AISConnect School Report

2022/2023: A Year of Renewal

Joelle Basnight Head of School

I am thrilled to share our launch of the revamped AISConnect Magazine! Our vision for this annual publication is to highlight the fine work of our faculty, staff, students, and parents, and share important milestones from the academic year. While this publication includes some of the same themes shared at the two Annual General Meetings of the Board of Trustees, these articles offer both color and depth to the AISC Story.

The 2022–23 school year was one of renewal: of community, connection and learning. The year began in-person and on-campus with all of the traditions and celebrations we longed for after such an extended period of isolation. Our courtyard and entryways were transformed with flowers and decorations. New families and returning students enjoyed full orientations, welcome assemblies, and time together reconnecting in the first days of school. And once again, we were able to welcome new faculty from 2020 onwards in the theater with our traditional garland ceremony.

This strong start kicked off a year of reimagining how our community could be together, (re)cultivating connections. We had our full school UN Day assembly, a community-wide International Day Parade, and a larger-than-life Diwali Mela. Band concerts, theater productions, celebrations of learning, parent coffees and parent teacher conferences have all returned anew, celebrating our students and their learning.

In the following pages you will hear details about such stories and more. Enjoy this extended glimpse into our community. There is much to be proud of and much to celebrate!

As my tenure at AISC comes to a close, I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to the entire community. AISC is a transformational institution. I would not be leaving as the professional I am today without the opportunities and challenges afforded to me during my nine year tenure. One astounding thing about this institution is its uncanny ability to shed light on “what you don’t know you don’t know” and, then, provide the environment that supports individuals to risk and grow with grace and vigor. The old adage says “you get out of this what you put into it” yet I believe that AISC and, indeed, the incredible nation of India, gives back to you threefold. Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for these nine beautiful years. Thank you AISC!

Board Chair’s Introduction

Sridhar Venkatesh Board Chairperson

Dear AISC Community,

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I welcome you to AISConnect!

It has been a pleasure for me to serve as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the American International School Chennai during the 2022-2023 School Year. I’d like to extend my appreciation to our inspiring leadership team, faculty and staff for successfully starting a new school year fully in-person for all students after a gap of two years and for ending it on a high note as well.

The Board of Directors would also like to thank our students and parents for being adaptable, resilient and courageous during times of uncertainty. We have been through so many challenges together over the last couple of years, and it is gratifying to see us back together now, flourishing as a community.

The role of the Board of Directors is to safeguard the school’s Mission by engaging in significant strategic issues relevant to the long-term well-being of the school. As a group empowered with the stewardship of the school, the annual and monthly work of the Board is highly relevant and meaningful to our current and future students, faculty, staff, and parents.

This school year, besides our fiscal and regulatory priorities, the Board focused on successfully transitioning the new Head of School for 2023-2024. The Board formed a Transition Committee that worked closely with Ms. Joelle Basnight to build a three-year transition plan and executed fruitful Fall and Spring transition visits.

On behalf of the Board, I would like to extend my appreciation to our Head of School, Ms. Joelle Basnight for her steady and thoughtful leadership and for her many unseen efforts to pave the way for our incoming Head of School, Ms. Leigh Fitzgerald. Thank you, Joelle, for your stewardship as we continue to meet important mission-aligned priorities and complete this transition year successfully.

To our AISC Community — thank you once again for an amazing school year, and I look forward to future successes with our diverse and engaged community.

Voices of AISC

“I really enjoyed Discover India because it allowed me to do something I have never done before and it gave me a chance to connect with my peers.”

- Anais, HS Student

“What I enjoy about classes at AISC is that my learning from one class, say Math, transfers into my other classes and aids my learning of those subjects too.”

- Misha , HS Student

“I like how AISC aims to connect its students with the community through curricular activities.”

- Nandini, HS Student

of our High School students say they are encouraged to continually improve, to challenge and extend their learning.

- Student feedback survey 22- 23

“New things to learn in Grade 8 and breaking two school records for high jump and long jump at SAISA Track and Field have been the highlights of this year for me”

- Minato, MS Student

“At AISC we are encouraged to try new thingsThis year I tried out for the track and field team and it was a growing experience for me.”

- Rakesh, MS Student

“When I moved to Chennai, it was first time experiencing India and its culture. All of the people I’ve met at AISC have been great and helpful to me as a new student”

- Marcus, MS Student

of our Middle School students feel teachers help them learn new ideas and skills.

- Student feedback survey 22-23

“I will always remember visiting the Seva Samajam school. I made friends with a girl named Sanjana. We drew pictures together and played in their playground.”

- Inci, ES Student

“This year I’ve enjoyed learning many different sports like swimming and climbing. I love sports at AISC!”

- Martin, ES Student

“I’ve enjoyed learning Teachable Machines and learning to code from Mr. Clinton”

- Tejas, ES Student

‘My child has experienced India, diversity, different cultures here in this school- it’s a treasure.”

- Fumiko, AISC Parent

“AISC has been very supportive of my child, not just academically but also socio-emotionally.”

