Presenters: Dr. Emily Meadows, Alyssa Perreras & Darnell Fine
Audience: (Only AOS schools)
Date: Tuesday Sept. 28, 2022

Description: 
“We Make the Path by Walking”, the year long equity and belonging institute for International Schools in Latin America, kicks off the Tri-Association 40th Annual Conference with a fitting theme of Hope & Inspiration. Alysa Perreras, Darnell Fine, and Emily Meadows will challenge you to not only deepen your hope for international schools where the humanity of all community members is ensured, but also ignite your inspiration to take meaningful action so that all identities within your community are affirmed. This year-long institute, starting with a deep-dive pre-conference day in Panama, creates space for participants to build a toolkit for developing systems and structures necessary to sustain a culture of belonging, and strengthen a community of equity practitioners within the Latin America region. Schools are encouraged to send teams of up to 10 educators, with a minimum of 3 team members, to promote a culture of accountability and collaboration. The institute will culminate at the Tri-Association 41st Annual Conference In Bogota, Colombia, where participants will come together again to nurture the community, to celebrate success, and continue to build strategy and systems for equity and belonging. 

Take a look at the promotional flip book here: 

Participants will: 

• Establish a shared understanding of the necessary components for equity and belonging work at international schools in Latin America

• Co-create an equity and belonging vision and goals, appropriately contextualized for your school’s context

• Build common lexicon and conceptual knowledge for developing a sense of urgency regarding equity and belonging amongst your school’s stakeholders

• Nurture awareness of identity for self and relationship to others as fundamental to a responsible equity and belonging practice

• Navigate common challenges and stumbling blocks to equity and belonging initiatives in international schools

• Maintain a focus on safety and harm reduction for all participants, with particular attention to the potential for (re)traumatization for people historically marginalized by identity markers such as race, gender identity, sexual identity, and others. 

•  Develop a lens and skill set to lead transformational change in your communities, grounded in equity and belonging

• Nourish hope & inspiration for equity and belonging amongst Tri-Association school community members


Facilitators:

 

Darnell Fine is an experienced facilitator of adult learning focusing on curriculum & assessment, diversity, equity, inclusion, and culturally responsive education. He has led sessions for national and international conferences, numerous US public, independent and international schools.

 

 

 

Emily Meadows (she/her) is a consultant and published author specializing in LGBTQ+ equity and belonging for international schools. In addition to her doctoral degree, Emily holds master’s degrees in both Sexual Health and Counseling, and has worked as an international school counselor for over a decade. She researches, publishes, and trains school communities on equitable policy and practice, while also teaching for the LGBT Health Policy & Practice graduate program at George Washington University. Emily has developed LGBTQ+ inclusion standards, referenda, and trainings for professional organizations such as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), International Schools Services (ISS), The Fulbright Commission, the Association for International Educators and Leaders of Color (AIELOC), the Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE), and the American Psychological Association (APA). Having spent most of her life in international schools, Emily specializes in culturally-relevant solutions to promote identity affirmation worldwide.

 

Alysa Perreras combines her own lived experiences as a multiracial and multicultural woman and the intentional study of the practitioners of abolition and liberation who have come before her to bring an intersectional lens into all the work she does. Alysa’s work is driven by the question, “what does it mean to be free"?”. She has worked with a number of international schools and organizations across the globe. 
 

 

Presenter: Erma Anderson Audience: Math Teachers K-8
Audience: Math Teachers K-12 (AOS Schools only)
Date: Tuesday Sept. 27 & 28, 2022

Description:                 
Mathematics Specialist in International Schools (MSIS) is a 2 year certificate program designed for K-8 classroom teachers of mathematics. The program is a cohort program focusing on mathematics content specific to the K-8 AERO Mathematics Standards. The design of the program is a coherent sequence of four 3 day institutes designed to enhance teacher understanding of the mathematics, how student learn the mathematics, and how to determine evidence of student understanding of the mathematics. 

