Example Sequence of Teacher PD Workshop Sessions
I recently had a couple of discussions with schools here in Rwanda regarding how I might be able to support teacher professional learning (aka. professional development) in the coming school-year. I feel strongly that effective teacher professional learning needs to consider the context of the teachers, school, students, curriculum, etc. However, for the sake of discussion, I put together a rough example sequence of workshop sessions. These are based on my personal teaching experience, and my experience working and observing in schools. The below sequence reflects some of the topics and concepts that I believe are high impact for teacher professional growth and student learning. Again, though, this is just an example.
Global Citizenship Education and Smokey Responsibility
Smokey Bear has been associated with forest fire prevention since he was first introduced by the US Forest Service in 1944. From 1947 to 2001, Smokey’s well-known tag-line was, “Remember, only you can prevent forest fires” (in 2001 the quote was adjusted slightly to refer more generally to wildfires). Though I grew up in Canada, I was familiar with Smokey Bear. This was partly due to the influence of US media, partly because of family trips to New England, and partly because Canada also knows a few things about forest fires. But somehow, growing up, I never asked the question: Why is the bear, whose role it is to promote forest fire prevention, named “Smokey”? As the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. So why name the US Forest Service fire prevention mascot, Smokey?
A “Yes, and…” Response to Ms. Hughes’ Article in The International Educator
Socratic discussions are a key pedagogical tool in the Critical Global Citizenship course at the International School of Kigali (ISKR). Socratic discussions involve participants challenging each other with questions about an object of knowledge, such as a text; they also involve offering alternative arguments, or building upon arguments already presented. In class, we have to deliberately practice the types of interactions that foster productive Socratic discussions, which, in addition to questions, include responses such as: “I disagree, because,” “yes, but…,” or “yes, and…”.
All of that was preamble to set up the purpose of this post. Ms. Estelle Baroung Hughes, Secondary Principal at the International School of Dakar, recently (June 18, 2025) published a short article in The International Educator, which summarized an address she gave at a conference earlier this year. I encourage you to check out the article, which is titled Nurturing Passion for “Glocal” Citizenship. Like in an effective Socratic discussion, I would like to present a “yes, and…" response to Ms. Hughes.
The Teacher’s Job is to Explain— To “Make Plain”
I have made the claim before that a teacher is essentially an “explainer.” I’ve sometimes felt some resistance from others to that claim, and I think I know why. When I state that a teacher is an “explainer,” for some it conjurers up an image of a dry, boring lecture such as the case of the economics teacher (played by Ben Stein) in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (“anyone, anyone…”). This is not my idea of an “explainer,” so let me try to “explain” my claim below.
Syllabus for a High School Critical Global Citizenship Education Course
During the first two years of my Ed.D. program, I focused much of my research on the concepts and practices of service-learning and global citizenship education. Arising from this research, I proposed a high school, one semester course, intended for seniors, at my school, the International School of Kigali. The course was rooted in the Global Citizenship standards put forth by UNESCO in alignment with UN SDG #4. I then proceeded to pilot the course with a small group of students during the 23-24 school-year. Then in the following school-year, we implemented as a required course for all seniors.
I plan to write a few different blog posts about my experience with this course. In this post, I’m just providing the syllabus so that readers can get an overview.
A Graduation Speech on Human Faces and Relationships
Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?
These lines appear near the end of a novel that I recently reread by C.S. Lewis called, Till We Have Faces. It’s a creative retelling of an ancient Greek myth involving Cupid and Psyche. These lines are spoken by Orual, the main protagonist and narrator of the story, shortly after she’s had a mysterious encounter with the gods. The “they” to which she refers – “why should they hear… how can they meet us…” – are the gods. If you know this book and you know C.S. Lewis, you know that he’s working on a theological theme with these lines. But in rereading the story recently, I was struck by the significance of the face. Lewis is drawing on the sense that our face is where our true selfhood is expressed and it’s where we see the unique personhood of others.
