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Student Led Conferences Information and Upcoming Webinar

by Dennis Harter, MS Principal
dennish@isb.ac.th

Last week we shared our excitement about hosting Student-led Conferences (SLC) on March 11 & 12. Following the February break, we will send out communication about signing up for your 30-minute session with your child, hosted by your child’s advisor.

We will be hosting a parent webinar through Zoom to share some examples and talk through our reasoning for this change. The webinar will be at 8:30 AM on February 18th. Please register at this link.

In the meantime, here are some answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Student-led Conferences.

Why would you have the student lead the conferences with parents about their learning?

At ISB, we identify becoming a passionate, reflective learner as fundamental to our Mission. Learners who reflect and articulate about their growth, their struggles, their successes, and their goals are empowered and more likely to be successful. They know themselves as learners and connect better with the learning itself.

How will we know how our child is doing if we don’t speak with the teacher?

Teachers are heavily involved with the reflection process, providing students with input and feedback throughout. In addition to the feedback that students normally receive on a piece of work, teachers are working with students during class time to ensure their reflections accurately capture their progress. When the student takes parents through their learning portfolio at the SLC, parents see how their child has internalized the feedback from teachers. 

My child can talk with me at home, why do we come to school for a Student-led Conference?

Of course, children and parents can talk about their learning at home and many do. We have found that the school environment provides just the right combination of formality and connection to learning to focus the conversation and bring out the best in students. Students are the leaders of their learning story and at school, the environment supports that feeling. Last year, with Virtual School, we had students do their SLC at home and while we received a lot of positive feedback about them, we know that they would benefit from a school setting. Also, the Advisor who serves as a host can support your child and help them as needed.

What if we can’t attend as parents, does my child still do the SLC?

Yes. SLCs are more than a chance to report out on learning, they are a learning process in and of themselves. All students engage in the reflection process, prepare their portfolio of work, and consider themselves as learners. If it cannot be done with a parent, we will make arrangements for a student to present to a counselor or administrator after school one day.

What about grades?

PowerSchool will still be kept up to date as we near conference dates. Parents will be able to see assignment grades and HAL at the midpoint of the semester. Narrative feedback through comments will still be provided in late April. The powerful thing about SLCs is that students are able to talk to you about why they earned particular grades.

Hopefully these answers to frequently asked questions are helpful in understanding this important shift. Please join the webinar if you want to learn more.

 

ID Cards are essential

by Dennis Harter, MS Principal
dennish@isb.ac.th

ISB has put in place extensive safety measures to ensure that our campus is safe and that our community prevents transmission of COVID-19. Included in that process is our self-declaration process being aligned with campus access. 

For this reason, it is essential that anyone who comes onto campus is identifiable by their ID card through our turnstiles, so that we can match that with self-declarations. For everyone’s safety we need everyone to have and use their ISB ID card on campus.

For this, we need parents help in ensuring that their child bring their student ID every day to school. We do not want shared IDs and we are not allowing cash purchases in our cafeteria. Students needs to use their own ID card to enter campus through the turnstiles. 

Your child may need help developing a system at home to remember their ID card. Do they put it in the same place each day? Is it on a lanyard they can attach to their bag? Can they keep it with their laptop, near their keys, or with something else that they remember each day.

We appreciate any help that you can provide at home so that your children remember to bring their ID cards and we can ensure our campus continues to be safe.  

 

February Break coming soon

After next week of school, ISB will close for the February break. School will be closed February 22-26. Classes on campus will then resume on March 1st with a Day 7.

 

  

Middle School Class Trips

Middle School class trips were originally scheduled for the week of February 1-5 (last week). They were postponed due to the changing COVID situation in Thailand. While we continue to monitor the situation, we also are cautiously optimistic about planning for the trips to still happen later this year. 

Tentatively, we are planning for Class Trips to take place in early May. More information will come for these as we get closer to May, but we did want to communicate that we were still trying to make them happen. 

 

 

 

MS ISA testing

By Cindy Plantecoste, MS Vice Principal cindyp@isb.ac.th

On February 15 and 16,  all Grade 7 students will take the International Schools Assessment (ISA) in Mathematical Literacy, Reading, and Writing.  The assessments will take place between 7:35 and 10:30 on the morning of both days.  The ISA is administered in grades 3, 5, 7 and 10 at ISB.  The results are used to help us track trends in our student learning and help us be responsive to student progress over time.

 

Registration for Grade 7 and Grade 8 courses in the 2021-2022 school year

By Cindy Plantecoste, MS Vice Principal cindyp@isb.ac.th

Our class registration process for the 2021-2022 school year is getting started for students who are currently in grades 6 and 7.  Our  Program of Studies for 2021-2022 offers you a robust description of our programs, includes links to subject-specific standards, and provides unit titles with accompanying questions that give context to the units.  As a first step, we would ask that you read over the Program of Studies with your child to see what s/he is excited about learning next year and to identify electives that your child might want to request. It is also important for you to review the course requirements carefully.

