by Marc De Vries
marc@vries.net
On January 22nd the Board of Trustees had its Board Meeting. The highlights are as follows:
ISB Alumni Network
It was a pleasure to have Nick Lim (class of 1974) president of the ISB Alumni Network, introduce us to the two separate organizations operating under the umbrella of the network. The first, the ISB Alumni Network organizes a biannual gathering of alumni in different U.S. locations. The other, the ISB Network Foundation, promotes Thai-US relations and every year grants two Thai seniors at ISB a monetary reward to give to their charity of choice. We were very interested in hearing Mr. Lim’s views in how the school and alumni network could collaborate and align their strategic goals. One of the areas highlighted included a possible alumni mentor program, especially in relation to supporting students in applying to universities of choice that certain alumni may have graduated from. However, the Alumni Network’s main goal for the near future is to grow its membership base from the current 450 predominantly U.S.-based members to a more diversified group representative of the 50+ nationalities of students attending ISB. More information on the network is available at www.isbnetwork.com
Global Citizenship
Under Chris Tananone’s stewardship, the Global Citizenship “bullet” in our Mission has developed into a meaningful and significant part of learning at ISB. We were therefore very pleased to hear Ms. Tananone’s explanation regarding what ISB has done to become such an exemplary school in this area. Having a structured approach that included (i) defining a global citizen, (ii) clarifying the desired kind of learning, (iii) having a clear vision of how to make this happen, and (iv) finding ways to measure and monitor this learning, laid the foundation for the Global Citizenship program. What seems to set ISB apart from most other schools is the fact that global citizenship is infused within our curriculum. Then there are specific activities, such as Global Citizenship Week (GCW), that were redesigned to become more aligned with the kind of learning we want to see (so no more skiing trips). At ISB students and teachers “walk the talk” as evidenced by the many clubs and community service activities that have yielded tangible results in our community (e.g. no plastic bags at Villa, introduction of bio degradable packaging at restaurants in the area). Ms. Tananone gave many examples of global citizenship in action, and there would’ve been countless more, if not for the time constraint. It is clear that ISB goes well beyond just paying lip service to this popular concept.
Learning Scorecard ISA
The ISA results form a component of the Learning Scorecard, a dashboard of ISB’s key performance indicators. The ISA (International Schools Assessment) was taken in October 2012 by students in grades 3,5,7 and 10, and provides a benchmark on how well our students are doing in relation to other international schools. The ISA results are evaluated in context of other assessments and indicators to establish trends and identify focus areas. Results for Math were within the target range, while results for writing were slightly lower than our expectations for a number of grades. This is consistent with other indicators and supports the school’s decision to emphasize writing, as introduced this year. Many teachers have already received professional development training through the Columbia University Teachers College Writers Workshop and we hope this will start bearing fruit in the near future. Improving writing skills will continue to be a major focus for the administration.
PTA Update
The PTA remains busy as always and President, Darcy Eid provided an update of their most recent activities. The PTA’s parent meetings are very successful, attracting large numbers of parents. The meeting for Thai parents with guest speakers talking about admissions to U.S. colleges attracted over 100 participants. The International Family Fair, to be held this Saturday February 9th will feature at least 20 food booths and many games run by student clubs. As is tradition, the IFF again promises to be an exciting event. The PTA has joined efforts with the Booster Club to produce the ISB cookbook and the deadline for recipe submissions has now passed. PTA grants were approved totaling THB177,000 for various initiatives, including the ES Wellness Program, playground equipment, the MS Olympics and the HS Artwork on Canvas pilot program.
Futures Task Force
Flip-teaching, a method of instruction where students receive (video) instruction at home and use class time to apply the learning, is already being used by some teachers. Indications are that this method is successful because teachers have more time to help individual students.
SILC
The Strategic Improvement and Learning Committee (SILC) is looking at ways to improve ISB’s scholarship program. Every year ISB awards 2 scholarships to Thai students with financial need. Scholarship students attend ISB from grades 8 through 12. Searching and selecting scholarship applicants has been a big challenge for the administration and SILC is evaluating a number of possible organizations with profiles that fit our objectives, with whom we could work together. Furthermore SILC is exploring ideas for fundraising for long-term school development, including together with the ISB Alumni Network
Business Committee
The Business Committee provided an update on the status of the facilities projects. Construction of the sports center is progressing steadily and is in its final phase. However, completion of the last details will delay the opening somewhat to the middle of March. The walkway from the main campus to the sports center still needs to be finalized, but there is a concern that the Secession Plot, an untouched area of vegetation of about 100 m2 used by Science classes, will be demolished to make way for the walkway. There are alternative (larger) areas that can be used to replace the Secession Plot, but they don’t have the advantage of being untouched for a number of years. The Business Committee will look at this in further detail and will make a recommendation to the Board.
Next BOT Meeting
The next BOT meeting will be held at 6PM on Tuesday 19 February at MPB. The meeting is open for all community members to attend.
Yours sincerely,
Marc de Vries
BOT Chair