MS eNews, Friday, August 26th, 2016
You are invited to MS Open House, Thursday, 6:30 pm
by Dennis Harter
dennish@isb.ac.th
We have had a wonderful start to the school year and we are excited to invite all MS parents to our annual Open House night on Thursday, September 1st, from 6:30 to 9:00 pm.
During this time, you will have meet each of your child’s class teachers and hear about our learning program. We will start with a short welcome and opening in the Chevron theater at 6:30 pm.
Please arrive by 6:15 in order to collect your child’s schedule and to ensure that we can start on time as the schedule for the evening is tight. We want you to have quality time with each of your child’s teachers and so, staying on time will be important.
There will be light refreshments available, as we know this time runs over typical meal time.
We hope you can join us at 6:15 pm on Thursday night.
Communication from the middle school about student learning
By Cindy Plantecoste
At ISB, we take every opportunity to work in partnership with parents to support your children in their learning and development. To this end, we provide a variety of pathways to keep you informed about what your child is learning, the environment in which it takes place, and about how your child approaches his/her learning. In the MS we formally communicate with parents through Open House, Parent-Teacher-Student conferences, written comments, and report cards.
We have built the following timeline for communication to ensure that you have regular opportunities to monitor the progress of your child in his/her academic subjects as well as the habits and attitudes that your child exhibits that contribute to learning. Our goal is that you and your child will not encounter any surprises over the course of the year related to how your child’s progress.
Open house is an event that allows you to meet your child’s teachers, learn about his/her courses, and experience the learning environment that teachers have created in their classrooms. Teachers will share information about the course content, assessment, and how and when to contact them, should you have any questions.
Parent-teacher-student conferences allow you to have one on one time with each of your child’s teachers to discuss progress towards learning goals, and the way in which your child is approaching his/her learning. We strongly encourage students to actively participate in these conferences and to be advocates for their pathway forward in their learning.
About a month after conferences, teachers will write comments for each of their students, pointing out areas of growth that have occurred since the conferences and areas that may still need attention.
At the end of each semester, your child will receive a Report Card, which will include a comment from your child’s advisor.
In the MS at ISB, our report cards reflect that fact that we use a standards-based recording and reporting system. Simply put, this means that we report on your child progress towards our identified learning goals separately from how your child is approaching his/her learning. We intentionally separate these two components to provide you with the clearest picture of your child’s progress and of your child as a learner.
At ISB, we design our curriculum around standards (what we want students to know, understand, be able to do, and apply to new contexts for each subject area). To provide clear communication to families and students, our reporting systems are aligned to these learning goals. We ‘chunk’ learning goals into reporting categories that are easy to understand, and that provide enough detail to show strengths and as well as areas for growth within a given subject area. For example, the English curriculum is based around the Common Core Standards. When we report on progress towards these standards, we use the reporting categories of Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language. In this way, you can easily see the particular areas in English where your child may be excelling or in need of extra support. On the report card, these reporting categories for each subject fall under the section called: Attainment of Learning Goals. This provides the parent and learner specific information about learning, rather than a number, percentage, or letter “average,” which provides no specific information.
Here is the graphic that explains how we rate students’ achievement of learning goals.
To further look at our example from English class, and using our descriptors from the graphic above, a child’s progress in English could look like this:
- Reading: (M) Meeting
- Writing: (M) Meeting
- Speaking: (E) Excelling
- Listening: (A) Approaching
- Language: (M) Meeting
Another major goal for our report card is to clearly communicate how your child approaches his/her learning (HAL – Habits and Attitudes for Learning). Our ISB MS HAL are behaviors and dispositions that support students’ progress towards achieving our Mission. Students who approach their learning with these habits and attitudes develop a growth mindset and become independent, lifelong learners.
Here is the graphic that explains how we rate students’ HAL.
Should you have any questions that you would like to discuss, or if you would like to learn more about standards-based grading and reporting, please feel free to drop by the office, or schedule an appointment to meet with me.
