From Trash to Transformation: How Students Turned a Fashion Unit Into Community Action

One of the impactful learning experiences Jill has designed this year addresses a question that resonates deeply with people living in international school communities: Where is home?

Exploring communities, a unit focused on the school campus itself.

Fourth-grade students in create the “Forever Forest,” an installation made entirely from plastic waste that connects artistic expression with environmental awareness and community partnership.

Engaging with the local community isn’t just an add-on to the curriculum—it’s essential to authentic learning, especially in an international school context.

Grade 8 students at the International School of Dakar (ISD) recently partnered with Village Pilote, an NGO dedicated to rehabilitating street children in Dakar, as part of a service learning opportunity that blended both curricular and community-based learning

Grade 4 teachers and students at the American International School of Lusaka, as well as several community partners from conservation organizations in Zambia, met online to participate in an interview about a recent unit called “Sharing the Planet”, and the deep learning and service as action that emerged from the unit.

At the International School of Kenya (ISK), middle school ELL educator Susan Cizek has redefined what it means for her students to be “changemakers” by reimagining her “Becoming a Changemaker” unit.