Job Title: Finance and Registration Assistant

Reports To: Director of Operations

FLSA Status: Non Exempt, part-time position with paid vacation and limited benefits

Prepared Date: May 2013

Summary [...]]]> Finance and Registration Assistant

Job Title: Finance and Registration Assistant

Reports To: Director of Operations

FLSA Status: Non Exempt, part-time position with paid vacation and limited benefits

Prepared Date: May 2013

Summary CASIE is seeking an energetic, highly-motivated, results-driven problem solver to fill the role of Finance and Registration Assistant.  The incumbent is responsible for assisting with all aspects of workshop and event registration and logistics, as well as providing support to CASIE’s Finance Manager.  The incumbent will assist with the maintenance and processing of day-to-day registrations and payments for CASIE events such as the International Baccalaureate Workshops and Project Zero conferences.   The incumbent will work as an integral part of the CASIE team to ensure the overall quality and success of all workshops and events.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

• Assisting with registration invoicing and accounts receivable in Certain events management software
• Assisting Registration Coordinator with attendee communication including phone, email and online information with a professional and courteous demeanor at all times
• Assisting Events Manager with logistics for workshop and conference production and promotion
• Managing on-site attendee experience as part of CASIE event team
• Assists Financial Manager to maintain business and finance filing system
• Assists Financial Manager in reconciling bank accounts and data entry using QuickBooks
• Prepares deposit slips and might make deposits proving receipt for Financial Manager
• Maintains and updates records of bank deposits via Excel
• Processes online bill payments and prepares mailed payments
• Assist Director of Operations in processing and distributing incoming mail
• Submits and reports government sales tax from goods sold
• Monitors interest earned on bank accounts
• Monitors and maintains record of property inventory utilizing an Excel spreadsheet
• Monitors and maintains Excel spreadsheet of all payments  to contractors throughout the year

Competencies                                                      

Customer Service – Responds promptly to customer needs; Listens to customer feedback to continually improve service; Responds to requests for service and assistance in a warm, genuine manner; Meets commitments.

Oral & Written Communication – Responds well to questions, both in person and in writing; Possesses superior written communication skills; Participates in meetings.

Planning/Organizing – Prioritizes and plans work activities; Uses time efficiently; Plans for additional resources; Develops realistic action plans.

Cost Consciousness – Works within approved budget; Develops and implements cost saving measures; Conserves organizational resources.

Organizational Support – Follows policies and procedures; Completes tasks correctly and on time.

Planning/Organizing – Prioritizes and plans work activities; Uses time efficiently; Plans for additional resources; Includes coworkers in plans when appropriate; Develops realistic action plans.

Dependability – Follows instructions, responds to management direction; Takes responsibility for own actions ; Asks for assistance when needed.

Disposition – Able to work effectively independently, with minimal direction and as part of a team; Exhibits a willingness to embrace new projects; Shows extraordinary attention to detail

Education and/or Experience

A minimum of Associate’s degree (A. A.) or equivalent from two-year college or technical school; or one to two years’ related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.  Languages other than English are a plus.

Travel

Willing and able to travel seasonally out of state to assist with CASIE events around 20% of the time.  Able to work evenings and weekends as necessary for successful production of events.

Computer Skills

To perform this job successfully, an individual will have demonstrably strong skills in spreadsheet, word processing and email software applications, as well as familiarity with Cloud computing and the ability to constantly access and use internet resources.  Salesforce, Quick Books, Gmail and Google Apps familiarity highly desirable.  Ability to quickly learn and master new technology is a must. 

Physical Demands

The physical and environmental demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands to type, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to stand; walk and sit. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds, frequently lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.,

How to Apply

To apply, please submit your cover letter and resume via email at applications@casieonline.org by Monday, June 3, 2013.,

If your school is interested in developing a Sister School partnership, please [...]]]> As a key component to the Georgia International Workforce Development Initiative (GWI), the Sister School
Partner Program seeks to provide meaningful, career-focused international connections between schools in
Georgia and those in our regions supported by our Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) partners.

