how we teach

Miwa graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 2002.

After teaching in Taiwan for two and a half years, South Korea for two years, Japan for one year, and Egypt for three years, Miwa returned to school in New South Wales, Australia to complete a Graduate Diploma in Education at the University of Wollongong. She strives to be a caring and passionate educator valuing each student as a unique individual who has the ability to reach his or her full potential.

Mrs. Capozzoli obtained her Bachelor of Science from the University of Houston. She also has a Master's degree of Elementary Education and a post graduate degree in Educational Psychology.

She has been in education for 20 years and working internationally for over 10 years. Mrs. Capozzoli has served in several roles including curriculum, leadership, and teaching a variety of grade levels.

Kara Harvey is an early childhood and primary PYP and Montessori educator originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.

She holds a B.F.A. in Ballet Pedagogy, a Master's degree in Early Childhood Education, AMS Montessori certification, and Category 1 PYP certification. Combining her knowledge of dance pedagogy and wealth of classroom experience, Ms. Harvey hopes to fuel children’s passion and ignite their creativity.

Ms. Hlongwana has acquired Bachelor of Arts in Primary Education and completed an 120hr TEFL program with ITOL institute.

She has taught in kindergarten both in South Africa and China and has an experience in a few education systems such as Montessori and Reggio Emilia approach. This speaks to her flexible style of teaching and ability to easily cater for each of her students' needs.

Martin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts, and a Master’s degree in Education Management.

Working in education since 1991, Martin taught in the UK and US as an artist and teacher visitor. He also traveled to Pakistan under a UNESCO scholarship to show his artwork and to teach drawing. In Peru, he taught Creativity, Art History and Drawing of the Human Figure in local universities and art schools. Recently, Martin has been giving talks and lectures to local art teachers in different cities of China, regarding Creativity, Art History, and Sustainability in Art Education. 

Ms. Coloma has more than 14 years of international teaching experience.

She holds 2 bachelor’s degrees, one in Pedagogy in Elementary and Secondary Education and another one in Physical Education, Sports and Leisure Pedagogy from one of the best universities in Santiago, Chile. She also has a postgraduate degree in Psychology, teaching certificates from the International Baccalaureate (IB) and a TEFL Certificate.

Ms. Lemay has a Master’s degree in Music Performance from University of Montreal.

As a professional musician, Ms. Lemay toured in Europe and performed with several orchestras and ensembles in North America. She has 10 years of teaching experience in Canada, Haiti and recently in China. She has developed acute arts management skills, while working for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in their Education team. Her latest and proudest accomplishment has been designing and implementing a music program for the Canadian International School of Guangzhou.

Ms. Tafoya has more than 11 years of teaching experience.

Ms. Tafoya has a Bachelor's degree of Applied Science in Elementary Education and Master of Arts in Elementary Education with a Math, Science, and Educational Technology (MSET) Concentration. Her prior roles include a classroom teacher, lead engineering teacher, reading interventionist, robotics coach, grade level design lead, and head of educational IT. 

Bobby Flanagan serves as the DAIS Social Studies Department head and is an extremely proud graduate of the first public university in the United States, The University of North Carolina, with a Bachelor of Arts in History and currently working on a Master's degree in Educational Leadership.

His teaching experience started 20 years ago, and since then he has been working alongside grades 8-12. An expert in Geography and History, he has worked with both AP and IB curricula. Mr. Flanagan has been involved in all areas of school life, having been a Student Government advisory, grade level leader, Prom Coordinator, and varsity basketball, track, and soccer coach.

Mr. Shahid Rahman has over 17 years of overseas experience in education as a teacher and Head of department. He has experience teaching Mathematics and Science in addition to his primary topic of Physics.

Mr. Rahman began his work as an A-Level Physics teacher in 2005 after completing his 4-year Bachelor of Physics and Master of Science in Nuclear Physics. His adventure in China began in 2018, and his professional experience includes working in a prestigious Chinese school in Xi'an and an American high school in Shanghai to assist students in achieving top exam scores.

Annie graduated from Shenyang Normal University in 2008 with a degree in English and Education.

While completing course work for her bachelor’s degree, Annie took up a half-year internship in a Chinese public middle school, working as a homeroom teacher. She currently holds two official teaching certificates, a National Teacher Certificate and a Certificate for Teachers of Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages. Ms. Cui came to DAIS in the fall of 2009. She believes that it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish, and she is very passionate about spreading Chinese language and culture to the world.
 

Jeff Jones has more than 25 years teaching experience. His career began teaching Social Studies in Alaska, while being the Head Boys Basketball Coach. his is also where he went to college (University of Alaska, Anchorage) and received his degrees in History and Secondary Education.

Jeff loves health and fitness activities. His favorites are stand up paddle surfing, mountain biking, and hiking, though he also enjoys swimming and CrossFit.

Meik Loughran joined the DAIS community in 2013. Born and raised in Colorado, he studied foreign language education at the Pädagogische Hochschule in Karlsruhe, Germany before graduating from the University of Northern Colorado in 2010 with a bachelor’s in German and philosophy. In 2016 he earned a master’s degree in EAL international education, curriculum and instruction preK-12 from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

He believes that even beginning-level English language learners can work at all levels of higher-order thinking and that reading and writing proficiency is dependent upon the development of rich oral academic language.