‘Where can I find that information?’
Justin Alexander
justina@isb.ac.th
Dear Parents,
Welcome back everyone after a well deserved October break. I trust you had the opportunity to refresh and spend some time with family and friends during the break and are now back in the swing of things full of energy.
Thank you to the 60 or so HS parents that joined us on Thursday at the HS Principals forum meeting where the HS Admin team (Justyna McMillan, Andy Vaughan and myself) reviewed the many questions submitted to the PF committee over the past few weeks. These questions covered a range of topics and areas and the responses were shared in the HS PF presentation which is now available to all parents. Whilst we are very happy sharing questions and answers at the forum, we do welcome questions and concerns at any time of the year. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have a question that needs answering so we can answer you promptly or point you in the right direction where you can find the answer.
Some of the questions posed were relating to assessment, the IB programme and subject pathways in Math, Science and Languages. We have scheduled separate workshops to give more detailed and in depth information about these areas in upcoming workshops and sessions. Please do check our Enews each week so that you can register and attend these sessions in the coming months. Additionally there were some questions about the College counseling program at ISB which can be answered by visiting the ISB College Counseling website where you can find details and links to previous presentations and meetings and information about standardised testing and virtual university visits etc.
Upcoming meetings
- Wed 18th November: Assessment & Maths, Science & Language pathways 12:30PM in MPB
- Thu 26th November: IB Roundtable discussion 9:30AM in MPB
- Thu 21st January: IB Basics Information aimed at Gr 9-10 Parents
- Thu 21st January: College Information Night for Gr 11 Students and Parents
- Thu 4th February: Gr 10 Course Information Session for Students and Parents
Student Survey G9/10
Andy Vaughan
andyv@isb.ac.th
Dear Parent/Guardian,
At ISB we care deeply about the well-being of our students. To help us meet our mission to support them in leading healthy, active and balanced lives, all Middle and High School students will complete the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in October/November. We have used this survey with students over the last few years.
2 November, Grades 6-8
3 November, Grades 9-10
Why is the questionnaire being administered?
The purpose of this questionnaire is to:
- Identify students who require immediate support
- Identify students who are struggling with social/emotional/behavioral issues in order to provide appropriate early intervention/prevention support
- Obtain an overview of the social/emotional/behavioral needs at our school to ensure that we are providing optimal support for our students
How and when will the questionnaire be administered?
The online questionnaire will be administered during an Advisory class period and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Your child’s participation is voluntary. The survey items are available for you to review here.
How will the results be used?
- The data collected will be managed, analyzed, and reported by a team including the school counselors, school psychologists and the Director of Student Services in accordance with the ISB Confidentiality Policy.
- Individual student responses to the questionnaire are confidential. Any concerns raised through the survey administration process will be shared only with school personnel involved in supporting that student.
- The questionnaire administration process has been designed to identify specific students who need additional support. The survey will be conducted electronically and students’ names will be captured along with their responses. ISB counselors will meet with any student whose responses indicate a need for follow up and parents will be notified.
- School counselors, school psychologists, and administrators will analyze overall trends to help improve student support at ISB.
- In completing this questionnaire your child will have an opportunity to privately reflect on his/her current social emotional health and wellness. Some parents may choose to use the questionnaire as an opportunity to create dialogue related to social emotional wellbeing topics with their child following completion of the survey.
- Key findings will be shared with teachers and parents.
Does my child have to complete the questionnaire?
No. As a parent or guardian, you can opt out of having your child complete this questionnaire. Students will be informed that they may choose to skip any questions that they do not feel comfortable answering.
Parents/Guardians who do not want their grade 9/10 child to take the survey should let their child’s school counselor know by phone or in writing no later than Tuesday 3 November. ISB will assume parent/guardian consent to their child participating unless the school counselor has been notified. Parents do not have to do anything unless they do not want their child to participate.
Thank you so much for your support with this important project.
The ISB Counseling Team
High School Counselors:
Jackie Valenzuela (jackiev@isb.ac.th)
Kevin Callahan (kevinc@isb.ac.th)
Shannon Leoni (shannonl@isb.ac.th)
Middle School Counselors:
Colleen Coady (colleenc@isb.ac.th)
Kevin Nelson (kevinn@isb.ac.th)
MS and HS School Psychologist:
Ryan Ruhl (ryanr@isb.ac.th)
Director of Student Services:
Keith Collins (keithc@isb.ac.th)
Andy Vaughan
High School Dean of Students
+66 87 514 9550
Update Student Passport Information in Powerschool
Chad Bates
chadb@isb.ac.th
In order to ensure that thorough contact tracing can be conducted if necessary and ensure that schools are maintaining proper records, earlier this school year, Thailand’s Office of the Private Education Commission (OPEC) issued a directive to schools regarding the collection of passport or national ID numbers and other details (listed below) of community members, including students and staff.
