We’re thrilled to share some updates and introduce some key members of our organization!
Meet the SENIA Indonesia Board and Teacher Representative!
These dedicated individuals are passionate about supporting educators and fostering a vibrant educational community in Indonesia.
Stay tuned for more news and upcoming initiatives! #SENIAIndonesia
SENIA Indonesia Local Conference is Back!
Join us for a community-building event at the Jakarta Intercultural School on:
Calling all educators! We’ll be opening a call for presenters in August. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, spread the word and encourage your fellow educators to join us! #SENIAIndonesia #LocalConference #Jakarta
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On Saturday, April 20th, 2024, SENIA Indonesia brought together over 100 educators from across Indonesia for a successful local conference focused on ‘Creating a Community of Belonging.’
The event fostered a collaborative environment where educators shared ideas and best practices through 10 insightful workshops and 7 interactive “job-alike” sessions. These sessions were all designed to empower educators in building inclusive learning spaces.
The SENIA Indonesia conference served as a valuable platform for educators to connect, learn, and grow together, ultimately contributing to a stronger sense of community and belonging within the education sector.
Below are some of the highlight pictures from the event:
Workshop Opportunity
The Special Needs Network
(Sharing is caring)
Do you have a child with special needs? Are you struggling with behaviour issues such as meltdowns, are you feeling overwhelmed with financial burden, does your mental health suffer? If you answered yes to any of these questions then please keep reading.
Alan is the father of Joey. Joey is a 25 year old young man who has Down Syndrome and is autistic. As a parent of a child with special needs, I too have experienced many challenges. However, I was able create a framework that allowed Joey and I to have a happy life, move from Canada to Bali Indonesia, avoid meltdowns and get back my mental health. You can watch a Youtube video interview where Alan share stories about his life, and story about Joey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W86pOCCtQZk
Alan is doing a Free workshop that cover:
This is a 2 hour online workshop which will be done via Zoom, held from 9:am to 11:00 am (Bali time) on May 24, 2024. The workshop will be more than a presentation and will involve a lively discussion with the participants.
If this agenda resonates with you, please sign up for the workshop by clicking on the link below.
Hello SENIA Peeps,
Last week, I had the privilege of virtually attending The Brookings Institute Symposium on Inclusion and Education Systems Transformation. Inclusive leaders from around the world gathered to address a critical issue:
“Despite global policy efforts to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for equitable education, no nation has succeeded in creating truly inclusive classrooms and school communities on a large scale. While some countries have made significant strides in meeting the needs of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), nearly every nation has fallen short in developing schools as settings for full social inclusion. This requires going beyond physical inclusion to create accessible and meaningful learning environments for all, including children with IDD.”
World Leaders Discuss Inclusion
As international school leaders, educators, and families, we must prioritize this concern. Sustainable Development Goal 4 demands that schools be places where all children matter equally, participate fully, and develop the skills, knowledge, beliefs, and practices they need to thrive.
Becoming fully inclusive is not easy, but it can be achieved. The conference offered these recommendations: First, we need a mindset shift which is embraced school-wide and community-wide. Second, we must dismantle the silos in education, and encourage synergy in our roles. Third, according to Tim Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics, “The central impediment to implementing effective inclusive education is the capabilities of a trained teacher workforce. You cannot ask teachers to become ‘includers’ in their schools or to manage children with complex learning needs without training.” Mr. Shriver also believes we need to empower young people as agents of change. Our students want inclusive schools. Are we ready to listen to their voices?
At SENIA, we endorse these points and strive to support schools on their inclusive journey by facilitating mindset changes, helping to create systems of support that involve the entire school community, and providing professional development opportunities through our conference and coursework. As well, our SENIA Youth are emerging as a strong voice advocating for change and will be our inclusive leaders of tomorrow.
With Sustainable Development Goal 4 as our guiding principle, we call on our schools to become more inclusive. We don’t expect you to do it alone. SENIA is here to support you.
Lori Boll
If you’d like to watch some of this symposium, check out this link.
Alex has a degree in International Studies and Foreign Languages from Stonehill College and in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Teachers College – Columbia University. Thereafter, she worked at a few inclusive schools across New York City both as an English as a New Language (ENL) and English Language Arts (ELA) teacher in high school and middle school. She also worked as an ENL coordinator and instructional coach training teachers with strategies and techniques to bring into their own classrooms. Recently, she became a Montessori (MACTE) accredited teacher, and she supports teachers with approaches learned from that method to meet the varying needs within a classroom context. She believes the only way to help a student is to know a student. Thus, in all of her work, she devotes herself to learning about the needs of each individual in front of her.
María Laura, a mother within a neurodivergent family and professional passionate about inclusion, transitioned from a career in human resources communications to becoming an educator at Academia Cotopaxi for the past six years. With a specialization in human development, rooted in the humanistic Person-Centered approach and a Master’s degree in Psychopedagogy, she currently works as an infant teacher at IMAGINE. Her mission is to promote confidence in the individuality of each person and break the taboos surrounding neurodiversity in education. As a member of SENIA, she firmly believes that achieving inclusion requires continuous collaboration between various agents of change, and she seeks to transform this belief into tangible actions in Ecuador.