During the week of February 8th, we met with current grade 6 and grade 7 students to explain the registration process, answer questions, distribute paper course registration forms, and to emphasize course requirements, as well as where your child has choices in his/her schedule.  Furthermore, we reviewed the timeline for our registration process which includes two steps, registration in PowerSchool and on a paper form. PowerSchool will open for registration on Monday, February 15th and will close on Thursday, February 18th, at the end of the school day.  Students are also required to submit their paper registration to the counseling office by the end of the day on Thursday, February 18th.

During the registration process, MS students will select their electives from our performing arts, visual arts, or design technology and engineering offerings, and will be asked if they would like to continue with the current world/native language or to begin a new one. Students who take intensive studies or an EAP (English for Academic Purposes) class would generally be exempt from taking a world/native language class.  All of our Thai Nationals must study Thai language.

Once you have completed and signed the paper registration form with your child, please have your child register online through PowerSchool (if s/he is unable to log in, please contact Khun Arintra in the MS office. ext: 4407). Please click here to see how your child can register in PowerSchool.  Our registration window (between February 15th and February 18th) is NOT first-come, first-serve. 

As you discuss your child’s requests for 2021-2022, please note that we create our schedule based on the actual number of student requests for a particular elective course.  For this reason, we are not always able to accommodate student requests to change their electives later in the year. We’ve attached our course registration worksheets to register for grade 7 and for grade 8 courses to assist you in your planning (you can also find these forms at the end of the Program of Studies).

Students who are leaving ISB during, or at the end of the second semester are still required to complete the registration process. This step will ease the transition to the next school.

Should you have any questions about this process, you are welcome to contact any of us in the main office. We want to make this process a smooth one for your child.

We hope your child is excited about planning for next year in Middle School!

 

How to Subscribe/Resubscribe to receive the Good Morning ISB Middle School – Daily Student Announcements… 

Dear New/Returning ISB Middle School Parents,

 If you would like to start receiving in your email each day, the Good Morning ISB Middle School – Daily Student Announcements, please complete and submit this subscription form to do so. 

 

Jumping for Elephants

by Kerry Dyke, MS Service coordinator

ISB is trying to help protect wild elephants through student fund-raising. Thailand’s elephant population has dropped from over 300,000 elephants to less than 3500 wild elephants in about 100 years. While poaching for ivory and capturing elephants for entertainment are serious issues, the main reason for such a dramatic drop in wild elephants in Thailand is habitat loss. As human populations increase and more wild land is converted to farms, resorts, factories, housing, etc the elephants lose space and vital corridors to areas they need to reach. We are working with Ourland to help them secure land in an important corridor allowing wild elephants and other wildlife to reach the river Kwai.

Students from ES, MS, & HS participated in the Jumping For Elephants event all of next week (Feb 8-13). In PE, students had 5 minutes to jump or skip. Some also participated outside of PE time. The goal was for students to take action by getting sponsorship and then skipping rope or performing jumping jacks to raise money. This coming week, those students who got pledges will begin to collect the money to drop off at the dropbox in the ES, MS, and HS offices on Monday, Feb 15. 

It is important to note that while we prefer hands on experiential learning at the site, COVID has made that very difficult and not practical right now. Ourland has also stated that funds are what they need most at the moment. Therefore, for now, our action has been this fundraiser. However, we will continue our long term relationship with Ourland for experiential service learning through Eco Trips and the Grade 7 service trip once it is appropriate to do so.

If you would like to see our full presentation please click here.

 

 

MS Production ”In a Grove: Japanese Ghost Stories” April 6-8, 2021

Congratulations to the full cast of  “In a Grove: Japanese Ghost Stories” the Middle School Spring Production! Mark your calendars for the three performances scheduled for April 6th, 7th, and 8th!!!

 

 

PAW PRINTS: News from the Panther Den 

Season 2 Panther Activities

As Season 2 Panther Activities (BBSA, Panther Basketball, Panther Rugby, Panther Tennis, and Panther Volleyball) come to a close, registration for Season 3 offerings will open February 17-28, for a March 1st start*. Please note that registration for Panther Paws Track & Field will open in late March for an April 23rd start. Again, if you have questions, please contact the Panther Activities Team at PantherActivities@isb.ac.th or any of the area coordinators for these programs listed below.