If your school is interested in developing a Sister School partnership, please click on the link below.

http://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Curriculum-and-Instruction/Pages/World-Languages-and-International-Education.aspx

“If students are given an authentic audience, they work harder as a group than they work for their teacher alone. Creating authentic audiences for students is one of the emerging skills for teachers”

Alan November

 Some weeks ago I was at a parent-teacher conference with one of my students; under the [...]]]> By Elena Zapico

“If students are given an authentic audience, they work harder as a group than they work for their teacher alone. Creating authentic audiences for students is one of the emerging skills for teachers”

Alan November

 Some weeks ago I was at a parent-teacher conference with one of my students; under the spirit of a student-led experience, the mom asked her daughter to explain how she was learning vocabulary and grammar in the Spanish I class. “We learn by using the language right away”, she said, “for example we do this thing, called See, Think, Wonder where we write our own ideas using the language that we know or just saw in the lesson”. I smiled, of course, outside and inside, thinking that the feeling of ownership brought by the Visible Thinking routines is what is changing how my students relate to their learning process in all my classes; and how, finally, neither the students nor I have the feeling of a correction-driven practice masked under every activity or project that takes place.

This little anecdote also reflects something just as important: the powerful impact of the routines in transforming the vertical relationship between the students and their teachers, switching the center of attention from the expected repetition of the taught content to what the students are able to naturally produce. Maybe because of this spontaneity associated to the routines, talking with my student and her mom about See, Think, Wonder felt like one of those conversations that bring people together at an event or around a coffee table. This kind of interaction, only possible when all individuals feel their participation at the same level of importance, is what I have been observing since I started using Visible Thinking routines, not only during class time but also through the social learning platform Edmodo.

The friendly Facebook-like educational tool has proven to provide an array of opportunities to establish a culture of thinking that dissolves classroom walls and enters the flexible space of digital social environments. Routines are now experienced by my students as purposeful homework assignments, vehicles to share and comment upon reflections, and occasions for voluntary participation. Here are a couple of examples:

One of my first experiences using Edmodo to attempt a more natural and contextualized language production was also a risky one: following several class sessions where we read and discussed the economical implications of stereotypes, I posted an hour long documentary on a related topic for my Spanish B students to watch and then complete the routine Connect, Extend, Challenge. The documentary had just been released on the National Spanish Television Channel and I had watched it by chance while having dinner the night before (one of those beautiful moments that makes a teacher´s heart jump with joy). I wanted to translate that excitement to my students –“Wow, you guys, look what they were talking about on TV yesterday!”- Really? Would they get how huge, incredible, and perfect a  coincidence this was? I had to try.

Even though I granted a week for the task, I was extremely worried about the length and difficulty of the video, which could defeat the purpose of an activity meant not as work to do at home, but as an experience that erased the limits between school and real life interests. Fortunately, my fears soon dissipated as the students started not only to submit great reflections but also to bring further connections into the classroom, motivating those who had not done the activity yet. Connect, Extend, Challenge has become a usual routine in our Edmodo; frequently, it has led to active interaction between the students, who write comments to each other´s thoughts and reflections extending and challenging this wonderful connection between “in class” and “out there”.

A very different yet equally satisfactory practice has been the use of the routines as opportunities for casual participation beyond the classroom. Having trouble motivating my Spanish 3 students to give opinions and develop ideas without worrying about their grammar, I started posting See, Think, Wonder routines in our Edmodo. The participation was initially shy, picking up to half of the class on the second time. Soon the whole group was curious to know what the buzz was about: “Are we still on time to do it?” “Sure, you do it just if you want…” Almost all took the chance. A further idea will be to get the students to post their own routines to provoke their classmates´ participation, a practice that we have been doing in the classroom and that will surely acquire new dimensions through online interaction.

As the students familiarize themselves more and more with the routines, new settings for their use continue emerging. Edmodo provides a versatile and safe space for this growth while offering the beauty of social networking: the chance to explore the impact of our thoughts as we channel our emotions and creativity towards a global audience.

The culture of thinking just sent you a friend request. Join. Like. Share.

