MS Open House – Thursday evening
We are happy to be hosting Middle School Virtual Open House on the evening of Thursday, September 9th, 6:00 pm to 8:10 pm, BKK time.
Open House is an chance for parents to follow their child’s schedule, meeting teachers in the learning spaces – in 10 minute sessions. Typically, this would be on campus and in classrooms, however this year, the event will take place online through Zoom.
Next week, parents will receive a customized individual email with the schedule and times for the evening, along with specific zoom links to attend the classes to meet the teacher. Accompanying the email will be a welcome video from MS Administration that you can watch ahead of the evening.
Open House is not a time for individual conversations about your child, but rather a chance for you to get to know the teacher and hear about the learning program for that course. We look forward to you joining us on the evening.
For those who are unable to make it, there will be future opportunities like parent-teacher conferences with which to meet the teachers.
Parent Presentation and Future Session
Thank you to those parents who attended the PK-12 Counselor presentation, “Supporting Your Child’s Social/Emotional Wellbeing in the time of COVID”. We hope that parents found it helpful and engaging.
For those parents that missed the presentation, or would like to rewatch it, a recording of the Zoom session can be viewed here:
- Presentation Recording
- Passcode: f6AyR%2^
Counselors heard parents during the session express that they would appreciate support on parent self-care during these times, as well. Please mark you calendars for a presentation, Self Care for Parents during the pandemic on September 15th, 1:30-2:30 PM.
Schedule for the coming week
The Middle School will continue using the Days 5 / 6 order of class periods in the coming week, starting with Monday, September 6th being a Day 5.
Connecting Parents
Our Middle School counselors hosted our first Parent Connection Group on Monday and we were pleased to have many parents in attendance to meet each other, discuss the challenges of current circumstances, and look for ways to safely bring students together.
We will continue to host these parent connection events, with the next one scheduled for:
- Monday, September 13th, 2:00 PM.
If you are interested in attending to meet other parents, please register using this form.
Our MS Counselors are also looking for parents volunteers who might want to help parents connect with each other in the community. If you are interested in helping counselors find other ways to connect parents with each other, please email MS counselor, Colleen Coady, colleenc@isb.ac.th
Developing Self-Management
by Dennis Harter, MS Principal
dennish@isb.ac.th
Adolescence is an important time in the social and academic growth of young people. In particular, during the middle school years, students undergo significant brain development. It is our role to support this development by supporting and challenging students with appropriate scaffolding, without overly doing it. This can sometimes be referred to as a “least restrictive environment”.
In middle school, students experience a significant increase in the need for self-management. Students navigate multiple subjects with multiple teachers in different classroom (or Zoom) locations. We support students figuring all of this out, particularly in an online environment, but we also allow room for mistakes to be made and learning to arise from those mistakes.
Virtual School presents a complicated wrinkle to this. With parents often at home while their child is “in school” virtually, parents might play an overly active role in overseeing or supporting their child. Understandably, parents may be used to recent years in when their child was in elementary school and parents were providing some instruction or lesson delivery.
In Middle School, this level of parental oversight is no longer necessary during Virtual School. Parents should not be sitting with their children during Zoom class sessions, just as we would not expect parents to join their child in a classroom. It is important that MS students are given the independence to monitor their own attention, engage in discussion on their own, and learn from their mistakes without their parent sitting over them. This growth is essential for young people and overly attending to them prevents students from developing these self-management skills.
This is not to say that we don’t value the parent partnership at home. We recognize that students studying at home are surrounded by non-school distractions as they sit at home with the only connection to school being what appears on the laptop. Parents can support their children by ensuring the environment their child works in is conducive to learning and that non-essential devices (phones, tablets, etc.) are removed from the area. Parents may pass by or have their child work in a common area to help monitor that the child isn’t switching over to other tabs or websites (YouTube is a popular one).
Ultimately, students will learn that lack of engagement in instruction impacts understanding and learning progress. When teachers see a student distracted or disengaged, they will work with the student and if needed reach out to the parent for help. It is important to support this independent development of self-management in MS students. How they learn to self-manage their own learning is among the most important skills students develop in middle school.
Please continue to support their growth in this Attribute by giving your middle school child some space at home. Please do not sit next to them or with them for extended periods during their Zoom classes – this a time for them to be independent in their learning.
We encourage talking to your child about their learning. Ask them to tell you about their focus in class, what they are learning, and what challenges they encounter. Building the habits of these conversations at home will serve well as they continue in middle and high school.
Thank you for your ongoing partnership to help your child learn and develop. Together we can find the right balance of support and independence to maximize your child’s growth so that they may achieve their academic and personal potential.
Helping Navigate the Communication and Tech
We are three weeks into the school year and work is being assigned, assessments are being collected, and reminders are being sent. With 8 or 9 different teachers and multiple tech platforms, this can all become overwhelming for students and for parents who are trying to support their children at home.
Virtual school compounds this complexity with the removal or reduction of time teachers spend with students to provide individual support or just to recognize that a student is confused.
Technology ends up being a double-edged sword providing great opportunity for communication, while also creating an overload of messaging. Schools then have the challenge of consolidating communication to single platforms, but then struggle when better instructional technology exists outside that platform. This is where we are currently in the middle school – straddling two platforms of Google Classroom and PowerSchool Learning.
While it has been our practice over the years to isolate communication to PowerSchool Learning (PSL), the reality is that the pedagogical benefits of Google Classroom have left PSL behind. Teachers are relying on Google Classroom more and more because it allows for more flexibility of instructional practices and less organization from students. Google Classroom is designed to work within the Google Workplace where students work, email, and interact with peers and teachers.
