About
"After over 20 years of teaching, coaching, and consulting on 5 continents, I've never been more sure that the power of education lies in its ability to connect, challenge, and inspire. And whilst the human aspects of our work are often the hardest, they are also the source of the largest rewards. Throughout my career, these have been my priority when working with students and colleagues to reach their full potential. And the impact it has is what continues to drive my passion for this work."​​
Fiona is currently the School-Wide Curriculum Team Lead at Hong Kong International School
Fiona's experience includes:
1 / Curriculum Leadership
Expertise in English Language Arts, Social Studies, PE, and Performing Arts
2 / Instructional Coaching
Pre-K-12 across all subjects
3 / IB Continuum Expertise
Nearly 20 years working across the IB Continuum
4 / National Curricula
Using various national curricula in multiple countries
5 / Standards and Frameworks
Planning, teaching and assessing using standards and frameworks such as Common Core, C3, NCAS, NGSS, SHAPE, and AERO
6 / Assessment Practices
Reshaping schoolwide assessment practices to align with concept-based learning
It's the human aspect of our work that matters most:
Because every great change involves connection.
In my first two years of teaching, my classroom had a connecting door to the neighboring classroom, much like a hotel connecting room. Little did I know that this door would become a metaphor for my future in schools.
The teacher next door, Bron, and I met throughout the day in that connecting doorway, talking about what we were noticing with the students we were teaching, sharing strategies that were working (or crashing), and questions we had as students were trying things out. As weeks passed, we crossed the threshold, and began moving between our classes: swapping to teach the other class, pulling classes together for direct instruction, and at other times watching each other confer and the impact it had on students. We began planning and assessing together, and drove a systemic change for middle schoolers to have transdisciplinary courses and specialised pastoral experiences based on what we were experiencing and learning from the students we worked with. It was exciting stuff.
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During those first two years I taught English, Social Studies, Geography, Drama, Dance, PE, and even Science. -What I learned was that my primary role was teaching students, not just subjects. And that having a 'Bron' - a coach - fast-tracked my teaching expertise in ways I could never have achieved alone.
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After 12 years in the classroom, I became a learning coach, which ended up being so much more than a career change. Coaching means shifting your mindset about the way we work together. It shuns the idea of competition, and champions curiosity and teamwork. It demands a heightened awareness of how we communicate, and prioritises understanding over quick-fixes. And it shifts culture, because it presumes that everyone wants to be their best for the students we teach, and that because of that we all want to grow.
Whilst "coach" is no longer a part of my job title, I still remain connected to the role as I work with our instructional coaches at HKIS, aligning practices, designing and refining systems for coaching, and partnering with our leadership teams so that coaching reflects our school vision and mission. And whether it be running workshops or facilitating curriculum retreats, coaching is how I do my work - underpinned by the value that we do our work best when we do it, together.