Welcome

Our dear Ms Thompson

I love writing. To see the words flow from my finger tips to my Mac is something that I simply love. Poetic energy with a meaningful twist. Words that both embody what IESS stands for and at the same time keeps the reader on the edge of his seat. Carefully chosen words that express my feelings and beliefs while broadening the readers' understanding of what we are trying to build at IESS. Yes I love my blogs. Yes I am proud of my blogs.

So I thought.

Ms Thompson's tactic was as blunt as her wording. "Sorry dude but your last two blogs were really not good" -a few simple words that hardly needed an explanation. The reality of her words hurting my very soul. Problem is that she was right but still I protested. Pulling out my iPhone I quickly found the two blogs in question. The pain of realizing that she was right was more than I could bare. My very own words lost in unmeaningful sentences and paragraphs. So through this blog I apologize to my avid readers and yet make a simple promise –there are plenty of such blogs to come if only to keep our wonderful librarian Ms Thompson on the edge of her nice fake leather chair.

Seriously though as I headed back home in my white little car I couldn't help feel happy. Her coming to me with this unpleasant truth reminded me of how lucky I am. A school where people say what they think and are not afraid to voice their concerns. It's not an easy thing to build and somehow we've managed. The "dude" as our librarian so simply said loves working at IESS.

Posted on Wednesday, May 9, 2012 - 10:42am

Leading the IESS way

If you want to become a better leader in the classroom, you can't focus on rules and procedures to get things done or to keep things going. You must develop relationships. This applies not just to teachers but also to me for example. A school ran by only rules would never work. Staff would probably "obey" at first and follow the many rules and guidelines, but this would most likely not work in the long term. Read more

Posted on Sunday, May 6, 2012 - 2:36pm

Good grades

Our students know that they need to work hard in order to obtain good grades. IESS wants its students to do well and produce high grades, but never at the cost of grade inflation. Grades need to be earned through hard work. At the same time we also recognize the importance of helping,motivating, and supporting our students. We also know that sometimes mistakes are made and more time is needed to catch up, and to show the potential that is within. Read more

Posted on Monday, April 16, 2012 - 9:03pm

Verbal Judo

Mr Eric Toste who is an ex US Marine and ex Police Officer in Los Angeles was visiting our school today to present Verbal Judo to our students. Mr Toste is currently working for Engelska Skolan in Stockholm and travels around our schools and teaches students the power of words and how to use them. Verbal Judo is about teaching our students how to defend themselves using communication and how to say what you feel in an assertive way while not making the conflict bigger. Read more

Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 3:24pm

Picasso

Posted on Sunday, March 11, 2012 - 7:58pm

The power of carefully chosen words

Posted on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - 6:46pm

Classroom leadership

I'm currently reading a very good book about an exceptional American airline company called Southwest. On page 299 there is a short sentence that I thought described very well our philosophy about classroom leadership. "Leadership isn't some sophisticated technique for getting people to do what you want them to do. Leadership is getting people to want to do what you want them to do because they share your purpose, vision and values". Read more

Posted on Monday, March 5, 2012 - 8:43pm

Ms Yap

"I can help list"; a wonderful little idea that Ms Yap uses in her math lessons. I often visit lessons to both give feedback and gain knowledge on how things are going. Today I visited Ms Yap's math lesson with grade 5 and discovered a new approach to solving the eternal problem that so many teachers face. How can I help all of the students at the same time? Once students start working individually Ms Yap writes two columns on the whiteboard, one for students that require help, and another one for students that want to help others.

Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - 7:42pm

Catwalking

To a seasoned model the catwalk can be a very scary place. It’s 10 meters of pure loneliness where all eyes are on you and where every mistake is carefully noticed and analyzed. To the novice, the same catwalk becomes a learning environment (and still very much scary). It’s 10 meters of convincing yourself that yes, you can do it; 10 meters of self discovery and learning that boundaries that were previously inflexible are now easily crossed. Read more

Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - 7:17pm

Hilbert's problems

Sweden's approach to mathematics is very much based around problem solving. Students are asked to develop excellent skills in understanding problems, solving them, and expressing their answer in a well structured manner. These skills are tested on the National Tests and are constantly the focus of our teaching. To this Sweden wants its students to focus on concrete problems that would reflect a real life situation. We at IESS believe that this is an excellent approach to math.

Posted on Sunday, February 5, 2012 - 6:28pm