Lunar New Year

Living in Asia has afforded me many opportunities to participate in and learn about cultural traditions and celebrations. One of the major ones has been Lunar New Year. I have been lucky enough to celebrate the Lunar New Year here in Korea as well as in Beijing, and this year we will travel to Taipei for the New Year break.

This really is a wonderful celebration and it is a great time to see how the different Asian nations celebrate this special event. Two things that I always associate with this time of year are the color red and the smell of firecracker smoke. These cultural experiences are one of the true highlights of being an international educator.

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Giving Students the Opportunity to Shine

On Saturday we kicked off a new service/outreach initiative in the MS. Our Student Life Minister Ms Choe and one of our active colleagues and parents, Ms Chang recently started a conversation with a couple who are Pastors of a church near Suwon Sports Stadium. The Pastors run afterschool tutorial sessions for the local kids, most of whom come from broken and/or underprivileged homes. Both Ms Choe and Ms Chang knew that we had been looking for opportunities for our MS students and faculty to contribute to our local community through meaningful and repeatable service and they quickly realized that this is just what we had been waiting for.

So on Saturday the Pastors brought 13 elementary aged students to GSIS to participate in a Chapel, story time, computer time, games, swimming, and lunch. Each child was paired up with one of our MS students, 20 of whom selflessly gave up their Saturday for this worthwhile service. The day was also generously supported by Ms Choe, Ms Chang, Ms Kim in the library, and Ms Smith and Ms Wendling in the pool. Our visitors had a wonderful time and they all said that they can't wait to come back again - we are also excited about our next day together scheduled for December.

I was extremely proud of our MS students and the way that they put their own wants and needs aside for the day to serve these children. I know our MS students gained a lot from this experience and I was very pleased to hear that they will all be signing up to help out again next month.

I have been discussing this idea with our Student Life Minister for some time so it was great to see it come to fruition. Saturday was a wonderful beginning and I hope it is proves to be the catalyst for an expanding and growing community service program here at GSIS.

EARCOS Administrators' Conference - Manila

Well the EARCOS conference is over - what a wonderful 4 days! I really enjoyed engaging with educational leaders from all over the world who are currently working in international schools throughout Asia.

The workshops that I participated in allowed me to share some of the great things that we are doing at GSIS while at the same time hearing from other schools and some of the great things that they are doing. This time of professional collaboration and sharing really helps to invigorate and inspire all involved - offering great ideas and initiatives that can be taken back to our respective schools for the betterment of our students.

During the conference I was introduced to many new technological tools and had the opportunity to apply them practically while I was participating. Some of these tools really helped to enhance my conference experience and I feel that I was more engaged and learned more by combining the use of technology within this conference context. This first hand experience with the power of technology to enhance my learning, engagement, and understanding really affirms our use of technology at GSIS and our effort to ensure that our students are responsible and effective users of these technologies.

As parents and educators we sometimes feel a little daunted and fearful when it comes to education and technology. My experiences with the potential of technology to increase engagment and understanding for our students assures me that infusing technology into our learning experiences is something we should embrace, not fear.