- Kob, AISC Parent

of our Elementary School students feel they receive the help they need from their teachers and are encouraged to follow AISC’s values

- Student Feedback Survey 22-23

“Our daughter loves the School, her teachers, her friends and all of the opportunities she is given!”

- Lakshmi , AISC Parent

of our parents report feeling welcome at AISC

- Community Survey 22-23

“I love that my role allows me to work closely with teachers and parents and that I can very quickly see the impact of my time invested into these relationships”

- Amritha, AISC Faculty

”Moving school, moving to a new country can be an overwhelming and intimidating experience, but all the staff at school, all the students and families have been brilliantly welcoming, friendly and supportive. I’m so very appreciative of the kindness I’ve experienced.”

- Matt, AISC Faculty

“I appreciate the time dedicated to Department conversations; I’ve learned a lot from my colleagues and we are able to give each other ideas for classroom activities and teaching strategies.”

- Remy, AISC Faculty

Faculty express high levels of satisfaction with AISC as a place to work.

- Based on Gallup Q12 Survey

Building the Future for Learning

Futures Plan/ Strategies and Pathways

Greg Clinton Director of Technologies and Research & Development

As a learning organization, AISC is constantly evolving, transforming itself, growing, and changing. Since 2012, the School has engaged in a form of strategic planning that envisioned the next five years of change and how to make it happen. In 2018, in the final year of the first five-year plan, the School adopted a more agile approach to strategic planning that we call “futures planning.” It recognizes a few fundamental aspects of organizational change that have only become

than others—the strategies and pathways model of futures planning allows us to recognize the variable timelines of goals. And finally, uncertainty is the new constant, and new ideas appear at an accelerated rate—in order to respond to the ever-shifting state of the world, to provide our students with the best future-oriented educational opportunities possible, and to incorporate new tools, practices, and experiences into our community. Agility in planning is more important

more salient in the past few years. First, five years is a long time—our school can develop best-fit strategies that take into account new data, new obstacles, and new goals if we pursue a rolling three-year plan. Second, some goals take longer

than long-term fixed stability. Futures planning occurs on a shorter horizon, is flexible, and more agile.

One of the highlights of the futures planning process is the Community Planning Team (CPT). Made up of volunteers from every community group—students, parents, faculty, and administration—the CPT meets three times each academic year to explore the strategies and pathways of the plan, discuss additions and changes, and listen to presentations about milestones and achievements from school leaders.

The Futures Plan contains projects and goals divided into four strategies:

• Learning, where we align teaching and learning to support the School’s Mission. This year we tackled a huge range of substantive goals including enhancing established programs like Learning Support, Research and Development, STEAM Week, Well Week, and CareerX, creating new mission-aligned portfolio systems, mapping the adoption of a competency approach to curriculum, and creating new tools for curriculum reform based on diversity and equity.

• Resources, where we reflect on our use of educational data, how it is collected, safeguarded, interpreted, reported, and used for decision making.

• Talent, where we work to hire, develop, and retain staff members who embody our Mission and Values. This year we have been busy prototyping a new professional growth handbook and process, as well as starting conversations around intercultural competence as a crucial skill.

• Community, where we work toward building our unique group of global and local stakeholders, enhancing communication and support structures. This year we focused energy on environmental responsibility and sustainability, developing data systems that can better communicate the impact our systems and practices have, and what we can do to optimize consumption, recycling, repurposing, and waste management.

It’s been an enormously productive school year. The energy and contributions from everyone at AISC are what make it possible for us to continue learning, growing, and evolving into the futures we can imagine.

In the following pages, catch up on updates from the various Councils and Committees that work to fulfill these goals.

Wellbeing Council

Rebecca Semrick, Faculty Lead, G5 Homeroom Teacher

My name is Rebecca Semrick, and I am the head of the Wellbeing Council here at AISC. Our primary focus is the wellbeing of our community. This Council is a part of the Learning and Wellbeing Framework of our Futures Plan. The Wellbeing council comprises two different committees; the Faculty Wellbeing Committee and the Transitions Committee. The Faculty Wellbeing Committee is led by Priya Venugopal and ensures faculty wellbeing by planning a variety of incredible events such as the Joy of Giving (an opportunity for our faculty and staff to show their appreciation for our support staff and their families) and Wellbeing Wednesdays (a day where our faculty and staff engage in activities that support their wellbeing). Our Transitions Committee, led by Linda Gerberich and Gretchen Galaty, ensures that our new and leaving community members have a smooth transition in and out of AISC.

This year, our council focused on highlighting cornerstone events in order to lay the foundation for a permanent emphasis on wellbeing at AISC— across student and faculty communities. We are especially proud of Well Week and all the incredible wellbeing celebrations that happened across our school. Council member Fer Latorre is our resident mindfulness expert on the Council and says, “It is so wonderful to be able to encourage the practice of mindfulness across all sections of the School. I have seen an incredible difference in classrooms that have instituted this practice and I love guiding other teachers to do the same!”

