Dear Colleagues,
It is a pleasure and privilege to invite you to the 27th Annual CEESA Conference - March, 2017 in Sofia.
Our international schools are populated with creative, motivated, well-supported and community-minded people. We have the good fortune of wonderful facilities, access to resources and a plethora of learning opportunities. With good fortune comes a duty to use our circumstances to continually improve education and learning, within and throughout our respective communities and beyond.
In education we are interdependent with a veritable cacophony of communities... communities of practice, parent communities, business communities, student communities, online communities, cultural communities, learning communities, communities of circumstance, and dare I be a little glib and mention gated communities.
Community is the focus of the 2017 CEESA Conference. Teaching and learning is a messy and rewarding journey that exemplifies the proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The 2015 CEESA Conference theme focused on global citizenship. In 2016 the Conference concentrated on personalized learning. The focal point of the 2017 Conference, community, is the natural connector between global and personal. Leveraging and understanding the many communities involved with and influencing education is paramount to international education - indeed each community brings to light different perspectives on education. Thus, at the heart of our conference will be the question, “Transforming education through communities - What’s your perspective?”
The dedicated and discerning CEESA team has cultivated and curated an inspiring and intriguing group of thought-provoking leaders who will engage us in enticing conversations and collaborations. While being virtually present at the conference and pre-conference via social media (i.e. an online community) can be fruitful, there is still nothing quite like the invigoration and vivification of meeting face-to-face with real people, sharing real experiences and in real time.
Our conference seeks to augment and affirm the journey of becoming better teachers and learners and to further forge the communities that will engage and support us in building our capacity as a community of learners. In the coming months you can access the full conference program from the CEESA website at ceesa.org We look forward to expanding our learning community as we work together in aspiration of CEESA’s vision: ”leads educational transformation through collaboration.”
See you in Sofia, March 2017!
Jim Urquhart
Director
Anglo-American School of Sofia