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 months.

Mark is a seasoned international educator with experience at the International School Manila, American International School Riyadh, Concordia International School Shanghai, Bodwell International School, International School Ho Chi Minh City-American Academy, and BASIS Park Lane Harbour. He is currently a principal and teacher in the public school system in Canada.

One of Mark’s core beliefs is that many of the world's future leaders will emerge from students educated in international schools. These students are often multilingual, have received top-tier education, networked with ambitious peers, come from families of means, and almost always pursue higher education degrees—traits that are well-suited to leadership roles. This leadership may manifest in local communities, small business ventures, significant corporate positions, or even public office. It is crucial that international schools continue preparing their students for leadership roles by fostering a skill set that goes beyond academic excellence.

We asked "soon-to-be-retired" Mark the guiding question: “What are some of your lessons learned from the various roles you experienced during your years of going global?”

With such a long career in international schooling, Mark had a lot of gems to share with us:

• Commonalities of international schools in Asia
• Characteristics of international schools specifically in China
• Clarifications between legacy international schools, bilingual schools, and local-student-majority schools
• A look at for-profit schools and the various forms they can take
• Working with school boards
• “Leaky boundaries” in international schools
• Repatriating to one’s home country
• A rapid-fire sharing of lessons learned from Mark’s career overseas

Resources mentioned in the episode:

EARCOS East Asia Regional Council of Schools

NESA - Near East/South Asia Council of Overseas Schools

Mark’s Contact Information:

LinkedIn

This episode was recorded on March 23, 2025.
Categories: Leadership | Change | School Life | School Types

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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 fatigue and the dropping of programs when their champions leave the school.

With so much talk around wellness and change management we decided to invite Alison Leathwood on the show to share an overview of how to design and implement a schoolwide wellness program that is sustainable.

Alison is an international school physical education teacher who is passionate about wellness. She is dedicated to equipping students with the tools they need for both physical and emotional wellbeing. She extends this passion beyond the classroom, having served in various leadership roles including HS Advisory Curriculum Coordinator, EC-12 Personal Development Coordinator, Wellness Committee Chair and currently serving as the Head of Department for PE. Through these leadership roles, Alison strives to create a lasting positive impact on the social-emotional well-being of the entire school community.

Our guiding question for this show was, “How might international school leaders approach the development of a school- and community-wide wellness program based on Positive Psychology?”

Alison offered such a detailed framework along with so many practical strategies that it is futile to try and summarize them here. So I will share just a handful of the topics to whet your appetite for designing an effective wellness program at your school!

Here they are:

• Using a Positive Psychology approach to wellness
• Leveraging Character Strengths and the PERMAH pillars
• The who, what, when, where, why and how of implementing a wellness program
• Other factors that will affect the success of your wellness program

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Alison's Resource folder

David’s Wellness@ES site for integrating Pos Psych into the elementary school

Alison’s Contact Information:

LinkedIn

X: @peleathwood

This episode was recorded on February 24, 2025.

Categories: Wellness | Leadership | Change

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Music: YouTube. (2022). Acoustic Guitar | Folk | No copyright | 2022❤️. YouTube. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEmg_6i7jA.

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 once, but three times. We think it’s fair to say that Dave knows what happens!

Dave has 35 years of K-12 education experience, primarily in leadership roles across Canada, Hong Kong, and Bahrain. He joined the Esol organization in Bahrain in September 2018, and led the founding team in establishing the American School of Bahrain, which opened its doors in September 2020. The school began with just over 100 students amid the COVID-19 pandemic and has grown to nearly 800 students in its first five years of operation.

Prior to this role, Dave served as Principal and Head of School at the Canadian International School of Hong Kong (CDNIS) from 2002 to 2014. During his tenure, CDNIS was recognized as the top international school in Hong Kong for seven consecutive years. Dave has founded three schools, with the most recent being the American School of Bahrain.

