Message from the Principal
Justin Alexander
justina@isb.ac.th
Hi Everyone,
As I mentioned last week, January/February is a time when we look ahead to different options and classes for the new school year. Our teachers and counselors will soon begin speaking with students about their subject options and parents have been invited to attend course selection evenings and sessions over the coming weeks. Please be sure to note the meeting times listed below and register your intent to attend. You will see more from Ms. McMillan later in the Enews.
Course Selection presentation/sessions
Rising Grade 11 parents (current Grade 10) -Thursday, January 26th at 6.30 pm
Rising Grade 10 parents (current Grade 9) – Wednesday, February 1st at 10.30 am
Speaking of looking ahead, many of you may be aware of the recent release of ‘ChatGPT’, an AI tool that has created waves, interest, and excitement amongst educators, students, universities, and employers all around the world. We too have been exploring this tool, considering the pitfalls, challenges, and learning opportunities that this tool may be able to provide for our students and teachers. This tool is likely to cause educators to make some adjustments to the type of assessments we give students and the way we use internet sources, and tools to help with the essay writing process and research.
You will hear more about this for sure in the coming weeks and months. If you want to learn more about ChatGPT you can find a number of different articles, podcasts, and blogs to read online. One good starting point is this New York Times article by Kevin Roose.
In the meantime have a wonderful weekend.
PS. This article was not written by ChatGPT
Regards
Justin Alexander
High School Principal
Important Links
Have a question and don’t know who to ask? You can email me at justina@isb.ac.th or click on HS QUESTION LINK and we will get you the answer you need.
HS Parent Meetings – Semester 2 – updated list of the upcoming Parent meetings.
ISB Panther page for Varsity and Junior Varsity game schedules etc
Course Registrations for the 2022-2023 Academic Year
Justyna McMillan
justynam@isb.ac.th
Although it is only the beginning of Semester 2 of this year, it is never too early to start thinking about the next academic year. We are happy to share the Course Registration timeline and what is happening in the next few weeks:
26 January 2023
- GR10 Course Information Session for rising GR11 Students @ 6:30PM in the Chevron– this is open to current GR10 students and parents and will provide an overview of pathways and courses available. Students and parents will be able to talk with subject teachers during the evening.
31 January 2023
- GR8 Course Information Session for rising Gr9 Students @ 6:30PM in the Chevron – this is open to parents of current Gr8 students. We will provide an overview of course choices along with key things to think about as you help your child make choices about their subjects for Gr9. A separate session is being offered to students, during the school day.
1st February 2023
- Gr9 Course Information Session for rising Gr10 students @ 10:30AM in MPB1 – this is open to parents of current Gr9 students. We will provide an overview of course choices along with key things to think about as you help your child make choices about their subjects for Gr10. A separate session is being offered to students, during the school day.
1st February to 9th February 2023:
- Course Registration open on PowerSchool for all grade levels
For further information about subjects on offer and other opportunities, please refer to our Program of Studies, which is available on our website.
IB Basics for Parents and Students
Justyna McMillan
justynam@isb.ac.th
Dear Parents,
Thank you to those parents and students who joined us on 19th January, for this informative session. We hope the presentation was useful and helped to answer any questions about the IB at ISB . For those who were unable to attend, we are happy to share the video and presentation slides.
HERE is the slide presentation used in our session.
HERE is a link to a recording of the presentation.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Justyna McMillan for further information.
ISA Testing for Grade 10 Students
Justyna McMillan
justynam@isb.ac.th
ISB conducts external standardized testing periodically in order to review our programs and compare ourselves to like-minded schools, evaluate the effectiveness of our curriculum, and monitor student progress and trends across the school.
On February 9th and 10th, students in grades 7, and 10 are scheduled to take the International Schools Assessment (ISA) in Mathematical Literacy, Reading, and Writing. More details about the tests will be communicated next week.
You can access the ISA Privacy Statement here. If you have any questions, please contact Debi Caskey, Deputy Head of School for Learning (debic@isb.ac.th)
News from University Counselor
Debbie McDowell
debbbiem@isb.ac.th
Grade 11
Juniors are in full swing this semester regarding university research and planning. Thank you to all the parents who attended Junior Family University Night #2 on Thursday evening. If you want to review the presentation, please go to the University Counselor website (presentation tab).
Parents, please check your emails! There will be a link for you to fill out the Parent Perspectives form and your link to access Maia Learning.
Grade 11 students attended Junior Seminar on Wednesday. The focus was on preparing for their Junior Led Conferences which will start happening next week through 24 March. If you have not discussed the timing of the Junior Led Conference with your child, please do so ASAP to lock in a date and time for you to join your child in the counselor’s office for his/her presentation to share their university research and selection process and plans for application. This is an important part of the university counseling curriculum at ISB. Parents are expected to attend the meeting with their child.
Grade 12
Seniors who are applying to countries with a start date in January 2024 or later, should be setting a Senior Conference meeting with their counselor. If your child is applying to Japan, Australia, Korea, or another region of the world with university application deadlines yet to come, please remind your child to get this meeting set so that an application plan can be prepared for your child.