A Graduation Speech in the Year of Ted Lasso & ChatGPT
Two key phenomena marked the 2022-23 school-year in my mind: one, the release of ChatGPT and two, season three of Ted Lasso, a show beloved by a lot of teachers. So it is that as the ISK Class of 2023 walked across the graduation stage, and I was honored to give the graduation speech, I thought it fitting to address these two phenomena in the words that I delivered below.
An Example of Criterion-Based Grading
In this post, I've simply copied and pasted a piece that I've written and included for my course syllabi for next school-year. This requires a few words of explanation. First, my school, as mentioned previously, still uses the traditional normative grading practices of percentage grades, averaging, letter grades based on percentage ranges, and GPA calculations. My school is initiating a process of reforming grading practices, but, at least for next year in the high school, the traditional system will remain. As a result, what I've explained below is an attempt to assess, score and report using criterion-based grading within my own classroom despite the larger structure of the school. As a result, not every aspect of it is exactly as I would most prefer it. Second, it's important to note that I haven't actually implemented this plan in this exact way yet. It's possible that I'll have to return to it at some point and refine it once it faces the realities of actual practice.
Criterion-Based Grading: The Alternative to Bad Traditional Grading Practices
In previous posts I’ve mentioned the problem with traditional grading practices. I’ve explained that they’re normative grades that aren’t referenced to any predetermined set of criteria. This brings us to an alternative to normative grading, which is criterion-based grading. In short, criterion-based grading means that the grade reflects the extent to which the student achieved the criteria for that assignment, unit, or course. Other terms that could be substituted for “criteria'' could be, “goals,” or “objectives,” but the point is that the criteria is set from the outset, and is transparently clear to both the teacher and the students.
Problems with Traditional Grading Practices
In this post, I'd like to finally dive into the actual practices of grading. I've found myself teaching at a new school this semester, where traditional grading practices are still the norm (though, to the school's credit, it has embarked on an assessment and grading reform plan). My daughter has also found herself navigating traditional grading practices at her new high school this year. As a result, issues around grading have continued to occupy my thinking. In this post, I'd like to dive into the issue of grading by starting with a critique of traditional grading practices. I should note that these are traditional grading practices in an American education context, and have influenced grading practices in K-12 schools in other parts of the world as well. Though not identical, I will also note that these practices were very similar to those used in my Canadian schools growing up. Of course, that does not mean they're universal.
Student Assessment as Teacher Research
In preparing to teach the topic of social science research methods in my IB Business Management course last year, some questions occurred to me. To what extent was the job of the classroom teacher when it comes to student assessment the same as that of the researcher doing primary data collection? As a teacher, when I create, assign, collect and analyze student assessments, am I not collecting primary data? Is not this part of the teacher's job the same as that of the researcher? Am I not collecting data for the purpose of gaining some sort of information about my students, such as how much they've learned of a given topic?
Coaching Track & Field as a Model of Differentiated Instruction
For a number of years while I was teaching at ICS in Ethiopia, I was the high school track & field coach. I loved coaching; the new track & field season was something I looked forward to each year. As a teacher, I knew that what I was doing as a track & field coach was a model of differentiation, but I struggled to then translate that into differentiated learning in my classroom. This past semester I took a course called "Differentiating Instruction." I felt a little validated when differentiation guru Carol Ann Tomlinson also made the connection between good coaching and differentiated classroom teaching.
Yours Truly, Grade
Dear Student,
My name is “Grade.” You know me from that report card you received yesterday. I was sitting there glaring at you from the box next to the line for your History class. I fear that my presence there was a disappointment to you; in fact, I fear that my presence in your school life has been a source of frustration for many years. I wanted to write to you directly to clarify a few things. I want you to know who I am and what I truly stand for. I also want to express to you my frustration at being often misused by teachers, including teachers that you’ve had throughout your school life. I’m not what you think I am; I’m not that thing that causes you anxiety and keeps you awake at night. I’m not that thing that triggers a grounding from your parents, who take away your video game console each time a report card comes out. Rather, if I was better understood for who I really am, I could be meaningful to you, and I could even support your learning.
