Tirana International School 21 November 2018 Important Dates November 19-23 - Fall Into Reading 23 - Reading with Parents Night 6:00 pm 28-29 - No School/ Albanian Independence Day 30 - No School/ PD Day December 3 - Start of Second round of ASA 12 - Holiday Concert 12 - Preschool Winter Recital 12 - End of Q2 14 - Last Day Before Winter Break (1/2 day - dismissal at 11:30) 14 - Term II Tuition Payment Due 17(Dec)-4(Jan) - Winter Break Director's Desk Dear Parents, Students, and Friends of TIS, The administration of TIS is planning our yearly holiday party and evening of appreciation for the teachers, office staff, cleaners, bus drivers and maintenance workers on December 8, 2018. This year we are treating everyone to a fancy evening out at the Rogner with dinner and dancing. The dedication of the TIS staff creates an environment for the students to thrive in a clean, safe and stimulating setting. Since some parents have asked how best to show their appreciation to the school community for the hard work and care that they provide to the children of TIS throughout the year, we are suggesting that families make a symbolic donation to this evening. If you personally would like to donate some gifts, then it would be most welcome as we plan for each worker to receive a random gift of appreciation from the community. Whatever you give would be appreciated. Please drop off donations at the front office or write to reception@alb.qsi.org with questions. Here are some examples of gifts given: bottles of wine, boxes of chocolates, gift certificates for coffee, lunch, dinner at a local establishment. If you have a professional talent that you could share (i.e. photography, music lessons, sport lesson, etc....) please consider offering your service as a random gift to one of our staff workers. We would like to receive all of these donations by December 6 so that we have time to sort them. Looking Forward, Robert S. Jackson, Director We are having a Group Photo Day on Monday for all students. Here is the Schedule. Student Services Satisfaction Survey One area that was identified in our research for school improvement had to do with our student services. Please help us by taking this satisfaction survey so that we can know how best to improve the quality and number of services offered to you as families. The first round of activities will be finishing at the end of this week on November 16th. There will be no activities during the week of November 19th and the week of November 26th. The exception would be for CEESA activities for Middle School and Secondary students. Teachers will be in contact with students who attend those CEESA activities so that transportation can be arranged for those students who stay late. I would like to extend a big thank you to all of our teachers who work hard to provide these activities for our students. Round 2 Important Dates: Round 2 of activities will run from December 3rd until March 8th. Sign-up for Round 2 will go live on Thursday, November 15th at 5 pm. Sign-ups will close on Sunday, November 18th at 8:00 pm. Please visit our activities website. There you can view a list of activities and sign-up. We realize how important activities are to your children. TIS works to provide a wide variety of activities that are suitable to your children. Not listed on the activities list is our school performance of Alice in Wonderland. Practices for this will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you intend on being part of the performance, please do not sign up for other activities on those days. Family Reading Night Dear Students and Parents, To conclude our Fall into Reading Week, the Parent Support Group (PSG) invites you to Family Reading Night on Friday, November 23, from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. Join us for:
Book Exchange: Bring in books you don´t want anymore to your classroom from Monday November 19 to Friday November 23. Come to the music room on Family Reading Night and get „new“ books that other people have brought. The amount of books you bring in equals the amount of books you´ll be able to get! If you want to participate and read a book or help with a literacy game, then register here by Wednesday, November 21, at noon. Please contact Klara Olsakova (olsakova.klara@seznam.cz) with questions. Scholastic Book Order We are happy to send you some information about our fall Scholastic order. The online order is open between now and November 26, so please check out the website and make your selection. We are including the most current Scholastic advertisement, but the prices online may differ from what you see in the catalogue. However, all the books are available along with hundreds of other titles. Please visit our school page at scholastic. Once there, you can fill up your basket and check out online with your credit card. The books will be delivered to the school by the week of December 10, so that you can have the books for holiday gifts for your child. MSA Accreditation As with any introspective look, a school going through the accreditation process must seek areas of growth. Over the last year, through surveys and focus groups, the TIS community has identified three areas of concentrated improvement for the school. The first of these is in the area of sciences. With the introduction of the new science curriculum, we hope to further the questioning and inquiry of our students as they approach the world. The second growth objective has to do with service learning. As a school, we have a wonderful tradition of being involved in charitable works. Despite this, we would like to further our involvement and place an emphasis on students taking the lead of all service opportunities. The final growth area has to do with our student services. The supporting areas of the school were identified as something that needed extra attention over the next 7 years as we continue to best meet