Overseas and International Schools Network
Founded in 2001, the Overseas and International Schools Network was created "to give international educators a vehicle by which they could communicate issues affecting students and teachers around the world," says network facilitator Diane Simmons-Tomczak, an educational consultant based in Villedieu, France.
"We help to extend ASCD's knowledge of issues affecting international education and give administrators, curriculum coordinators, and teachers a ‘virtual gathering place’ that supports their need to communicate and collaborate with educators in similar situations," Simmons-Tomczak says.
In many instances, those situations can include isolated areas where being able to communicate with peers on education issues is particularly vital. Simmons-Tomczak reports that the network communicates through a listserver for international educators without any required dues.
"The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland, provides the forum free of charge for the network," she says.
To learn more, contact Simmons-Tomczak attomczakRD@aol.com.
—John Franklin
Global Education Network
The Global Education Network emerged as part of ASCD's growing interest in focusing on global education issues in the late 1980s. Under the leadership of former ASCD executive director Gordon Cawelti, a small cadre was formed to "explore and encourage global education and internationalization" by ASCD, according to outreach site coordinator Doug Schermer.
That outreach effort has helped network membership expand to more than 1,500 educators. Additionally, the network maintains regular contact through a newsletter tied to the Peace Corps and social studies that is mailed quarterly by facilitator Anne Baker.
Such regular mailings have paid off, Baker reports. "A few years ago, we had a returning Peace Corps volunteer who said that because of something she read in our newsletter, she had an opportunity to go to Cuba that she would not have had otherwise."
Other members have had their work published and gone on to serve in countries across the world. In some instances, however, the benefits of serving in the Peace Corps can be more personal.
"My sister served her Peace Corps tour in Guatemala," Baker says. "In fact, that's where she met her husband."
To learn more, contact Schermer or Baker atdschermer@farmtel.net orglobaled@rpcv.org
— John Franklin
Language, Literacy, and Literature Network
Formed in 1989, the Language, Literacy, and Literature Network focuses on issues of importance to language arts instructors. The network's 1,400 members—who range from teachers and principals to superintendents and education publishers—keep in touch through a printed newsletter mailed every spring, fall, and winter. According to cofacilitator Esther Fusco, most members actually prefer a mailed newsletter to an electronic one. Indeed, the network makes an effort to include postage-paid envelopes with each mailing to encourage members to respond to questions.
"People tell us that even if we send something to them electronically, they still like to print it out and read it," Fusco says.
In addition to providing information and event updates to members, the network encourages participants to share experiences and ideas with one another.
"I've found that makes a big difference," says Lenore Sandel, who founded the network. "What are people doing? What are they teaching, and how are they teaching? Those things are important."
To learn more, contact Fusco at efusco@optonline.net.
— John Franklin
Mentoring Leadership and Resource Network
The Mentoring Leadership and Resource Network (www.mentors.net) shares best practices about the continued training and care of new teachers around the globe.
"Starting a network has given us many leads and insights from the ASCD community, which has helped us year after year with professional support, new ideas, and new ways to develop leadership skills," says Richard Lange, who helped start the network in 1991.
This year, the network's major initiative involves collaboration of U.S. and Hong Kong educators. Lange will work with faculty at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, a state teacher training university, to outline mentoring practices used in the United States.
The Mentoring Leadership and Resource Network's Web site offers a popular online survey about roles and responsibilities of mentors and new teachers. Visitors can also read articles about mentoring from around the world or find out more about the Hong Kong partnership on mentoring.
To learn more, visit www.mentors.net.
— Rick Allen
Character Education Network
"Character education is not a fad or trend, but the oldest mission in the schools," declares Bernice Lerner, facilitator of the ASCD Character Education Network. "We believe strongly that education in its fullest sense is a moral enterprise, and that schools have a responsibility to foster in young people personal and civic virtues such as integrity, courage, responsibility, dignity, and respect for all persons."
Lerner, the director of the Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character at Boston University's School of Education, believes that good study habits, a willingness to strive, and academic skills in reading, math, and other subjects "come about naturally" when schools help students develop virtues like responsibility.
She's echoing the thinking of more than 800 colleagues in the Character Education Network who share cutting-edge research and applications about implementing ethical and moral education in schools. In fact, the network's award-winning newsletter, Character, recently tackled the subject of ethics in art and film.
To learn more, visitwww.bu.edu/education/caec/files/network.htm.
— Rick Allen
Affective Factors in Learning Network
With their mixture of languages, cultures, and social classes, island nations in the Caribbean are extremely complex societies. That's what Affective Factors in Learning Network cofacilitator Harriett Arnold discovered after working with education leaders in Trinidad and Tobago, Curacao, and St. Maarten. Arnold was invited by ASCD affiliates to share her expertise on social and emotional learning (SEL) so schools could foster their own professional development programs to create awareness and practical applications of SEL.
Through the network, Arnold continues to get updates from colleagues she has trained in the Caribbean. She marvels at how educators there have made headway to incorporate training on the role of emotions in thinking, knowing, and learning. It's also a way to build bridges across language groups, cultures, and social classes.
Arnold, an education professor at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., runs the Affective Factors in Learning Network with Laura Frey, special education professor at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich. Both believe that ASCD's new learning compact, rooted in teaching the whole child, will help increase awareness of the crucial place that social and emotional education has in the schools, not only in the Caribbean but around the world.
To learn more, contact Arnold atharnold@pacific.edu.
— Rick Allen