Anna Kizirian's Schools

• Sheffield University , Class of 2002 Education M. Ed Degree, Educational Management

Anna Kizirian's Publications

• Anna Kizirian on James Joyce March, 2011 A voracious reader, Anna Kizirian considers James Joyce, the Irish novelist and poet, as one of her favorite authors. Joyce was born in 1882 just outside of Dublin, the oldest of twelve siblings. As a child, Joyce attended Clongowes Wood College, followed by the Christian Brothers School and then Belvedere College. Seemingly on a path to enter the Jesuit Order, Joyce rejected Catholicism before he turned 16, and went on to study foreign languages at University College Dublin. Joyce quickly developed a reputation for insightful criticism and published a number of articles while at the school, as well as some creative work. After graduation, Joyce moved to Paris where he studied medicine until being called home because of his mother’s poor health. Joyce returned to Dublin, staying until his mother’s death, after which he began to write in earnest, living in number of European countries and only rarely returning to the city he would make famous through his fiction. Among James Joyce’s most prominent works are The Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Finnegans Wake, and Ulysses. One of the most influential modernist novels, Ulysses follows the paths of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus during a single day in Dublin, utilizing the stream-of-consciousness style characteristic of Joyce and his fellow modernists. Taking inspiration from Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce divided the work into 18 chapters, each of which roughly corresponds to an episode from Homer’s epic poem. Ulysses explores life in Dublin as it existed in the early 20th century in stunning detail, and its unflinching narrative created significant controversy at the time of its publication. The Modern Library named Ulysses the best English-language novel of the 20th century, and Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegans Wake were also included on the list.

• What Do Branded Schools Offer? From the Anna Kizirian Educational Consultancy , Anna Kizirian's Blog on Bigsight September, 2011 Working with top branded school organizations as they plan to expand into the 6 GCC countries India and South East Asia, Anna Kizirian has consulted for numerous schools throughout the United Kingdom and the United States. With more than 30 years of experience in education, Anna Kizirian offers her perspective on the benefits and performance of these chains of academies. Sponsored by a range of educational organizations, charities, and nonprofit organizations, branded schools have become particularly popular in recent years, with a number of groups opening academies around the world. As part of these chains, schools can take advantage of strategies and lessons learned at other schools in the group, often easing the challenges of new institutions. Branded schools can share curricula, uniforms, and sometimes even staff, which allows them to reap the benefits of a larger organization while still retaining the attention to detail and individual students characteristic of smaller academies. For example, the Harris Federation, which currently encompasses 9 academies based in London with plans to open several more, routinely shares teachers and staff across the schools, allowing the organization to hire better, higher-paid instructors and defray the cost across the group of schools. Students also choose from a wider selection of courses and after-school programs, including trips, study sessions, and tutoring. Teachers at Harris academies share policies, procedures, and professional learning courses, benefiting from the experience and expertise of staff at all schools in the chain. There are also increased opportunities within the organization for promotions and advancement, helping these branded schools to retain their top teachers longer and enabling them to refine their skills and knowledge. There currently exist a number of chains of branded schools, with a particularly strong presence in the United Kingdom. Organizations such as Absolute Return for Kids have focused on bringing this model of education to the world at large, and on helping educators to pool their skills in order to improve the quality of education available to students in the developing world.

Anna Kizirian's Links