Dave’s authenticity as an educational leader is a recognized force that motivates students, parents, staff, and management to continually advance the status quo, ensuring excellence in educational provision and learning. He emphasizes what he calls the "smile index" as a key barometer for assessing a school's success. Dave also possesses extensive experience in recruiting and retaining top international educators, which he considers crucial to the success of founding ASB.

Dave holds a Bachelor of Education from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He also earned a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from San Diego State University.

Our Guiding Question was, “How does one start an international school?”

Here are a few of the topics covered in this episode:

• Reasons why new international schools are being built
• Who are some of the parties behind the new schools
• Some of the various “buckets” or categories of work that you needed to plan for and start a new international school
• Some of the headaches and some of the heartfelt moments in starting his current school
• Advice for any person or organization thinking about starting an international school

Resources mentioned in the episode:

American School of Bahrain

Dave McMaster on LinkedIn

The show was recorded on February 16, 2025.

Categories: School Life | School Creation | Recruiting

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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, we were lucky enough to be able to speak with Barbara Butterworth, who was head of the school from 1998 - 2005.

Barbara is an educator whose career originally took her to Nepal as a Peace Corps Volunteer, where she taught math and science. She also taught science education at two different colleges and served as a principal/director at four different schools: a private elementary school, a public elementary school, an international school, and a noted Nepali high school. From 1998 to 2005, she was the director of the Lincoln School, the American international school in Nepal. A graduate of Wellesley College, Cornell University, and Stanford University, Barbara’s career in education has also included leading a major USAID teacher training project in Cambodia.

Our Guiding Questions were, “At 71 years of age, Lincoln School is one of the “OG” international schools. How did the Lincoln School get its start and what makes the Lincoln School community a special place to be?”

Here are a few of the topics covered in this episode:

• Lived values and characteristics of Lincoln School and its community
• Origin story of the school comparing to similar early international schools
• How the Lincoln School and community deal with struggles and difficult times
• How some international schools celebrate their milestone anniversaries
• Recruiting during pre-internet times

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Lincoln School

The show was recorded on February 10, 2025.

Categories: School Life | Crisis Management | School Missions | Recruiting

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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 across Europe and ended up in Vietnam. He taught for nine years at SSIS. He enjoys SCUBA diving, playing in a band, pickleball, and cooking. He has also been a proactive investor and proponent of financial literacy.

Rob Howe is a business professional. He began his career in the technology industry. After a 1.5-year sabbatical, he met his wife, an international teacher, and decided to become one. His first position was in Indonesia. He then returned to the US, started a new career in sustainability consulting, and adopted two children from India. In 2014, he returned overseas. Posts included Lebanon, Zimbabwe, and Vietnam.

Amy Hunt teaches Psychology and Science of Mind at Nueva School in San Francisco. After a year in outdoor education, Amy left the US to teach in Ethiopia, where she met her husband, Lee Fertig. They later moved to Brazil, then back to the US, followed by stints in Spain, Brazil, and Belgium before returning to the US in 2020. A curious risk-taker, Amy is also a yoga therapist. She reads a lot, loves murder shows, pickleball, taking hikes and cold plunges.

Our Guiding Question was, “What are some of your takeaways after transitioning out of international teaching?”

Panelists shared their experiences moving out of international education to return to the US. Here are a few topics covered:

• Leaving your “tribe” and finding a new one
• Character strengths/skills of international educators that help with transition
• The RAFT approach to transitions> Reconciliation | Affirmation | Farewells | Think Destination (see link below for details)
• Letting go of perks of international teaching
• Unpacking Affordable Care health insurance
• Personal finance
• Children transitioning to the US
• A "2-year" transition process

Resources Mentioned:

The poem Ithaca

PERMAH Pivot Plan

The Edgar Suit (Men in Black)

RAFT idea

Show was recorded on January 15, 2025

Categories: Parenting | School Life | Transitions | Finances

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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 their service learning and global citizenship development efforts.

