Educators Going Global

We have wanted to do this show for ages. We so admire women leaders, and some major players joined us for this interview! Kim Cofino is a well-known voice in the areas of women in leadership and instructional coaching. Madeleine Maceda Heide was a head of school on three continents and is a co-founder of the AMISA Women in Leadership organisation. Rhonda Norris is Superintendent of International Schools Group in Saudi Arabia and wa...

The data is quite conclusive: young people around the world are struggling. Research and books such as The Anxious Generation highlight the negative effects of technology and social networks on our students.

We also know that two common themes in international schools are academic pressure and high expectations for students applying to university.

On a more positive note, we are seeing a growing trend of schools placing greater empha...

What does the term "followership" mean to you? Our guest, Claire Gaul, joined us to delve into what it means to be a follower in international schools. She wrote a blog post for our learning hub that really got us thinking about how being a follower connects to leadership in international schools—a theme that runs through many of our shows.

Claire describes the interaction of followership and leadership as a type of dance....

Change. It can be exciting. It can also be tough. And it happens a lot in international schools. At first, new ideas and the buzz around implementing them can feel electrifying. But here’s the catch: often, the people involved, the processes, and the long-term sustainability of these ideas—whether they’re initiatives or programs—don’t quite make it past the starting line.

So, why does this happen? And how do we successfully navigate...

Let’s be honest. Teaching and learning have changed somewhat over the years, but schools as institutions can still “feel” very similar to how they did when my grandfather was a school superintendent back in the 1940s. So what are some ways we can reimagine school? It takes a real visionary to think outside of this rigid box, wouldn’t you say? Our guest on this episode, educator and author Paul Halford, is one such visionary. Paul g...

Where do new schools come from? Our research and guest insights reveal that new schools are regularly emerging, with many others planned for construction in the near future. What does this mean for you as you seek to be an informed international educator while navigating the recruiting process?

What are some “under the hood” aspects of startup schools you should be examining? What are the advantages and potential disadvantages of wo...

How can schools integrate Social-Emotional Learning, Belonging, Global Citizenship and Creative Expression in one beautiful package? By prioritizing a crucial aspect of schooling: The Arts. And yet The Arts are often relegated to “encore” status, underfunded or even dispensed with duiring budget crunches.

For this show, we assembled a talented panel of guests who represented years of experience and an array of artistic disciplines: ...

We enjoyed our first interview with Dave McMaster so much that we spoke with him a second time! If you missed the first interview on what it is like to start an international school, definitely check it out – it’s Episode 74. Dave also recorded two Going Global Stories for us. Head to our information hub to enjoy those. 

Dave has 35 years of K-12 education experience, primarily in leadership roles in Canada, Hong Kong, and Bahrain. ...

As international educators, like so many others, in a sense, we tend to write chapters to our life stories. These stories can be organized by countries, schools, travel, and, of course, the regular categories of relationships, family, children, aging, and so on.

We were fortunate to catch our guest, Mark Lewis, just as he was reflecting about the chapters of his international experiences, with his retirement coming up in a couple of...

Where does your school stand in terms of designing, implementing and measuring the effectiveness of its whole-school wellness program? Several of our thought-leader guests have told us that wellness is at the top of the to do list for many international schools. 

Along with Wellness, another recurring topic in our episodes is change management, especially around the development of new programs. We hear stories about initiative fatig...

If you’ve ever visited the International Schools Services website, you may have noticed at some stage that they added a button at the top that said “start a school”. The button has now moved to the bottom of the page, but it’s still there. For us, it always felt like that line from the movies, “I wonder what happens if I press this button?” Well, Dave McMaster is a brave soul who has “pushed the button” on starting a school, not on...

How do international schools get their start- in particular the original ones from so many years ago? Many of them had very humble beginnings, with a handful of students, a few parents (usually spouses of diplomats or business people who had moved overseas) and a large house or a few rooms where lessons could be held. 

At 71 years of age, The Lincoln School in Kathmandu, Nepal is one such school. In this “case study-style” interview...

International educators, are you ready for the day when you go “unglobal”?

We gazed into our crystal ball again with our all-star panel of Amy Hunt, David Ross, and Rob Howe, this time to learn how to transition out of international education.

David Ross is a retired international educator. He began teaching in California, then moved to Malaysia with his family to teach at ISKL.  He then took a sabbatical with his family to bike acro...

Most international schools make it part of their mission to nurture global citizens who are in service to their community. Like all big, worthy goals, this needs lots of planning, implementation support, and accountability to determine if the school is on track.

The usual questions come into play: who, what, why, etc. -- with the "how" being most prominent in our interview with LeeAnne Lavender, who helps schools with thei...

We catch up with Michael Boll who is always on the bleeding edge, playing with the latest and greatest finding ways to use technology for teaching and learning. We have huge admiration for his tech savvy and also his adventurous spirit and his willingness to share his knowledge with us lesser mortals. Not to mention that his dry wit and self-deprecating humor weave through every interaction we have with him.

Michael is a jack-of-all...

In all forms of school, there are some educators who really stand out as having “a way” with kids. Their ability to develop relationships of mutual trust and respect is second-to-none. Jeff Devens is one such educator. He has a way of putting everyone at ease.

Jeff joined us for another episode –  not to talk about finance this time, but to talk about his day job – working to support students and parents in international schools. As...

Join us for our second anniversary show as we review and celebrate all the incredible guests from this past year. Our review provides some insights for each interview that might lead you to return to shows you previously enjoyed – and to seek out those you missed – to take a listen!

We organized the episodes into the themes of: 

• Recruiting and Transitioning
• International Teacher Experiences with Lessons Learned
• Diversity, Equity an...

We found Maxwell Carpenter globe-trotting into his first gig as an international teacher. We spoke to him about his experiences along the way. 

Maxwell Carpenter is an IB Physics teacher at St George's British International School of Rome. He began teaching in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC after studying Physics, Math, and Education at Virginia Tech. He is interested in exploring interdisciplinary approaches to...

Get ready to learn a lot about international education as we interview three long-term veterans while sharing a few insights ourselves. 

David Ross is a retired 58-year-old international educator. He began teaching elementary school in Los Angeles, then moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with his family to teach at ISKL for six years.  He then took a one-year sabbatical with his family to bike across Europe and ended up in Saigon, Vie...