By Paul Poore
After a lifetime of Cuba being a forbidden travel destination, I was recently able to travel to Havana as a tourist. Aside from being very pleasantly surprised by the city of Havana (which bore almost no resemblance to my imagined version of the city), the iconic old cars, and extremely friendly people, I also visited the International School of Havana which became a member of AASSA shortly after President Obama ended the American travel ban.
The school serves students of the foreign business and diplomatic communities from approximately 65 countries and is, therefore, truly international in terms of its population as well as its curricular offerings. My wife and I were warmly welcomed by both staff and students alike and it was clear the school, under the leadership of Michael Lees, is on a trajectory to become a regional center of excellence in professional learning in line with their new mission: Learning to Make a Difference.
A new high school building is under construction, the school has recently become a member of the Common Ground Collaborative, and ISH will host a Compass Education Level 2 Educator Certification Applying Systems Thinking for Sustainable School Transformation institute sponsored by AASSA in September 2017 .