From the Director’s Desk This next week promises to be a full week, so please make sure to mark important dates on your calendar. Here goes: 1. MAP testing: We learned this week that the testing window for the MAP was shortened at the request of NWEA, the organizing agency. Therefore, we need to finish by next Friday. Sharif quickly put together a schedule. The winter MAP test is only given to some students at the request of their teacher. The tests will be Monday through Friday, and the classroom teachers will communicate their class schedules. As a reminder, the MAP test is not a test that is studied for – in fact, nothing special needs to be done. Simply a good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast is all the preparation needed for a student to give their best effort. MAP testing shows us the growth made by a student over a period of time. Due to the MAP test shift, school photos have been postponed until the week of January 22. 2. World Language and Techno-Music Presentations: Please join us to watch the World Language classes perform poetry and songs and the Middle School and Secondary show off their techno-music work on Wednesday, January 17. The World Language Performances are from 12:20 – 1:00 with the MS and Secondary student classes performing first followed by the younger students. When the MS and Secondary students are done, they will move to the computer labs in the Secondary Building to set up their techno-music presentations that they have been developing under the guidance of Mrs. Horton and Mr. Bazarov. All students and parents are invited to go through the two computer labs from 12:45 – 2:00 checking out the various presentations. 3. Talent Show: Prepare yourself to be wowed! Friday night 5:00 p.m. at the Puppet Theater is our Annual QSI Dushanbe’s Got Talent! We have singers, dancers, musicians, and poets who will be competing for the top prize in their category or for the much coveted Audience Choice award! Much thanks to PSG for arranging the prizes and to the Sunshine Committee for their work in organizing the event. Thanks to a grant from the US Embassy, over winter break security improvements were made to our buildings. These include safety and security grills on windows, secure locking devices on doors, improved video camera surveillance, and two safe havens. QSI Dushanbe practices emergency drills on a monthly basis including fire drills, earthquake drills (today we evacuated after the small earthquake at 8:40 a.m. – it was good practice and the students did very well), and lock-down drills. We will now be incorporating the practice of moving our students to a safe haven as another safety drill. If you are interested in seeing any of these facility changes, we would be happy to show you. I hope you get a chance to enjoy this beautiful and unusual winter weather this weekend! Kim Black and QSID Staff
In QSI the students learn Spanish while having fun The 10 and 11 year olds this week were reviewing all of the topics that they learned during the school year while playing the game "La papa caliente" (hot potato). The student who gets the hot potato has to answer a question. Students choose to keep score on the board to challenge themselves on who remembers the most Spanish words for each topic. For the student’s projects, they made posters that incorporated 4 key actions to help them comprehend the language easier. 1) listening 2) speaking 3) writing /drawing 4) watching the picture with the corresponding word.
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