Visioning Process and Implementation of the Digital Learning Program

At the American International School of Bucharest, I have been fortunate to expand my leadership capacity, first implementing and developing the Ed. Tech program in the Lower School, and then school-wide, with a team of coaches under my supervision. Over the years, my team and I have made remarkable strides in strengthening our core beliefs as a faculty and implementing a school-wide vision that aligns with the institutional strategic plan.

Building Planes in Mid-Air

In an environment where cyber security and data protection are taken very seriously, so was the implementation of measures pertaining to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at AISB in recent years. As a Digital Learning Team, we have worked tirelessly with different stakeholders (including elementary students) to educate them about these regulations, and ensure that student and teacher needs are at the heart of our technology infrastructure and integration goals. Most prominent over these years was our effort to provide guidance and lead the school through the shift to online learning to respond to the challenges of COVID19. 

Rebranding & Design

Alongside my commitment to Digital Learning at AISBucharest, I have been known by colleagues and administrators as someone whose creative efforts extend beyond the ordinary. My love of beauty, ever worthy of inclusion in content design, is bolstered by my intellectual endeavors, and it has been an integral artistic aspect of how I work.

In the last year, I have worked alongside a team of design teachers to rebrand our school in-house. Through different iterations, collecting and incorporating feedback from the stakeholders, our team has overhauled the schoolʼs visual identity and created a new set of logos, stationary, templates, banners, etc. I personally focused on rethinking our digital identity and completely rebuilding the schoolʼs website and all the internal digital communication.

From Ed. Tech Advocate to Coach

While I was still teaching 8th grade EAL at the American Embassy School, a student-driven project I mentored was sparked by a school-wide wish to learn more about the personal and academic challenges, social conflicts, and feelings of our non-native speakers of English. Six students took it upon themselves to document their fellow students’ insights in all three divisions. The product they created opened an all-school professional learning day and helped to guide our faculty’s conversations about social and personal needs, differentiation and access. Most importantly, the experience provided these young documentarians with an authentic opportunity for self-awareness, meaningful and deliberate practice, and ownership of their learning.

Collaboration Expert

A fundamental part of my practice as a Technology Integration specialist was dedicated to understanding needs and building relationships to leverage trust and openness to change. Working on curriculum design with teams presenting diverse needs has provided me with a solid framework with which to collaborate with others and help them succeed. It has allowed me to continuously improve my practice and reflect upon the ways in which my performance can encourage others to passionately create new paradigms for instruction; inspired me to create and share resources with a broader audience from whom I, in turn, learn; led me to rethink professional learning in the context of our school, by revamping traditional practices in favor of user engagement and personalized support; and it has opened doors to passionate cohorts of fellow educators and led me to seek additional certifications, such as Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Innovator.

A More Inclusive Student Leadership Program

At AES, I was a co-leader and facilitator of the Elementary School student leadership program. I am most proud of a project that disseminated digital citizenship lessons through the student leadership model, where students who self-identify as experts in a particular field receive instruction and, eventually, space to produce their own materials and share messages with their fellow students.