Opportunity to Meet the Secondary School Principal Candidates

​ Dear AISL Community,
 
We are nearing the end of our search for a Principal of the Secondary School for the 2020-21 school year and have identified three finalist candidates. The COVID-19 pandemic has added significant complexity and some urgency to this process. Unfortunately, a fly-in visit is out of the question. In light of the rapidly changing situation, I have accelerated the timeline and moved to a virtual process for our external candidates.
 
Across the upcoming week, we will host opportunities for various constituencies to meet our candidates (via Skype for our external candidates) and ask questions:

• Secondary school student representatives (NHS, Student Council) will have the opportunity to meet one candidate per day from 12:30-13:10 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (16-18 March) in the Protea Room.

 

• Parents will have an opportunity on Tuesday, 17 March, from 14:45-17:00 in the Protea Room. Each candidate will have approximately 40 minutes. If you wish to suggest a particular question or questions to be posed to all three candidates, please feel free to forward them to Carolina Vilalva at +260 967 592 407 or at vilalvaster@gmail.com. Carolina will consolidate them into 4-5 questions that will be asked of each candidate.

 

• Faculty will have an opportunity on Wednesday, 18 March, from 14:45-17:00 in the Protea Room. Each candidate will have approximately 40 minutes.

 
Feedback will be gathered from all participants at these sessions. If you plan to attend the parent or faculty session, as appropriate, please strive to attend the entire session so that you can give each candidate a fair chance.
 
Here are our candidates:

1.     Our very own Dr. Sheila Seiler. Sheila is in her second year at AISL as the Assistant Principal for the Secondary School. Prior to coming here, she served as an Innovation Leader, PD and Resource Coordinator, Specialist Lead Teacher, Librarian, and GEMS school inspector at GEMS World Academy in Abu Dhabi. Prior to that she worked at four organizations in Shanghai as Director of Content at Tutami Learning; as Coordinator, Key Stage 2 Leader, Teacher, and Librarian at Yew Chung International School; as Director and President of BEAN Shanghai; and as a teacher at SMIC Private School. She has her Master of Arts in Teaching from Columbia, dual B.A.'s from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and recently earned her Doctor of Education in Instructional and Curriculum Leadership from the University of Memphis.

2.     Michael Gohde is currently the Middle School Associate Principal and Activities Director at Colegio Nueva Granada (1800+ students) in Bogota Colombia. Prior to that he served as the Head of School at Berkeley International School in Bangkok. He previously held leadership positions as an assistant principal and curriculum coordinator at the American Community School in Amman, Jordan and Korea International School in Seoul, Korea. He is also an experienced language arts and social studies teacher. He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Curriculum and Teaching from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership at Lehigh University.

3.     Dr. Rick Odum is currently the Director of Teaching and Learning at Korea International School in Jeju, South Korea. Prior to that, he worked as the Director/Coordinator of Advanced Academics for two large school districts in Texas, USA and as a Curriculum Coordinator for the Abu Dhabi Education Council. He is also an experienced teacher of English and Psychology. Rick holds a Master of Arts Degree in Literature from Texas State University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History from Texas A&M University. His Ph.D. in School Improvement was from Texas State University.