The Wellbeing Council includes Lynn Schneider, Priya Venugopal, Fer Latorre, Keeley Tagtmeyer, Gretchen Galaty, Sandi Engler, and Rebecca Semrick.

Intercultural Competence Council

Asta Reiff, Faculty Lead, HS EAL

AISC promotes and develops the intercultural competence of all employees to further the Mission by communicating and working effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds. To this aim, the Intercultural Competence (IC) Council was created under the Strategic Pathway of Talent and Intercultural Competence of the Futures Plan.

This Strategic Pathway has identified three major goals that the IC Council looks to meet within the next three years (2022–2025):

• To define and socialize Intercultural Competence within the context of AISC while offering multiple entry points for all employees;

• To create and prototype sustainable programs that equip all employees to understand and practice intercultural competence; and

• To refine and embed programs that equip all employees to understand and practice intercultural competence.

The Council was assembled in the fall of 2022 with an open invitation to all AISC employees interested in this work. We are an avid group of eight Council Members representing a wealth of professional interests—from leadership and faculty

to administrative support—with varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and tenure at AISC.

Being a completely new group, we took our time getting to know each other. And most importantly, we took the time to learn together about the vast field of intercultural competence, starting from building a shared understanding of the terminology and the meaning behind it, all the way to researching and learning about how other institutions define intercultural competence. By December 2022, the Council had drafted a definition of intercultural competence within the context of AISC. Our next steps are to socialize this working definition with the AISC community and revise it based on the feedback that we will receive.

Draft Definition (2022-2023)

At AISC, Intercultural Competence is the knowledge, skills and behaviors to work harmoniously across cultures to achieve effective outcomes.

The Intercultural Competence Council includes Elliot Fijman, Gautami Ramachandhran, Serge Nicolai, Walter Basnight, Angeline Mohan, Vigneshwari C., Joelle Basnight, and Asta Reiff.

The Research & Development Council

Rémy Liotard, Faculty Lead, MS French and Theater

“My brain didn’t even think of some of the possibilities we’ve explored here.”

This quote from Anushka, our Secondary Tech Integrator, is a good representation of what regularly happens on the Research and Development (R&D) Council. Every time we meet to discuss innovative ideas and potential applications at AISC, our minds are blown. The pace at which technology and creativity advance out there is dizzying. However, when you explore practical ways to harness innovation to enhance what we do in the classrooms, it is really energizing!

The R&D Council aims to support faculty who want to experiment with new tools and ideas. We can provide guidance and feedback, but we can also help acquire equipment and licenses. Moreover, we publish results and observations to make the work of our amazing colleagues more visible; it is truly inspiring to see students’ engagement and curiosity shoot up when they get to do something new in class!

A few examples: Lisa Krebs is leading a project where First Graders are developing their problemsolving skills by using Cubelets, which are magnetic blocks with different functions that can be snapped

together to form robots. Bob Krebs’s new recording studio is giving everyone a chance to be music producers for a day, and refine their musical art. Meanwhile, a few High School teachers are experimenting with the Equity Maps app to boost collaboration in their classrooms, and Middle School students get to experience how tall the Eiffel Tower actually is, thanks to VR headsets and virtual visits to Paris.

Simply put, if you have an idea that could enhance learning in your class, the R&D Council will help you implement it. Greg Clinton, Admin Facilitator of the council, is particularly proud of how explicitly innovation is supported at AISC. As he puts it, “We make time for it.”

And the latest innovation that’s getting attention is, of course, the rise of AI in the global discussion, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT making quite an impact on education around the world already. The R&D Council has already started exploring how the AISC Community can benefit from such a potent tool. Stay tuned!

The R&D Council includes Greg Clinton, Chandni Venkatesh, Anushka Sachdev, Bob Krebs, and Rémy Liotard.

The Diversity & Equity Council

Kieara Reed, Faculty Lead, G3 Homeroom

This year the Diversity and Equity (D&E) Council was tasked with creating and prototyping a curriculum audit through the Futures Plan goal. Since August, eight educators and one parent have worked diligently to create an audit that is accessible to educators and effective in helping to make sure our curriculum is in alignment with our school’s Mission and Values. Currently we are in the final drafting stages and will be moving to prototyping shortly. Members of the Council have also compete with other projects within the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice scope. Members are currently updating the language and/or providing best practices to outward facing documents including school handbooks and syllabi. Members are passionate about this because “... we want all members of our community to feel included!”

In this school year, we have also revived Brave Space, a community to share stories, ask questions, and learn. Lastly a community book club will be starting late January. We are reading the book “What If I Say the Wrong Thing”. We are excited about the discourse that will arise within the community. As the school year comes to a close, we hope that the work we are doing provides a lens to be reflective of our practices and contributes to the progress of AISC.

The D&E Council includes Joelle Basnight, Shari Abbott, Jayanthi Ramakrishna, Nicole Merletti, Gregg Phililps, Sabrina Kim, Mary Kelly Bello, and Anindita Gautam (AISC Parent).

