In my IB Language and Literature course, while studying Persepolis, the autobiography by Marjane Satrapi, I had the opportunity to have two of my students’ parents come to the class to talk about growing up in Iran during the revolution at the same time as Satrapi. I looked at my classroom with my culturally diverse students: Persian-German, Portuguese-German, Russian, Mexican, and students who had spent their formative years living in China, Brazil, or Romania. Then there was me: an American woman who grew up during the Cold War, and who is old enough to remember asking my mother what the yellow ribbons meant during the Iranian hostage crisis. When I was the age of my students, I could never have imagined that this moment of international personal understanding would be possible.

As the unprecedented growth in communications and trade have brought world economies closer together, international schools are helping bring people closer together. For bi-cultural and Third Culture Kids, international schools become the place where they can feel at home. For local students, international schools are a gateway to a much larger world. Everyone benefits when we come together and learn from each other in a challenging and supportive environment.

The only way to build an environment where these kinds of moments are possible is by creating a space where students feel free to bring in their unique experiences. My two students were thrilled to have their parents share their immigrant experiences. Central to my philosophy of teaching is a quotation from Theodore Roosevelt: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I can know all the latest research about pedagogy, but if my students do not believe I care about them, it will not matter. I do not believe in the “no smiling until November” rule. I believe in greeting my students every day with a smile and the assumption that we are all coming to do the best we can, with what we have, right now.

After 13 years of teaching, the greatest lesson I have learned is how to be flexible. Schools by definition are places to grow, and thus change is the only constant. This was not an easy lesson. When I was fresh out of my master’s program, I was idealistic and certain that if I just used my backward designed units, aligned neatly with the standards and benchmarks, everything would turn out as expected. As a borderline obsessive organizer, this seemed within reach. However, reality sets in quickly when the perfectly planned lesson falls apart, and the magical inspiration of a student’s thoughtful comment leads us down new and interesting paths. An effective teacher needs to have both a clear vision for her students, as well as the ability to respond to the individual people in the classroom. This is often challenging, but always rewarding. Clear learning objectives and a vertically and horizontally aligned curriculum will always be the goal and the vision, but the strategy in the classroom must be responsive and dynamic.

Teaching internationally has been eye-opening and life-changing, and whether I go back to the US or continue to live abroad, I will want to continue to work in a diverse, progressive, dynamic school that strives to create a caring and cooperative environment. Like that day in class with my students’ parents, I hope to continue to be surprised by what is possible.