For those who have already completed their applications, please encourage your child to share all application results (admit, deny or defer) with their counselor.
Mid Year Reports to all universities that require those updates and to which the seniors applied have now been sent by the counselors. Students should monitor their application portals to ensure all materials are received by the university.
The grade 12 students have participated in three alumni panels through their advisory program this Friday and next week. This is a great opportunity for students to learn from former students and peers about their experience in different countries around the world. Ask your child what they heard!
Grade 10 (repeated message)
Grade 10 students have been assigned a university counselor. Students and parents can find out who the counselor is by checking in Powerschool.
As the course selection for next year begins very soon, the university counselors will meet with grade 10 students on Monday (30 January) and Tuesday (31 January) during the student’s free period. Students will complete a google document at the time of the meeting so be sure to ask your child to show you what they discussed about their choices for next year’s classes.
Parent Coffees
Thanks to those who attend the Parent Coffee on Monday. The topic was Higher Education in the US. You can review the presentation here.
February Parent Coffees will be dedicated to those interested in finding out about different regions of the world:
| 7 Feb @ 9
10 Feb @ 9 21 Feb @ 9 23 Feb @ 9 28 Feb @ 9 |
Study in the UK (MPB1)
Study in Canada (MPB1) Study in the Netherlands (MPB3) Study in Hong Kong & Singapore (MPB1) Study in Australia (MPB1) |
Then, the meetings in March are focused on supporting the different national communities at ISB. These will all be in the Middle School Sky Box.
| 9 March @ 9
14 March @ 9 16 March @9 22 March @ 9 |
Japanese Community Meeting
Thai Community Meeting Korean Community Meeting Chinese Community Meeting |
So mark your calendars and come join the university counselors at these events!
University Visits at ISB
Universities are starting to make appointments to come to ISB to meet with students and parents. Please encourage your child to check the list and the TV screen outside the counseling office for who will visit and when.
No visits are scheduled for next week.
In addition there are lots of events in Bangkok as well as online. Please encourage your child to consistently check the Virtual and Off Campus University Events spreadsheet to know what’s available. Please note that pre-registration is needed for some events.
Please check the ISB University/College Counseling website for useful information. You will find university research tools, transition resources for students and parents, recordings and slide shows from Parent Coffees and family presentations, virtual and off campus university visits, information about testing and how to sign up for the SAT at ISB, a list of summer programs about which the counselors have been informed, and the ISB School Profile.
Kindly,
Debbie
Ms. Debbie McDowell (she, her, hers, Ms.)
News from HS Library
Christopher Bell
christob@isb.ac.th
Please click News from HS Library
Panther Dance 2023
Anthony Giles
anthonyg@isb.ac.th
Registration open for session 3-4!
Featuring two performances on stage with costumes.
Limited spots available.
Contact Yoona: pantherdance@isb.ac.th
A glimpse of MS/HS dance classes session 1-2.
Arts & Activities @ ISB
Anthony Giles
anthonyg@isb.ac.th
January
18-20 Ajay Govind, Alumni Guest Film Director
20 & 23 MS Spring Drama Production Auditions
20 Lego Robotics Tournament (3-4:30pm) Chevron Theater
20-22 IASAS Music Retreat @ EWC
27 & 28 “Cinderella” an ISB Panto Benefit Event CC Theater
28 HS Model United Nations @ BPS
February
1-5 AMIS MS Honor Choir @ Lincoln School Nepal
3-4 First Lego League Robotics Competition @ NCC
11-12 HS Model United Nations @ ICS
12 Applications Due for Kinnari Music Festival
21-23 HS IASAS Showcases for DDT, FAD and Music
22-26 AMIS MS Honor Band @ American School of Bombay
Arts & Activities News Blurbs – January 19th through 26th, 2023
ISB Translanguaging Signage Interest
Dan Allbery
dana@isb.ac.th
Hello Families,
ISB thrives because of its diversity. Our community comes from all over the world, speaks many, many languages, and yet, we all found our way together here. That alone is amazing and deserves celebration.
Currently, ISB teachers are looking for more ways to celebrate our diverse community and that also includes visual representations within our classrooms. Many ISB teachers would like to better their learning spaces by including multilingual signage. With the help of our world language team this work has already begun, but we’d like to grow this effort and make it more inclusive.
Our Request: If you’re a family member interested in this effort, we could benefit from your expertise. Each year, faculty could submit a request to have certain classroom signage translated. Examples of these could be book genre labels like “fantasy” or “historical fiction” for classroom shelves or art terms like “shade” or “texture” for subject word walls. We would do the initial Google Translate, but would ask for your insight to either verify the translation or provide the correct translation. Any translated terms will then be stored in our Translanguaging shared drive for future use. We hope to provide translation into many languages and annually teachers can select what ones would benefit their current students most.
If you’re interested in partnering with us, please complete this short Google Form survey and we will be in contact with you soon.
Thank you for your support, both at school and home. Together we can improve our learning spaces by better representing the vast diversity that we embody.
Dan Allbery
MS English teacher