Featured Speakers

Nancy Ruppert and Dave Straffon

Nancy and Dave will be applying “This we believe” with the Middle School concept in internacional schools, on Monday, May 10, 2021,18:00 CET. RSVP to add this event to your calendar.

This presentation will provide an overview of “The Successful Middle School: This We Believe” 5th Ed. to inspire your international school community and to utilize the book and resources as a school improvement tool. The latest edition of “This We Believe” from AMLE provides a research based road map designed to assess the important attributes and characteristics for a highly effective middle school program. The document is designed to be accessible and relevant to all stakeholders in a middle school community. Some highlights of the book will be shared and thoughts for your use.

Nancy taught middle school math for 18 years. Over the course of the last three decades she has also served as the president of the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) Board of Trustees and the president of the National Professors of Middle Level Education (NAPOMLE). She began participating with ELMLE in 2011. Additionally since 2005, she has chaired or co-chaired all of the Southeast (POMLE) Symposia designed to bring middle level professors together for research and sharing of best practices. In 2020 she received the AMLE John H. Lounsbury Award. Currently she is the Chair of the Department of Education at University of North Carolina Asheville. For the past three years she has hosted the ELMLE leaders at AMLE. You can follow Nancy on Twitter @artscienceunca.

Dave has recently retired from the American International School, Vienna where he served as middle school principal for sixteen years. Prior to that, he served in that role at the International School of Kuala Lumpur. Dave taught middle school math and science for twenty years in Ohio, Kinshasa DRC, LaPaz Bolivia and Kuala Lumpur Malaysia before shifting to administration. Dave’s wife Liz taught high school science in each of those international schools and their sons are both international school teachers. Dave has used “This We Believe” with middle school faculties and communities since 2003.

Ewan McIntosh

Ewan's #ELMLEVirtual conference session recording of Transition Design: Silver Lining Strategy for Schools is available in the Whova app.

Teachers have been amongst the invisible front line workers of 2020. In this most challenging of years, the creaking elements of education systems have become clear, and so transition design offers a chance to build on the silver linings offered by the crisis. 60 leaders from 24 countries in six continents are together over six weeks to map out what silver linings they wanted to amplify, and consider which parts of the education game were no longer sustainable and ready to ditch. The results have been immediate and more positive than anyone could have imagined, and offer inspiration for any teacher wanting to make the most of what they’ve learned over the past 12 months.

Leading projects around the world for clients in education and industry, Ewan is the passionate and energizing tour de force behind NoTosh. A highly-regarded keynote speaker at events around the world, he is also author of How to Come up with Great Ideas and Actually Make them Happen and regularly writes about learning on his blog edu.blogs.com. NoTosh is a global consultancy with a passion for learning and a conviction that innovation and creativity can change the way people think, the way they learn and the way they work - as individuals, teams, organizations and communities. You can connect with him on Twitter @ewanmcintosh and @NoTosh.

Sara K. Ahmed

Sara's #ELMLEVirtual conference session recording of Being the Change: ​Looking within before we can look out is available in the Whova app.

Drawing from Sara's books, ​Being the Change: Lessons and Strategies to Teach Social Comprehension​ and ​Upstanders: How to Engage Middle School Hearts and Minds with Inquiry (​ co-authored with Harvey "Smokey" Daniels), participants will learn to center identity, and leverage the social skills and habits necessary to examine real issues by participating in relevant, transparent conversations.

In this workshop, we will focus specifically on our social identities and how they impact the way we see our students. Sara will also share ways students can unpack their own identities while also learning about their classmates. How we can listen into the discourse of the day and make those listening moves transparent to students so they can try it themselves. We will discuss how being candid with students about our own biases and worldviews will help them to consider the ways their own experiences and biases affect our ​reading​ of people and texts and the world. Come prepared to consider your own identities, your students’ identities and how social comprehension has a direct impact on all that we do as educators and human beings.

Sara currently serves as the Director of Curriculum Integration at Catherine Cook School in Chicago. She has taught and coached in city, suburban, public, independent, and international schools, where her classrooms were designed to help students consider their own identities and see the humanity in others. When she is not in the classroom or meeting with teachers, you can find her coaching track, cross country, soccer, or basketball.

