Educators Going Global

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! We all seek to belong. It’s a human need. If you’ve moved schools, you know transitions can be tough. Thankfully, the Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN) program, created by Dr. Doug Ota, provides a transitions care framework for schools. In this episode, we spoke with Amy Shuflin and Lina Paumgarten, developers of resources for SPAN. Amy worked for 17 year...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! There’s nothing quite as inspiring as learning from a great role model. If you aspire to become an international educator, our guests today—Hannah and Jared Keen—will truly impress you as they share invaluable insights, backed by their careful planning and resourcefulness. Join us to hear their story and learn what it takes to thrive in the highly competiti...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! Are you new to international education? If so, imagine sitting down with a trusted guide to get helpful tips on what to expect during recruiting and onboarding—and red flags to watch for. Someone with years of experience working with both teacher candidates and hiring schools. Incredibly, we found such a person.  If you listened to our first interview with...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! As we head into the busy recruiting season, you may be asking yourself, “What is the current state of international school hiring?” Whether you’re a seasoned veteran of international education or starting to build your foundational knowledge, this episode is for you. We’re excited to welcome Diane Jacoutot, Managing Director and founder of Edvectus, a leadi...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! What is your plan for the next time you recruit? What stage are you at in your life and career? What experiences are you hoping for in your next school, city, and country? To assist you in making this big, life-changing decision, we once again reached out to our trusted veteran panel of Amy Hunt, Rob Howe, and David Ross — this time to discuss how to make s...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 No...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 t...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 s...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 gues...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 o...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 a...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 McMas...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 fa...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 hum...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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 d...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! 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...

Text us with topic or guest suggestions! What makes great professional development? We spoke with Justin Hardman, the founder and Director of 21st Century Learning , about professional development for international educators.  Since 2012, 21st Century Learning has connected more than 20,000 K-12 educators with a wide variety of face-to-face and online professional learning opportunities. Beyond pr...