Numbers and Operations
The focus is on the content and the mathematical practices which support the Numbers and Operations progressions of the AERO Standards. Attention will be given to ways of representing numbers, relationships between number systems, the meaning of operations and how they relate to one another, and computation within the number system as a foundation for algebraic thinking.

Facilitator:

Erma Anderson is a former high school physics and mathematics teacher and Albert Einstein Distinguished Fellow in the United States Senate. She was a Senior Program Officer with the National Research Council assisting in the development of the National Science Education Standards and a Christa McAuliffe Fellow with the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education. She has worked with the National Science Teachers Association on several projects including, the Mentoring Initiative e-Mentoring for Student Success (eMSS), development of sciLINKS (www.sciLINKS.org <http://www.scilinks.org/> ) and Project Manager of Scope, Sequence and Coordination of Secondary School Science, a science curriculum reform project of NSTA. She was Associate Project Director for the Council for Basic Education’s Schools Around the World (www.s-a-w.org <http://www.s-a-w.org/> ) project, developing and implementing the Evidence to Excellence protocol and a series of professional development activities that use student work from nine participating countries to enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics and science. She worked with the Council in the writing of state and district curriculum frameworks and benchmarking of state standards to NAEP and Japanese Standards, and designing a tool for reviewing state science frameworks.

She has considerable experience developing and facilitating workshops, on site and online with multiple national entities such as Educational Field Studies; National Institute of Medicine; United States Forestry Service; National Park Service, the Jason Project, Kidsnet, school districts, and states. Currently she is a Mathematics and Science consultant working with international schools on implementing the AERO Common Core Plus Mathematics Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. She also serves as Project Director of the Math Specialist in International Schools (MSIS) initiative. In the past fourteen years, she has facilitated conversations about the K to 12 math and science curriculum, instruction ,and assessment in over 130 international schools

Facilitators: Dr. Susan Grant, Mr. Ben Shifrin, and Dr. Sylvia Linan-Thompson
Audience: AOS Schools Only
Date: Tuesday Sept. 27 & 28, 2022

Description: 
Understanding the Entwined "Wiring" of Speech, Language, Reading and Executive Function Deficits and the Impact on Learning.
Susan Grant and Ben Shifrin
Learning disabilities are not "silos", but rather interact with shared features that can make identification and remediation challenging. This I -day pre conference workshop will review the neuroscience and interconnected relationship of speech, language processing, reading and executive function (EF) acquisition, and the impact on learning and classroom success. We will discuss Language/Auditory Processing Disorders, (APD), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Dyslexia and Executive Function Disorders (EFD), and how these learning challenges change over time.

Understanding the bilingual brain: An examination of the intersection of English as an additional language, literacy and learning disabilities
Sylvia Linan-Thompson
Learning a second language provides many cognitive benefits but during the process of becoming bilingual students may experience challenges in school. In the process of becoming bilingual, students navigate more than one phonological and lexical system when they read and write. When students are in this period, teachers may have difficulty differentiating between student difficulties due to language acquisition and learning difficulties. This session will examine three areas: characteristics of English learners with and without learning difficulties in reading and writing, assessment, and effective literacy and language instruction.

Facilitators:

Dr. Susan Grant holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, having studied at the Graduate School of Medicine and the College Park campuses of the University of Maryland.  She specializes and did research in Neurolinguistics, the study of the relationship between brain and language development.    She also holds a Master of Science and Maryland license in Speech and Language Pathology.  Dr. Grant has been in private clinical practice for more than 30 years, diagnosing and developing treatment plans for children with speech-language, reading, writing and learning disabilities, dyslexia and autistic spectrum disorder. She works closely with many public and independent schools throughout the State of Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Her staff include 5 speech- language pathologists, a reading specialist and a psychologist who provide treatment services.
 
She is past Chair of the Advisory Committee on Exceptional Children and Youth for the U.S. State Department, Office of Overseas Education. Dr. Grant lectures and has given many workshops nationally and internationally on the applicability of brain research to good teaching practice, language and reading acquisition, and learning disabilities.

