Escuela Campo Alegre

VANAS 2015

Logo Design by Ana F.

Conference Theme
Embracing Uncertainty: Teaching and Learning in Challenging Times

Where
Escuela Campo Alegre | Caracas, Venezuela

When
January 23, 2015 | Registration – 7:30 to 8:45 | Opening of Conference – 8:45

THE CONCEPT

This year’s theme is intended to help all of us develop a repertoire of strategies to best manage the complexities of teaching and learning in the environment we face in Venezuela. Specifically, most presentations will fit into one of the following categories:

  • Helping students, faculty and/or families manage uncertainty and stress.
  • Utilizing online collaborative tools—teacher-teacher, teacher-student, and/or student-student. These should dovetail into the subcategories below that would be the major focus of the day’s presentations:
  • School faculty working together ‘in the cloud’.
  • Providing meaningful online (or distance) learning opportunities for students of all ages.
  • Providing meaningful ‘blended learning’ programs, with some students participating at school and some participating at home.

FOR PRESENTERS

Together, we can support one-another and build upon the successes we have been able to cultivate in this climate. We would like all presentations to be vetted and submitted by November 1, 2014 utilizing this form. Note that this proposal form mirrors that used by AASSA. Should you seek to present at both conferences, we suggest you fill out both proposals at the same time to minimize work on your part.

Thank you in advance for the time and energy you put into this, in order to benefit us all.

THE KEYNOTE

As international teachers work to retain some sense of normalcy at schools all over Venezuela, the 2015 VANAS Conference committee believes this is an incredible opportunity to witness how others around the world have faced major difficulties, and even grave danger, to stand up for the greater good.
 –
2015 VANAS Conference Keynote Speaker
Carl Wilkens: Rwanda’s Gifts For You: Learning Harmony 20 Years Out
 presenting the lessons gained in Rwanda since the genocide.
 –
“I’m not Leaving“
Why did Carl Wilkens decide to remain in Rwanda in 1994, with a genocide swirling around him?  How did he and his wife Teresa maintain communication during the one-hundred days of terror when Tutsis were being hounded to death by Hutu militia extremists?  How does the only American who chose to stay—in order to protect two Tutsi household workers–look back on that fearful time?

Working from tapes made for his family,  which chronicle daily events from the sublime to the horrific,  Carl reconstructs in fascinating detail both personal and political events triggered by the April 6 plane crash assassination of the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi.

He takes us through the poignant good-bye to his family, as they join the mass exodus of expatriates leaving this dangerous situation.  He affirms his presence in the neighborhood he has known for four years, by standing barefoot in the middle of the dusty road, waving farewell.

-Helen Kweskin,

 

Our Sponsors

AOS LogoAASSA logo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special thanks to ECA student Ana F. for the VANAS 2015 logo design.