The Environmental Responsibility Council

Ryan McFarland, Faculty Lead, Student Life Director

AISC has long been developing clarity on how to be intentional in approaching environmental sustainability while recognizing that it will be a continuous effort to improve. The School is LEED Platinum-certified using the ARC platform which considers the school’s waste, water, energy, and transportation. Over the past decade, student-led initiatives have cut single use paper cups, plastic bottles, installed hand-dryers, and otherwise made AISC more environmentally responsible. Solar panels, LED lighting, water and sewage treatment plants, soild-waste diversion, and water catchment systems help make the daily operation of the school more eco-friendly.

The Environmental Responsibility Council is composed of staff, students, and parents. This

group’s primary task for 2023 is to ensure a virtual dashboard is created and available to track the School’s environmental data. The group will also begin the process of collecting information to be able to articulate how environmental responsibility is conveyed across the School’s grade levels and subjects. The group’s work culminated with its involvement with others in the creation of Earth Week events.

The Environmental Responsibility Council includes Tom Coon, Greg Clinton, Balajee

Ginjapalee, Antony Rex, Seohyun Ji & Jaeyoon

Kim - AISC Students, Gautam Bakthavatsalam & Adarsh Erambally- AISC Parents

The Year in Review

Visible Learning in the High School

Mike Malone, High School Principal

CHEMUN, Discovery Days, Science in Action, Mobile App Development, Celebration of Learning, IB CAS and AP Statistics projects—what do all of these have in common? All of them are visible demonstrations of HS students’ learning in action. What else do they have in common? All of the above are driven by student voice and choice.

Whether it is in club or activity, such as CHEMUN, in classes such as Science in Action, in semester events such as Discovery Days and Celebrations of Learning, or in our IB CAS and AP Statistic classes, students are meeting the Mission through their choices and with their voices. Throughout the School, AISC students decide their focus for exploration and learning and growth, and then make their learning and impact visible to the community. This is our mission in action.

Our student-run Model United Nations, CHEMUN (short for Chennai-MUN) had its 16th edition this November, with over 600 students and 30 schools participating, in-person and virtually, from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and South, Southeast and West Asia and East Africa. Students demonstrated their learning in twelve UN committees on topics such as genome editing, urban air pollution and the Smart Cities initiative in India, supporting the rights of migrant workers, all under the theme of divergence and cohesion.

Discovery Days are student- and staff-led opportunities to follow passions, explore interests and discover new things during a full school day. Student clubs and groups sponsored activities such as robotics, animation coding, mindfulness, mehendi and zentangle.

In High School classes, students choose, explore, and share their learning. In Mobile App Development, AISC students developed and shared (and won the MIT Appathon!) their mobile app on waste and energy. In Science in Action, students explored, designed, built, and presented eco-coolers, reusing materials to support zerocarbon cooling systems.

In our Celebration of Learning, students volunteered to share their learning in all academic departments. Students demonstrated Camp Craft in Adventure Activities class, shared basic Spanish conversation skills and tips, explained the power and equations of continuous compounding in math, the history and current impact of poetry as protest in English 10, and their academic research into the ethics of nanotechnology in our Capstone course—among 20+ demonstrations. Parents, peers, and teachers celebrated with them.

In IB CAS presentations, students share their design thinking, implementation and learnings from their month-long service projects, including teaching archery, creating the first MS MUN at AISC, and the “Me You Don’t See” identity initiative for HS students and staff.

In AP Statistics, students demonstrated their interests and learning on topics such as, “How do affirmations impact quiz performance,” “How do affirmations/criticisms impact brainstorming,” and “How does the presence of a supervisor in a classroom impact student concentration?”

In all of the above and throughout the High School, students are meeting the AISC Mission— demonstrating courage and confidence, creativity and compassion as they make their unique contributions in our diverse and dynamic world. AISC students, individually, on teams, and as a community constantly make choices, take deep dives, apply, and share their learning as they develop their abilities to impact our world.

SEVAI in the Middle School

Jennifer Bertram, Middle High School Principal

Sevai is the Tamil word for service and is the name of our Service Learning Program. Service Learning is an educational approach where a student learns theories in the classroom while volunteering with an agency (usually a non-profit or social service group) and engages in reflection activities to deepen their understanding of what is being taught. SEVAI aims to foster the development of individuals who are socially aware and empathetic, of collaborative problem solvers who actively engage with real-world challenges, and promote reciprocal relationships of mutual respect between AISC and the community. By striving towards these goals, we aim to connect students to AISC’s Mission and Wellbeing Framework.

SEVAI has established partnerships with various groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Hope Foundation School, Seva Samajam School, Blue Cross Animal Welfare, Speed Trust, Writer’s Cafe, the Madras Literary Society, and our own AISC Staff for-a-Day network. Students have the opportunity to choose the group they wish to work with—visiting them onsite and hosting them on our AISC campus. These

partnerships are led by Middle School teachers who guide students in understanding the needs of the chosen group and how they can make a meaningful impact. Ms. Gemma Adderley, the MS Experiential Learning Coordinator, serves as the teacher leader for this project, and Mr. Balajee Ginjapalee as the All-School SEVAI Project Liaison. Their knowledge and expertise play a crucial role in the success of this project.