Sylvia Linan-Thompson, Ph.D. is an associate professor at the University of Oregon in the Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences and is affiliated with the Center on Teaching and Learning. Her primary research interests are examining appropriate instructional and assessment practices for English learners. She been PI or Co-PI of longitudinal intervention research projects that developed and examined reading interventions for struggling readers who are monolingual English speakers, English language learners and bilingual students acquiring Spanish literacy, and has examined the English writing development of ELs with and without learning disabilities. She has also examined the  implementation of RtI with English language learners in dual language schools. She has authored articles, chapters, and books on these topics. She has also presented at national and international conferences. She has served on the Oregon Dyslexia Advisory Council and participated in Oregon Department of Education’s Emergent Bilingual Visioning Summit. Additionally, Dr. Linan-Thompson works on international development projects in education and has collaborated with the World Bank, UNESCO, and the US Agency for International Development on education projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. She has been a member of the advisory committee of the Office of Overseas schools since 2005 and is currently chair of the committee.

Ben Shifrin is completing his 20th year as head of Jemicy School in Owings Mills, Maryland. Prior to coming to the Jemicy School, Mr. Shifrin lived and worked in California and spent 14 years serving as a special education administrator in the Unified School District of Los Angeles. He later served as the head of Westmark School, one of California’s premier institutions for students with learning differences. During this time he also served as a board member of the L.A. Chapter of the International Dyslexia Association and a member of the Learning Disabilities Association and the National Association of Independent Schools.  Ben moved to Baltimore to become head of Jemicy School in 2002, and shortly after, facilitated a merger with Valley Academy helping to successfully create Baltimore’s first 1st through 12th grade curriculum for students with language-based learning differences. 
 
In 2009, Ben was appointed to the Executive Board of Directors for the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), where he served as treasurer and vice president. In 2013, he was selected to serve on the Advisory Committee on Exceptional Children, which advises the U.S. State Department’s Office of Overseas Schools - helping families and educators in the identification and nurturing of children with both learning challenges and giftedness. In 2014, Ben accepted an invitation from Stevenson University to join the President’s Advisory Council, and in the summer of 2015, was selected by Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, to join the Governor’s Dyslexia Task Force.
 
Ben speaks nationally on the collaboration between neuroscience and education, as well as on other topics relevant to learning differences. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Temple University, earning an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and then a master’s degree in Special Education and Administration. Dyslexic himself, Ben brings a uniquely sensitive approach to working with Jemicy students and lives up to his commitment that students’ needs come before all else.

Facilitators: Astrid Amador and Dr. Jordan Greenbaum
Audience: All Staff
Date: Tuesday Sept. 27 & 28, 2022

Description: 
This course is offered face to face in English over two full days and delivered by a multidisciplinary team that includes experts in school response, victim behavior, and trauma-informed care. This course includes interactive activities and discussions so that participants learn as much from the speakers as from other schools.

Experts will support response team work on the creation and audit of child protection policies and supplemental policies. Teams will work together to develop shared values around child protection while evaluating their institutional risks and vulnerabilities. The ITFCP allegation protocol will be introduced and teams will use case reviews to understand victim and offender behavior. Topics addressed include first responder question formation and the grooming process. Individual team planning using course-provided scaffolding will be emphasized. Activities will enable participant interaction and exchange by role and country location. Support and resources for whole staff training will be provided through the training the trainer approach.

Facilitators:

Astrid Amador is an International expert in the field of Child Protection in schools. She has lectured and presented on Child Protection at international and local levels, training teachers, principals, and school staff members across the region. She has developed Child Protection policies and protocols and is an active member of the Child Protection Committee at CNG and ITFCP (International Task Force for Child Protection). Her years of experience in education have led her to understand that children and young people need a safe and healthy environment to learn; hence her high commitment and conviction to collaborate for a safe and secure world for the next generations.