Harvard University will be conducting a teacher-training conference at Presbyterian Day School next winter, focused on the work of Project Zero, a research team in the university’s graduate school of education.

By Carmen Samanes and Elena Zapico

The title of this post results from the combination of two “Headlines” proposed by the participants in our presentation at the recent Project Zero Perspectives:  Building a Culture of Thinking conference in Clarkston, Michigan, on November 2-3, [...]]]>  

 A Project Zero Perspectives:  Building a Culture of Thinking presentation experience

By Carmen Samanes and Elena Zapico

The title of this post results from the combination of two “Headlines” proposed by the participants in our presentation at the recent Project Zero Perspectives:  Building a Culture of Thinking conference in Clarkston, Michigan, on November 2-3, 2012.  Halfway into the session, we were performing the homonymous routine as a way to extract the core ideas about the nuts and bolts of Visible Thinking in the Foreign Language classroom.  Viability proved to be at the heart of the matter.

The mere awareness of routines as a feasible experience acted as a hinge that opened the audience to a totally new perspective.  From the Kindergarten Spanish teacher to the Japanese High School instructor, to the Principals in search of advice to help their Foreign Language departments, all seemed to come to the same realization: that –as other “headlines” stated- students could indeed “think about thinking” using a language that was not their native one, do it “for everyday use,” and “in all contexts and levels of performance.”

Our expectation of finding initial skepticism towards a successful use of the VT routines to promote second language acquisition was predictable and confirmed when we began presenting. However, encountering general feedback about its impracticality –“I can´t do VT with my students,” several teachers said; “in English yes, but in another language it is impossible,” others corroborated- was quite a surprise for us.  And yet, it made sense: how could you think in depth in a language that you can´t or very imperfectly can speak?

However, it took only experiencing three routines to get everybody on the same enthusiastic page. As the audience was asked to approach “See, Think, Wonder”, “Zoom In” and “Ten Times Two” as if they were their own students –the Spanish learner preschooler, the German II student, the French B 11^th grader, the Japanese I teenager- it started to get clear: this is doable.  Actually, it is the only doable way.  Describing, making connections, wondering and reflecting on one´s own thinking process were happening without translation.  Meaning was not coming from vocabulary lists or grammar charts, but from the intrinsic need of expressing one´s thoughts.  And after a few weeks of exposure to any language we develop enough tools to start doing so.

Communication-oriented methods have been around for many years now; however, our foreign language classes typically fail in providing a natural environment for real communication.  We drill and rehearse, lecture and role-play.  We offer settings, no contexts.  VT routines create that context, one where students are not aiming for the right answer but for their answer, where the teacher does not own the language but students take ownership of their contributions.

Our group now had its context.  During the second half of our session, they manipulated images, looked for other materials online, brainstormed, discussed, and generated different routines that could be used in their current lessons.  When the time was over they left their reflections, making Visible Thinking more visible to us than ever:

“I used to think that thinking routines where difficult to implement in my Foreign Language class.  Now I think I have enough tools to give them a try!”

“I used to think that I wouldn’t be able to use these routines in Spanish I.  Now I think I can use them in the target language.  I just need to use pictures that are more contextualized.”

“I used to think that using these routines in the target language wasn’t going to be so successful.  Now I think that the students are fully capable of working with the language, all levels.”

“I used to think that I couldn’t help my world language teachers to incorporate thinking routines.  Now I think that thinking routines can be used to prompt students to think with/in the target language.”

“I used to think that integrating thinking into the classroom would be difficult.  Now I think it is possible, worthy and exciting for our students. Can´t wait to get started.”

“I used to think that I had to use English at lower levels with thinking routines.  Now I think it is possible to do some of these routines in the target language.”

“I used to think that it would be complicated to use thinking routines in a foreign language.  Now I think it will flow in nicely with what we already do.”

“I used to think that I had to teach my classes and feed information to my students.  And now I think that my students are perfectly capable of coming up with their own information.  I just model and facilitate.”

“I used to think that my preschoolers would be very challenged with VT routines.  Now I think they can do it and I will try!”

“I used to think that I could only use thinking routines in certain lessons.  Now I think that I can use them in any lesson.  I will just fit them in the context of what we are learning.”

