you yourself love to repeat and embellish just a little more each time. Stories are more powerful today than ever. How Come?

We are all drowning in information. Good stories can cut through the noise.

Personal stories feel “real”, we can relate to them, vs abstract concepts, statistics, or logical arguments.

Stories capture our attention and provoke meaning for a deeper, intimate bond with the people who are listening, whether they are a roomful of parents, colleagues, or board members.

Stories are memorable. People forget facts but remember stories.

Morning Keynote - October 22, 2013

In addition, Laura will also be presenting a full day institute (Redesigning Classroom Environments for Learning Innovation – Make Learning Matter) and a 3-hour workshop (How Coaching Conversations Change What You Can Become).

Yvonne Burke Director, Attitudes to learning Ltd Yvonne has a 30 year career in education spanning all phases including a hospital school. She worked in schools as a teacher and senior manager and more recently as a Local Authority Adviser promoting national agendas such as gifted and talented, S.E.A.L. and thinking skills. Her experience includes working with schools and stake holders in the Middle East, Asia, South America, Africa and Europe on areas of school improvement including monitoring and inspecting, gifted and talented, curriculum development, personalised learning and thinking skills. She believes in the importance of global learning and knowledge sharing and has been involved in a number of international educational initiatives.

Keynote Personalised learning…. Is it a Myth?

Description

Personalised learning, thinking skills and the importance to teach for 21st Century learning. Reality Are these achievable in everyday classroom settings? Are they compatible with the curriculum? Are we ready and willing to change? Do schools really want to embrace all that they mean? Are we perhaps just paying lip service to the ideas, but not ready to completely implement the concepts? Do we need to?

The keynote will ask all these questions and more from a practical starting point. The presentation will be based upon Yvonne’s own experiences as a head teacher, moving a school from traditional learning towards the 21st century approach and as a classroom practitioner faced with the challenge of applying the theory of personalised learning into practice at the same time as ensuring students are prepared for and achieve in traditional exams.

When

Morning Keynote - October 23, 2013

In addition, Yvonne will also be presenting a full day institute (A practical journey through personalised learning and thinking skills.) and a 3-hour workshop (Not more but different... Thinking and questioning).

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AISA Participant Led Workshops Wednesday October 23, 2013 (Afternoon) Please find below the current (provisional) list of Participant Led Workshops for the AISA 2013 Educators Conference to be held at Lincoln Community School in Accra. This list may be updated before the conference. Please check on our conference website for the latest list.

Session Title

Participant Led Workshops (1 hour)

14:30 - 15:30

Presenter

Improve Student Achievement By Raising Professional Standards and Expectations

The Ins & Outs of Info-graphics

Max Eisl

Cooking in the Classroom

Marjorie Miller

Ideas to Inspire: Website Best Practices from Around the World

Brooke Peterson

AP Today: The Evolution of Rigor and Global Thinking

Brian Hartman

Mathiew Greenway

The “P.E.T Project” an examination of Physical Education and Technology Integration Edwin Chinyemba

Richard Nottingham Foresight Education Designing backwards from exhibition to unit plan - how to develop creativity in your students, K-12’

Alexandra Blaauw

Fractions, Decimals, Percents and Proportionality in Middle School Math

Kimberly Sambou

Are you bullying me...or just being mean?

Madeleine Mulaire

High School Online Opportunities

Charlotte Seewald

The Search for Identity: The TCK Experience

Tamara Studniski

Learning Challenges and How to Cope

Anna Karola

Creating A High Impact Digital Learning Environment

Lynn Notarainni

Algebraic Thinking and Computational Fluency

Workneh E. Woldehana

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Conference Venues AISA 2013 will be held in two locations in Accra, Ghana: Host School, Lincoln Community School and the main conference venue La Palm Royal Beach Hotel.

Lincoln Community School AISA would like to thank all the staff at LCS for their help and contribution in hosting the AISA 2013 Annual Conference.

