Tomorrow April 24 is a school holiday – No Virtual School for students.
Enjoy the long weekend!
Join us for this week’s Parent Engage session!
Thursday, April 30 at 9:00 AM: Supporting Your Child During Virtual School
This session will focus on the social emotional wellbeing of your child(ren) as well as tips to support academics while learning from home. In ES Virtual School parents are often needed to guide the learning. We recognize this is challenging and we want to partner with you to make this experience a positive one for all. Support and strategies will be offered by Kate Kersey (ES Counselor) and Michelle Goodison (ES Learning Coach).
In order to have a sense of numbers, please sign up at this link to attend this Parent Engage session. The link to the Zoom call will be emailed out to registered parents on Wednesday.
ES Community Design Challenge
On Monday 20th April, we launched our second community design challenge. Through this video message, students were invited to design and make something that improves their virtual school experience at home. We have received some wonderful designs from students for our ES Community Design Challenge. As a reminder, the window for receiving submissions will close on Friday, 1 May. Please support your child in emailing their design to us at: communitydesignchallenge@isb.ac.th
Panthers Pounce: The Great ISB Reading Challenge
Let’s “pounce” into our ISB community reading program.
- Panthers Pounce is an ISB School-wide May reading challenge where everyone– students, staff, and families can join the fun!
- You participate by logging your time and reading any book.
- Your reading could include eBooks, audioBooks, or read-to-me books on Epic. Your reading can even include storytime with Mr. Whitman.
We will launch our Panthers Pounce May reading challenge on May 1st. From the very young to the very old, anyone can pounce on a good book!
Virtual Character Dress-up Days & Grade Level Assemblies
The First Ever Virtual School Character Dress-up Days and Grade Level Zoom Assemblies with guest author Tad Hills (PreK-3)
What? Your child is invited to the first ISB Virtual Book Character Dress-up days and Grade Level Assemblies on Zoom
How will this work? Classroom teachers will share the link to the Zoom grade level assembly– students just need to join at that time, dressed up as any book character. AND YES, superheroes are okay! As a special treat, students in PreK-Grade 3 will have a virtual visit from visiting author Tad Hills, author of the famous Rocket books.
It will be great fun!
Schedule for Zoom Grade Level Assemblies (Mark Your Calendars!)
| Thursday, May 7 | Friday, May 8 |
| PreK/KG – 8:30 AM
G1 – 9:30 AM |
G2 – 8:30 AM
G3 – 9:30 AM G4/5 – 11 AM |
(Update) Panthers News
LIVE FROM BOSTON! Jace Payackapan in Concert 7:00pm Friday, May 1 Singer-Songwriter and Producer, Jace Payackapan (ISB Class of ’16), has been working on her musical art since she was little. A recent Contemporary Writing and Production Graduate of Berklee College of Music Jace now spends her time in Boston area studios recording and producing original music and vocalizing on other writers’ projects. Locally she has been awarded Trinity College London’s (Guildhall) distinction for all grades in both piano and vocals. Additionally, she received Thailand’s National 1st place for Trinity Pop & Rock Vocals in 2015, 2016, and 2017. https://www.youtube.com/JacePayackapan
Panther (Community) Activities Refunds Given the uncertainty around school closure beyond April 30, we have decided to move ahead with pro-rata refunds for Panther Activity sessions through the end of the school year. Please keep in mind that should school open again in May, we would offer activities aligned with the then current health recommendations related to campus access, group size, and physical distancing. Refunds made via bank transfer will be disseminated the week of April 27 with cash refunds scheduled for pick up outside the Community and Arts Office beginning May 4 by appointment only. Note that refunds will be processed only after receiving the information requested in the survey HERE which is due on or before Thursday, April 23. Thanks again for your patience and consideration during this difficult time. Questions? Contact Anthony Giles or Lucas Rivera at anthonyg@isb.ac.th or lucasr@isb.ac.th.
Panther Roars (/ˈpanTHər/ /rôrz/ noun 1. Full, deep, prolonged utterances of positive expression by ISB community members in response to the world pandemic. Check out the newest Community Connections projects HERE including Open Mic, Who Do You Know?, and The Thank You Project. We are looking for teacher and student responses of gratitude for workers on the frontline fight against COVID-19, stories about people you know that have been directly impacted by the pandemic, or songs, dances and slam poetry to share within our own community and beyond. Please ask your classes to participate today!
(Repeat) Parent Resources for Supporting Students
One of the consultants from whom we have had the pleasure of learning as an ES Community is Matt Glover. Matt has visited ISB many times to help support our elementary faculty in high quality literacy instruction, as well as worked with parents on how to read with young children and “making books.” Matt has been a teacher, principal, author, and consultant for over 30 years. He recently published a collection of parent videos that you might find helpful. Check them out here.