“See, Think, Wonder”  Visible Thinking Routine performed by course participants, from their students´ perspective (click on each thumbnail for closer look at image)

Budapest to Atlanta. Packing, unpacking, the last goulash, and now great Southern food again!

What a whirlwind!  And now:

What an amazing first week at CASIE!   My very first day in the office, I was introduced to all of my new teammates and to great Asian food around the corner from our little [...]]]>  

Budapest to Atlanta. Packing, unpacking, the last goulash, and now great Southern food again!

What a whirlwind!  And now:

What an amazing first week at CASIE!   My very first day in the office, I was introduced to all of my new teammates and to great Asian food around the corner from our little white house (my choice was Malaysian Penang Chicken).

After twenty five years of almost non-stop overseas living (not counting my childhood in Libya and high school in Scotland), I can see that reverse culture shock, while very real, will be mitigated by my continued involvement in International Education and contact with the larger world through CASIE’s network of friends and colleagues.

The new adventure begins!

Many schools claim to be “internationally-minded” but somehow remain superficial in
their approach to multiculturalism. How can a school impart a deeper appreciation of
internationalism to its students?

Prior to living in Switzerland, I believed that schools with a strong mission
(statement) to “foster intercultural awareness” would [...]]]> by Dena Feldman, Research Intern

Many schools claim to be “internationally-minded” but somehow remain superficial in
their approach to multiculturalism. How can a school impart a deeper appreciation of
internationalism to its students?

Prior to living in Switzerland, I believed that schools with a strong mission
(statement) to “foster intercultural awareness” would logically be the most successful –
if not the only – schools to impart a sense of cultural inquisitiveness to their students. I
still believe that schools can provide their students with a sense of “global awareness,”
but I’ve since learned that true international-mindedness requires a deeper level of
awareness than just celebrating the “Three F’s”: Flags, Foods, and Festivals.

A key element in the mission statement of my Swiss international school was “to
create global citizens.” Students were paired with roommates from outside of their
cultural background, and were all are assigned in multicultural groups of 5-7 students to
a faculty member, who served as a “parent,” academic advisor, and mentor during their
stay. Each week the “Faculty Families” meet to share meals, talk and listen, and travel
together twice a semester. A highlight to the school year is the community’s International
Week. However, in spite of the daily opportunities for intercultural appreciation
– never mind the community’s cultural diversity – there was still noticeable self-
segregation. Students more often than not spent free time with those who spoke their
own language or shared a similar socioeconomic background: Nigerian students would
go out to pizza together, the Spaniards would snowboard with other kids from Spain. It
left me feeling that the school still struggled to overcome natural linguistic and cultural
barriers; its ‘international-mindedness’ activities were reaching students on a more
superficial level.

…but how to encourage the breaking down these barriers?

For good or bad, the school provided few-to-no opportunities for students and
faculty to directly discuss their views on diversity. Educational researcher Birgitte
Vittrup studied the strategy of raising ‘colorblind children’ by ignoring cultural
differences, finding that it often actually backfires. When parents avoided discussing race
– or “assert[ed] vague principles in the home, like ‘Everybody’s equal’ ” – it left kids
to form their own conclusions and often resulted in poor racial attitudes. In fact, more
school diversity can translate into more division between students, because “increased
opportunities to interact are also, effectively, increased opportunities to reject each
other”1. What if the one Jewish student you knew was a bully from your 11th grade
English class? How would you perceive other Jews, from that point forward? Given this
likelihood, perhaps it’s important to actively address questions of cultural difference,
rather than staying silent.

The Swiss boarding school did not entirely fail at providing moments of
intercultural exchange. There were rare “golden moments” when you would see a Kazakh
student lifting weights at the gym with an American, or an Iranian kid playing video
games with a South African friend. School extracurricular activities – sports teams, clubs,
etc. – provided easy venues for creating positive shared experiences that transcended
cultural or racial differences. As a dormitory “parent” I enjoyed organizing cookie-
baking parties, or hosting popular aerobics activities. Shared interests – academic or
extracurricular – helped to ‘make the unfamiliar familiar’. And while the “Three F’s”
also provided a good gateway for this, the most powerful bonding activities were those
that brought students together in a way that highlighted their similarities, in addition to
celebrating their differences.