We know that this can cause confusion for parents and students as they look for assignments and question why there are multiple platforms in use. This year is a transition year for us, because we recognize the benefits for learning of a shift to Google Classroom, but still have resources and past practices in PSL.
That said, we understand from parent feedback that more scaffolding and support needs to be in place. The MS will engage in the following steps moving forward:
- Meet with students in all grades to understand their tech and online class experience
- Teachers working with students to provide clarity on how to find assignments
- Additional work with students on organizational skills as appropriate
- Parent tech training on key tools and ways to support your child
- Future migration to a single platform
Next week, we will be working with students and teachers to audit our current tech use, so that we can tailor the parent training to specific needs. We will communicate next week about parent tech training for the week of Sept 13-15.
In the meantime, teachers will consolidate communication methods and continue helping students stay organized.
Munch and Meet – a casual chance for students to connect
Starting next week, some MS teachers will be hosting “Munch and Meets” – during Virtual School lunch blocks. These are OPTIONAL opportunities for students to join a Zoom session during their lunch time, bring along some food to eat, and casually “hang out” with other students in an informal environment.
Information and the Zoom link for these will be provided to students in the Good Morning Middle School bulletin emails.
We are very aware of how much time students spend on screens, so the intent of this is not to insist or require more. On the other hand, while we are in Virtual School we recognize that students are missing casual social interactions that would be common and natural if we were on campus. These Munch and Meets are there for students to join if they want to, without any requirement to attend, stay, or come back.
We hope that some find it useful to meet and connect with other students.
ISB BLOOM
Flowers begin as humble seeds surrounded by nothing but dirt, but eventually emerge as beautiful blossoms. Middle School Arts Council invites the ISB community to connect and interact with others by creating blooms, blossoms, flowers.
You can create chalk flowers around your neighborhood, origami flowers, a painting, a poem, a dance or any type of art that represents flowers!
Submit your creations to ISB BLOOM and we’ll share with our community.
Enjoy the beautiful blooms at this website!
Hidden Multilinguals
Dear Parents,
ISB’s after-school Panther Native Language Academy (PNLA) aims to support multilingual students unable to take a class in their native language(s) during the school day, or who need additional support as determined by the daytime teacher.
A native language is generally described as a language used on a daily basis with at least one parent. We typically send PNLA information to families we know are multilingual.
However, we sometimes miss “hidden multilinguals” whose native/near-native language(s) we don’t know about. Examples:
- Korean student who attended school in French in Africa
- American students who acquired Spanish in Chile and Peru
- Thai student who studied Chinese intensively at prior school
If your child(ren) are “hidden multilinguals” and may benefit from PNLA, please get in touch: PantherNativeLanguageAcademy@isb.ac.th
The languages taught in PNLA are native Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, and Thai for PK2. (PK2 Thai will begin later this school year.)
More details about native/near-native language classes at ISB are here.
Please let us know if you have any questions!
PantherNativeLanguageAcademy@isb.ac.th
Best,
Avery Udagawa
Native Language Coordinator
Middle School iCare Fundraiser starting on 2nd September
From Thursday 2nd September our Middle School students will participate in the iCare Fundraiser through a 10-day stair climbing challenge.
Students will be looking for sponsors to raise money for iCare but will also compete with other advisory teams to reach the highest level.
For more information, please check out the PDF Booklet linked HERE.
Panther Pride – Run, Ride and Walk
WHEN?
Any time on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th September
WHAT IS IT?
Run, Ride or Walk alone or with your family wearing your ISB Panther Spirit Wear. Staying Active and showing your Panther Spirit.
Complete your Run, Ride or Walk on the weekend of the event. Send in your photo wearing your Black & Gold colors and complete the entry form HERE with your total distance and photos.
WHO IS IT FOR?
This event is open to all ISB community members.
Don’t have Panther Spirit wear? Or do you want to refresh your wardrobe?
Check out the Booster Hut Online Catalogue HERE and place your orders today!
REMINDER
Remember to stay safe and continue to practice physical distancing as you take part in this community effort to remain active and connected!
Panther Run supporting iCARE
iCare Thailand Foundation is a charitable organisation that is committed to meaningful community development that helps the underprivileged. With the COVID pandemic at a record high in Thailand, they need our help to provide food and supplies to those in home isolation in 7 different slums. Due to the order locking down construction camps, iCare also provides food to 7 different construction camps in need.
A food supply bag costs 450 baht and a fresh produce bag costs 115 baht. Every little bit counts towards helping our communities in need. Consider making a small contribution this weekend during our Panther Run. The iCare donation box is located at the ISB Guard Station at the front of the school.
Panther Virtual Activities
Watch Panther Purrfect Promo 2 to learn more about next week’s Celebrity sPAWtlight and Ch-Ch-Ch-Challenge!!!
New Panther Virtual Activities
FREE Asynchronous Basketball With Ike from Panther Basketball. He has designed a unique online program that utilizes a specific curriculum to help our players improve their shooting, ball handling, agility, quickness (SAQ), and footwork.
FREE Asynchronous Baseball-Softball K-G2 with Coach Wade, join for a fun at home training! This video is designed for baseball and softball players between K – G2 with a new or beginner skill set.
FREE Asynchronous Baseball-Softball G3- HS with Coach Wade, join for a fun at home training! This video is designed for baseball and softball players between G3-HS..
FREE Thursday’s 3.00 – 3.45pm Drop in Dance Session: Learn A Tik Tok Dance with Ms. Gam. Pop into her zoom session HERE to learn her favorite Tik Tok routine and perhaps show off your favorite.
FREE Mondays 5.00 – 5.45pm Drop in Gymnastics Session: Learn some new movements and gymnastics skills with Coach Ball. Pop into his fun zoom session HERE to learn skills and movements through color, music and games.
Click HERE for more information!