Sara is the author of Being the Change: Lessons and Strategies to Teach Social Comprehension and coauthor with Harvey "Smokey" Daniels of Upstanders: How to Engage Middle School Hearts and Minds with Inquiry. Sara is a national and international speaker as well as a consultant in schools around the world-- bridging literacy, inquiry, and social identity work through curriculum, staff development, and lab classrooms. She has also served on the teacher leadership team for Facing History and Ourselves, an international organization devoted to examining the choices we make in history through a lens of identity.

For the past four years, Sara has been living in Bangkok, Thailand where she served as a literacy coach at NIST international school. These days you can find her running, reading, or writing her way through sweet-home, Chicago while rediscovering the restaurant and pastry scene with her family. You can find her on Twitter or Instagram @SaraKAhmed.

Martin Griffin and Steve Oakes

Martin and Steve's #ELMLEVirtual conference session recording of Learning Mindsets is available in the Whova app.

Often the space between current performance and future potential is less about cognitive ability, and more about process. Study after study has found that academic success can be as much about habits, strategies and study techniques as it is about intelligence. In this session, teachers Steve Oakes and Martin Griffin (The GCSE Mindset, The A Level Mindset, Crown House Publishing) will explore key principles of non-cognitive skill development, share tools and strategies for exploring the space between current and target performance, and discuss strategies for embedding a culture that focuses on the development of proactive independent learning so that students and staff can more effectively identify and close gaps.

Martin and Steve have a combined 40 years’ experience teaching post-16 students as classroom teachers, heads of faculty and senior leaders. Martin was director of sixth form, and Steve deputy director, at a twice Ofsted-outstanding comprehensive sixth form in the UK, where student progress was among the top 10 per cent in the country. They have spent much of their careers teaching GCSE and A level, supporting KS4 and KS5 learners. Over the last five years they have worked with more than two hundred schools in the UK and beyond to develop effective study-skill development systems. They are the authors of The A Level Mindset (Crown House, 2016), The GCSE Mindset (Crown House, 2017) and The Student Mindset (Crown House, 2019). You can follow Martin and Steve on Twitter @VESPAmindset.

Jon Nordmeyer of WIDA

Jon 's #ELMLEVirtual conference session recording of Beyond Co-teaching: Collaboration to Support Diverse Learners. is available in the Whova app as is his October 19 session When Learning Goes Home: Serving Multilingual Learners Online.

Co-teaching is often the main focus for professional collaboration, in both EAL and Learning Support. While having two teachers work in the same classroom can be both a high-risk and high-reward activity, instruction is only one piece of the puzzle. When we plan, teach and inquire together, we model the 21st century learning skills we hope to develop in our students. International schools need to dedicate the time to develop the tools and processes for effective collaboration. This workshop will explore how to shift from isolation, fragmentation and segregation – to cohesion, collaboration and integration. You will be introduced to a cycle of collaboration including co-planning, co-teaching, co-assessing and co-reflecting. This session will incorporate the recent WIDA Focus Bulletin as well as the article Teacher Collaboration During a Global Pandemic.

Jon is the International Programs Director at WIDA, a research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jon believes that an asset-based approach to professional collaboration can both ignite student learning and fuel teacher growth. He has been an international educator and consultant for 25 years, teaching at international schools in Quito, The Hague, Taipei, Istanbul, Shanghai and Bangkok. Jon has taught graduate seminars at Harvard Graduate School of Education and Tibet University, and has been a regular presenter at regional international conferences.

Jon has written articles for International Schools Journal and Journal of Staff Development, contributed chapters to Co-teaching and Other Collaborative Practices in the EFL/ESL Classroom and Breaking the Mold: Classroom Management, and, co-edited the book Integrating Language and Content (TESOL 2010). He serves on the editorial review board of Globally Informed, a peer-reviewed journal for international educators. He holds a BA in Classical Archaeology from Dartmouth College and MA in TESOL from School for International Training. He is pursuing his PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jon lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife Cynthia, a school counselor and mindfulness trainer, and their two sons, Gus and Atticus. Follow Jon on Twitter @nordmeyerj.

Kathleen Ralf

Kathleen led Principles of Wayfinding on Monday, September 7, 2020. A recording of the session is available to registered participants in the Whova app.

In this session, Kathleen will discuss the principles of Wayfinding. With distance learning, you have limited face-to-face interactions with your students. The design of online spaces must be clear, coherent, and concise in order to provide a smooth, navigable experience. You don’t want your students spending more time figuring out instructions than actually engaging in the work. In designing an online learning space, ask yourself the following question: Am I reducing the cognitive load on my students?