One personal frustration while in Switzerland was a lack of faculty training,
to help teachers to approach kids about issues of identity and intercultural dialogue.
Teachers have such a deep impact on individual students, and the collective ‘faculty vibe’
has an equally deep impact on a school community at large… if teachers were trained
to have a more profound understanding of international-mindedness, and were provided
with concrete tools to incorporate international-mindedness into their classroom attitudes
and techniques, this might be a powerful way to bring internationalism to any school
community.

In today’s increasingly global world, “fostering a deeper intercultural awareness
and diversity tolerance” is another key element of a superior-quality education, one
that transcends the private-vs.-public school debate. To some extent, self-segregation
is normal, but it shouldn’t be the only modality present in a school. If schools facilitate
opportunities for students to mingle, perhaps it will help make students want to get away
from easy patterns.

Check out Po Bronson’s book, NurtureShock, to learn more about interesting research
on children, race and diversity.

CIA World Fact Book
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/)

Gapminder (http://www.gapminder.org/)

IBO’s Global Engage Website (http://globalengage.ibo.org/)

Global Issues Network (http://www.global-issues-network.org/)

Peace Corps (http://www.peacecorps.gov/)

TED Talks (www.ted.com)

“Global Voices” International blogging community: (http://globalvoicesonline.org/)

Words Without Borders: Online magazine for International Literature
(http://wordswithoutborders.org/)

Habitat for Humanity International (http://www.habitat.org/)

Development

Carolina for Kebera (http://cfk.unc.edu/)

Food and Hunger Resources

“I didn’t realize the students would go that far with their thinking.” This is a common statement by teachers after using various thinking routines. This work has encouraged us to restructure lessons and expectations as we shift into making our students’ thinking visible.

CoT was introduced by integrating thinking routines [...]]]> North Sashabaw Elementary, Tara Ouellette

“I didn’t realize the students would go that far with their thinking.” This is a common statement by teachers after using various thinking routines. This work has encouraged us to restructure lessons and expectations as we shift into making our students’ thinking visible.

CoT was introduced by integrating thinking routines into staff meetings to not only highlight some of the specific routines, but to begin enculturating ourselves into what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to truly value our own thinking and the thinking of others. As the year progressed, teachers simply took risks by trying routines in their classrooms, the majority of our teaching staff visited List or Way Elementary Schools, some took part in day long trainings, we held optional meetings (called Protocols) to discuss students’ work, and each staff member keeps a Making Thinking Visible notebook to track the routines and other resources necessary to move this work forward.

A couple specific examples of what was done differently this year are based on displaying student work and post-assembly activities. One of our fifth grade teachers put a spin on what’s typical practice of displaying student projects in the media center and encouraged other classrooms to do a See, Think, Wonder routine instead of just walking by the projects as they check out books. Also, after some of our school-wide Den Meetings, I asked the teachers to complete thinking routines with their students to allow time to for them to process, reflect, and make their learning visible. One topic was on Tattling vs Reporting where I asked the classrooms to complete a routine called I Used to Think and Now I Think. Students’ thinking was posted in the hallways and classrooms to remind us of the learning that came out of that week’s Den Meeting.

Furthermore, our leadership team believes that we need to work from the bottom up to ensure that our culture is set up in a way that will encourage, honor, and exemplify a true Culture of Thinking. We’ve explicitly stated it as a fourth School Improvement Goal so that all who walk the halls, visit classrooms, and listen in on student conversations or staff meetings will know that we make our thinking visible and it’s valued.

We are moving in a direction of facilitating students thinking rather than feeling as though we are the gatekeepers of all knowledge. To say the shift has been easy would be misleading. We all have had to give up control of both pen and providing answers. Our work may be a bit sloppier and student led, but the payoff has been deep understanding rather than short-term memorization. We’re excited about this work because it’s the right thing to do for our students, not just another program or initiative that will fade over time.