During the planning process, teachers guide students through SEVAI learning targets to collaborate with community partners in order to:

• Establish mutually respectful relationships;

• Enhance self-awareness and engage in self-reflection;

• Develop empathy by adopting a growth mindset to challenge current thinking;

• Investigate environmental and societal issues and other community needs to become socially aware individuals; and

• Utilize skills and draw on experience to tackle problems and implement possible solutions.

On December 15th, students had the opportunity to showcase their service learning to the community during a Celebration of Learning event. They presented to parents, teachers, and peers. Some students used slide presentations with photos to convey their learning, while others created websites, podcasts, or vlogs. Parents and teachers were impressed by the students’ enthusiasm and passion as they presented their projects.

Throughout the project, students are encouraged to demonstrate the AISC Vision for a Learner traits, which include: leadership, collaboration, innovation, exploration, critical thinking, ethics, versatility, empathy, resilience and self-reflection. SEVAI is an important part of the AISC Middle School experience and enables students to have meaningful opportunities outside of the classroom.

Students run a bake sale with baked treats they learnt to make at Writer’s Cafe; proceeds were used for social causes.

Students create science experiments to engage students from the Hope Foundation School using easily accessible materials and equipment.

Students visit the Blue Cross facility to work with the resident puppies and kittens to get them prepped for adoption

Students assist AISC library staff in cataloging and organizing ancient texts.

Students explored the numerous non-curricular departments at AISC that help to maintain the School.

Students learn the skill of basket weaving for the SPEED Trust project, with the aim of empowering female employees to become financially independent.

Celebrating India Month in the Elementary School

Lynn Schneider, Elementary High School Principal

The focus of India Month this year was to provide students and teachers with an “immersive experience” of art, music, dance, and food to celebrate our host country’s Diwali holiday. Students were engaged in a myriad of in-class and specialty workshops hosted and led by professionals in Chennai, our own teachers, teaching assistants, and local staff.

The event kicked off with an opening ceremony for Elementary and Middle School students, complete with the lighting of the diya, professional dancers who performed four traditional Indian dances, and our annual Indian dance choreographed and performed by some of our own faculty. The theater was filled with energy and awe.

Throughout the month of October, students were fully engaged in learning about Indian culture in

many of their specialist classes. Students then had the opportunity to share their knowledge with other grade levels. Grade five students learned the Indian sport of kho-kho in PE class and then taught it to Grade 3 students. Grade 4 students retold their version of “The Panchatantra” using various storytelling methods to our Early Years and Kindergarten students, while Grade 2 students taught first graders their version of the game paramapadam. During Indian Studies class, Grade 5 students learned about photojournalism and showcased AISC’s 1st Photo Biennale called “Chennai through my Eyes.”

We were fortunate to have experts in their field provide various cultural experiences for our students, including creating palm leaf crafts and teaching students how to use the spinning wheel (charkha). Our Upper Elementary students

were introduced to traditional drumming which was heard far and wide across the elementary classrooms. One teacher said, “This is an amazing experience. We need to have these drummers back every year.” Our Lower Elementary students were able to learn oyilattam or traditional village dancing. Students also practiced yoga and learned silambam, an ancient martial art from Tamil Nadu.

In addition, faculty and staff also offered experiences such as Indian food and drink cooking classes, block printing, painting diyas, and creating mandala art. Many faculty also participated in bilingual read-aloud sessions, with one teacher reading in English and another in Hindi or Tamil. What a fantastic way to celebrate language and culture. We even had a number of our custodial staff teaching students how to make

kolams outside on the playground. Students and parents also had the opportunity to purchase Indian literature at a book fair organized by our librarians. When asked what their favorite part of India month was, a first grader replied, “learning how to make a lassi because I’d never had one before and it was really good.” There was no shortage of fun and educational experiences for students. The month of immersive experiences concluded with a day of students and faculty attired in traditional Indian wear and enjoying a specially prepared Indian lunch.

The success of the event was due to the meticulous planning and organizing efforts of our Indian Studies teacher, Ms. Liza Mathews, in coordination with all of our faculty volunteers. Ms. Liza is already in the process of planning for India Month 2023!

Making Memories: Student Life @ AISC

Gautami Ramachandhran, our Advancement Director and Student Life Director Ryan McFarland chat about what’s new this year at the Athletics and Activities Office.

Gautami: Hi Ryan, thank you for joining me. Let’s start with your role as Director of Student Life— what does that involve?

Ryan: Well, the idea of “Student Life” emerged during the pandemic as a fusion of Athletics and Activities, and our role in COVID response. The role that the Athletics and Activities Office plays on campus encompasses sports and After School Activities, clubs, student trips, and also Student Health. My team and I are, in a sense, responsible for the quality of life for students (and faculty) on campus and when they’re traveling on school trips. From addressing the mosquito issues on campus, to looking into all the logistics of field trips—I look after everything that involves the students outside of the classroom.