(Repeat) ES Counselors: article from ‘Cultures of Dignity’ to address conflict at home
As we delve deeper into virtual learning and parents are thrust into the role of teacher for longer than they may have expected, strong emotions may build. Conflict may arise as stress levels build, as kids (and adults) become more stir crazy from being shut inside, and as we all try to make sense of what is happening worldwide.
We need to keep healthy, safe, and connected to each other. But the everyday moments of living together can be seriously challenging. Even in the best of times, the ability to regulate yourself and have a high level of social and relationship skills has always been the most important skills a person needs to function and thrive. Now, it is critical to you and everyone you’re living with.
Let’s keep in mind:
- Conflict is always inevitable. In this situation it’s even more likely.
- Conflicts are usually about two things: the actual thing people disagree about and how we are talking to each other about the problem.
- It’s up to us to try our best to be easy on people, hard on ideas.
- No matter what happens, we still have to interact with each other. We aren’t going anywhere, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to get to a better place. That means really listening; being prepared to be changed by what you hear. Beware the temptation to wait for someone to stop talking so we can tell them why they’re wrong and we’re right.
- Everyone is going to have to change at least one thing about what they’re doing to make the problem better and get us closer to where we want to be.
Before talking to the person you’re frustrated with go to a quiet place and write your responses to the following questions:
- What are the three things you want to accomplish in this meeting?
- Are your three goals realistic?
- What is one thing you want to hold yourself accountable during this meeting?
During the conversation, it is important to aks “curious” questions instead of a “why would you ever think X question” is. Try using these sentence stems:
Can you tell me more about…
Help me understand why…
What’s success look like here?
Maybe it didn’t go perfectly. That’s OK. It’s unrealistic to expect that one meeting will solve the conflict. So have a short check the next day. And don’t worry, you’ll have more opportunities to practice.
Whether you’re cooped up at home or not, you can use this strategy anytime you’re in conflict with other people.
If you want to learn even more and access a step-by-step guide of how to have a family meeting while in lockdown, click on this article from the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/well/family/coronavirus-quarantine-conflict-family-meeting.html
(Repeat) ES World Languages
World Language learning happens everyday in ES Virtual School. On Wednesday, students receive direct instruction via Zoom with follow-up learning activities for that same day. In addition, teachers post practice learning activities for other days of the school week.
This week, our World Languages team launched Zoom with some grades, and next week this will be expanded to include all students. Below is a schedule that will support our World Languages teachers in connecting with all grade levels on Wednesdays. Teachers will be reaching out to students and families to confirm times for next Wednesday and provide the Zoom meeting links.
| World Languages Zoom Schedule | |
| 8:30 – 9:00 | Grade 5 Thai
Grade 5 Mandarin Group 1 Grade 5 Spanish Group 1 |
| 9:30 – 10:00 | Grade 4 |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Grade 3 |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Grade 2 |
| 1:00 – 1:30 | Grade 1 |
| 2:00 – 2:30 | KG Thai
Grade 5 Mandarin Group 2 Grade 5 Spanish Group 2 |
As a reminder, all World Languages learning can be accessed in your child’s Seesaw account. Students will need to be signed in using their Home Learning Code so they can access both their Homeroom and World Language Seesaw classes. Alternatively, students in Grade 3-5 can also sign in using their ISB Gmail account. If you need any technical support with Seesaw, please write to help@isb.ac.th and we will do our best to help.
(Repeat) ES HUB News
Please click on the link to go to the Youtube channel.
(Repeat) If You Know you are Leaving ISB
Families who are leaving ISB at the end of the school year are asked to inform the school as soon as possible using the official Notice of Withdrawal Form. This helps us prepare school records for your child and with planning for next year. Completed forms can be dropped off at the ES Office.
(Repeat) Updated Security Feature in Zoom
In addition to some of the features that are currently in place to keep video conferencing calls in Zoom private and safe, starting Monday we will be protecting calls by requiring a password in order to join the call. This will be the same password for all Zoom calls in the Elementary School, and students and parents will be notified of the password by our homeroom teachers.
eNews Guidelines
Shelley Bragg
shelleyb@isb.ac.th
ISB eNewsletters provide a valuable avenue for communication within the ISB parent community. For your convenience, we have provided you with our eNewsletter guidelines below.
Submitting an announcement for publication
ISB accepts announcements from ISB families 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
Where to submit your announcement
4publish@isb.ac.th is for announcements of interest to the entire ISB community.
naiyanar@isb.ac.th is for Elementary School (ES) announcements of interest to ES families.
phremjiz@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 Director of Marketing and Communications 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.