The Institute for International Schools

Those interested in becoming a part of the cohort pursing a Master’s of Arts in Education in Instructional Design and Technology with the American School of Brasilia may now begin the application process here!

Admissions is completed on a rolling basis and closes August 31st. If you would like more details, go to the Master’s Degree tab and choose the South American Cohort option.

We are currently forming a cohort of 15-25 students in South America to pursue a Masters in Education in Instructional Design and Technology. For more information, click Master’s Programs in the bar above. More information about the program and application links will be made available Monday, May 6th.

Brazil flyer

What a trip! Paul Poore and his AASSA team outdid themselves with the annual Educators’ Conference. We had an opportunity to talk with a number of educators, and hope that these new relationships might grow into something more.

1) Dr. Charles Mitchel’s presentation on Energy Leadership was held for a standing room only audience. If you attended the program or are interested in learning more, contact us. Dr. Mitchel holds an in-depth workshop on spiritual and energy leadership several times a year and would happily work with you and your school to hold a intensive professional development workshop on the subject for your school’s educators.

2) We had enough interest in our Master’s in Education degrees that we are working to put together a cohort of students in South America to complete on of our blended online and on-site programs. Keep an eye on our site if you are interested in continuing your education with a top university who is willing to come to you.

Buenos Aires was absolutely beautiful and we look forward to an opportunity to return very soon!

Our team enjoying beautiful Buenos Aires.

We are excited about the upcoming AASSA Educator’s Conference in Buenos Aires in a couple weeks! Dr. Charles Mitchel will be presenting on Energy Leadership, and Dr. Lourdes Mitchel will be presenting one of her fortes, teaching literacy within the new Common Core Standards. Either presentation will provide teachers with outstanding opportunities to grow within the classroom and within their own lives.

We will also have a table at the conference, so stop by for a chat and we can show you how we can help your school grow!

We are proud to announce a new partnership with the Association of American Schools in South America. AASSA’s mission  is to “provide and promote programs and services to member schools to enhance the quality of American International Education. As an organization, AASSA values service leadership, quality and effectiveness” (http://www.aassa.com/index.cfm). For several years now, our director and a handful of our professors have been presenting at AASSA conferences throughout South America. We have worked within several AASSA member schools with great success throughout the years. Out of this relationship and a shared mission, we thought it best to form an official partnership that would benefit AASSA and the Institute and, most importantly, the international member schools of South America.

See below to for an excerpt written by Paul Poore, the director of AASSA, for the most recent AASSA e-newsletter (http://www.aassa.com/uploaded/AASSA_Newsletters/Current_Newsletter/September_Newsletter.pdf):

“As both AASSA and Seton Hall University are committed to elevating student achievement and raising the bar for international schools throughout South America, the Institute and AASSA are joining together to provide research-based, practitioner-validated, quality education services to meet the needs of AASSA member schools.

These services will include:

Trustee / School Board Training
What is the role of the school board? What are its goals and how should those goals be evaluated? The Institute will help individual school boards develop a sense of identity and purpose. One of our expert consultants will meet with constituents of a school board for 1-2 days of on-site training, goal planning and evaluation development. To ensure success, the consultant will keep in contact with the board over the following months to guide the implementation process and monitor board progress.

Professional Development Workshops
The Institute’s Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) are interactive, intensive development sessions led by a cadre of exceptional international school professors/ consultants. Each PDW is tailor-made, focusing on one area that an international school identifies as a need, including Differentiated Instruction, Literacy, Assessment, Leadership, Math and Science. PDWs take place over two days at a site of the host school’s choosing. One PDW with one consultant will serve up to 25 educators. Smaller schools may join together to host a workshop. At the end of the program each participant will receive a certificate and can count the workshop towards Continuing Education Units.”
We look forward to working with AASSA and are already in conversation to bring our professional development workshops to some of the member schools. If you, too, are interested in the Institute’s partnership with AASSA, including school board training and professional development workshops, contact us right away!