Gautami: So it’s been a busy year with us returning to a certain level of regular programming. What have been some highlights for you this year?

Ryan: Well, really, I’d say the return to student travel and to hosting events back on campus have been a highlight for me this year. This is such an integral part of the authentic AISC student experience—if you ask any of the Seniors about their favorite memories from high school, so many of them involve either a SAISA sports trip or Discover India trip. Sure, they have great experiences in the classroom but it’s these activities that they do outside the classroom that have a really great impact on them too. And so I’m kind of lucky in that I get to organize student life outside of “school”. In Chennai, so much of their extra curricular experiences are provided through our office as opposed to external vendors.

Gautami: And it’s that opportunity for experiential learning that they might not have access to otherwise.

Ryan: Exactly. The highlight for me is being able to get back into providing those experiences that students are going to remember for a lifetime.

Gautami: We’ve now hosted about two to three big events. What’s new and what has been the response from other schools and from our students?

Ryan: Well, it’s interesting. Some things have definitely changed—like we’re doing hotel stays for sports, when in the past, we’ve always had families host visiting teams at their homes. And the homestays are really valuable in helping create meaningful connections between students and host families. While the hotel stays don’t give you that, they do give our students more time together as a team—to eat their meals together and start and end their days together.

The response overall has been super positive. When we had ASIAC Soccer on campus, none of the kids from ASB or AES had ever been to our school before, and I loved walking with students down the hallway and watching them take in our beautiful spaces and their reactions when they saw the pool and the field and the gym. Even during SAISA Tennis, we had wonderful compliments about the food in the cafeteria. It’s one of things—you don’t appreciate what you have unless you see it from the perspective of someone from the outside. It’s been great to have visiting schools on campus!

Gautami: Absolutely. One thing that has stayed the same is our traditional opening ceremony. Can you tell me, where did the inspiration for the drummers first come from?

Ryan: It was early in my Athletics Director role and I wanted to do something different for our opening ceremonies. I wanted something that would announce to the whole campus that something special was happening and students needed community support. The first time we invited drummers was when we launched the Ayyanar horses on campus and I realized that was a great idea—to have traditional Indian drummers lead the opening ceremonies.

Gautami: The drumming definitely creates an experience. It creates a vibe—there’s something very rousing about it because it reverberates right through you and through the campus. Ryan: You’d definitely have to be pretty far away to not hear them.

Gautami: Last question before I let you go. Your office has planned a lot of trips this year. Any numbers or interesting data points you can share with me?

Ryan: There’s so much opportunity and choice. There’s a possibility of 15 different events that a student could participate in. Students in Grades 5–12 have gone on at least one trip this year— which is the yearly experiential learning trip. And that’s more than 350 students! Add SAISA, ASIAC, AMIS, and ISTA to that and the possibilities for our students to challenge themselves, to make new international connections, and create new memories is almost endless.

The Big C: Celebrating Community at AISC

Jodie Sovak Admissions & Community Relations

Community is an integral part of the AISC story. We thrive on being together— within our campus and beyond— celebrating our unique traditions, our diverse cultures, and immersing ourselves in the AISC experience.

For the last couple of years, our celebrations have looked a bit different from what we were previously used to. The pandemic made us re-imagine community experiences. We did this by partnering with faculty and the PCA to bring web-based experiences like virtual melas and Celebrations of Learning so that our community members could continue to enjoy being part of the AISC community without leaving their homes.

This year, we were all back together again on campus. Students, faculty, staff and parents once again engaging in the AISC community experience the way it was always meant to be enjoyed. Our much beloved all community events were celebrated in person with gratitude and a renewed zeal.

Our community celebrations began with our UN International Day of Peace assembly. The United Nations General Assembly has declared a day in September devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace. This year’s theme was: End Racism. Build Peace. AISC continued the celebration with a Parade of Nations and our International Day Fair. This was a fun-filled celebration of our diversity complete with food from different countries, cultural games, performances, arts and craft, and more. Our parent volunteers outdid themselves creating stalls representing their home countries.

Gautami Ramachandhran Advancement Director/Communications

(AISC Parent) “I was happy that my family could enjoy a lot of activities with the children this year, for example, International Day, Math and Literacy mornings, Cabaret, Movie night, and more! Thank you for organizing all the wonderful events.”

Next up was our Diwali Mela. At AISC we use this festival of light to celebrate Tamil Nadu and India. For the first time in 2 years, our Diwali Mela was held in full splendor on campus. This communitydriven event included parents, students, faculty and staff coming together to revel in a festive extravaganza of Indian street food, crafts and games, music, dance and more! Our students, faculty, and parents took to the stage to perform and we had an impressive line up of traditional performances by local artists as well.