The Lincoln Community School (LCS) is a private, nonprofit, college preparatory day school which offers educational programs from pre-school (age 3) through grade 12. The School, established in 1968, is located in Accra, Ghana.

The school is developing into a center of excellence in the region, with strong professional development programs for its teachers and serving as a regional site for teacher workshops.

For more information regarding Lincoln Community School visit: http://www.lincoln.edu.gh/

Hotel Accommodation Conference Hotels

AISA has negotiated reduced conference rates with the various hotels listed below. We will be arranging free shuttle services to and from the La Palm Hotel selected hotels only hotels throughout the conference. Those not staying at the hotels below will need to make their own transport arrangements.

La Palm Royal Beach Hotel (Main Conference Hotel)

The elegant four star La Palm Royal Beach Hotel has earned a reputation as being the premier resort in Ghana. Opened in 1999, the La Palm Royal has quickly become Accra’s principal address for businessmen, government delegations, and tourists on holidays. Hugging the shore of the Atlantic, La Palm is located inside 30 acres of lush lawns and landscaped gardens.The La Palm Royal Beach Hotel is the main conference hotel.

From its ideal location on the seashore, La Palm is within minutes of the business, shopping, and entertainment districts and only a five minute drive from the financial centre, the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, and State House - the seat of government. La Palm is across from the International Trade Fair Centre, and a short drive from the National Museum and the Arts Centre.

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Room and Booking Information Standard Single Room

USD$207

Standard Double Room

USD$262

• Rates are inclusive of breakfast • Bookings should be made before September 15th, 2013, after which the rooms reserved for AISA will be open for Non–AISA guests.

To make a reservation, download the booking form and complete it accordingly. Once completed, send it to Ms. Mispah Nsakie on mispah.nsakie@gbhghana.net and a copy to lapalmres@gbhghana.net stating that you are attending the AISA 2013 conference. Please DO NOT use any other form of communication for your booking.

AISA guests should be sure to request a confirmation number in writing from their hotel. *All bookings will need to be secured by a deposit.

Tel : +233 302 215100 | Fax: +233-21 771 717 Website: www.gbhghana.net/la-palm

Labadi Beach Hotel Where West Africa Meets and Plays Welcome to Ghana’s premier hotel, resort and business address. Set amidst tropical landscaped gardens, overlooking one of Ghana’s most beautiful beaches is the famous Labadi Beach Hotel.

The hotel is renowned for its food and the unique spirit of Ghanaian hospitality, and is located within easy access of both the city and airport.

Labadi Beach, where tourists and the business traveller meet and play.

Room and Booking Information Standard Single Room

USD$263

Standard Double Room

USD$293

• Rates are inclusive of breakfast To make a reservation, contact Ms. Sandra Dodoo via email at sdodoo@legacyhotels.co.za stating that you are attending the AISA 2013 conference. Please DO NOT use any other form of communication for your booking.

AISA guests should be sure to request a confirmation number in writing from their hotel. *All bookings will need to be secured by a deposit.

Tel : +233 302 772501 Website: www.labadibeach.com

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Novotel Accra City Centre Hotel The Novotel Accra City Centre is a 4 star hotel ideal for a holiday or business trip to Accra. 7 km from the airport and close to the conference centre and major banks, the hotel provides WiFi internet and six meeting rooms for business travellers.

Guests on holiday in the Ghanaian capital will find the Makola Market, museums, theatre, golf and the beach all nearby. The hotel features a bar, restaurant, outdoor swimming pool, fitness centre, business centre, onsite parking and a tennis court.

Room and Booking Information Standard Single Room

USD$209

Standard Double Room

USD$238

• Rates are inclusive of breakfast • Bookings should be made before October 14th, 2013, after which the rooms reserved for AISA will be open for Non–AISA guests.

• 15 Mins from La Palm Hotel.

