The waters required to navigate while applying to an independent school, especially for an international student can be tricky. You can hear horror stories about bad agents and then really great stories about agents who really help their clients find, apply, enrol and even travel to see schools. This past Fall I travelled to Ukraine and Russia with an agency called IQ Consultancy. We have worked with other agents in Russia and Ukraine to be clear, so this is not a unique endorsement of IQ Consultancy. On this trip, we travelled to Kiev, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Ufa, and Moscow and met with many families. In Russia, for the most part since the collapse of the Soviet Union, we are dealing with the first generation of students studying abroad and families traveling more widely than the borders of their former state. Many of the students I met spoke English quite well, however,…
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Finding Inspiration in The Flipped Classroom
Many of our favorite teachers share a common trait, a teaching process characterized by a continuous evolution and refinement of practice stemming from curiosity and feedback and, ultimately, a love of the meaningful connections that can be shared between teacher and student—the "ah-hah!" moment, when a student really gets it. In her most recent blog post, LCS Chemistry teacher Melissa Rathier recently described her teaching career as, "one big action plan in teaching Chemistry. Question. Reflect. Explore. Test. Re-Test. Repeat." She goes on to describe one of the biggest shifts she made in her teaching practice and the questions that inspired her to pursue the "flipped classroom" and why it was so successful. It's a wonderful insight into her craft which I encourage you to read if you have not yet. Enjoy! "I have been lucky enough to teach the same courses (Grade 11 & 12 Chemistry) for my entire…
Inspiring Trust and Learning Through our Shared Stories
The Chapel Talk: A Time-Honoured Tradition In my opinion, one of the best traditions at Lakefield College School is the Chapel Talk. Our Grade 12 students are offered the opportunity during their graduating year to address the whole school community in Chapel. They are invited to share their story, often reflecting on their time at LCS—inspirations and challenges, the role the school played in their journey—and where appropriate, offering some advice to the Grade 9 to 11 students. Most of our Grads take advantage of this tradition and many comment on how they have waited for the opportunity since the days when they sat in the back pews of the Chapel in Grade 9. Some of my favourite memories of The Grove are from Chapel Talks—self-reflective and often insightful, we really get to know our students and see how they have developed emotionally during their time at the school. I…
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