In line with Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act, ISB would not disclose this information to any individual or organization for any purpose other than that designated by our legal obligation to the Government of Thailand.
Please ensure that one person from each family reviews and updates Powerschool with your student’s current demographic information.
NOTE: Passport issue date is a new required field.
Login to Powerschool Parent Portal> Contact/Passport Information
If you are unable to login to Powerschool or need assistance, contact: help@isb.ac.th
Mid Semester Comments
Justyna McMillan
justyna@isb.ac.th
Parents will receive access to Mid Semester Comments on Powerschool, on Monday 2nd November. The purpose of these comments is to communicate progress and help support students with their learning. The next HAL and Grade update is scheduled for November 20th.
Grade and Hal Updates – Schedule for the Academic Year
Justyna McMillan
justyna@isb.ac.th
At the Principal’s Forum, there was a request to share the schedule for the remaining Grade and HAL updates for the year.
Please note, we may on occasion need to adjust these dates, however they are currently set as follows:
Remaining updates for Semester 1:
- Mid Semester Comments Mon Nov 2
- Grades & HAL 3 Fri Nov 20
- Sem. Grades & HAL 4 Fri Dec 18
Grade Update Schedule for Semester 2:
- HAL 1 Feb 5
- Grades & HAL 2 Mar 5
- Mid Semester Comments Apr 2
- Grades & HAL 3 Apr 30
- Grades for Seniors May 7
- Sem Grades & HAL May 14
- Final Grades Jun11
News from the College Office
Sonya Ohlsson
sonyao@isb.ac.th
SAT Saturday, November 7:
All students must bring their school ID to get on campus. ALL STUDENTS must bring their Passport or Thai National ID and Admissions Ticket to gain entrance to the test rooms. No student will be admitted without a Thai National ID or a Passport and their Admissions Ticket. A school ID is NOT accepted for testing purposes. There are no exceptions–College Board makes these rules, not us. All phones will be turned off for the entire testing time and students may not access them until the tests are completed. We will let students in at 7:30am.
The next SAT is December 5 and to get a seat you must register by November 5th. There are no standby or waitlist opportunities for international testing this year. Please follow the instructions on our college Google site: tinyurl.com/isbcollege
Seniors:
Seniors are busily finalizing and submitting their early applications. An important thing to remember is that the deadline is the day and time here in Thailand, not in the country where the application is going!! Do not get your application trashed by trying to submit for a different timezone!!
The College Office is busy submitting all the school-related documents for the early applications this week. It is very important to be aware that students may get an email or portal status back from the schools they apply to that documents are still missing. This is an automatic response and so they will not have had time to even check to see if they have received the documents. Be aware that it can take the universities up to 2 weeks to process the thousands of documents they are getting from all over the world. Just because it’s electronic, doesn’t mean it’s instantaneous!! So, please be patient.
The next Senior College Seminars are next Thursday and Friday, Nov. 5 and 6. All seniors applying to college are expected to attend during their TOK or Free Period. All sessions are in MPB 1.
Juniors:
The next Junior College Seminar is November 17. A reminder email will be sent to all juniors as the date gets closer.
ISB Virtual University Visits:
- Nov. 2 University of San Francisco 11:00am
- Nov. 4 Suffolk University 11:00am
- Nov. 5 Oberlin College 11:15am
For more information on all virtual visits as well as links to other resources, please look here: tinyurl.com/isbcollege
News from High School Counselors
Shannon Leoni
shannonl@isb.ac.th
October 29
Welcome back from October break! We hope that everyone was able to find time to rest, relax and recharge.
Now that we’re all back and gearing up for a busy end of semester, we’d like to remind students of some helpful time management tips that can help to prioritize work and improve focus. One great tip is the “2 Minute Rule”, meaning if something takes less than 2 minutes to complete, do it right away. Those 2 minutes will add up and help students to feel more productive.
We’d recommend checking out some of the following resources, and using printables when possible- it can be really helpful for students to have a visual aid to organize their brains on paper, as we like to say.
10 Time Management Tips for Students in High School and College – great tips on how to use a schedule to more effectively manage time spent on assignments.
Time Management Printables – great options for choosing a focus area, identifying and building positive habits, and tracking progress.
We wish you luck on creating and sustaining more effective time management strategies! Remember- counselors are always here to chat more about these topics.