Cindy Plantecoste
Middle School Dean of Academics
Advisory Overview
By Eric Burnett
After an engaging, somewhat silly, intentionally interactive (and just a tad bit hectic) first week, our Middle School community started this second week settling into the schedule rhythm that will guide our learning throughout the year. In addition to the support provided through our diverse catalog of courses, this year the MS will be using ISB’s Culture of Care framework (Being Cared For, Caring for Self, Caring for Others, Caring for the World) to guide and ground our student interactions.
Starting off each day, students meet with their Advisory classrooms and bring the Culture of Care tenets to life. Each day of the week has a different purpose. Mondays prioritize students feeling known and cared for, so the conversations focus on what’s happening in each student’s life and what upcoming ISB events might be of interest. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, students learn and discuss their world – the world of their mind, the world of their peers and the actual “world” world. Thursdays are a day of pause, where students make sure their minds, lockers and backpacks are organized and that they can learn to prioritize brain breaks from their often-busy lives. And the weekends with Fun Fridays, where individual classrooms or entire Houses get together to celebrate achievements, engage in some spirited competitions or just have fun, playing games while learning to keep good company with each other.
In each of these meetings, Advisory groups practice different styles of interacting, prioritizing not simply what is being discussed, but how it is being discussed. Time is purposefully protected at the end of each session to reflect on what went well, what didn’t go smoothly and what could be improved. Although in the first quarter the entire Middle School will be moving together through Advisory using shared content and delivery strategies, as the year progresses, individual students and teachers will steadily begin designing their own resources and activities to ensure our community can best care for itself and the world around us.
Health and Wellbeing at ISB
The Health and Wellbeing education at ISB encourages young people to lead healthy, active and balanced lives. Students are provided with opportunities to acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive health goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions.
Our course also teaches personal safety and the skills necessary to keep ourselves safe from harm. We discuss the many risks to our safety so that students are aware and can take action to keep themselves safe. The course covers human growth and development within a context of understanding the personal physical changes that will affect them as well as their emotional and relationship needs during the adolescent years. Encouragement of tolerance and understanding of difference is another important component of the health and wellbeing curriculum. Parents are invited to attend a meeting prior to the teaching of the human growth and development unit as we value their partnership in this very important area of study.
The goal of our program is to develop individual values, attitudes, competencies and beliefs that will empower the student to commit to their own and others health and wellbeing throughout their lifetime.
For a more detailed account of the units of study and the essential questions please refer to the Middle School Program of Study
In order to successfully teach the many units of study the Health and Wellbeing teachers make use of a number of resources to provide relevant content. One program that is used in all grades is the Second Step Program. If you wish to look over the content in this program please go to their web site and use the code provided to access the content.
www.secondstep.org
Grade 6 – SSP6 FAMI LY12
Grade 7 – SSP7 FAMI LY23
Grade 8 – SSP8 FAMI LY34
Health Curriculums from other countries were evaluated and content chooses to reflect the best teaching in the areas we cover.
Health and Wellbeing units are also available for viewing in Haiku for each grade.
Should you wish to discuss the Health and Wellbeing course in more detail please contact the school counselor on your child’s grade level.
The Health and Wellbeing teachers for 2016- 2017 are:
Gr 6 Louise Saddington and Martin Hermann
Gr 7 Maurilio Baron-Toaldo and Lindsey Serrano
Gr 8 Brenda Perkins and Adam Kirk
We look forward to working with our students on the many goals outlined above.
Energy Drinks
It has come to our attention that drinking “Energy Drinks” has been gaining popularity with students while at school.
“Energy Drinks” often aim to provide “energy” by delivering high amounts of caffeine. Examples of these energy drinks include Red Bull, G-Fuel, M-150 and Carabao. Many of these also have vitamins are are marketed as “safe” drinks. Recently, the G-Fuel has risen to popularity with boys, as it is marketed to video “Gamers.”
The effects of caffeine include increased alertness, insomnia, anxiety, dizziness, headaches and the “jitters”. Caffeine is also a diuretic (which means it makes you produce more urine). This can increase the risk of dehydration (which is already high given the climate we live in). Caffeine may also cause heart arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythm) in some individuals. There is concern regarding the effects of caffeine on the teenage brain with regards importance of sleep, brain development, sensitivity and inexperience with caffeine and possible unknown medical conditions.
