MS eNews – Friday, November 6th, 2015
Wellness At ISB
Over this past semester we have taken many opportunities to let you know about our wellness program and the content covered during these lessons. I take this opportunity once again to let you know about our wellness program.
Recently ISB hosted presenters from The Greater Good Science Center, Berkeley. This provided an opportunity for teachers and parents to increase their awareness of both the content and importance of social and emotional learning. Research supports the importance of social/ emotional skills in a student’s life. Students with strong social and emotional knowledge and skills are more successful academically as well as more able to lead meaningful, happier lives. For more information please go to the following link.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is a philosophy that is centered on the positive social and emotional development of each student. Each student must be assisted to develop self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and the ability to make responsible decisions that promote healthy living.
Our Wellness Program is taught weekly for 40 minutes during the last period of the day; it is taught by the Wellness teachers and the school counselors. The Wellness Program supports the teaching of social and emotional skills. Please ask your child who their Wellness teacher is. In Gr 6 the Wellness teachers are Mr. Johnson, Ms. Saddington, and Ms. Ahoy. In Gr 7 the Wellness teachers are Mr. Baron-Toaldo and Mrs. Serrano. In Gr 8 the Wellness teachers are Ms. Perkins and Mr. Hermann.
The Wellness lessons address empathy, communication skills, understanding different perspectives, negotiating and compromise, emotional management, coping with stress, safety, decision-making and relationship and sexual health.
The Wellness Program uses as its main resource a well-developed and researched program called “ Second Step”. This program was developed in the US and provides a curriculum that addresses the needs of MS students in a sequence suitable for grades 6 to 8.
As parents you play a critical role in helping your child develop strong social skills and if we work in partnership to develop these skills your child benefits. Each month in the MS newsletter, in the “Counselor Corner” section we will let you know what skills are being targeted over the month in the Wellness lessons. We will offer suggestions as to how you can support your child’s development of the skills being targeted. Please check the “counselor corner” section of the MS News at the start of each month for the details of what is being taught in Wellness.
You can also join www.secondstep.org with the activating key SSP7 FAMI LY23 to watch videos about the second step program and get information about what your child is learning.
We hope the monthly updates will provide lots of opportunities for you to play a role in developing your child’s social and emotional skills.
Warm Regards,
Carmel, Janel, and Jackie.
Educating Students About Safety
Dear Parents
This month in Wellness lessons in Middle School the Counselors will be teaching lessons about personal safety. This includes learning about:
- Identifying safe and unsafe situations to include emotional and physical safety
- Learning how to access support structures
- Learning how to act to stay safe
- Learning how to value themselves and others
These lessons support and complement our child safeguarding policy that is being implemented this year. Throughout November, students will become familiar with identifying situations that can make them feel safe or unsafe and learn how to respond by using safety steps to protect from harm.
The safety steps being taught include:
- Trusting your instincts around personal safety and becoming aware of your environment and the people in it that make it safe or unsafe
- Helping students learn assertiveness skills to keep them safe
- Report to a trusted adult and know how to seek help to protect them
We encourage you to chat with your child about keeping safe at school, in the community and online as well as at home. Please give them the important message that if someone has hurt them or made them feel uncomfortable, that they are not to blame and that as a young person they have right to be free from verbal and physical harm. It is never too late to share with a caring adult, so that a child feels heard, understood and protected.
To find out more please do attend our important parent workshop that will cover our child safeguarding board policy and procedures.
Parent Safeguarding Workshop: November 18th facilitated by K12 Psychologist and Counselors
Morning Session 8:00 until 9:00am and Evening 6:30 until 7:30pm.
Thank you for collaborating with us, together we can strive to keep your children safe and happy.
Carmel Kean Janel Wilder Jackie Greenwood
Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8
Letter to All MS Parents from the MS Technology Learning Coordinator
Dear Parents,
A recent large-scale study that explores young people’s use of the full range of media and technology has been released by Common Sense Media. It offers a comprehensive picture of the use of media by kids, age 8 to 18 in the U.S., including the level of enjoyment, frequency of use, and amount of time devoted to a wide array of media activities and devices. This report may bring up some opportunities for further conversations with your children about:
- Boys and girls having very different media preferences and habits.
