Ensure all learners have access to effective teaching with particular attention to diversity

The third Standard of Practice for International School Principal is "Select, orient, assign, develop, evaluate, and retain quality instructional and support personnel to ensure every learner has access to effective teaching with particular attention to ensuring diversity." I do this by helping to hire the best staff we can. My philosophy towards hiring is to help bring in people who match and enhance the school culture and vision rather than teachers who simply graduated from prestigious universities.

At ISU, I am proud to be part of the team that has shaped our professional development system and our appraisal system. At ISU, we use what we call the PLEF - the Professional Learning Engagement Framework. We look at our definition of high-quality teaching learning and our mission and use those as jumping points to exploring our unique potentials as educators. In other words at ISU we hire experienced, high-quality educators, and our PLEF system is a means of helping to ensure growth and development.

I helped play a major role in this process in many ways. 1. Helping to interview potential new hires. 2. Modeling our appraisal system for staff members. 3. Assuring that all staff are informed of DEIJB practices.

This particular project is an example of #3. Alongside Kathleen Mwanga and Colin Powell, I prepared a DEIJB presentation that focused on getting people's names right. The presentation features Gerardo Ochoa's TED Talk "Getting it right; why pronouncing names correctly matters" and a poem "It’s My Name; Say it Right!’’ by Hiwot Adilow. We used the visible Thinking Routine - Circle of Viewpoints to engage the staff in a meaningful discussion.