• Panther Baseball & Softball (PantherBaseballandSoftball@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Basketball (TopFlight) (PantherBasketball@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Rugby (Academy) (PantherRugby@isb.ac.th) *started February 10

• Panther Volleyball (BVA) (PantherVolleyball@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Paws (Track & Field) (PantherPaws@isb.ac.th)

Semester 2 Panther Activities 

Semester 2 Panther Activities including Panther Arts, Panther Dance, Panther Golf, Panther Gymnastics, Panther Music, Panther Native Language Academy, Panther Soccer, and Panther Swim began Monday, February 8th with late registrations still being accepted through area coordinators. Note that students will not be allowed to participate in programs where payments are past due. Panther Explore classes begin February 15th. Questions? Contact the Panther Activities Team at PantherActivities@isb.ac.th or any of the area coordinators listed below. 

 

• Panther Arts (PantherArts@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Dance (ASD) (PantherDance@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Explore (ES) (PantherExplore@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Golf (PantherGolf@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Gymnastics (PantherGymnastics@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Music (IMP) (PantherMusic@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Native Language Academy (PantherNativeLanguageAcademy@isb.ac.th) 

• Panther Soccer (PFA) (PantherSoccer@isb.ac.th)

• Panther Swim (PantherSwim@isb.ac.th)

 

The What, When and Where about Panther Activities 

Panther Activities at ISB is the umbrella organization for a multitude of programs offered after school and on weekends that provide active, creative, diverse and collaborative opportunities for all students. Different from scholastic programs which are offered exclusively to ISB students as an extension of their enrollment, most Panther Activities include a fee and are open to both ISB and non-ISB students. Although some Panther Activities sessions align with the three ISB Athletic seasons which start in August, October, and February respectively, many are offered year round with two registration periods, August and January, in line with the start of each of ISB’s academic semesters. Although sometimes daunting to navigate, the plethora of choices available at ISB, coupled with multiple entry points to join throughout the year, allow students to dabble, dive deep, or diversify!

 

Panther Activities Sessions 2020-2021

Semester 1: August, 2020 through December, 2020

Panther Arts, Panther Dance, Panther Golf, Panther Gymnastics, Panther Music, Panther Native Language Academy, Panther Soccer, and Panther Swim 

 

Semester 2: January, 2021 through June, 2021

Panther Arts, Panther Dance, Panther Golf, Panther Gymnastics, Panther Music, Panther Native Language Academy, Panther Soccer, and Panther Swim 

 

Season 1: August, 2020 through Mid-October, 2020

Panther Basketball, Panther Rugby, Panther Tennis, and Panther Volleyball

 

Season 2: Mid-October, 2020 through February, 2021 

BBSA, Panther Basketball, Panther Rugby, Panther Tennis, and Panther Volleyball

 

Season 3: March, 2021 through April, 2021

Panther Basketball, Panther Rugby, Panther Tennis, and Panther Volleyball

 

Registration for ISB Athletics Season 3

 

Athletics Upcoming Events

By Mark Jaspers, Associate Athletic Director

Monday 15th February – Start of U11 Track & Field

 

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

The Chinese PTA is honored to host the Art Exhibition to celebrate the coming Chinese New Year, the Year of the Ox, from Feb 10th to 16th at the fence of the ISB campus. All the pictures are completed by ISB students of Chinese origin from PreK1 to G11. On the day of Spring Festival Feb 12th, 600 cups of homemade boba will be offered to MS & HS students and teachers  for free at the cafeteria, welcoming good luck to the whole coming year! Please join us to embrace the lush, rich and thriving Spring!

 

INVENTION CENTER NOW OPEN AFTER SCHOOL 

Making in the Invention Center Workshop After School

Welcome to Mr. Travis Dynes, travisd@isb.ac.th, he will be our community workshop instructor for this semester in the Invention Center! His goal is to open the invention center up the ISB community after school and on weekends, offering classes and allowing time to work on personal projects. 

Where? Invention Center

When?  Everyday after school 3:00pm to 7:00pm and Saturdays 8am to 4pm in February and March 

Stop by if you are interested!! You can also complete the safety form beforehand HERE. Hope to see you soon… 

 

 

NOTES & BOLTS: News about Design, Fine and Performing Arts at ISB 

IASAS DDT, FAD and Music Showcases – February 17-18, 2021

3:15pm-4:30pm Wednesday, Feb 17 

Forensics OI and Extemp  MPB-1

Piano, Strings & Vocal   CC-Choir Room

 

3:15pm-4:30pm Thursday, Feb 18 

Forensics OO and Impromptu  MPB-1

Piano, Strings & Vocal   CC-Choir Room

 

3:15pm-5:00pm Friday, Feb 19 

Debate  MPB-1

Band  CC-Choir Room

Dance, Drama & Tech  CC-Theater

 

ISB Middle School Art: Expressive Color Installation 

Last semester middle school artists explored how color can express emotions, intentions, hopes, and memories. The Expressive Color Installation will be up outside the Main Library through April. Take time to visit it when you can, to see their personal and creative responses.