the needs of our community. Our hope is to continue to growth in each area as a school during this next round of accreditation so that we as a community might best learn to question, serve and identify new ways of helping students grow. Learning new words The 5 year old class are really enjoying learning the days of the week and how to describe their classroom, in French class. They are also learning basic French and classroom procedures, through observing gestures, activities or simple songs. Once they learn these useful words and phrases, they will get used to speak French during classroom interactions. TIS Cross Country__CEESA This past weekend, seven runners from the TIS Cross Country team competed in the CEESA meet in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event brought together 168 runners from around Europe and Central Asia. Our runners gave their best effort and finished their races strong. We are proud of their season-long preparation and all of the other runners who came to practice. Keep on running! Holiday Concert Our annual Holiday concert "Ringing in the Holiday Season" will be held on December 12th at 6:30pm. Over 170 children will perform for you at this very festive event!! Each age group from 5s-13s in vocal music and violin will perform. Mark you calendars.... more details coming soon Poetree This month, the 8 year old class is studying poetry. There are many reasons why studying poetry in elementary school is important. Reading poetry builds fluency through repeated readings of poems with engaging content. Comprehension is also improved because the message of the poem is discussed, and children make connections between the poem and their lives, another text they have read, or the world. Poetry also builds vocabulary because poets use words children may not have heard before, and they need to use the context to determine the meaning. Writing poetry encourages creative thinking and improves writing self-esteem. Children thrive on positive encouragement and freedom of expression. Poetry is good for the soul! If you get a chance, stop by the 8 year old classroom and read the poems on our POETree! Light The six-year-old classes are learning about light. This week we sorted items into things that are see through (transparent), partly see through (translucent), and things that are not see through (opaque). Students are discovering all about shadows, light, and reflection. Research Project Students engage in a year-long research project in Secondary Research Project class. This course is designed to prepare students for research projects that they may undertake in university and beyond. The students have already explored potential topics and made their selections. They continue to progress through the writing process, developing their claims with supporting reasons and evidence. Be on the lookout for presentations of their research this Spring! Fall Into Reading Students have really enjoyed parents' visits for the Fall Into Reading Week. It has been a great time for parents to read to kids and for little IE students to read their stories to parents. Thank you to all parents who read a book to us! Russian II and IV were reading letters from Autumn and had a Russian field trip around Tirana. "Community" The Ladybugs are working on the theme "Community". Children are learning about community helpers, including firemen, police officers, construction workers, doctors, dentists, etc. The children are dressing up as community helpers and learning how to build like construction workers. We also found out we can use the blocks to make art with pencils! Basketball Skills Clinic offered by Partizani Basketball Cub It is time to get ready for basketball season! We have had a lot of interest in the coming season. TIS is excited to partner with the Partizani Club to offer this 3-day clinic to get our season started. The Partizani Club is one of the most successful sports clubs in Albania. The Partizan basketball team was formed in 1947 as part of the sport club Partizani. The Partizan basketball team is highly decorated having won the Albanian title 30 times. The Partizani Club will provide highly skilled trainers and coaches to help develop skills and build a love for the game. All skill levels are encouraged to attend. The trainings will be broken into two divisions: Mixed Middle School and Secondary girls will run from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. Secondary boys will run from 11:00 to 1:00. The dates are November 28, 29, and 30th. Cost for the training is 3000 leke. Please pay Ms. Giuliana in the main office. Please use the the Google form to reserve you spot. Register here! Adopt a Puppy Alba and her family have found 7 little puppies, only 2 months old near school grounds and have been taking care of them for the past week. 2 of the puppies have already found new loving families, but there are still 5 little cute pups eager to see their new parents before it gets colder and before Christmas. (there are two beige females, two black males, and one black and white male) Dear all, the Bake Sale table at the Christmas Bazaar is one of the highlights of the event each year! Yummy baked goodies from around the world are enjoyed by all! We greatly appreciate donations of baked goods to be sold at the bazaar. All funds raised from the Bake Sale will be used to ensure continued support to abandoned babies in Albania in the coming New Year. We thank you in advance for your support!!! Please bring the items to the Rogner Hotel the morning of the Bazaar anytime after 9:00am. If you are not able to bring the baked goods the morning of the Bazaar, please let us know and we can coordinate a location and time for you to deliver the goods prior to the Bazaar. If you have any questions, please email me at: teresa_paratore@yahoo.it or Claudia at: osaabangels@gmail.com You can sign what you are going to donate here. |