To make a reservation, download the booking form and complete it accordingly. Once completed, send it to lH1021-RE@accor.comt stating that you are attending the AISA 2013 conference. Please DO NOT use any other form of communication for your booking.

AISA guests should be sure to request a confirmation number in writing from their hotel. *All bookings will need to be secured by a deposit.

Tel: +233 302 765661 | Fax: +233 302 768635 (Hotel Contacts) Website: www.novotel.com/gb/hotel-1021-novotel-accra-city-centre

Holiday Inn Conveniently near the airport in Accra, Holiday Inn Accra Airport is close to W.E.B. DuBois Center, U.S. Embassy, and Accra Mall. Additional area attractions include Ghana State House and A and C Mall. The 168 air-conditioned guestrooms at Holiday Inn Accra Airport include mini bars and safes. It’s just 10 minutes’ drive from Holiday Inn Accra Airport to Accra’s 400km stretch of white sandy beaches.

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Room and Booking Information Standard Single Room

USD$250

Standard Double Room

USD$280

• Above room rate is inclusive of complimentary English breakfast, Taxes, and 24hours wireless access, Free Shuttle services to and from the airport • 25 Mins from La Palm Hotel

AISA has negotiated the above reduced conference rates. To make a reservation in this hotel, please contact Yvonne Adjei-Ayettey via email (yvonne.ayettey@holidayinnaccraairport.com) stating that you are attending the AISA 2013 conference.

AISA guests should be sure to request a confirmation number in writing from their hotel. *All bookings will need to be secured by a deposit.

Tel: +233 (0)302 740930

Alisa Hotel Alisa Hotel, welcomes the contemporary business and leisure travellers to Ghana. Alisa hotel is a refreshing breadth to the capital, located strategically in the centre of Accra making it convenient for the business traveller and the explorers to tour the city. The hotel is 15 minutes drive from Kotoka International Airport and 20 minutes drive from La Palm. The hotel also offers complimentary airport pick up and drop off service.

There is a state of the art gymnasium with an on-site tennis court and swimming pool. Wi-Fi access in all rooms and bar areas and a full service business centre.

Room and Booking Information Standard Single Room

USD$190

Standard Double Room

USD$220

• Bookings should be made before September 18th, 2013, after which the rooms reserved for AISA will be open for Non–AISA guests.

• 20 Mins from La Palm Hotel • 25 Mins from La Palm Hotel AISA has negotiated the above reduced conference rates. To make a reservation in this hotel, please contact Nana Boateng via email (n.boateng@alisahotels.com) stating that you are attending the AISA 2013 conference.

AISA guests should be sure to request a confirmation number in writing from their hotel. *All bookings will need to be secured by a deposit.

Tel: +233-302-214244 / +233-302 214233 (Hotel Contacts)

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AISA KEY DATES 2013/14

Margaret Sanders International Scholarship Application Deadline

September 1 February 13 – 15 March 15

AISA GISS (Accra, Ghana) AISA Award for Excellence Submission Deadline (Schools on Northern Hemisphere Calendar) AISA Service Award Submission Deadline

March 15

(Schools on Northern Hemisphere Calendar) Margaret Sanders AISA Scholarship for Girls Application Deadline

March 15 March 15

AISA Education Across Frontiers (EAF) Teacher Leadership Scholarship Application Deadline AISA Principal Training Center Scholarship Application Deadline

March 15 March 15 March 15 March 15 May 31

AISA Teacher Training Center Scholarship Application Deadline AISA Business Training Center Scholarship Application Deadline AISA Counselor Training Center Scholarship Application Deadline AISA Art Challenge Submission Deadline AISA Membership Renewal Payment Deadline for 2014/15 Dues

June 30

P.O. Box 14103 - 00800, Nairobi, Kenya Telephone: +254 (20) 269 7442 | +254 (20) 807 6067 Email: info@aisa.or.ke Website: www.aisa.or.ke Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA)