ISA Experience

"Some live by the shore and learn of the ocean, while some take the plunge within to learn of it and while doing so not only learn that the depth is unfathomable but discover sights hitherto unknown."

My involvement with ISA began when I was given an opportunity to head a team of teachers to take up projects with International dimension. It reminded me of my old association with it 7 years ago at my earlier organisation, where I was part of the ISA committee. The leadership exposure I got there helped me manoeuvre the voyage of ISA at NIS with relative ease and confidence. As our first attempt at ISA we took the leap of faith and plunged into the unknown territory with just the vision of the impact it would have on our students, armed only with the conviction in our ability.

The journey started with brainstorming with the team of 'Global Perspective' subject teachers about the projects to be taken up, the advantage being that those teachers have formed a network of facilitators globally and that would help us gain links for ISA collaboration. Our focus was to include maximum subjects and sections while at the same time ensuring that the projects aligned with the academic curriculum and followed the almanac. After the gruelling debates, endless discussions and outburst— Voila! The outcome was completely satisfactory and surprisingly the projects we selected aptly reflected the NIS learner profile attributes we aim to achieve.

The next challenge was to formulate the action plan that would tick the checklist sent in by the British Council. The timely workshops conducted by the ISA head committee at the British Council proved to be of great help; which enabled me to share the key points with my team without any discrepancy. After a long wait of 2 months, we had nearly about given up the hope when finally we got the approval in the month of December. That really delayed the proceedings of all the projects and we had to struggle to catch up with the timeline as scheduled in the action plan. Certainly there were several hurdles we had to overcome; yet the co-operation and unstinted support and hard work of our skilled teachers made us realise the collective dream of 'ISA'.

Despite the initial setback, we began the execution of our action plan with full vigour, however, we faced a lot of difficult 4 in getting links from the US and UK. After several attempts of posts on online forums like Epals and SchoolsOnline site we could manage to establish links with schools from Nepal, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kuwait, Taiwan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. It was heartening to see the young leaners living miles across sharing their perspectives with each other on various topics and learning the different ways of celebrating the same events. The ISA platform has opened up a new gateway of possibilities and global exchange for our students, which has helped them broaden their mindset about various cultures and develop tolerance for them. Making friends from other countries, exchanging mails and sharing photos and work was a unique and enriching experience for our children.

The entire year was a whirlwind of documentation, feedback forms, and requests for photographs, SOS emails to partner schools and what not. A scan here, a print there, a last minute feedback form here and the last minute videoconference there, approvals, follow-up the list was endless! The speed only accelerated as we neared the submission deadline. At first, collecting and organising the evidences seemed an overwhelming task, however, we made effective use of Google drive to sort all our documentation work. It helped us maintain transparency amongst the team members about the progress of all projects as well as took off the burden of last minute compilation work from the dossier designing team. Today when I hold the fruit of our labour - the dossier in my hand to assess the impact of ISA, it gives me an immense sense of achievement and I cannot help but marvel at the journey of our growth together as a team. We have consciously imbibed multicultural dimension into our school ethos making our learning experience more vibrant and fulfilling.

As a co-ordinator, I am completely humbled by the spirit and determination of our teachers and students to take the learning beyond the confines of our classrooms and by the way they have contributed to their role as the global citizens. No doubt the journey was a tough one, but worth in every sense, culminating in many new friendships within and outside the school, many new skills acquired, many exciting avenues opening up to be explored! The ISA has proved to be an exciting journey of self-discovery, learning, collaboration, emotions, challenges, evolution and setting newer benchmarks. Overall my experience has been an enjoyable one increasing my pride for my school multifold and reinforcing our faith in the maxim, "Together we can and we will!"

Priyanka Laad

ISA co-ordinator

Nahar International School, India