There’s a line from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear that I keep coming back to:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
I thought about that a lot during our reaccreditation cycle at American School in Taichung.
We’re a small American school located in central Taiwan, home to nearly 280 students. My first year as a curriculum coordinator coincided with a reaccreditation cycle, and it was an exciting and high-energy term.
Rethinking our school’s vision
Reaccreditation gave us a chance to step back and think about what we value most as a school. We reflected on our programme philosophies and shaped a new vision for student-centered learning – one where teachers could focus on understanding each student’s needs and providing personalized feedback.
But as we mapped out this vision, we recognized a challenge – it wasn’t practical to get there when teachers were spending more time working around a clunky LMS than they were with students.
So, we had a choice: stick with our current LMS and make slower progress toward our vision, or find a new platform that could handle the administrative work, so teachers could spend more time with their students.
Why Toddle was our top choice
When we started looking for a new platform, I put together a detailed comparison of different platforms – with features, integrations and feedback from other international schools.
Toddle was the obvious choice for two reasons:
First, Toddle supported our vision for shared practice across the school. It was more than a place to store documents. Planning, assessments, reporting and family communication connected smoothly. A single learning experience could easily be traced back to learning goals and curriculum. One teacher’s unit plan could now spark inquiry in another teacher’s mind.
Second, even before we committed, the Toddle team showed us what a partnership with them could look like. Grace, our Toddle Buddy, started our early calls with questions about how our school worked – our PLC rhythms, assessment philosophy, the realities of being a small K-12 school.
When we asked about customization, she walked us through how the platform could flex to fit our needs. That conversation gave us the confidence we needed. It was clear to us that we weren’t just buying software. We were partnering with a team that would help execute our long-term goals for the school.
Grace rooted for our success
If I had to pick just one reason why we’re partnering with Toddle, it wouldn’t be from the long list of features the platform offers. It would be Grace.
I was one person in a small school. I couldn’t have carried implementation, training, troubleshooting, and long-term strategy on my own. Grace recognised that and made herself available in ways that went well beyond a standard rollout.
From setting up our UbD-style structure in the planner, to building in elements like service learning that were unique to our context, to customising our reporting templates, she helped shape every corner of the platform and truly made it our own.
We didn’t have everything figured out at the beginning, as is the case with any big change. But knowing Grace and the Toddle team were with me on this journey gave me the confidence to bring the platform to our teachers.
Introducing the platform without overwhelming teachers
With a platform as vast as Toddle, it’s easy to give into the temptation of doing everything at once. Which is why we wanted to get the basics right first – planning, documentation and consistency across classrooms.
Grace, being an educator herself, understood our needs completely. She tailored every aspect of the rollout plan for us, from identifying which modules would be easiest to start with, to fitting onboarding sessions seamlessly into our teachers’ schedules.
Within 3-4 months, teachers had taken to Toddle like fish to water.
The change I’ve noticed most is in how teachers talk about learning now. Greater visibility across classrooms and subjects has moved conversations beyond individual lessons – toward more intentional planning and clearer connections across grade levels.
Looking ahead
We’re still early in this journey, but the foundation is solid. Teachers have a system that works with them instead of against them. Planning and collaboration happen naturally now. And the time we’re saving on administrative tasks is going back where it belongs – toward students.
During reaccreditation, we articulated a clear vision for student-centered learning. What we didn’t fully understand then was that achieving it wouldn’t come from working harder – it would come from working within better systems. That’s what Toddle has given us. Not just tools, but the infrastructure that makes our vision feel within reach. We haven’t looked back.
