Mr. Kevin Meklin provides small-group support to IB mathematics students.  “How, exactly, will you provide individual support to my daughter?”  It was a simple question asked by the parent of an eighth-grade student about to enter high school. Unfortunately, this “simple question” caught me off guard, and I did not have a good answer.  To make matters worse, I had just been highlighting the central … Continue reading The Wednesday Session: Targeted Intervention in an Area of Need for all EAB High School Students

A few weeks ago, members of the EAB Leadership Team took our newest member, incoming LS Principal Beth Overby, on a hike to a series of waterfalls close to Brasilia called Indaia.  The weather looked sketchy throughout the drive and by the time we arrived, the rain had begun.  Our goal was to arrive at the largest waterfall on the trip. To do so, we … Continue reading A Flash Flood to Welcome the Newest Member of Our Leadership Team

It seems a day doesn’t pass in late May when I don’t read a story about a senior prank that is mean, destructive, or divisive.  The EAB Class of 2022, however, created a prank that included hundreds and hundreds of their baby pictures and balloons.  It was funny, harmless, good-willed, and charming. Last year’s EAB Seniors faced many challenges over their high school years and … Continue reading The Senior Prank

Much of this blog was written in mid-September of 2020.  For reasons that should become clear below, I never finished or published the post.  At the time of the writing, I had recently finished reading Erik Larson’s book The Splendid and the Vile and I couldn’t remember enjoying a book more.   The story focuses on Winston Churchill and his family during the Blitz.  While Churchill … Continue reading The Buoyancy of Hope

EAB opened to 2020-2021 school year on August 3 via distance learning. The purpose of this post it to use our experiences in the opening weeks as a means to help smooth the opening for other schools in Brazil and around the world. Each week I make a two to four minute video about to discuss with the parents and students of the High School … Continue reading So My Student Asks, “WHY MUST OUR CAMERAS STAY ON?”

My speech to the Class of 2020 was exceptionally easy to write.  Much of it, if I’m honest, was plagiarized from my previous speeches to other graduation classes.  What was new came easily as well because of how great the Class of 2020 had handled the loss of the second half of their final year at EAB.  Writing about their grace and persistence in the … Continue reading A Class Like No Other: A Graduation Night Speech to the Class of 2020

August 10, 2020 Opening a school year online is hard.  Really hard.   In a normal year at EAB there are a lot of moving parts as, due to the high number of students who come from embassies, we have between 15 and 20% change in our high school population each August.  That reality was compounded  this year not only due to distance learning, but also … Continue reading An Idea For The First Day of School: The Zoom Support Room.

The High School Faculty has ended each week of distance learning with a brief organizational meeting, and, when the work day is done at 4:01, a toast.  It is hard to explain to those who haven’t seen it firsthand how hard EAB Teachers have worked to ensure that learning continues during the coronavirus pandemic and the toast has become a wonderful “tradition” that has allowed … Continue reading A Toast From the Class of 2019

A fascinating book called Sister Revolutions: French Lightning and American Light by Dr. Susan Dunn provides an interesting comparison of the American and French Revolutions. According to Dunn, one of the factors that allowed the American revolutionaries’ to successfully write a constitution and form a working government was the very strict guidelines the 55 delegates at the Constitutional Convention placed on what language was appropriate when addressing … Continue reading The Importance of Language and How We Speak to Each Other

Great controversy often surrounds what works in schools and there are many perceived “right” ways to educate the next generation.  Recent research from some of the top universities in the United States, summarized in this Op-Ed from David Leonhardt of the New York Times, points decidedly, however, to one characteristic of high performing charter schools: they have high expectations for students, and provide significant support … Continue reading High Expectations, High Support Schools