Anushka(HS and MS Faculty) “ The Diwali Mela was a fun evening! I really appreciated the effort that community members put into their amazing performances and it was lovely to see everyone all dressed up in festive attire”

Nakyoung (ES Student) “I wore Indian clothes for the first time. It was very sparkly. It was fun to dance with my friends on a stage”

Other events, including our Inspiration Conversations and Earth Week, were opportunities for our community to celebrate and learn together as well. Inspiration Conversations are led by the Advancement Office. This year we had the pleasure of inviting the Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation to work with a group of faculty, parents and

students to experience the process of cyanotype printing. Each participant created their own unique, brilliantly blue, print.

Our Earth Week celebrations included a sustainable Charpoy weaving workshop led by an artisan from Uttar Pradesh, and a marketplace with stalls from local sustainable businesses. Both of these events were open to our entire community of students, faculty and parents. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to learn a sustainable artform as well as discover new planet-friendly businesses.

Parents at AISC

Community is an integral part of

our school. All AISC parents are members of the Parent Community Association (PCA) and enjoy many opportunities to connect with other parents and are encouraged to volunteer their time and expertise to support the school community.

For many of our parents, their Chennai experience is tightly interwoven with their AISC experience and we enjoy creating opportunities for them to explore our school’s culture and what our host city has to offer. After a break of two years, our parents enjoyed fully engaging in all-community celebrations and events on campus as well as immersive trips and outings around Chennai with other AISC parents.

Here are some highlights from these events:

It’s been a year full of celebration and we look forward to continued opportunities to thrive, grow, celebrate and learn together as a community!

Senior Treats for our graduating Class of 2023 hosted by AISC Parents

AISC parents visit DakshinaChitra Heritage Museum.

Saree shopping in preparation for the PCA Diwali Mela

Senior Treats for our graduating Class of 2023 hosted by AISC Parents

PCA Meetings on Campus

Parents host the annual Faculty Appreciation Luncheon on Campus

New developments to our purpose-built campus

Alankrit Arora Chief Business Officer/Principal Officer

Our 13-acre purpose built campus is truly an oasis in the city and a home away from home for many of our community members. AISC features over 80 teaching spaces—where the love of learning is fostered in our students— and world-class facilities that enhance the international school experience for our student and adult community members alike.

Our facilities are what set us apart and regular updates, maintenance and development plans are implemented to ensure that every space is wellresourced, flexible, and provides an environment that inspires.

This year, our largest campus development project was to install a rooftop covering for our tennis courts.What does this development mean for us as a community? Rain, shine, or summer heat, our students, staff and parents can play tennis and enjoy a walk or run around the track. Here are some interesting facts about the construction of this impressive structure:

• The total area of the rooftop covering is 27040 Sqft.

• The fabric used spans over 38000 square feet and is a tensile fabric sourced in France from Serge Ferrari. The fabric can also take a weight up to 200 kilos, which allows an expert

maintenance crew to clean the fabric with all necessary safety equipment.

• From the center of the court to the highest point of the curve is 40 ft. But there are 18 foundational pillars from the ground that are 59 feet high.

• Each single curved steel structure is 153 feet and there are nine of these curved structures. This is the first structure of its kind, here in Chennai.

• The covering brings temperatures down up to 2–3 degrees celsius here and in the building it covers below, including the gymnasium.

During the Summer of 2022, we also completed operationally critical projects such as building new book shelves for the ES library, waterproofing of the East block terrace, conversion of classroom ceiling tiles and corridor ceiling refurbishment. These projects ensure the seamless running of the school facilities.

Thank you to our community members as well for your patience and support during these projects. AISC is more than just a school, it’s a haven for students, parents and faculty and we look forward to continuing developments for our current and future community members to enjoy.

Sharing Our Learning

The Portal Project: Imagining and acting into new ways of being

Joelle Basnight Head of School

In the fall of 2021, AISC launched “The Portal Project.” The Portal Project was an opportunity for a global audience to come together to listen, dialogue, reflect and converse around salient themes related to education.

Two pieces of writing inspired the project. First, Arundhati Roy’s April 2020 essay, The Pandemic is a Portal, in which she implored us to think deeply about what we would take with us “through the portal” into the future post pandemic and what we may leave behind. The second came from the Big Questions Institute and their free e-book published by Will Richardson and Homa Tavangar titled 9 Big Questions Schools Must Answer to Avoid Going “Back to Normal” (because normal wasn’t that great to begin with).

To begin, AISC chose five questions to explore through the global conversations. They were:

What is sacred?

What is learning?

Are we literate?

Who is unheard?

Are we well?

These conversations were for and with local and global thought-partners and community members to facilitate imagining and acting into new ways of being. Each session featured a provocative speaker who led participants in learning and dialogue. Our own learning coaches, Elliot Fijman and Walter Basnight, teamed with our Curriculum Director,

Mary Kelly Bello, made a case for nurturing adult learning. Our librarians, Barbara Bowman and Marion Whisnant, unpacked the importance of exploring racial and cultural literacies. Consultant Mark Church challenged us to think about the kinds of thinking needed now and in the future. Author Jennifer Abrams encouraged us to stretch our learning edges to remain healthy and well. Finally, activist and educator Tricia Friedman helped us to disrupt heteronormativity. Each session left participants with information and thoughts to share with their own communities.