My Reflections on the Situation in Ethiopia Since Nov. 4
My idea for this blog was to write about “what I am learning, what I am teaching and what I am learning about teaching.” Admittedly, this blog post falls quite far to the periphery of that intended focus, but let me briefly make a case for it with two points. First, this post arises from what I’ve been learning; it reflects learning mostly from the past year, but rooted in ongoing learning over the past decade. I spent ten years living in Ethiopia and during that decade, I committed to discovering all that I could about the country, its history and its culture. That learning informs this post. Second, I spent nine of those ten years in Ethiopia as a teacher. During my time as a teacher, I spent several years helping to develop as well as teaching curriculum for our IB History course about Ethiopian history. Also during my time as a teacher, I was a strong advocate that, though we were an international school with primarily non-Ethiopian passport-holding students, it was important that we were rooted firmly in our place in Ethiopia and engaged with the host country and culture. I tried to live that commitment by rooting myself firmly within Ethiopia. Therefore, while this post is not strictly speaking about curriculum, school policy or instructional practice, I want to argue that it still fits within the scope I intended for this blog.
Well-Being: Should it be More Central In Schools?
There is a movement to consider happiness and well-being as measures of development instead of just traditional economic measures like GDP. Concern for human happiness and well-being is also the realm of the field of Positive Psychology. In this post, I explore the idea of making student happiness and well-being as central goals for K-12 schools.
Perspective: In Teaching History and in Current Events
Today -- Friday, May 21 -- here in Addis Ababa, state-aligned media and various political actors have called for protests around the city against, what they are calling, foreign interference in Ethiopia's domestic affairs and state sovereignty. This comes in response to a few different issues, including statements from the United States and the European Union on the upcoming national elections here, but it's primarily in response to the situation in northern Ethiopia in the region of Tigray. Weighing into the history and politics of this conflict is not my intent with this post. Instead, I'm reminded today of a class I had with my 9th grade Social Studies students back in November, where we were learning about the historical thinking concept of “Perspective.” That lesson seems pertinent today.
Student Well-being in Online Learning
Though there are exceptions, for most adolescents, full-time online learning during the Covid pandemic has been tough. It's not only been tough for learning, but also from the perspective of mental health and overall wellness. In this post, I have my students specifically in mind as I write. I want to outline a few scientific, research-based strategies for improving well-being. These are strategies that one can pick and choose from and implement pretty quickly and easily. Studies demonstrate that these strategies can provide a pretty immediate boost in one's sense of well-being, and, when put into regular practice, can provide long-term well-being benefits.
A Model of Service-Learning in IB Business Management
In this post, I set out a potential model for service-learning from the subject area classroom side of the service learning relationship with CAS within the IB Diploma Program. The model I present is specifically from the perspective of the IB Business Management course. As I touch on below, I also believe this model is about more than meeting an IBDP requirement; rather, I think it’s about improving teaching and learning more generally within the IB subject area classroom.
A Graduation Speech
I was privilege to be selected by the graduating class of 2021 as their speaker for their graduation ceremony. I was selected in part because I too was closing out my time at the International Community School of Addis Ababa. I've been doing a lot reading this semester related to the field of positive psychology for a PE class I've been teaching called "Personal Well-Being". This reading, together with my own experience of life-transition, mixed all together with the reflections that come from a year of a global pandemic, contributed to the below speech: Reflections on the Disney Pixar Movie, Soul.
Economics of Climate Change
In 2nd semester of the 2019-20 school-year, I was assigned to teach a one semester economics course. In the fall of 2019, youth-led action on climate change protests garnered a lot of attention globally. On my school's campus, students organized a class walk-out and march around the campus to draw attention to the need for more climate action. In the follow up of that, a group of students and teachers started meeting to explore ways in which the school could take more action, and a student and teacher committee was formed to explore the school's carbon footprint. In view of this student attention around climate action, I decided to focus the economics elective course on the economics of climate change.