The Library and Tech Corner with Mr. Bell
Chris Bell
chrisb@isb.ac.th
The Library and Tech Corner with Mr. Bell
Each week I send out information to students and teachers about what is happening in the library and with technology at ISB. Now you will start getting some of that information! I hope it will create conversations at your home, with your children (our students) about books, media, technology, and sometimes just other fun stuff.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Each week I recommend a book, so this week was a reflection of our discussions as a community about The Social Dilemma Documentary. The Information Trade ~ by 
Alexis Wichowski: Rarely do I read a Non-Fiction book that I think everyone would enjoy, but this is the exception. This book is an amazing follow up on where our data is going, who is buying it, and why. While it is a bit scary to hear where Alexis thinks this is all going, she writes in a way we can all understand. She gives us a fair warning about the potential of these large tech companies. Read this if you want to know more about where your data goes.
TECH RECOMMENDATION
The whole theme of this week’s updates is information and data. Thus, I am sharing Google’s provision called My Google Activity. You can check your activity at Google, and you should periodically, to see how much info and what info they have collected. We have very few rights to privacy in the tech world and Google is providing you a means to at least seeing what they have on you. If they have it, believe me it has already been sold, but at least you can think about it for future use. You can view searches, history, youtube, you can search by date, you can see it all and even delete it all. I am going to continue to work on this but this is one for all of you who care about your rights and privacy.
If you have some topics you would like me to cover in this just send me an email at: christob@isb.ac.th
News from the Athletics
Chris Mott
chrism@isb.ac.th
Season One Awards – Varsity and Junior Varsity
The Season One Awards Ceremony will be held on Thursday the 5th of November. This is for all Varsity and Junior Varsity Season One Athletics. This year’s event will be held in the Chevron.
5:00pm – 6:00pm – meal provided for athletes in the cafeteria
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Award presentations (streamed for parents)
7:00pm – 8:0pm – Team rooms
Season One Athletes and parents will receive further information via email.
Season Two U15 Tryouts (Soccer & Badminton)
Tryouts will be held on the 4th and 5th and 9th of November. For a list of U13-U15 offerings please visit the Athletics website.
ISB Class of 2021- Parents of Seniors Facebook Group
Jona Sta. Romana
jona.sta.romana@gmail.com
Hello, Parents of Seniors! Please take a moment to join the ISB Class of 2021- Parents of Seniors Facebook Group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/736160320311833/?ref=share
Just a friendly reminder, the donation box is in the HS office until Friday, November 6. Please consider donating 1000 baht per family. Put the donation in a sealed envelope and write the following information on the outside:
-grad committee donation
-student’s name
-email address
Thank you for your participation!
Amnesty International Medical Supplies Drive
Peter Assimakopoulos /Seungyu Kim
Petera@isb.ac.th
The Amnesty International Club is planning to donate medical supplies to Umphang refugee hospital at Tak, Northern Thailand and we need your help to do it! In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Karen and Rohingya refugees near the Thai-Myanmar border lack adequate protection against infection. Protective medical supplies, including face masks, face shields, hand sanitizers and disinfecting sprays, donated in this drive will be given to these refugees in the Umphang hospital. Donation boxes are set up in the Upper and Lower Grind, Room 3-205 (Welch) , 3-214 (Steward), 3-313 (Hansberry), 3-302 (Werner), and 3-113 (Melhorn). The drive will run from October 26th – November 26th. If you have any medical supplies available, help make a difference by dropping off supplies in any of the donation boxes! For more information, please contact Emmy Thamakaison (15749@students.isb.ac.th) or Seungyu Kim (16431@students.isb.ac.th).
IASAS Model United Nations Showcase
Anthony Giles
anthonyg@isb.ac.th
IASAS Model United Nations Showcase – 3:00pm Monday, November 2 in MPB 2-3: Please join our MUN delegates on Monday, November 2 at 3:00pm in MPB 2-3 as they showcase their debate skills from the recent ISB hosting of BKK MUN XVIII and in anticipation of IASAS MUN later in November. A snack reception to follow.
High School Fall Production – “Romeo and Juliet”
Anthony Giles
anthonyg@isb.ac.th
- November 10th – 6:30pm
- November 11th – 6:30pm
- November 12th – 3:30pm
Location: Cultural Centre Theatre
Shakespeare’s classic love story, Romeo and Juliet, tells the tale of two young lovers from warring families who fall in love against the wishes of their parents. Hope that this union can unite the two sides for good is overshadowed by the hatred and bloodshed that follows, and the world’s most famous tragedy reminds us, particularly in these turbulent modern times, that we should focus on the things that unite us, rather than our differences.
Admission is free, on a first-come-first-served basis, but due to restrictions implemented to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the performance is only available to be watched live by those with ID card access to ISB’s campus. If you wish to pre-book tickets please use this Ticket Reservation Form.