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Purposeful Pathways: Deep-Dive Learning Month : Teaching & Learning
Session Two: Ensuring every learner thrives in every classroom
Meet the needs of every student in every classroom?
As naively utopian this may sound, there is a method that can meet this expectation. In its radical madness, it shelves cheap talk and systematically ensures all students are met where they are in their individual learning processes.
In the model, students construct & co-construct their learning. Standards remain in place. Rigorous assessments remain constant.
However, from the first lesson until the summative assessment, the learning environment and tasks are designed and established by the students alongside teacher counsel.
With the aid of scaffolds, explicit Approaches To Learning (ATL) training, behavior modeling, and systemic structures, students learn how to learn and leverage mistakes for growth.
In this personalized classroom, reflection is the authentic driver and the teacher is free to meet the needs of every student.
Bring every student into this classroom model, no matter the culture, background, motivation, neurodivergence, giftedness, or reluctance. All will thrive.
As a result of participating at this institute, attendees can expect to:
Receive and readily implement a proven template for student-led learning inspired by high-stakes, real-world classroom success.
Receive and readily implement strategies of behavioral and systemic structures that fast-track student maturation and academic independence.
Identify specific scaffolds and ATL (Approaches to Learning) structures that prepare students for their lives after high school and allow for personalized pacing without sacrificing rigor.
Integrate reflection and behavior modeling as functional tools rather than abstract concepts.
Develop strategies to meet the needs of neurodivergent, gifted, and reluctant learners within a single, unified classroom framework.
Adapt any and all elements of this presentation to one’s own contexts and demands
DATE | TIME | LEARNING COMPONENT
Wed 04 Mar. 2026 | 13:00 – 14:00 GMT | Tier 1 Doesn’t Have to Be Scary: Collaborative Tools for Inclusive Problem-Solving
Wed 11 Mar 2026 | 13:00 – 14:00 GMT | Ensuring every learner thrives in every classroom
Wed 18 Mar 2026 | 13:00 – 14:00 GMT | Development and curation of African resources to support an inclusive curriculum
Wed 25 Mar 2026 | 13:00 – 14:00 GMT | Inclusive curriculum: Co-Constructing Inquiry
Target Audience: School Leaders, Educators, Student service team members
Fees: No cost for AISA Members
Facilitators:
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Amber is an education leader with over 18 years of experience in teaching, leadership, and systems design, with a strong focus on inclusive education and student support in international school settings. Her work centers on helping schools build practical, sustainable systems that support learner variability while keeping teachers and students at the heart of the process.
Currently, Amber serves as the Primary School Student Support Coordinator and Learner Support Teacher at the American International School of Mozambique. She works directly with students while leading the development of Student Support Services and collaborating with secondary colleagues to strengthen a cohesive, whole-school approach to inclusion.
Amber also contributes to the international school community through her work with AISA, expanding educational support initiatives with the U.S. Office of Overseas Schools, and serving as a NEASC visiting team member. She is passionate about helping schools create inclusive practices that are realistic, shared, and sustainable.
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Joshua Smalley is an innovative international educator with eighteen years of experience across AP, IBDP, and MYP curricula. Known for moving students into the "driver’s seat" of their own learning, Smalley specializes in high-leverage differentiation and systematic scaffolding, ensuring every student thrives regardless of their starting point. His classroom practice is defined by making learning feel alive, relevant, and deeply personalized.
His professional journey is as eclectic as his teaching style; Smalley’s background includes work as an author, tour guide, wildlife tracker, investor, painter, fashion model, actor, journalism consultant, photographer, and even a plumber. This "life-hacking" spirit informs everything he does.
At his core, Smalley is a devoted husband and father. Whether he is finding snow leopards, walking with wild lions, or painting a company mural, his family remains the heartbeat of his inspiration. He holds degrees from Western Washington University and SUNY Buffalo State.
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Cecê Ovelar is the Global Citizenship Coordinator at the International School of Dakar and teaches Visual Arts, I&S, and TOK. With multicultural roots in the USA, Paraguay, and Brazil, Cecê is a multilingual educator experienced in cultural anthropology, strategic initiatives and arts-based community projects. His educational philosophy centers around shared group inquiry and helping others develop a flexible growth mindset which can help them decipher the world around them.
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Monique is currently the Upper School Vice Principal and MYP coordinator at the International Community School of Abidjan. Monique is passionate about curriculum development, and coaching teachers in developing conceptual units of inquiry and authentic assessment. She has led schools in Japan and Ethiopia in their MYP IB journey and navigating change. She is an IBEN workshop leader, examiner and curriculum developer for the IB.