“I work in Kansas City, Missouri. My school district has many poor children. We try to help the children as best as possible by having our own hospital and dentist. This is very helpful for the parents of the children as they don’t have to travel far. I want unlimited adults to read child story and teach them to read, because when I grew up — I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone, but — my mom used to read to me, or my dad, or my sisters, but that is how I learned to read so having that would be very nice.”

“The struggle with Climate Change is that it isn’t getting enough recognition in the news today. Issues like Brexit and or even the name change of Macedonia are getting more coverage than one of the most important problems that we are facing. It is our duty as students to use our voice to have a say in decision making. Even if we aren’t old enough to vote, we can still participate in marches across the world.”

Senior student at the International School of Brussels

“I have been working on PBL, which means Project Based Learning, for the last 4 and a half years. The students will discover more things about science than they will if they were sat in front of a lecture. One of the PBL experiments that we have implemented in the curriculum is the Boat Project. In grade 7, the kids get to design and 3D Print their own boat, in the hopes that it will float and hold weight, while it teaches them about buoyancy and density. Our goal is to use PBL to influence every student to want to learn more."

The International School of Brussels

“I think their eagerness, and playful approach to learning, as well as how much potential there is for discovering new interests, is why I enjoy teaching first graders. They are so little they don’t know who they are and what they want to do, allowing me to expose them to a variety of activities. I studied the development of kids and learned that so much growth can happen in such a little amount of time. While teaching younger kids I get to watch them grow, however, while this growth occurs the main piece of advice I have for them is to be open to mistakes and failure as a way of learning. It has been a learning process for me to accept this, and I wish I had begun to accept it at a younger age.”

The International School of Brussels

“I joined LBD because I really want to meet new people and to share the experience with people who weren’t able to come. ISB has a very impressive way of teaching and I think I would like to bring that into my school as I teach very young children. I think that it is important that even in preschool, kids need to know how to use technology and devices effectively to benefit their future. Things need to change, usually it is just teacher, chalkboard, and students, but education has the capacity to be so much more.”

“When your parents are teachers it is the last thing you’d want to become. In order to avoid becoming a teacher like them, I got a degree in European law. I resisted the urge to pursue this teaching career. However, everyone I met in that sector said that I’d be great in educational training services or teaching, so I finally decided to pursue the job. One reason why I enjoy educating is that my passion has always been seeing the light bulbs turn on when people understand new concepts. I don’t care if it’s 14-year-olds or 40-year-olds, I always get the same thrill. Most of my time is spent with adults, as I enjoy helping them recall what it is like to discover new ideas. Some questions I attempt to answer are; How can people see the world as they’ve never seen it before? How can they begin to think differently?”

NoTosh

“I went away from university not knowing what to do. At first, I studied politics and then I went through business. While I was sitting down, I realised I don’t really want to sit in front of a desk all day, sending and replying to emails. I wanted to go and share my passions and have others learn them. Taking what I have learned from this, I really want to see kids choose how they learn. I want to see them passionate about a project not just for high grades, but because it interests them.”

The International School of Brussels

“I am hoping to use this conference to gain new perspectives and visions on how to teach little kids, and also have the opportunity to learn new things about myself and what direction I want to lead my teaching career. One of the things I struggle with is anxiety in the classroom, and I fear that I will say something that will make one of the kids upset. I hope that I can find ways to conquer these challenges during the conference.”

The International School of Brussels

“I believe this Learning by Design conference has promoted tremendous questions for us as educators to reflect on. It has led us to observe and rethink on what the education system could be in the future compared to how it is now. Coming here was a great occasion where we could be guided by like-minded questions and consider future options and opportunities to make a difference, in order to create greater meaningful learning in a school environment."

American School of The Hague

“As director of technology, I find it interesting to see how technology can be useful in the learning environment. I believe that technology in school gives students the opportunity to seek it as a tool to further guide their learning. In the future, I hope that technology will be implemented in the majority of schools. By this I do not mean specialized classes in which technology is taught, but rather simply having the ability to use technology whenever appropriate for learning.”

The International School of Amsterdam

“My biggest fear is accepting that I can’t do it all. I logically know that I’m never going to be everything that all my students need but I always want to try and do as much as I can to help them feel good about themselves, build their skills and become more independent. But as much as I keep working on that, there is always more to be done and as a learning support teacher you have to be able to say ‘this is good enough’.”

The International School of Brussels

“My father is the man I look up to. When I was younger, one thing he said to me was: I’m not going to buy you a car when you graduate, I’m not going to buy you a house, I’m going to give you the best education you can have and you can do that for yourself. And sure enough that’s what he did and I’ve been able to achieve what I want as a result of that.
When I was nine years old, I was living in Ghana, West Africa. We had a driver who couldn’t read or ride. I liked playing the teacher, so I taught him how to read and write. It is then that I discovered the joy of teaching, I was satisfied and he was so grateful and happy.”

International School of London

“One thing leads to another that’s for sure. I did not want to become a teacher at first but essentially I didn’t know what else I wanted. I wanted something that I would be fulfilled with so I started out being an accountant like my dad but it didn’t interest me and I realized that I didn’t want to spend the next 30 years doing that so I decided to do something that I enjoyed doing; teaching.”

School of Montreal

ISB LbD Student Agent

ISB LbD Student Agent

ISB LbD Student Agent

ISB LbD Student Agent

“I always had a passion for travelling, therefore I cautiously sought out opportunities in order to travel overseas and discover the world. For a long time, I worked for an NGO, where my strengths were in communications and writing. After that, my career took off. Before determining my career, I explored all my passions, therefore the best piece of advice I have for my children is to always do their best while finding theirs. I can see through my 13-year-old son, who is passionate about playing soccer. I enjoy seeing his love for the sport, and hope that he will continue pursuing it, even if he decides to not follow it in 10 years.”

American School of The Hague

The International School of Brussels

The International School of Brussels

Columbia University

Local Flemish School

International School of Luxembourg

The International School of Brussels

American Overseas School of Rome

Bonn International School