Identifying anxiety 
Sharing best practices 
Benchmarking our schools 
Throwing in our goals for “accountability buddy” collection
This weekend we hosted Dr. Christopher Liang, a professor of psychology and counseling from the Lehigh University College of Education. Dr. Liang led a group of more than 50 educators from around the EARCOS region for two days and then followed up with one day with our faculty. There was much to take in and I am posting my full notes from the conference below. I will try to summarize my big “take-aways” from the workshop in this blog post.
A focus this year at OIS is student well-being which includes mental, emotional, and physical health. Pastoral care or social-emotional teaching and learning are more effective within a Multiple Tier School-wide Support (MTSS) program. “Tier 1 for Everyone” is the part of the MTSS that is preventative instruction for all students and for about 80% of the students, meets their needs.
The key to a strong school culture of well-being starts with close, healthy relationships. This can be teacher-student relationships, teacher-teacher, and any combination of stakeholder groups in a community. Dr. Liang covered a lot over the three days, raising awareness of mental health and the mitigating factors schools can implement to minimize risk. Some topics included the effects of stress, Third Culture Kids, depression, mindfulness, “hikikomori”, brain education, vocational education, demonstrating care, the impact of culture & identity, and dealing with emotions, among others.
One of my main learning points is the relationship between vocational education and well-being. The stress of having a lucrative career drives families to strive for selective universities, high IB scores, etc. When students and parents have more information about career paths, this can lessen these pressures.
Some online resources noted over the weekend are as follows:
- MindfulSchools – Online training programs for teachers, parents and mental health professionals.
- A Still Quiet Place – A mindfulness program for teaching children and adolescents.
- Relationship Matters – A TED talk by Dr. Gordon Neufeld.
- The Gift & Power of Emotional Courage – A TED talk by Susan David
- International School Counselor Association – They developed The International Model for International Schools
TIS Director's Blog 
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