Kathleen is a Humanities teacher at Frankfurt International School and Learning Design Coach and instructor for Global Online Academy. With over 20 years of experience in the high school and middle school classrooms, Kathleen continuously designs, redesigns, tweaks, and adjusts learning experiences for her students in the brick-n-mortar and virtual classroom. In the last months she has coached and mentored staff at both schools to design distance learning experiences for students. You can follow her on Twitter @DeutscheKath.

Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie joined the English Job Alike session on Monday, November 2, 2020. A recording of the session is available to registered participants in the Whova app.

Laurie is a New York Times-bestselling author known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity. Two of her books, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists, and Chains was also short-listed for the United Kingdom's Carnegie medal. She was selected by the American Library Association for the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant contribution to young adult literature. Laurie has also been honored for her battles for intellectual freedom by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the National Council of Teachers of English. She is a member of RAINN's National Leadership Council and frequently speaks about sexual violence. You can follow Laurie at @halseanderson.

Rachel Hovington

Rachel led a session for the Leadership Job Alike group on the topic of Leading Power and Privilege Literacy in the Middle School Context on Monday, November 2, 2020. You're encouraged to check out these resources. A recording of the session is available to registered participants in the Whova app.

Rachel started her teaching career in the UK and has worked in the Atlanta Public School system and at Atlanta International School (AIS) in the USA. She is currently Head of School at The International School of Hannover and will be transitioning to Benjamin Franklin International School in August 2021. She has been closely involved with leading Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion work with staff , students and parents in both Atlanta and now in Hannover and believes that Middle School is a crucial time for students to learn and reflect on the origins and ramifications of racism, antiracism, bias, prejudice, injustice and power so we can facilitate that sprout of hard wiring that encodes them to be antiracist, anti biased and up-standers. You can follow Rachel on Twitter @rhovington.

Middle School is a key age and area for developing racial and anti-oppression literacy, where students are increasingly influenced by peer pressure and opinion. These students also deal often with intense issues of self esteem, increasingly they are now exposed to media, and exposed to subject specific curricula and multiple teachers that deepen their ability to develop critical thinking skills.

In this session, and after exploring the pre-reads participants will look at an example of a simple school approach to:

• Collecting and collating the community’s stories around bias and oppression on our campus.

• Planning sessions for listening to and hearing those stories.

• Auditing the school’s specific context and creating strategic goals around next steps towards a safer, more inclusive middle school for all students.

• Suggestions of book study titles and approaches to book study.

The Successful Middle School: This We Believe Book Club

Stephanie Simpson , Penny A. Bishop, Ed.D, and Lisa M. Harrison, Ph.D.

Authors, Penny Bishop, Ed.D., and Lisa Harrison, Ph.D., joined us on Monday, November 16, 2020 to explore the latest edition, The Successful Middle School: This We Believe, including a refocus on creating responsive and equitable schools that embrace the amazing diversity that our students bring to the classroom. For nearly 40 years, the foundational position paper of the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE), This We Believe, has been a source of inspiration and best practices for educators striving to create learning environments that are best for students ages 10-15. Find out more on Twitter @AMLE. A recording of the session is available to registered participants in the Whova app.

Stephanie is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE), the premier membership organization helping middle school educators cultivate the potential and possibilities of young adolescents. Stephanie is a seasoned professional association leader. She began her associations career as a policy analyst at the American Medical Association after earning a J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and B.A. in International Studies and Information Technology from DePaul University.

Penny is Professor of Middle Level Education at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA. She is the founding director of the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education. A former middle level English and social studies teacher, Dr. Bishop has chaired the Association for Middle Level Education's Research Advisory Board and as chair of the American Educational Research Association's group on Middle Level Education Research and is a recipient of the John H. Lounsbury Award for Distinguished Achievement in Middle Level Education. She is co-author of six books on effective middle grades practice. Dr. Bishop previously served as policy advisor on fellowship to the New Zealand Ministry of Education, providing input and research on effective schooling policies for students in the middle years in that country.

