Tirana International School 7 November 2018 Important Dates November 15-18 - CEESA MS Robotics/Warsaw 15-18 - CEESA MS/HS x-country/Sofia 21 - PSG Meeting - 8:00 in Cafeteria 19-23 - Fall Into Reading 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 primary goal of Tirana International School is to provide a safe environment for your children. To that end we go to great lengths to make sure that adults within the community are safe, the facilities are kept secure, and that staff are trained as mandatory reporters. One important step that we took about a year ago was to begin the process on acquiring a comprehensive child protection curriculum, which helps children understand themselves and their rights as autonomous individuals. This fall, Carla Grossman was trained in the implementation of the curriculum for children from preschool to secondary. After the new year, students in the middle school and secondary will pilot the program as we work toward full implementation later in 2019. The curriculum teaches children that they have the right to:
During the next PSG meeting on November 21, we will review more of the curriculum and answer questions that you might have about child safety. Looking Forward, Robert S. Jackson, Director 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 enter the URL below or scan the code to 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 The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools visiting team will have an official site visit to Tirana International School during the second week of February, 2019. For the last year, the community has been preparing for this visit through surveys, open meetings for feedback, and volunteer opportunities for parents, students and staff. We have teams assigned to each of the 12 standards and our 3 growth objectives. These groups have been meeting since last April and will continue throughout the year. If you are interested in being a part of this important accreditation process, then please let david-collova@alb.qsi.org or ledia-arapi@alb.qsi.org know and they will help you find a group to help with school improvement. I Build I Create The Dragonflies are exploring the unit “I build! I create!” They are building different structures, discussing tools and machines and creating art with fun materials- for example nails, nuts and bolts. El Dia de Mertos Spanish Students enjoyed to explore and celebrate one of Mexico's most magical and popular traditions about "El dia de Muertos" They did researches to find facts about Mexico popular Culture. Is it fiction or nonfiction? In the library class, 5-year-old students have been learning about fiction and nonfiction books and how to differentiate between them. They were asked to locate a nonfiction book in the library and find its parts. To reinforce what they learned, we played “Simon says…” where students were asked to point at each part of the book. Dance for Kindness In the ASA Dance for Kindness, a dedicated and enthusiastic group of students has been preparing for their flashmob appearance on Sunday, 11 November! Lifevest Inside, as U.S. based non-profit group, sponsors the Dance for Kindness. They aim to have people all over the world dance the same dance, to the same music, on the same day, in public spaces all over the world to raise awareness about kindness and being kind to others. We will be performing the dance in front of the Pyramid this Sunday at 12:00. Come cheer us on! Money raised goes to Lifevest Inside AND the Food Bank of Albania. Below are a few links to check out if you are interested in learning more. Note: Click on the pictures for videos. Documentary Film Class Mr. Panetta's Documentary Film Class is working on an extended commercial for the Albanian Food Bank. The students researched info, brainstormed concepts, scripted the commercial, and are now in the production stage of filming. Editing, graphics and voice over work is yet to be done. Editing, graphics and voice over work is yet to be done.The finished piece will be used by the Food Bank for campaigns in Europe and also be displayed on their website. The TIS community will be able to see the finished commercial run on Tiger News at the end of November. Action. Lifetime Sports Lifetime Sports is an energizing class that challenges students to practice coordination, posture, reflexes, and strategy. We engage in different activities suitable for people of all stages in life, such as archery, ping pong, Bocce ball games, aerobics, and group fitness. Bow and Violin The 7 Years Old violin class, been learning the steps of holding the Bow and Violin. They are playing on violin the first Twinkle-Rhythm on E, A-String and we prepaid for Holiday Concert in December 12. All the student and I are happy and they enjoy the violin class. Can you believe it is already November? Time is flying by quickly. In class we are having great fun learning moments and sweet times getting to know each other day by day. What a great start! Last Friday the 9 year old Friendtastics received their class t-shirts and hats. They were all so excited! These will be worn any time we go out on field trips. A few outings are coming up this month. More on that later. The name Friendtastics was Amina's idea. She came up with it, and the rest of the group approved after an engaging process of discussion and voting. The shirt logo was designed by Ayla and the hat logo was designed collaboratively by Matija, Ibrahim, and Ilir. |