LeeAnne is a consultant, coach and facilitator for international educators. She partners with schools and teachers to create learning experiences that have impact and lead to deep learning and service as action. LeeAnne is also the Service Learning Program Coordinator for the Association of International Schools in Africa. You can learn more on her website.

Our Guiding Questions were, “What is service learning? What is global citizenship? What are some ways to integrate both into the culture of a school?”

Here are a few of the topics covered in this episode:

• Digital storytelling: a powerful tool for student agency and creativity
• Using the design cycle for integration
• Leveraging Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and differentiation
• Service learning as experiential learning to support life skill development
• Deep listening: connect with community members
• The intersectionality of service learning, global citizenship, and other initiatives

Resources mentioned in the episode:

LeeAnne’s Website
LeeAnne on LinkedIn
LeeAnnes’ Blog Post on students advocating for wildlife conservation

Thoughtbox Education
The Disengaged Teen
Future Learning Design Podcast - episode about The Disengaged Teen
Zoe Weil Book & Webinar entitled “The World Becomes What We Teach”

The show was recorded on January 13, 2025.
Categories: School Life | Curriculum | School Missions

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Music: YouTube. (2022). Acoustic Guitar | Folk | No copyright | 2022❤️. YouTube. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEmg_6i7jA.

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-trades educator, instructor, and designer, and is no stranger to juggling his expertise in education, training, startups, technology, and marketing – all while balancing on a unicycle. His mission, as he has chosen to accept it, is to fearlessly blend existing and newfangled technologies in the classroom, creating an educational smoothie of epic proportions.

Michael and his wife Lori are parents to an adult child with profound autism. Their family experiences have motivated them to assist all educators to provide all students with inclusive learning opportunities in education.

Our Guiding Question was, “How can teachers learn to effectively use AI in their teaching? What are some instructional techniques that they can tap into right now?”

Here are a few topics covered in this episode:

• Michael’s start with AI and his PD platforum
• AI improving efficiency and productivity for busy teachers
• AI for Individualizing Lessons
• AI and School Data and Privacy
• AI supported instruction in the ES, MS and HS classrooms
• Moral and ethical issues
• Possible future outcomes of AI and schools

Michaels’s Contact Information: AI Teacher Tips

Resources Mentioned in the Episode: Visit Michael’s AI Teacher Tips for the resources shared in the interview.

The show was recorded on December 17, 2024.

Categories: Instruction | School Life | PD

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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 Audrey noted in her introduction to the episode, get your notebook and pen handy as Dr. Devens shares so much helpful information!

For 29 years, Dr. Devens has worked in international education as a school psychologist, counselor, and classroom educator. Jeff completed his Ph.D. in School Psychology in 2006. His dissertation research focused on depression rates among international students.

Growing up on public assistance and the only one of five children to graduate from high school, Jeff uniquely appreciates the hurt, heartache, and angst that parents encounter when raising kids. His first book, A Parent’s Guide to Raising Kids Overseas, was released in 2018. Jeff’s wife, Nanette, is also an international educator. They have two children: Cylas, a college freshman, and Cora, a high school sophomore.

Our Guiding Question was, “Is parenting overseas different from parenting in one’s home country? What are some things to think about?”

Here are a few topics Jeff covered in this episode:

• What first-time overseas parents and students can experience with the start of school
• How family systems can change when living internationally
• The importance of community with the school at the center of it
• Cultural considerations and variations
• Stressed out students
• Parenting styles
• The importance of values
• Fostering life skills

Where to learn more:

The Facebook group Expat Financial Education run by Andrew Hallam
Jeff’s Book - A Parent’s Guide to Raising Kids Overseas

Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

David’s Wellness@ES website which includes a section on Digital WellnessDr. Jonathan Haight’s Anxious Generation website and book of the same name

The show was recorded on August 30, 2024.
Categories: Parenting | School Life | Transitions | Digital Wellness

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Music: YouTube. (2022). Acoustic Guitar | Folk | No copyright | 2022❤️. YouTube. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEmg_6i7jA.