Lisa is Associate Professor of Teacher Education at Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA, with a focus on teaching courses in middle childhood education and teacher action research. Additionally, she serves as the Middle Childhood Education program coordinator. Her major research interests include black young adolescent identity construction, teacher education preparation, and teaching for social justice. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Association for Middle Level Education and as a co-editor of Middle School Journal. Dr. Harrison holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Spelman College and an M.S.T in Secondary Teaching from Pace University. She received her Ph.D. in Middle School Education from The University of Georgia.

Sherri Spelic

Sherri led a two part session Beyond Armchair Antiracism : Conversations geared toward action. Recordings of the sessions are available to registered participants in the Whova app.

Sherri teaches elementary Physical Education at the American International School Vienna. She is an active blogger, publisher and author of Care At The Core: Conversational Essays on Identity, Education and Power (2019). You can find her on Twitter at @edifiedlistener.

Many of us in international schools have for years felt shielded from overt racial discord and in some cases considered our institutions to be bastions of remarkable tolerance and celebratory diversity. In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests across the globe, international school communities have found themselves increasingly called to account by alumni and faculty of color who have provided multiple examples of racism and intolerance in several school contexts.

As educators, parents, colleagues and humans, how do we acknowledge painful truths and move our institutions closer to those ideals of anti-racism and sincere inclusion?

Join our sessions for some honest, thoughtful and awareness-boosting conversations where we'll break this larger question down into more manageable queries. You don't have to be an expert. Just come as you are with your educator heart and human curiosity and enjoy the benefit of lively reflective exchange with middle school colleagues from the region.

Sexuality and Gender Awareness Club (SAGA) Sponsors at ZIS

Gary Brennan, Alysha Heller, Kaitlyn Somers and Rachel Somers of Zurich International School

The ZIS SAGA team will led a three part series Celebrating and Supporting the LGBTQ+ Community in our Schools on Monday, November 23. You can learn more about Zurich Int'l School @ZISnews on Twitter and their work in the Swiss Group of International Schools (SGIS) Pride Educators Group. Recordings from all 3 sessions are available to registered participants in the Whova app.

Rachel Somers, Kaitlyn Somers, Gary Brennan and Alysha Heller are middle school teachers at Zurich International School. After the ZIS Upper School campus had a student initiative to start a sexualtiy and gender awareness club to break the silence around sexual orientation and gender identity diversity on their campus, the middle school students quickly followed suit. For the past three years, we have held weekly SAGA meetings with an enthusiastic and inspiring group of 10-14 year olds. We have organized SAGA special events on our campus and the annual international school SAGA conference. Our students’ worldview and empathy make us excited to go to work daily.

In our sessions, we will share our experience creating and leading the first sexuality and gender awareness group at our middle school and hosting the first annual international middle school sexuality and gender awareness conference. We will discuss a variety of topics including: promoting inclusive practices across the school's systems and practices, building student and staff awareness and starting a club while building student leadership for success. Over the course of the three online sessions, we will offer opportunities to share experiences to improve LGBTQ+ inclusive practices within our schools and consider the intersectionality of a variety of social justice initiatives. We have realized this work is better when we work together as an international community. We are looking forward to sharing our experiences and learning from all of you.

Dr. Beth Pfannl and Pauline O’Brien of ISS

Beth Pfannl co-led a session with Pauline O'Brien for the Leadership Job Alike session on the topic of Cultivating the Leadership Pipeline and Fostering Diversity in Leadership on Monday, November 30, 2020. A recording of the session is available to registered participants in the Whova app.

Studies on leadership pipelines reveal where on the leadership trajectory people of different backgrounds struggle to be promoted. In this session we will discuss the importance of mentors and sponsors and how you can use a pipeline approach to advance your career and ensure you foster a diverse leadership team at your school.

Beth is ISS Vice President for Administrative Searches and Governance Services, has 30 years of experience in international education. Before joining ISS in 2016, she served as the long-standing head of the American Overseas School of Rome. Beth has been on numerous boards and committees including ECIS, Middle States International Schools Advisory Committee, and the Paraguayan American Cultural Center. Past president of AAIE (Association for the Advancement of International Education) and the Rome International Schools Association (RISA), and currently serving as a trustee of The American University of Rome, Beth was inducted into AAIE's Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the National Distinguished Principal Award from the US Dept. of State’s Office of Overseas Schools. She earned her doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris and her BA from McGill University. Beth runs the annual Mary Anne Haas ISS Women’s Symposium for educational leaders and speaks regularly on the importance of cultivating diversity in global leadership roles. She lives in Amsterdam.

