Jennifer Melton
jenniferm@isb.ac.th
Welcome back! We hope everyone had a great week with an opportunity to relax, get some sleep, and enjoy doing things not typically available during school time. Here is an interesting look at the Greater Good Science Center’s recent visit to a school in India.
Grade 12 – For Seniors applying to the US, UK, Canada, and Hong Kong (or any other university with an online application), students should:
- Schedule an appointment in advance with their counselor to submit applications and don’t wait until the due date. Leave some space/time just in case there are issues needing attention prior to the application deadline. DO NOT submit an application without the counselor present.
- Send multiple applications at a time. In other words, don’t plan to send each application in separate appointments with the counselor.
- Remember to bring a credit card. Submitting online with the counselor requires students to make a payment.
- Remember that essays must be the student’s work, not the work of others.
- Ensure application and essays are complete when meeting with the counselor to submit. Questions about essays, activities, etc. should have been addressed prior to this appointment.
- Make copies of application items before submitting just in case anything goes missing in the process.
Following these guidelines will make the process go as smoothly as possible. So far, those who have been applying early have been doing a good job with the above items. As always if you have questions, please let us know.
Grade 11 – Next week, grade 11 students who are non-native speakers of English and hold a passport from a non-English speaking country are expected to take the Institutional TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam, which is an exam to test a student’s English language proficiency in the following areas: Listening Comprehension, Structure and Written Expression, and Reading Comprehension. The Institutional TOEFL is a practice test and it is not compulsory, but recommended for students who are non-native speakers of English and hold a passport from a non-English speaking country. Students applying to universities where the language of instruction is English will be required to submit proof of English language proficiency (usually the TOEFL or IELTS). Next Tuesday will be a good opportunity for students to practice this assessment.
Grade 10 – It doesn’t take long to get back into the full swing of things here. Already there are sports tryouts, the drama and dance productions are in the coming days; there are so many things going on at ISB. To be productive, it takes good planning. Now is a good time to have your son or daughter sit down and get organized for the remaining weeks of the semester. Try to have them plan a bit for their long-term assignments. That way they won’t get surprised by a pile of work at the end of the semester. If they can identify what will be difficult or challenging for them, they can see their teacher or counselor to try to make the most of their study and preparation time.
Grade 9 – This week in Freshman Seminar our students focused on their own personal character strengths. Students completed the well researched survey from the VIA Character Institute. This survey looks at the 24 personal character strengths that we all have, some being and stronger than others. With completion of the survey students were able to see a running order of the 24 strengths they possess. Students then created a visual reflection of their top five strengths. Each one of these reflections will be placed on our Wall of strength in room 203. Students will further explore these recognized character strengths in the following weeks. It can often be the case that we focus on things that we need to fix and not necessarily the things that are going right for us, areas that we are strong in. It was nice to observe students recognizing these strengths in themselves, in each other, and celebrating such. There it is an adult and youth version of the VIA survey. Parents can check this out at: https://www.viacharacter.org/www/The-Survey . In the second semester there are tentative plans for parent workshops in recognizing, utilizing, and celebrating the strengths within ourselves and others in our lives…stay tuned!!
University Visits
Thursday, November 5 @ 10:20
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (Japan)