Renewed Hope!
It has been so exciting to be at ISB these first couple of weeks in 2022. Students and staff seem to have returned from holiday with a renewed sense of hope around what we are doing and how things are going. People have smiles on their faces (not that you can see them because of the masks) and their attitudes have been much more upbeat.
In the library this has translated into the want for books, space in the library, and activities. This weekend for example the library will host the IASAS Chess Tournament. While it will only be our students on campus streaming the event, it is so nice to know that they wanted to be in the library for their competition.
Also, next week ISB hosts the 10th annual TEDxYouth@ISBangkok. This event has a long standing connection to the library as Mr. Bell is one of the organizers and many of the classes leading up to this event were held in the library. This year promises to be another amazing event.
Lastly, we had the IB Informational Night for parents last night in the high school and I was very proud to be able to relate to parents the level of integration of research skills into student’s at ISB instruction. In Grade 9 the students via English and Social Studies work on questions development, resource evaluation, and citation. In Grade 10 through their Science class they create Works Cited and Annotated Bibliographies in the form of an official literature review, in Grade 11 they conduct the Ted Talks research and presentations, and grades 11 and 12 via IB or their English classes they also conduct the Extended Essay research process. These are just the big items, there are loads of smaller formative and summative opportunities for students to hone their research skills.
All in all it has been a wonderful start back and 2022 promises to be a great year for ISB and it’s students.
Have a wonderful weekend.
The Main Library Staff
Mr. Bell’s Recommendation
The Assignment – by Liza M. Wiemer
Students in their favorite social studies class get the newest assignment from their teacher. It’s a debate focused in World War II. However it is the assignment itself that is troubling. Students are asked to debate the ‘Nazi solution for the problem of the Jews’. Just the statement is shocking, as it should be, for some of the students. The idea of trying to justify what was done during the holocaust stirs up all kinds of feelings and controversy. Find out what happens, who does what and how, if, the assignment goes.
Ms. Kehe’s Recommendation
The Last Thing He Told Me – by Laura Dave
Hannah Hall’s husband is missing. The only thing she receives is a note from her husband, Owen Michaels, which simply states: Protect her. She knows he refers to his teenage daughter, Bailey. Bailey lost her mother as a toddler, and she is the most important person in the world to her father. As Hannah searches for answers about her husband, the novel unfolds. What led him to disappear and who is he really? Hannah is faced with past secrets and must make a decision about how to protect Bailey. This is a page-turner with a surprising ending.