Pauline is ISS Director of Administrative Searches and Governance Services with 20+ years of experience in professional recruiting, client service, and school board relations in international education. Pauline has led multi-cultural teams in international corporate recruitment, and the non-profit international sector. Her focus has always been on developing talent and creating inclusive aspiring leadership programs. She has designed multi-faceted learning opportunities for international schools, which include competency-based recruiting strategies, skills-based interviewing methods, and STAR application profiles. Her work in Women in Leadership is vast, and she is an educational conference speaker globally. Pauline’s work has also included service on the International Task Force for Child Protection (ITFCP), resulting in the creation of CIS Child Protection Workshops and the delivery of educational sessions on Effective International Recruitment Practices worldwide. Pauline has been a Board member for WBII and ACCESS. Originally from Ireland, Pauline resides the Netherlands where she studied international business.

Sarah Woods

Sarah led the Mondays for the Middle session Do You Tinker? on Monday, January 11, 2021. A recording of the session is available to registered participants in the learning library within the Whova app.

In the session, Sarah will show how Tinkercad is really fun to use and easy to learn. It's something teachers can use to give students an opportunity to show their learning in a 3D way. It's free and web based, can run on iPads and chromebooks *and* teachers can set up student accounts so they can watch student progress. Some ways that 3D designs might be used in school include: art projects - from reflecting on symbology to clothing design, making useful tools to solve problems, math/measurement manipulatives, molecules and topographical maps, and also "remixing" other people's work to add your own flavour! During our time together, we'll set up a classroom and then make our very own designs!

Sarah is an Innovation Coach in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In her last iteration, she was an MYP Design teacher at the International School of Amsterdam; she is both a Google Certified Innovator and Trainer and holds a Masters of Science in Education in K-12 Technology Integration. She is passionate about making a connection between tactile and digital learning experiences and you can follow Sarah on Twitter @placeomanytrees.

Mike Johnston

Mike led the Leadership Job Alike session on the topic of Change Leadership: Never let a crisis go to waste on Monday, January 25, 2021. A recording of the session is available to registered participants in the learning library within the Whova app.

In the session, participants can join the conversation about change leadership and how to leverage the pandemic to create change that will foster deeper student learning. Whether it is assessment, social emotional support, action-oriented learning, conceptual curriculums, innovation, or interdisciplinary opportunities, the pandemic is opening up opportunities for transformation. Mike will share a framework for change leadership and seek to know where our circle of influence begins and ends to be sure students are receiving the best learning and opportunities possible. Mike will also share “The Pyramid” as a framework for change leadership, which can be found in the Compass Education Accelerator Tools.

Mike is the Assistant Head at Frankfurt International School. He has lead workshops and keynoted for teachers and administrators around the world on learning innovation, sustainability, building global competence, deep personalized curriculum K-12 and how service learning should not just be what you do, but who you are as a school. Mike is a proud member of the Common Ground Collaborative advisory council seeking to transform learning in schools globally. He is also a member of the Compass Education team which is a growing community of passionate educators aiming to equip schools as learning communities to educate and act for a sustainable future through systems thinking and practice. He has dedicated much of his time to not only ensuring students are properly prepared for the world’s most pressing issues but that they have the skills and desire to take action. With his Doctorate in Organizational Systems Mike helps to inspire and lead schools through times of change and educational transformation. Please visit www.johnstonmike.com for more information. You can follow Mike on Twitter @johnstonmike34.

Phyllis Fagell, LCPC

A recording of Phyllis' March 1 session on How to Help Middle Schoolers Develop Resilience (Now and long after the pandemic ends) is available for registered members within the learning library on the Whova app. See Phyllis' recent article in the Washington Post on this topic.

Phyllis has worked in both public and private schools with students in grades K-12. She currently works full time as the school counselor for Sheridan School in Washington, D.C. and provides therapy to children, teens and adults in private practice at the Chrysalis Group, Inc.

Phyllis is the author of Middle School Matters and a journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, focusing on counseling, parenting and education, writes the "Career Confidential" weekly advice column for PDK, Intl. for educators, and “The Meaningful Middle” column for AMLE (Association of Middle Level Educators). She also has written for Psychology Today, Working Mother, Time, U.S. News & World Report, and Your Teen, and her ideas have been shared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, and The Chicago Tribune, among many other outlets. You can catch up with Phyllis on Twitter at @Pfagell.

