Educators Going Global
How does your school support students to find belonging? How about on their first day? How about on their last day? What if there was a guide for how to do this?
Schools always have new students. Whether it's a fairly stable community where most new students are energetic and nervous kindergarteners or a highly mobile school community where a third of the student population is changing every year. How students are welcomed into school has a huge impact on how they feel about being there. Many international schools have student ambassadors for this very reason, to welcome new students in and help them find their way around. Though many of us know that the honeymoon phase of being new can wear off pretty quickly, or in some cases get skipped completely, and new students can feel forgotten about or like they have to figure it out on their own after the first few days.
The same thing can be said about a student's experience leaving a school. When classmates know their friend is leaving, they can begin to loosen ties with them to prepare for the inevitable goodbyes. And unfortunately in many cases, the last day for students can be much like any other day in school. Leaving them with the feeling that they weren't that important to the people there AND this can leave the people who are staying in school feeling like that person just disappeared.
Now imagine a student ambassador program that was intentionally planned to care for the new student before they arrived for their first day of school, that checked in with them regularly as they adjusted, helped them understand what they were going through, AND that acknowledge students leaving intentionally with a carefully thought out process involving not just those leaving but those staying too.
This kind of program is what SPAN worked to create by bringing together ten international school counselors from more than five different schools around the world, across grade-level divisions, to collaborate and build a guide that offers resources and best practices for those seeking to build or enhance their student ambassador program. It was my honor, as SPAN's Resource Lead, to bring together this team and create a guide that can be useful for any school wanting to build a student ambassador program or wanting to grow their current program.
I was invited by Audrey and David from Educators Going Global to share about the SPAN Student Ambassador Program Guide with Lina, one of the main contributors to the guide.
We shared:
- An overview of Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN)
- A description of how SPAN supports community arrivers, leavers, and stayers
- Reasons why international schools need a transitions-care program
- Practical strategies for transitions support
If you are interested in getting the SPAN Student Ambassador Program Guide for yourself, become a SPAN member and get access to not only the Guide but also the Safe Passage Book Study that I co-authored with Stephen Toole, to accompany Dr. Doug Ota's book Safe Passage, and many other wonderful SPAN resources!
Get the SPAN Student Ambassador Program Guide