She received her B.A. in Education from Universidad Javeriana, has a Master's degree in Multidisciplinary Education Sciences, and is certified by ICMEC (International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children) as a trainer in Child Protection in Schools with over 39 years of experience in different international schools, mainly in leadership positions. She is currently the Director of the Colombian Program and the Designated Lead in Child and Adolescent Protection at Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogota.

Jordan Greenbaum, MD is a retired child abuse physician living in Atlanta, GA.  She has worked in the field of child maltreatment for over 20 years.  She is the medical director of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, and past medical director of the Stephanie Blank Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.  She was a co-chair of the Education/Training committee for HEAL Trafficking, an organization of medical professionals working on human trafficking issues. She is a board member of the International Society on the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN).

 

Facilitator: Mr. Paul Andersen, Bozeman Science
Audience: Science Teachers K-12
Date: Tuesday Sept. 27 & 28, 2022

Description: 
The Next Generation Science Standards represent the largest conceptual shift in teaching science in decades. The addition of engineering design and an increased emphasis on the practices and crosscutting concepts can revolutionize secondary science classrooms. However this revolution will only occur if science teachers fully understand the standards and make pedagogical changes in their classrooms. In this workshop, Paul Andersen will model 3-dimensional instruction while giving you concrete examples that can change science classrooms immediately. Teachers will screen exemplary performance assessments and backward design storylines they can use in their classes throughout the year.

Facilitator:

Paul Andersen is an educational consultant and YouTube creator living in Bozeman, MT. Paul is an experienced educator having taught science in Montana for 20 years. Paul was the 2011 Montana Teacher of the Year, and was also one of four finalists for the 2011 National Teacher of the Year. In addition to teaching Paul has created hundreds of YouTube science tutorials that have been viewed millions of times by students around the world. Paul has provided training for thousands of students, teachers, and administrators around the world. Paul enjoys providing meaningful professional development that can be applied immediately in the classroom.

Facilitator: Dr. Dominique Smith
Audience: All Educators
Date: Tuesday Sept. 27 & 28, 2022 

Description: 
Most pre conference sessions are usually a one day event. During this special TWO day pre conference event we will dive deeper into the implementation of restorative practices. Our participants will be able to gain knowledge of the difference between restorative justice and restorative practices while enhancing their skills on building proactive supports and strategies with their students. We will dive deep into the restorative continuum as we have active role playing scenarios for affective statements, impromptu conversations and circles. Our participants will be able to analyze their own discipline handbooks or procedures to audit which policies are outdated or need an adjustment. We will also create a space to shift our thinking from a punitive consequences mindset to a understanding impact and repairing harm mindset. This shift will allow us to focus and eliminate the common misconception of “nothing happens here”. Participant will receive the brand new playbook from Corwin, The Restorative Practices Playbook as a guide for your notes and thinking. We are excited to have to join us for these two days as you take your next step in your restorative journey. 

Participants in this preconference will receive a digital copy of the Restorative Practices Playbook, written by Dr. Smith.

Facilitator:

Dr. Dominique Smith is a principal, social worker, mentor, and author. He is passionate about creating school cultures than honor students and build their confidence and competence. He is the winner of the National School Safety Award from the School Safety Advocacy Council. Smith earned his Master’s in Social Work from the University of Southern California and his doctorate in educational leadership at San Diego State University.

He is the co-author of Better than Carrots and Sticks: Restorative practices for positive classroom management (ASCD), Removing Labels (Corwin), The Restorative Practices Playbook, as well as articles for Principal Leadership and School Leadership.