- Watching TV and listening to music dominating young people’s media diets despite the variety of new media activities available to them.
- Digital screen media being used for many purposes: reading, watching, playing, listening, communicating, and creating.
- Many teens multitask with media while doing their homework, and most thinking this has no effect on the quality of their work.
- But most important to me is young people’s engagement with media still consisting primarily of consumption rather than creation.
For more information, watch the Common Sense Media video and see their infographic or blog post for highlights here.
If you want to download the executive summary go to: https://bit.ly/csmediaexsum
If you want to download the full report go to: https://bit.ly/csmediarep
If anyone considers that this can be shared with other audiences, please do so.
Thanks,
Miguel Zambrano
Technology Learning Coordinator
Middle School – ISB
BOYS U-15 SOCCER
Next week will be U-15 boys soccer tryouts.
Tryouts will take place Monday and Thursday from 2:10 – 3:40pm. These days will also be our training days. This may look a little different to some of other U-15 sports. We will train on 2 days instead of 3 for a longer period of time on that day.
Please remember to bring shin pads (you must wear these to play) and a water bottle. We will meet in the sports breezeway near A Field.
Coach Davy
IASAS MUN – November 12th -14th
Dear Parents and Friends of MUN,
Next week ISB will be hosting seventeen schools for IASAS Model United Nations 2015. The conference itself will be held November 12-14 at the UNESCAP building in downtown Bangkok with visiting schools arriving on our campus to meet host families throughout the day on Wednesday, November 11. Although ISB sends only 16 delegates to the event it will take an army of student pages, security, press, and IT to run the conference properly. Thank you in advance for your support. Remember, M-U-N is F-U-N!
Regards,
Anthony Giles
BISAC Season 2 Tryouts for U11 – U15
Season 2 tryouts are about to begin on Monday, November 9th.
For full details go here. To see practice location throughout the season go here.
| Sport | Tryout Dates | Times (tryouts and practice) | Tryout Location |
| U11 Soccer | November 9 & 12 | Monday & Thursday 2:10-3:10 | Meet in front of MS PE office, instructions will be given there. |
| U11 Track & Field | January 11 & 14 | Monday & Thursday 2:10-3:10 | Meet at Track |
| U13 & U15 Soccer | November 9 & 11 | Monday, Wednesday, and Thursdays 2:10-3:15 | Meet in front of MS PE office, instructions will be given there. |
| U13 & U15 Badminton | November 9 & 11 | Monday, Wednesday, and Thursdays 2:10-3:15 | Meet in front of MS PE office, instructions will be given there. |
| U13 & U15 Track & Field | January 11 & 13 | Monday, Wednesday, and Thursdays 2:10-3:15 | Meet at Track |
Boarding School and Summer School Applications
Dear Parents,
If you are considering applying for boarding and summer schools for 2016, please do contact our Counseling Secretary Khun Natt natthapc@isb.ac.th at your earliest convenience. It is important that we have sufficient time to prepare reports and recommendations and these are best attended to in November and early December. Applications for schools are normally made by early January but with Winter break, it is vital that these requests are made before the end of this semester.
Please contact Jackie Greenwood (jackieg@isb.ac.th) grade 8 Counselor if you have any queries or concerns about boarding and summer school applications.
Making your Move Matter!
New to ISB? Is your Teen having trouble with the new workload? Are they missing home? Is your teen still trying to establish solid friendships?
The MS counseling team is offering a support group for new students who may be finding the adjustment to ISB hard. This group called ‘Make your Move Matter’ will help students be able to talk about loss in a healthy way, foster good relationships with their peers, identify and communicate their emotions better, and subsequently do better academically. There will be 6 sessions of about 40 minutes held during school time, starting the week of November 9th. We know that adjusting can be difficult, but we are here to help. If you think your child could benefit from this group please fill out this form and we will get in touch with them directly. This group will be run by Jacqui Brelsford (jacquib@isb.ac.th) and Jon Stuart (jons@isb.ac.th),the ISB K-12 counseling Interns. If you have any questions feel free to contact them.
Sign up by filling out this Form and we will be in touch. If you have any questions feel free to contact us at any time.
eNewsletter Guidelines
by: Tony Arnold
anthonya@isb.ac.th
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.