Tirana International School 6 December 2018 Important Dates December 12 - Holiday Concert 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 January 7 - First day of school in 2019! 14-18 - Winter MAP testing Director's Desk Dear Parents, Students, and Friends of TIS, Tis the season to be jolly...and busy! We are so very thankful that our students are engaged in their academic courses and active in various charitable and extra-curricular pursuits. At this time of year all of these activities seem to pile one on another. This week alone, there are three major charity events happening with the TIS community (clothing drive, toy drive, and OSAAB charity bazaar). Next week we have our annual holiday concert, various class parties, and a big school outing on Friday, December 14. This list goes on and on, and it is important to remember that we are busy at this time of year not by coincidence but by design. As 2018 comes to a close, we plan opportunities to be thankful by sharing with those less fortunate and to celebrate with friends and families all that has happened during the year. It does create a hectic time, but we hope that you find times to enjoy the season, see the lights around town and sing some of your favorite tunes. On a personal note, let me express my deepest appreciation to the parent community of TIS for your support of the work of the school over the last year. We continue to get better and take your comments and thoughts seriously as we plan for improvement. During 2019 we will go through our MSA re-accreditation process and we are excited to hear their feedback on all that work that you have helped put in on our school improvements. One important notice is about the upcoming Winter Camp. Several parents asked for TIS to put on a camp that allowed for students, who are not traveling to get together, have fun and take field trips around town. If you are interested in the camp, please contact Ms. Eva at eva-dauti@alb.qsi.org Looking Forward, Robert S. Jackson, Director MSA Accreditation As a part of our accreditation process, the TIS community selected three growth objectives to guide us toward improvement over the next 8 years. The first goal focuses on science, which corresponds well with the introduction of our curriculum that is based on Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The second objective is on service learning. We are working toward helping students to identify and support service opportunities around Albania. Some of these might be at school, like recycling or energy conversation, while others might take a greater scope. The final objective is on our student services. As TIS has grown, we have identified a lack in some student services that we should explore and implement in the school (a talented and gifted program, for example). By setting these growth objectives now, we hope to see a transformed school by 2026. 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 Holiday Concert Preparations In the Crickets classroom we use music for everyday learning. We have been learning about and using various musical instruments, including the guitar. This month we are practicing songs for our holiday performance for our parents. We are very excited to share what we’ve learned! AP Statistics Because it is those who do do that learn, the bulk of AP Statistics classes is spent with students doing hands on simulations, trying out problems and discussing with each other. Direct instruction is either front loaded through watching videos at home or introduced only after students have experienced the ideas in a tangible context. As a results classes are much more active on the student part. Drawing a Story The 10 y.o. students are being asked to draw a story related to the topic: My Family, Animals and In the City and explain the concepts themselves. The use of Drawing in language is a perfect way to help students learn at a deeper level. Drawing gives them a chance to be more creative and offers them a chance to speak. Creating the visualization required them to be much more precise, by asking students to comment and discuss the drawings creates an avenue of reciprocal discussion increasing overall classroom collaboration. They can make comments on each other’s picture, ask questions about details. Drawing can also have a strong effect in learning vocabulary in enabling students to store vocabulary in their minds through visualization of words. This practice is a technique which helps students cultivate their capacities to imagine and visualize in their minds, allowing for quicker learning. Engineer Design Process 5s are learning how to use the engineer design process - we ask questions, imagine, create (build), and improve. In our most recent unit, we explored forces and motion through outdoor scavenger hunts and two engineering activities. Last week, we built marble tracks to make marbles move in different ways. This week, we are building balloon-powered cars. Science is fun! Mosaics A group of students has been working after school to produce small tile mosaics. They started off with a design on paper, then moved on to assemble pieces of tiles according to their design. The process brings a lot of joy, as the result of the work is very tangible. The plan is to use the finished mosaics to decorate the third floor terrace walls. Le mémory After being learning numbers, how to write and pronounce them, 9 years old students are playing “Le mémory” to memorize them by playing. They have to find out cards that belong to the same number, knowing that they can be as numbers and as words as well! Teen-Ink Up-date Congratulations to Julia, Gabriel and Jacob who received the Teen-Ink Editor's Choice Award for their essays. According to Teen-Ink, "when you see the Editor's Choice label next to the title of a piece of work, you know it's something special." The next award is publication in the print magazine. The Magazine prints the best of the best that are put forward - let's see how our budding writers will do next year! Concern for Others Concern for Others was one of the many Success Orientations that the 10's showed the last few weeks. Whether reading with the 5-year-olds or learning about Albanian culture with Mrs. Ani and Mr. Florian, the 10-year-olds love to show respect and concern for others. Compare/Contrast Paragraph In Literacy, 7 Year Olds are learning how to write different types of informational paragraphs. They know that they need to include a topic sentence, many details, and a concluding sentence. Students have learned how to write a compare/contrast paragraph to tell how two things are different and the same. They were excited to work together to write a compare/contrast paragraph about themselves and a friend. 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. |