Professional Learning
We have much to celebrate from each of our project teams as we close out this academic year. Our Professional Learning team members include:
Trina Cobbledick - International School of Kuala Lumpur
Kristel Solomon-Saleem Inclusive Education Solutions LLC
Nigel Holdsworth - Shanghai American School
Jennifer Foss- Singapore American School
Bethany Blevins- Stamford American International School
This year, we were able to host four Professional Learning events, starting with our opening of year event with Katie Novak from her work with A Leader’s Guide to Equitable MTSS. As we consider the coming together of the “MT” and the “SS”, it is crucial for us to understand that it is not one layered over the other. Rather, it is the intentional embedding of solid Tier 1 instruction, with tiered supports, strong instructional design, with the systems to support students in accessing these supports. We asked ourselves how embedded these systems were in our own school’s strategic work, and had the opportunity to self-reflect. For those of us who were not able to attend, the recordings remain accessible, and we highly recommend that you centre these conversations with other members of your leadership teams.
Our second event was supported by our colleagues at UNIS Hanoi, Nitasha Crishna and Cheryl Hordenchuk, who shared their MTSS journey. It is heartening to see schools continue to build on their existing systems. While we have different and unique contexts, there is so much that we can learn from each other’s processes.
Our third event centred around inclusive EAL with Laurene Christensen, the Director of Accessibility Research at WIDA and Vitaliy Shyyan, a WIDA Assessment Researcher. As our school demographics change, this conversation is more relevant to our schools now than ever.
Our most recent event centred around navigating around updated data from the ISLES State of Student Affairs Survey. (This is a gentle reminder that you can still complete the survey here!) For those who have completed the survey, this gives you access to data and the ability to compare across schools of different sizes, regions, and curricula. The survey itself provides a unique snapshot into how student support is structured across schools that are similar to ours, and serves as a data point to further conversations in our own contexts. We hope that it will serve to support other leaders of educational support to advocate for high quality, systems-level student support in your international schools.
The PL team has worked hard to connect with leaders in the field of MTSS, from authors to consultants to educators, and our rich programme of professional learning truly reflects this. Recordings of the events are available to members here.
Special thanks to our Professional Learning Team for their hard work this year. Stay tuned for 2024-25’s PL calendar. Keep an eye out on our events page and on our socials for our first event in September!
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