MS eNews – Thursday, December 4, 2014
Updated MS Calendar of upcoming events for the next four weeks:
Friday, December 5
- H.M. King’s Birthday (No School)
Wednesday, December 10
- Constitution Day (School in session – holiday for Classified Staff)
Saturday, December 13
- MS Snowball Dance at 5:00pm in the ES Gym
Monday, December 15
- MS Dance/Drama Assembly for 6th and 7th graders at 1:00pm in the CCT
Tuesday, December 16
- MS Dance/Drama Assembly 8th graders and parents at 1:00pm in the CCT
Thursday, December 18
- MS Olympics
Friday, December 19
- MS Alternate Dress Day
- MS Closing Assembly at 7:20am in the Chevron Theatre
- All students dismissed at 11:30am
- MS Semester 1 Report Card available for download after 12:00pm within PowerSchool
December 22 – January 9
- ISB Winter Holiday
Hour of Code
By Mr. Zambrano
miguelz@isb.ac.th
Dear Parents,
We live in a world surrounded by technology. And we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly hinge on understanding how technology works. But only a tiny fraction of us are learning computer science, and less students are studying it than a decade ago.
That’s why our entire school is joining in on the largest learning event in history: The Hour of Code, during Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 8-14). Last year, 15 million students tried computer science in one week. This year, we’re joining students worldwide to reach 100 million students!
Our Hour of Code is a statement that the International School Bangkok is ready to teach these foundational 21st century skills. To continue bringing programming activities to your students, we want to make our Hour of Code event huge. We’ve already had some teachers willing to support it in the classroom. We encourage you to participate in the Parent Session on December 11th from 1:00 – 2:00 PM in the ES Hub. We have some computers and iPads available but you are welcome to bring your own device (laptop or tablet) as long as it has connection to the Internet. For Wi-Fi access, please contact Ed Tech.
This is a chance to change the future of education in Bangkok.
See https://hourofcode.com/jp/en for details, and help spread the word.
To register, please click here.
We look forward to seeing you next week.
World Scholar’s Cup Tournament at Yale University!
By Selena Gallagher
PK-12 Challenge and Enrichment Specialist
Last week, I had the pleasure of accompanying a small group of ISB students to New Haven, Connecticut in the USA to participate in the World Scholar’s Cup Tournament of Champions at Yale University. The Tournament of Champions brought together the top 500 students from more than 20 different countries who qualified through their exemplary performance at the WSC Global Round in Singapore in June. ISB middle schoolers Punnava Alam and Ananya Narayan were reunited with their teammate Alexandra Hodges who left ISB in June to return to the US. Together they represented ISB in the Junior division. In the Senior division, ISB were ably represented by Siri Asdathorn and Peter Ohashi, both in Grade 11, who formed a combined team with NIST student, Erdong Chen.
For a full recap of our Yale trip, please click here.
Reminder: Parent and Student Access to PowerSchool Being Turned Off Thursday, Dec. 4th
Dear MS Parents and Students,
A reminder that your access to grades and assignments posted in PowerSchool were turned off at 3:00pm on Thursday, December 4th and will be reactivated at 12:00pm on Friday, December 19th while we are finalizing MS semester 1 report cards. You will still be able to access attendance record and student schedule during this time however. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
eNewsletter Guidelines
ISB eNewsletters provide a valuable avenue for communication within the ISB parent community. Please see our eNewsletter guidelines below.
Submitting an announcement for publication
ISB accepts announcements from ISB families and ISB staff for potential publication in our eNewsletters. The announcements are generally intended to highlight events that occur at ISB and/or highlight information about ISB.
What to include in the announcement
• A title for your announcement
• An email contact for further information
• An image or photo (optional)
Where to submit your announcement
4publish@isb.ac.th is for announcements of interest to the entire ISB community.
tinaratr@isb.ac.th is for Elementary School (ES) announcements of interest to ES families.
maurilib@isb.ac.th is for Middle School (MS) announcements of interest to MS families.
vijitl@isb.ac.th is for High School (HS) announcements of interest to HS families.
Your announcement will be submitted to the appropriate Principal and/or to our Marketing Director for review. ISB reserves the right to determine which announcements will and will not be published, and to edit announcements that are approved for publication.
Frequency of eNewsletter mailings
The ISB eNewsletter that is for the entire community is sent out on Thursdays. Announcements for potential publication in this newsletter must be received by noon on Thursdays.
The ES, MS, and HS eNewsletters are sent out on Fridays. Announcements for potential publication in these newsletters must be received by noon on Fridays.
by Tony Arnold
anthonya@isb.ac.th
Repeat Announcement: Social Media Sites to Avoid
By Chad Bates and Miguel Zambrano
Technology is changing rapidly, and no doubt for many parents it is difficult to stay abreast of all the latest websites our students visit. Social media sites like Facebook, Skype and Instagram when used appropriately have many potential benefits. These sites provide a wonderful way to stay connected and to strengthen relationships with friends and family in our home countries, as well providing opportunities to build many new friendships here at ISB. Like anything it is important that any online activities are done in moderation. Every now and then however we come across sites that we see very little value in our students joining, in fact only negatives. Last year I published a cautionary article about Ask.FM.
We are now starting to see a disturbing trend where more and more social media sites, more specifically ‘chat’ sites are promoting anonymity and actively encourage users to chat with random strangers. A couple of sites that we have come across are “Chatroulette” and “Omegle”. The sites were not developed with Internet safety in mind, far from it. Both allow for video chat, and conversations are started with complete strangers. This is obviously something we would not encourage; hence we block both sites at ISB. While both these sites say you should be over 18, we know from experience some of our students may be curious to check them out.
Teachers and parents need to work together to reinforce positive behavior online. We would encourage parents to continually have conversations with your child about which sites are appropriate and which are not. The school-issued laptops have built-in ‘Parental Controls’ that can assist parents monitoring online activities. If you have not yet had a Parent Account setup, you can apply to have one setup through this form.
If you have any questions or need any further assistance, feel free to contact the MS Technology Coordinator: Mr Zambrano, miguelz@isb.ac.th
Repeat Announcement: Leaving ISB End of This Semester?
If you are leaving or possibly leaving ISB before, or end of this semester, please contact Khun Fon in the MS Office at supanniy@isb.ac.th – she will send you the ISB Withdraw Form that needs to be completed in order for her to get your child’s school records ready for his/her next school.