A recording of Phyllis' August 24 book club discussion of Middle School Matters and tips on how to help students cope with the uncertainty of the new school year is available in the learning library within the Whova app.

Helen O’Donoghue

Helen led a session for the Leadership Job Alike on the topic of Building Teams through Coaching with Positive Intent on Monday, March 15, 2021. During this session we will explore what it means to build a team with “Positive Intent”, using various coaching models and how this can positively impact the effectiveness and efficiency of your team, to bring out the best in them. A recording of the session is available to registered participants in the learning library within the Whova app.

Helen is the Director of Sunridge Associates, a UK based company specialising in educational training, consultancy and management in the UK and overseas, with a global network.

Helen has a passion to improve children’s learning and draws on this experience when working in and leading schools in the UK and internationally, using her first-hand experience towards school improvement. She is an experienced educator with over thirty years of practice in the field, as a result of which she is a much sought-after trainer, consultant, leadership coach and conference speaker, both in the UK and internationally.

Her leadership experience includes leading two IB World schools, opening two Free Schools in London and delivering bespoke training and consultancy to over 300 school leaders in 30 countries around the world such as Colombia, Norway, UK, Ethiopia, Malawi, Indonesia, Japan, El Salvador, Malaysia, Peru and the Netherlands. She works as an Ambassador for Leadership Matters, is a British Council Ambassador, a senior consultant with Fieldwork Education, an IB workshop leader, a trainer with Osiris, a trainer with IAPS (Independent Association of Prep Schools), an Affiliate Member of FOBISIA and a former PGCE tutor with the University of Buckingham.

Daria Filip

Daria led a combined Math and Science Job Alike session Linking Math to Science, Middle to Upper School starting with Integer Subtraction on Monday, March 15, 18:00 CET.

Fundamental concept taught in Integer subtraction in Grade 7, can be explained using basic common science understanding such as a temperature rise from below freezing in the morning to above freezing in the afternoon. By modelling this as a change, a difference between a final temperature and an initial temperature, not only do students find integer subtraction easier to do and understand, they set themselves up for working concepts such as : change of position = displacement, change of velocity and percent change.

The interactive Explorelearning Gizmo Adding and Subtracting Integers will be used during the talk to highlight excellent visual resources available. For schools who do not have Gizmos, although they do provide a free minute trial for each online lab, Khan Academy also does an excellent job using a monetary example.

Daria moved to Paris in 2014 after growing up in an Eastern European family in Toronto, Canada. Her first career was in Engineering working in western Canada. A guest high school presentation on engineering led to a switch to teaching co-operative education, science (biology, chemistry and environmental) - physics at the higher levels, and eventually math Having worked over 20 years in Canada, and since 2014 at the International School of Paris, currently at the American School of Paris. Her theme is #slow down, raise the bar - and pay attention to the details. She has always been fascinated by the links between art and science and has had the opportunity to show her photography in Poland and Paris. Sustainability and wellness have also become passions since arriving in Europe. Her website www.philipadaria.com is where she is blogging and integrating her experience between Education, Sustainability and Photography.

Dawn Summerfield

Dawn is leading a three part NWEA MAP series with the final session, Creating an Action Plan Around Year End Testing Results, occurring on Monday, March 29, 2021. Dawn 's #ELMLEVirtual conference session recording of Stop Missing Deadlines: Research Based Strategies to Improve the Executive Functioning of Teachers & Students is available in the Whova app.

Dawn has worked in education for 28 years and has expertise in school leadership, curriculum design and assessment, special education and differentiation through the use of data.  Her current focus is on improving student executive functioning skills, promoting school community health and wellness, and mentoring new teachers.

She has held leadership positions in both American schools and International IBO schools and has earned two advanced degrees in special education and health and wellness education.  

Dawn is passionately committed to driving continuous school improvement in the standards of teaching and learning.  You can connect with Dawn on Twitter @SummerfieldTEC.

Jim Ellis and Mark Overmeyer

Jim and Mark will lead a session Access Is A Lens Leaders Sharpen And A Muscle Teachers Strengthen on Monday, April 19, 2021,18:00 CET. A recording of the session is available to registered participants in the learning library within the Whova app.

