Senior Associate Gary MacPhie and Senior Consultant Gunther Brandt attended the European Council International Schools (ECIS) 2018 Educators Conference this November 16th–18th in Luxembourg. An excellent site for the event, The International School of Luxembourg was an exceptional host, offering a great deal of care and support in a lovely campus environment. Approximately 300 teachers, mostly from European schools, with a few teachers/administrators from outside the region, were keen and engaged in the workshops centered on the theme The Language and Design of Learning. The conference website details the program:
“The first 1.5 days are dedicated to deeper learning formats, what we call POPs (problems of practice), where we work together to solve problems of practice and implement immediately in school, with an eye to evidence of impact. The second 1.5 days are filled with eye-popping workshop sessions, led by fellow practitioners who are passionate about relating learning design to student outcomes."
According to teachers with whom Gary and Gunther spoke, there were some excellent keynote addresses on math literacy, learning design spaces, and multilingual learning within international settings. At the Search Associates table in the vendor area, they also learned that many educators at the conferences prefer to remain in the European region.
On the last evening, ECIS hosted an exceptional social event for all at a very old converted wine warehouse only a couple of kilometers from Germany. The food was fabulous; the live band played great music for all ages, and the buses were prompt picking guests up and shuttling them back to the hotel. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful three days.
Search Associates is proud to take part in the annual ECIS conferences and looks forward to supporting educators in this region and beyond. Wishing everyone happy holidays!