Students are using these Energy Drinks as a supplement to studying and many of the gaming websites are promoting them so they can “game” for longer. Teenagers require 8-10 hours of sleep per night to function properly. Lack of sleep can limit their ability to learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems as well as emotional problems (such as depression) and skin problems (such as acne).
At ISB, as part of our healthy balanced lifestyle we discourage the use of Energy drinks. Coffee is available at the grind to adults and high school students only.
Below are the recommended intake of caffeine and the amount of caffeine in several popular drinks:
Recommended maximum daily intake of caffeine:
Age Intake
>18 years 300-400mg
13-18 years 100mg
4-12 years 45mg
<4 years 0mg
Amount of caffeine in a single serve of drinks:
Drink Caffeine
Brewed coffee (250 mL) 100-200 mg
Espresso coffee 50-75 mg
M-150 (250 mL) 80 mg
Red Bull (250 mL) 80 mg
Carabao (250 mL) 50 mg
G Fuel (1 sachet) 150 mg
G Fuel is of particular concern as the students mixes up the sachet with water themselves and may easily take too much, as their reliance on the caffeine hit grows. It also comes in flavor that young people like such as “Fazeberry”, “Blue Ice”, and “Pink Lemonade” (there are 16 different flavours).
Please discuss with your child safe consumption of caffeine. Please also ensure that they should not accept drinks from their friends unless they know what they are and are sure they do not contain caffeine.
If your child does use “Energy Drinks” please make sure they do not bring these drinks onto campus, as we believe these to be unhealthy and detrimental for learning, in adolescents.
ISB is committed to your child’s overall development, both educationally and health related. Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact your healthcare provider or the ISB Health Clinic (nurse@isb.ac.th).
Clases de español después de la escuela 2016-2017
Estimados padres,
En el año escolar del 2015-2016 se condujeron ocho diferentes programas de
diversos idiomas nativos. Este año nos gustaría incluir más idiomas en el programa.
En nuestra escuela hay unos cuantos niños para quienes el español es su idioma materno y nos gustaría apoyarlos en su desarrollo. Esta clase de español se reuniría después de la escuela. La señora Crimi sería la maestra y la clase tendría lugar una vez a la semana en el salón de la clase de español. El día y la hora más probable serían el miércoles de cada semana de 2:30 – 3:30.
El costo de dichas clases depende en el número de participantes pero será similar al costo
de otras clases de idioma materno. Si está interesado/a que su hijo/a participe este semestre, por favor llene la información que sigue y envíelo a Paul Dufficy o a la señora Crimi o simplemente entreguelo en la oficina de actividades comunitarias.
- Student Name (s):
El nombre del estudiante (s): _____________________________________________
El nombre del estudiante (s): _____________________________________________
- Grade (s) (2016 – 2017:
El grado 2016-2017: ____________________________________________________
El grado 2016-2017: ____________________________________________________
- Parent names:
Los nombres de los padres: _______________________________________________
- Email Contact:
Contacto por correo electrónico: ____________________________________________
Quedamos a la espera de su respuesta y estamos para apoyar el idioma materno de su hijo/a/s.
Atentamente,
Paul y Nube
After school Spanish classes: 2016 – 2017
Dear Parents,
In the 2015 – 2016 school year we had eight different mother tongue classes running after school. This year we would like to include more languages in the program.
We have quite a few children for whom Spanish is a mother tongue and we would like to form an after school Spanish class if we can.
The class would be held once a week in the Spanish classroom. The day will depend on both teacher and student availability but probably Wednesdays.
The cost for such a class, while dependent to some extent on numbers, will be similar to the cost of other mother tongue classes.
If you would like your child to join an afternoon class this semester, please fill in the information below and send to either Paul Dufficy (paul@isb.ac.th) or Ms Crimi (nubec@isb.ac.th) or simply hand it in to the Community Activities Office.
- Student Name (s): _______________________________________________________
- Grade (s) (2016 – 2017: ___________________________________________________
- Parent names: ___________________________________________________________
- Email Contact:___________________________________________________________
We are looking forward to hearing from you and supporting your child’s mother tongue.
Regards
Paul and Nube