'Micro-Moments' is an actionable concept that will provide you with a lens through which to view the mechanisms guiding inclusion and access to learning for the students in your school. Consider where differentiation and universally designed lessons diverge and how that impacts student experience. This fun and fresh hour from Jim and Mark will provide tools around the process driven Design Thinking and 'Micro-Moments' while leaving you wanting more.

Jim is a consultant, blogger, facilitator and a classroom math/design teacher in Vienna, Austria. With a particular focus in Design Thinking, designing educational experiences and designing structures for school improvement, Jim has visited schools and organizations in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America to help fantastic groups take the next step in their own development, while making some outstanding student projects along the way. Finding the most challenging problems and jumping in is how he continues to play a small role in helpIng to shape what’s next in international schools. You can follow Jim on Twitter at @skhooldesign.

Mark is a full time educational consultant from Denver, Colorado. He has more than 25 years of teaching experience, most of it in Cherry Creek Schools in Denver, Colorado. He has worked as a classroom teacher in grades 2 through 8, a special education and Title I teacher, a coordinator for gifted programming, and as a literacy coordinator. For five years he co-directed the National Writing Project site at the University of Colorado at Denver, where he also worked for 7 years as an adjunct professor. Currently, Mark works full time supporting reading and writing workshops in schools around the US and internationally. You can follow Mark on Twitter at @MarkOvermeyer.

Amy Burke and Kevin Hawkins of Mindwell

Amy and Kevin led a session on Staff Wellbeing - More than just a bubble bath! on Monday, April 26, 2021 and Waking up and Staying Woke: Awareness Skills in the Middle Years at the #ELMLEVirtual conference. Both sessions' recordings are available in the Whova app.

Would you like to learn more about mindfulness? Click for an invitation to Amy and Kevin's free Little Guide to Mindfulness. Are you interested in training online with Amy and Kevin? See the details about their Spring 2021 training, Be Mindful, Teach Mindfully, Teach Mindfulness which starts April 24-25.

Taking a bath or going for a jog can be great ways to unwind and get out of our overly busy minds, but teacher wellbeing is not just about isolated moments nor is it something we attain as an ‘end result’ - it is more a relationship that we can develop and continue to cultivate with ourselves and with our school communities. Focusing on our own mental and emotional health is essential for our balance and sustainability and these contribute greatly to our effectiveness as teachers, and also to our empathy for, and connection with, our students and colleagues. In this session Amy and Kevin will provide a space for reflection and discussion on some practical ways we can all maintain this crucial relationship with ourselves, using mindful awareness and social-emotional competency development as our primary tools.

Kevin has worked with adolescents and young people in various contexts for over 30 years - as teacher, school head, and social worker in the UK, Africa, and Europe. He currently lives in Valencia, Spain and was previously in the Czech Republic where for 10 years he was Middle School Principal at the International School of Prague. In 2012 he co-founded MindWell, (mindwell-education.com) which supports educational communities around the world in developing wellbeing through mindfulness and social-emotional learning. Kevin is a Senior Trainer for the Mindfulness in Schools Project (UK) and a facilitator of the evidence-based CARE program (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Educators). He has also worked as a coach/mentor to school leaders and was lead consultant to the International Baccalaureate Organisation on SEL and mindfulness. Kevin is a regular speaker, writer and presenter on the topics of wellbeing, leadership, mindfulness and social and emotional learning in education. His first book, Mindful Teacher, Mindful School: Improving wellbeing in teaching and learning, was published by SAGE, in 2017. He is currently working on a second book, also for SAGE/Corwin with Amy Burke, which will be published in early 2021. You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinjhawkins11.

Amy is an educational consultant who spent 15 years as a high school teacher and guidance counsellor in Canada and The Netherlands. She holds a Masters Degree in Contemplative Education from Naropa University and in 2012 she co-founded MindWell (mindwell-education.com) whose aim is to support educational communities in fostering wellbeing through mindfulness and social-emotional learning. She is a lead teacher trainer for the Mindfulness in Schools Project (UK) and is also a facilitator for the CARE program (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Educators) from the Garrison Institute. Amy supports the Community of Contemplative Education through Mind & Life Europe. She is also a Mentor for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme UK) teen retreats. Amy works internationally providing workshops and retreats for educators, students and parents with a focus on self-care and stress management.