‘Art does not only exist in the art class‘. I find that if I encourage art throughout the school, not only does my art program become more dynamic and populated, but the school population becomes more engaged. ‘Engaged students and teachers creates more learning opportunities‘.
At ISE, I focused much time in showcasing student’s creativity and developing ways to include all students within the creative process, allowing them to realize the power of art.
Thai Study Trips
After my first Thai Studies Trip, I was sharing photos with my students – discussing our different adventures – and I was amazed at the varied and unique experiences each class had – of course being in Thailand opened up the opportunity to visit exotic locales. I was sure that our parents, prospective students and even our current students and teachers weren’t aware of the amazing experiences each group got to experience. And so, I collected photos from each age group of students and created a display area, showcasing amazing photos from each group and a small summary (written by a student) for each grade level. This was then updated each year.
Grade 7 – Ayutthaya and Supanburi
Grade 8 – Chanthaburi Province
Grade 9 – Kanchanaburi
Grade 10 – Koh Chang
Grade 11 – Chiang Mai – Elephant Sanctuary
Grade 12 – Koh Chang
ESLR Posters
One of the key focuses of the ISE WASC team was to improve our students knowledge and engagement with our ESLRs. When I spoke with students, I noticed that the students did know the ELSRs in theory – but were unsure what each meant. In order to help with their understanding, we decided to discuss well known successful people that successfully encapsulated that particular ESLR. Using my blog, I collected suggestions from each class, and then as a school we voted for the most popular ‘spokesperson’ for each ESLR.
Marketing
As always, marketing is an important aspect of an international school. While I was at ISE, I was able to enlist the help of students to create advertisements – not only posing for photos, but they came up with using the logo INSPIRE (which includes our ISE) – for local magazines as well as our large billboard at the entrance to Burapha Golf Course.
Amy Atkinson 