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Madeleine Maceda Heide is a specialist in Early Childhood Education and Early Literacy Instruction.  She completed an M.S. degree in Early Childhood Education as well as an Ed.S. in Reading and Language Education from Indiana University.  She has had a range of experiences as a student, teacher, administrator and parent in international schools in the Philippines, Brazil, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Belgium and the United States.  She is currently the Assistant Superintendent at the American School of Bombay.  Prior to that she was the Principal of the Lower Primary division of Hong Kong International School.  She was also the founding Head of the Early Childhood Center of the International School of Brussels where she worked for six years.  Madeleine has taught all of the early childhood grades from two-year-olds through eight-year-olds and has led numerous presentations and workshops for educators and parents of young children.  She worked as the Education Coordinator of a six-county Head Start program in southern Indiana and taught undergraduate Education majors at Indiana University.  Madeleine counts it a privilege to have worked alongside many highly skilled teachers and administrators who have informed her knowledge of best practices for the youngest learners.  Her most important informant has been her daughter, who is now a busy college student!

Ochan Kusuma-Powell is co-founder and director of Education Across Frontiers, an organization that promotes teacher education towards the development of professional learning communities.  A graduate of Columbia University with a doctorate in international education development, she has more than 25 years experience in international education and has been actively involved in developing inclusive special education programs internationally. Together with her husband, Bill, she co-authored an OSAC publication entitled Count Me In!  Bill and Ochan are currently working on a project to support differentiated instruction in international schools, supported by a grant from the US Department of State. They are focusing their attention on teacher professional development in the areas of differentiated instruction, collaboration, Cognitive Coaching (SM), school leadership and governance training.

Barbara Parker, Director, International School of Beihai, has worked extensively in international schools in the Mediterranean region, in SE Asia, Pakistan and Africa for almost 30 years. Most of her career has been devoted to working with teachers to identify students who need more than the general curriculum is designed to offer, from those with learning challenges to those who are highly capable. She worked as Optimal Match Resource consultant in the MAIS region to develop systems for identifying needs, instructional strategies and monitoring progress of students. She has served as Academic Dean for The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth and worked as with students from kindergarten through high school in a variety of capacities: curriculum coordinator, elementary principal, high school electives teacher, middle school humanities teacher and self contained elementary classroom teacher.  She has shared the difficulty of determining the basis of a student’s learning needs:  language acquisition, cultural differences, or processing issues.

Matthew Parr, a graduate of the PTC Essential Skills program, is currently the Secondary School Principal at Saint Maur International School in Yokohama where he also serves as the Director of Curriculum K-12 and oversees school-wide professional development. A music teacher by trade, he has worked with children of all ages from K-12, both in the UK and Japan, and served as both an Elementary School music specialist and Secondary School department head prior to moving into Administration. Matthew has been responsible for spearheading the Assessment for Learning curriculum initiative at Saint Maur International school since its inception five years ago and his role as Curriculum Director has enabled him to share with colleagues his passion for assessment for meaningful learning. He has a son, Kai, aged four, who teaches him everything he needs to know about learning!