Facilitators: Dr. Katie Novak, Novak Educational Consulting and Dr. Catlin Tucker, Blend Education
Audience: All Educators
Date: Tuesday Sept. 27 & 28, 2022 

Description: 
Teachers are exhausted because they do the lion’s share of the work. This workshop will guide teachers in reimagining time-consuming, teacher-led workflows that are ineffective and help them to shift to more sustainable student-led workflows. This workshop will focus on developing a partnership with learners and embracing workflows that position the learners as active agents in the learning process. We’ll explore how teachers can leverage blended learning to create the time and space for these sustainable workflows and use the principles at the heart of Universal Design for Learning to ensure these workflows are accessible, equitable, and inclusive. Teachers will leave this workshop with concrete strategies designed to help them shift to more student-led sustainable workflows.

Facilitators:
Dr. Catlin Tucker is a bestselling author, international trainer, and keynote speaker. She was named Teacher of the Year in 2010 in Sonoma County, where she taught for 16 years. Catlin earned her doctorate in learning technologies from Pepperdine University. Currently, Catlin is working as a blended learning coach, education consultant, and professor in a Masters of Arts in Teaching program. Catlin has published several books on blended learning, including UDL and Blended Learning and Balance with Blended Learning. She is active on Twitter @Catlin_Tucker and writes an internationally ranked blog at CatlinTucker.com.
Katie Novak, Ed.D., is an internationally renowned education consultant, author, graduate instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, and a former Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Massachusetts. With 20 years of experience in teaching and administration, an earned doctorate in curriculum and teaching, and ten published books, Katie designs and presents workshops both nationally and internationally focusing on the implementation of inclusive practices, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), multi-tiered systems of support, and universally designed leadership. Novak’s work has impacted educators worldwide as her contributions and collaborations have built upon the foundation for an educational framework that is critical for student success.

Participants in this preconference will receive a digital copy of UDL and Blended Learning: Thriving in Flexible Learning, written by Katie Novak and Catlin Tucker.
 

Facilitators: Heather Rich, Britta McCarthy & John Mark Filcik, NGSS Partnership
Audience: All Educators
Date: Tuesday Sept. 27 & 28, 2022 

Description: 
Implementing Next Generation Science Standards across divisions is a complex task, requiring a strategic approach to sustainably manage organizational change. NGSS were released in 2013, and they are the present and future of science education. The standards combine transferable skills and conceptual thinking with vigorous scientific content, making our students college and career ready. Implementation requires teachers to shift their pedagogy and assessments to be more student-centered and constructivist, while maintaining K-12 alignment. Despite growing resources and tools for NGSS, many schools have a hard time getting implementation off the ground or into a sustainable implementation model. During NGSS implementations, schools can experience false starts, frustration, and resistance. In this pre-conference you will use an organizational change lens with systems design to create an implementation or adjustment plan to bring NGSS to its fullest potential at your school, by exploring: 

How do we support our teachers (from Kinder to 12th) moving forward, while honoring the divisional needs?
What are the elements of sustainable implementation of NGSS and other curricular programs?
How does an implementation go from one person’s pet project to a leading coalition, independent of who is at the school in years to come?

This pre-conference will provide tools and knowledge to tackle (or relaunch) a NGSS implementation, ensuring that the implementation is sustainable over the years. The most will be gained from sending a team of instructional leaders (coaches, leadership team, science point people, curriculum coordinators), representing different divisions or different stakeholders.

Facilitators:
NGSS Partnership is an interscholastic collaboration, created by:

 

 

Heather Rich is an Instructional Coach at ASF-Monterrey, from Nursery to Grade 12. She has also taught elementary aged kids in multiple international schools and in New York City public schools. Heather is trained in NGSS implementation, and ASFM is currently in its 5th year of teaching NGSS-aligned units.

 

 

 

 

John Mark Filcik is a middle school and high school science teacher and NGSS Lead at Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogota, Colombia. Prior to teaching in Colombia, John Mark taught science in the American public school system and worked with Teach for America.

 

Britta McCarthy is the Assistant Director of Learning for Curriculum Development at the Columbus School in Medellin, Colombia. She is a former teacher of secondary science and social studies and K-12 NGSS Science Coach. She loves Design Thinking, sustainability, systems thinking, and Project Based Learning.