is magazine 8.1 - Autumn/Spring 2005 - International Schools ...

People and Places
Woodside Park International School announces that the new
Director is David Rose, previously Headmaster of the British
School of Houston, Texas. The current Acting Director, Peter
Hoggins OBE, will leave Woodside Park to finally achieve his
ambition to sail round the world.
St John’s International School, Waterloo, Belgium won the
International School Sports Tournament (ISST) in boys’ basketball
for the third year. The team, coached by Dennis Davis
has now won 67 consecutive games over the past three years.
During the three-day tournament hosted by ACS, Cobham
International School, St John’s defeated the American School
of Paris, Cairo American College, Frankfurt International
School and The American International School in the finals.
In true international form the successful team members, pictured
below, were from Belgium, Canada, Lebanon, Syria,
Turkey, the UK and the US.
Washington International School’s Annual Auction ‘Madly
Mediterranean’ raised $135,000 to benefit the school’s financial
aid programme and another $14,000 was raised in Fund-an-item
bidding to support the school’s performing arts programme.
Comment continued from page 3
an ethical duty to ESL children to make sure that
they receive adequate specialised ESL support.
Administrators also have to select teachers
who are likely to meet the needs of their learners.
International schools need to employ people
who speak languages other than English
because ultimately these are the kinds of teachers
who understand what learning a language
entails and therefore can empathise more with
the vast majority of international students. In
my mind there is no place in international education
for people who ‘don’t like languages’ or
‘can’t learn languages’.
As said previously, in an international
school ‘every teacher is an ESL teacher’. To
ensure that this is indeed a reality, administrators
and mainstream staff need to be trained in
ESL techniques and strategies. Language must
Special to this year’s activities was a tuition raffle for one year’s
tuition, for one student at the winner’s designated school.
Auction co-chairs Marie Breslin, Washington DC and Ghada Abu-
Rameh, Arlington, Virginia, celebrate the evening’s success.
Habitat for Humanity has prepared a Curriculum for Teachers
with lesson plans to foster discussion and exploration of housing
issues. Created for grades 3–5 and 9–12, it has an easy-touse
and adaptable format with lessons that can stand alone or
be the basis of a unit.
Real-world situations are used which, in the Primary Section,
provide understanding of the importance of shelter, housing
needs and ways to contribute to the local community. The
Secondary Curriculum explores the social, economic, geographic
and political causes surrounding poverty housing and engages
students in the application of applied knowledge to real life situations.
For more detailed information contact YP@hfhli.org
Speechmark Publishing were the winners in the 2005 special
education category for Keith Park’s Interactive Storytelling:
Developing Inclusive Stories for Children and Adults. The judges
felt that this book was unique in that it was a hands-on manual
enabling teachers of SEN, or anyone working in community
settings, to use performance to bring stories, drama and poetry
to life. Keith Park ran a series of worshops for groups of special
be viewed across the curriculum and everyone
must share in its teaching. The onus is on the
school’s administration to organise professional
development on ESL and languagerelated
issues.
I would suggest that many international
schools need to become more aware of who
their students are and what their needs are so
that all students, including multilingual ones,
are able to receive what they deserve: equal
rights to the curriculum.
Eithne Gallagher is ESL specialist at
Marymount IS in Rome
and chairs the ECIS/MT committee.
See also Report on the ESL/MT Conference,
Rome page 18.
4Spring
is Autumn 2005