The Student Writing Site of American School in Taichung
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Dr. Colin Brown
Head of school
Dr. Colin Brown joined AST in July, 2020. He has over 25 years in the education field and has held administrative positions or taught in Canada, China, Guatemala, Hungary, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic. Dr. Brown is currently the Board President of the Council of Administrators of Taiwan Expatriate Schools (CATES). He has presented at leadership conferences in Bangkok, Kentucky, Atlanta, Medellin, Abu Dhabi and Cairo on innovations in curriculum development, standards based grading and reporting and a unique teacher professional growth program. Dr. Brown has had numerous educational articles published and has led many workshops for teachers and administrators on new initiatives in education. He has frequently led or served on Cognia/AdvancED accreditation visits around the world (since 2011), and he has also served on or led accreditation visits for CIS/WASC/NEASC. Most recently, Dr. Brown was a contributing author of the book, International Education Leadership: Stories From Around the Globe (2022). Dr. Brown is passionate about continuing to support and guide AST towards academic excellence.
Write For Delight Club was fortunate to interview Dr. Brown after he attended AAIE 2024. He shared his interactions with other educators and discussed the insights he gained from the conference!
Maryland ACSD Talk
Dr. Colin Brown has been invited by the Maryland ASCD to share his insights on "International Education Leadership: Stories from Across the Globe." Dr. Brown and other esteemed presenters will delve into leadership lessons learned on the international stage.
Dr. Brown stepped up to become the JV Girls’ volleyball coach in 2023. He worked alongside Coach Hebe to plan practice drills and lead each volleyball practice with incredible enthusiasm and dedication……
The vision Dr. Brown has for AST is creating a positive environment for students, nurturing a safe place for people to express their ideas, installing new practices for students, renovating the campus, and encouraging the best teaching and learning environment…..
Dr. Brown is an evaluator of the WASC organization. He describes WASC as, “an organization that assures schools are at a high quality standard and provides guidance to help schools improve.”
Leadership conversations or workshops often make leaders reflect on their own practices and beliefs. So, we asked Dr. Brown to share what he thinks is a strength and weakness of his in education…
EARCOS Leadership Conference 2022
Dr. Brown gave two presentations at the EARCOS Leadership Conference 2022. One is about teachers’ professional growth. His focus is on switching from the traditional teacher evaluation system to a two-way conversation between teacher and administrator to incorporate more reflection of practice. Dr. Brown is making efforts to implement something unique and create a good environment for teachers.
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The other presentation is about AST’s innovative standards-based report cards in ES/MS and its benefits to student learning. A lot of administrators know about standards-based grading reports, but they don’t know how to make the switch in their reporting and teaching methods. Dr. Brown is trying to help people make this transition and show them the benefits of standards-based reporting. He highlights why AST decided to use standards-based grading, our unique standards-based report card and, of course, the benefits of it.
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Irene Liao(’29) and Mandy Liao (’29) 2022
A Successful Change Agent Leads with Integrity
Last year, Dr. Brown was asked to contribute to the book – Stories From Across The Globe. The idea of this book is to share ideas from many different International heads of schools or directors from all over the world to share different bits of advice or information for new directors. The key point of Dr. Brown’s article – “A Successful Change Agent Leads with Integrity” is that even though sometimes it’s tough to lead and act with integrity, it’s the best way to move forward and make a change. Make sure you’re always staying true to yourself and leading with integrity. This also echoes AST’s school mission–Integrity, Courage, Compassion, and Contribution! Bravo, Dr. Brown! We are proud of you!
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Irene Liao(’29) and Mandy Liao (’29) 2022
After School
Dr. Brown goes to the parent pick-up area to see the students off sometimes. He is caring and fun to be with. Young kids are very excited when he is around.
Sports
Dr. Brown loves to watch sports and cheer for the players! The video clip and photos on the right were him during the MS volleyball game after school on Feb. 23 2023.
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Dr. Brown is always very playful while interacting with kids. Look how excited Morris was when Dr. Brown was around!
Rugby
Dr. Brown is a rugby player. He values team work, plays hard and leads by example.
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“Something I learned from rugby was to be very disciplined and to challenge myself to always be better – set goals, work hard to attain them and then set new goals. Another thing I learned from rugby was even when having tough battles with your opponents, you should always respect them. During the game we were adversaries, but after the game we appreciated each other’s efforts.” Dr. Brown said.
Running
Dr. Brown really enjoys running because he gets to appreciate nature and keep himself healthy. Usually, he runs 2-3 times a week and the runs are 4 or 5 kilometers long. When running, Dr.Brown feels challenged, but he tries to tell himself to keep going and try his best. After exercising, he feels great and has a sense of accomplishment. Dr. Brown reminds himself to never give up and always try to improve every time; even when he does sports.
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Irene Liao and Mandy Liao (’29)
STORY TIME II
Dr. Brown introduced his hometown Vancouver with the class of 2029. The students enjoyed it and created storybooks about Vancouver. (2021)
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Andrew Huang (’29) made a storybook and gave it to Dr. Brown.
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STORY TIME I
Dr. Brown shared his stories with the class of 2029.
He shared several stories, such as car accident, air hockey, asking for cookies, etc.. Everyone had a fun time! (2021)
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Andrew Huang (’29) made a storybook out of these stories and gave it to Dr. Brown.