The spring of 2023 saw a “mini-series” reprisal of The Portal Project with a focus on exploring who has the power and who is unheard? Consultant and researcher Emily Meadows shared her thoughts about the needs of transgender youth while speaker Alysa Perreras explored power and positionality in international schools.

Putting together a lineup of skilled speakers was an absolute pleasure. They made us question, think deeply, speak honestly and consider how we may

contribute to our institutions and communities. On the heels of professional learning filled with webinars focussed on the practical, from COVID mitigation to supporting virtual learning, The Portal Project provided a much needed space to be in community, in conversation, together. My deepest gratitude to all of The Portal Project speakers and participants!

“Historically, Pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next…we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

- Arundhati Roy

Supporting Leadership At All Levels: A NESA Presentation

Walter Basnight Secondary Learning Coach

In October 2022 at the NESA Fall Leadership Conference, we, Joelle Basnight, Mary Kelly Bello, and Walter Basnight presented an hour-long workshop to a group of 40+ NESA-wide educators. The presentation was part of a NESA learning series titled ‘Sharing the Journey’. The purpose of the series was for NESA schools to share their stories of the last three years of disruption and change. Presentations ranged from mental health, global citizenship, and sustainability, redefining diversity, to school operations, and differentiating

Mary Kelly Bello Curriculum Director

ways to provide leadership training and support.

Designing an engaging, interactive, and informative presentation, especially when the length of the session was limited to 60 minutes, was indeed challenging. There are so many strong aspects of the leadership system that we had to think through what aspects might be most relevant and transferable to a wide range of participants. As we brainstormed, narrowed, created, and refined our narrative we also had the opportunity to reflect on

instruction with mastery learning. We shared our journey of cultivating leadership capacities at AISC.

Our presentation, Systems & Structures to Cultivate Leadership At All Levels: Our Journey outlined the updated leadership structures created in spring 2021 and implemented the following fall. The structures were designed to support leadership development at every level of the school. Whether facilitation training for members of the Instructional Leadership Team, consultancy for members of the Leadership Team, or mentorship for Council Leads, each team and its interrelationship was intentionally defined, created, and nurtured. We chose to share this innovation with our NESA colleagues as many schools are actively looking for

the structures themselves. This led us to discover a number of areas in need of refinement. We were honored to be invited to share our journey to date and to preview that our journey, like most, is ongoing.

As we do with our students, conference organizers aim to provide a range of choices for educators. Therefore, we did not know how many participants we would have. When all the seats were taken and the room continued to fill up, It became clear that the work we are doing is highly relevant to schools in the NESA region. As participants engaged in conversations about how they might take what we shared about our journey and transfer it into their own unique context, the buzz in the room

was inspiring. These conversations continued through the conference as we were approached by participants who requested further information and a desire to connect in the future.

Beyond presenting, there are many values to attending such a conference. Because we attended with members of the AISC Leadership Team and Board members we were able to learn together through keynote presentations and consider how our learning applies to our context. In addition, we chose presentations relevant to our roles at AISC which made for an excellent opportunity for professional development around best practices, effective programs, and initiatives. Perhaps one of the most energizing elements was connecting with other schools in the NESA region to develop professional networks and learn about their experiences. Schools around the region, similar to AISC, are working to implement many innovative practices and thus provide examples of what might be possible.

The process of preparing and presenting the story of our journey to develop leadership at all levels at AISC was a meaningful learning experience. Being able to share our work and connect with other educators was both validating and empowering. We look forward to future learning opportunities.

Hearing about the importance of growing leaders at all levels within the school allowed

me to envision how we might follow suit at our school. When we got back to AES, we suggested that professional learning together become a part of our leadership team meetings. It has opened the door for greater vulnerability and interdependence amongst our divisional leaders.

Diane Ajamian Teaching & Learning Coordinator

American Embassy School, New Delhi

I was so impressed that AISC provides so much diversity in leadership opportunities. This speaks to a true commitment towards inclusive practices, shared decision making and developing school leaders.

Rachael Leibel Curriculum Director The American International School of Muscat

It was lovely to see the evolution of leadership and the support structure for leaders from when I was in Chennai several years ago, and to see that it’s matured and grown through challenging times. It still has the same ethos and focus on the growth of everyone in the organization.

Kirsten Welbes Director of Teaching, Learning and Innovation Walworth Barbour American International School in Israel

Editorial Credits:

Head of School

Joelle Basnight

Board Chairperson

Sridhar Venkatesh

Principal Officer & Chief Business Officer

Alankrit V. Arora

Chief Editor

Gautami Ramachandhran

Editorial Design

Pradeep Lawrance

Editorial Team

Archana Abraham

Cyril Veronis

Murali Loganathan

Pradeep Lawrance

Sherene Williams

Sri Janani Madavan

Photography

Cyril Veronis

Sri Janani Madavan

AISC Community

100 Feet Road, Taramani, Chennai - 600 113, INDIA

P: +91-44-2254 9000, F: +91-44-2254 9001

W: www.aischennai.org