A little known fact: The Institute for International Schools is one of two areas of focus in our office. The entire office is named the Office for Urban and International Initiatives, a part of the College of Education and Human Services at Seton Hall University. Recently, we have been intently focused on the second half of our programs, the Academy for Urban School Transformation. For more information on the work of the Academy, check out the website: http://media.shu.edu/tltc/academy/index.html

The main work of the Academy currently is to provide professional development and continual instructional coaching to the lowest performing schools in the greater Newark area. Understanding that professional development only works so well when presented in a one-off workshop, the Academy trains and provides highly skilled, experienced instructional coaches who work the duration of the school year on a weekly basis with 3, 4 or more teachers from these struggling schools.

Now is the beginning of the school year, and with that comes a great focus on training and implementation to start the year off right. We have just complete a two day training program for our instructional coaches, focusing on how to implement the new national core curriculum. That was followed by an intense three day workshop for 100 teachers and administrators from two of the schools we work with, in which we worked on team building, district program training, and again focused on the national core curriculum. The teachers evaluated our workshop a 4.68 out of 5.

Now we are down to the grind of the school year. Coaches are working diligently with teachers. Curriculum is being adjusted and refined for our urban school students. We even have leadership coaches working with the administration to ensure that the entire school is working to be the best it can be.

We at the Office for Urban and International Initiatives are continually researching and implementing best education practices, and just as we pour ourselves into bettering our local urban schools, we poor ourselves into making international schools the best they can be. Curriculum audits, professional development workshops, school governance evaluations – the Institute has a large variety of ways to help your school advance its work with students and the community. Contact us for more information and to start a conversation of how we can help you.

Last week was an exciting time for the Institute as we worked to develop a new partnership and a new friendship with a set of Korean delegates from Paul ‘n Mark and Bright Youth. The South Korean government is in a time when it wants to focus on educational growth. Anti-bullying programs, school turnaround and transformation, leadership and character building, ESL immersion – these are only some of the prospects we are planning to develop for the Korean public school sector.

We were honored to host Paul Choi, CEO of Paul ‘n Mark; Kyunghee Choi, Vice President of Paul ‘n Mark; and Patrick Jeon, Senior Manager for Bright Youth. They toured the Seton Hall campus, met with some of the key players in our College of Education and Human Services, and had the opportunity to enjoy the Greater Newark and New York City area. It was an enjoyable time of culture exchange and relationship building.

One particularly interesting point was brainstorming how we can adjust our programs in such a way that they appeal to the Korean market. Working with international schools has always been an adventure as we create our programs to fit unique schools based on our familiar American curriculum but composed of a balance of multiple cultures. Working with Korea gives us a reverse adventure of one single culture adjusting to another. We look forward to seeing how this partnership pans out for Korean public education and the Institute.

Funny how the days turn into weeks turn into months turn into another school year gone by. As all educators know, however, just because class is out that doesn’t mean the work is done. We at the Institute for International Schools are busy as ever, working to get professional development out to the greatest educators around the world – YOU!

This year we have had consultants travel as close to home as Atlanta, Georgia, and as far as Quito, Ecuador, bringing professional development presentations to international school educators. And in the fall, we wrapped up an incredibly successful curriculum audit at the American School of Brasilia.

We have also added on several options for our blended Masters degree programs. In addition to our highly esteemed Masters in Education, Leadership, Management & Policy, we now also offer a Masters in School Counseling, a Masters in Education with a concentration on Instructional Design and Technology, and a Masters in Special Education. We hope to have cohorts arranged for each of these Masters programs soon. If you are interested in continuing your education through a blended online and in-country program, please let us know!

This year we have also experienced a change in the office as our previous Coordinator had to leave us to complete her Master’s work in Kenya. We wish Ms. Meina Srein the best in her travels and educational endeavors. Mrs. Rebekah Hastey has now taken the helm and is ready to be of any help to you and your school should you need it.

With the new school year only months away, it is time to consider what will put your school one step ahead. Our professional development workshops can prepare your teachers for the new school year. Be it differentiated instruction or literacy assessment, we can provide your school with research-based, practitioner-validated, quality education services. Contact us for more information!

John Cotton Dana once said that those who dare to teach, must never cease to learn.  At The Institute for International Schools, we abide by this philosophy.

We provide future and current educators with powerful research-based, field-tested professional development and consultancy services.

Our central mission is to enable educators to tap into and heighten their leadership skills, character strength, and moral compass; build their instructional capacity; renew their sense of passion for the sacred profession of teaching and leading; and ultimately, raise student achievement.