Tirana International School 30 January 2018 Important Dates January 30 Jan - 3 Feb - CEESA MS Choir/Moscow 31 Jan - 3 Feb - CEESA HS Knowledge Bowl/Skopje 31 Jan - 4 Feb - CEESA MS Mathcounts/Belgrade 31 - Narratives Released February 7-10 - CEESA HS Tech Robotics/Bucharest 7-10 - HOSTING - CEESA HS Speech&Debate/Tirana 11 - 100 Days of School 11-15 - Math Week 11-14 - Middle States Accreditation Team in Tirana 18-22 - Mid/Winter Break, No School Director's Desk Dear Parents, Students, and Friends of TIS, Over the past year, we have worked hard to create a Self Study for our accreditation through Middle States. The finished product can be found here. If you care to read it, you will see that it touches on every aspect of our school from the educational program to our activities. Our whole community contributed to the document by answering survey questions, compiling data and analyzing our areas of growth. Thank you to all for your hard work in completing this important, foundational document. Looking Forward, Robert S. Jackson, Director MSA Accreditation On Monday, February 11 at 15:00, all parents are invited to a meeting with the accreditation visiting team. The team would like to talk with you about your experience at TIS. Please mark this meeting on your calendar and plan to be with us for this special time. Child care will be provided so that you can drop off your children for the hour long meeting. Narrative Reports Narrative reports are coming out this week, so we thought it would be good to refresh our understanding about them and their role in your child's overall assessment. The status report (delivered five times a year) lists the topics and grades received, but a narrative helps the parent understand the why and how behind those grades. Teachers carefully craft descriptions of what they observe in class, provide examples of success, and speak to fundamental school skills like working with others, following directions, and staying on task. If you should have any questions about a section of the narrative report, please email the teacher directly. Before the end of the day on 31 January, you will find your child's narrative report in your family's Google folder. If you have forgotten your password or need assistance, our IT group is happy to help (it@alb.qsi.org). If you would prefer your child's report in hard copy, please email Egla-Lila@alb.qsi.org. Mysterious Movers The Dragonflies are currently talking about “Mysterious Movers”. In this theme, we are exploring topics such as wind and gravity. We learned that wind is movement of air and we had fun making objects move with the help of straws. The children also enjoyed making wind streamers and beautiful “windy” art pieces! Idioms During their literary analysis unit in literature, 11 YO students in Mrs. Panetta's class studied idioms. As this is a concept they've looked at before, students easily identified and came up with idioms. For a new challenge, students wrote idioms in different languages, trying to find similar sayings in two languages. It didn't work that often! It was fun to share different important sayings in both English and students' home languages. “Play is the highest form of research” - Albert Einstein We couldn’t agree more here at TIS Preschool! Play is essential to children’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive development. Play helps children develop language and reasoning skills, encourages critical thinking and problem solving as well as helps improve their ability to focus and control their behavior. Play is a children's way of learning about themselves and a world around them. The Student Progress Narrative is an approach to describe your child’s learning and development and provides opportunity for teachers and parents to work together to support children as they grow. On Friday February 1st we will send The Student Progress Narrative to you at your family@tismail.org account. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate contact your child’s teacher. Thank you for sharing your child with us! Instrumental Concert The talented students of violin, piano and guitar gave a spectacular instrumental performance on January 28th. Their hard work and dedication to prepare and rehearse for this event really paid off and Mrs. Marjana, their teacher, could not be more proud. Using Encyclopedias In library class, 9-year-old students have been learning about encyclopedias and how to use them. Students were introduced to both print and online versions of encyclopedias, and they practiced finding information on different topics using guide words. Fair Play Students in the six-year-old class learn the importance of fair play and good sportsmanship with a friendly game of soccer. Do you know? Spanish students enjoyed starting the class with ¿Sabías que..? warm up activity. They had to find fun facts in Spanish related with the subject of each day, written down in a post it note and put it on our ¿Sabías que..? wall. So if you need to know some nice fun facts come and visit our wall. Realizing dictionaries are a really cool reference tool. Creating a Truck Pull Gadget. The 9 year old class has been busy this month Using the dictionary. Welcome Tino, our new 9 year old, to TIS. Celebrating a Happy Birthday. Transferring elastic and kinetic energy. CEESA Knowledge Bowl in Skopje TIS sent a team of 8 brilliant scholars to a CEESA Knowledge Bowl competition in Skopje, Macedonia. The team had been practicing for three months and developed awesome skills in answering various interdisciplinary academic questions quickly and correctly. Go, Tigers!
Robotics "The Secondary Robotics team is gearing up for the competition in Bucharest next week. The team (Christoph, Gianmarco, Julia, Gabriel, JJ, Sindi, and Jacob) under the tutelage of Ms. Peshku and Mr. Panetta, have a brand new robot and have been working after school and on weekends to get ready for the FTC competition. Wish them luck!!" As part of our comprehensive approach to keeping your children safe, TIS had adopted the Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum. We are piloting the program with our middle school and secondary students during their Wednesday advisory time starting January 23rd. All students 4-years-old and up will engage in the curriculum for 45 minutes per week staring in the 2019-20 school year. Please read the following letter for more information about the middle and high school plan for this year. Additional Resources for all parents can be found on the KS:CPC website: We have a new website where you can look through the items and see if you find anything that belongs to you. Advisory Board Meeting Notes The TIS Advisory Board meets several times a year to provide guidance for the school and decide on issues of importance. The latest meeting was held on January 15 and you can find notes from the meeting here. Parents, TIS is excited to announce our winter Saturday Sports Program. TIS will offer a six-week gymnastics and basketball program for our students from ages 5-13. Dates: January 12, 19, 26 February 2, 16 March 2 Gymnastics for ages 5-7 will run from 9:00 until 10:00 Gymnastics for ages 8-13 will run from 10:00 until 11:00 Basketball for ages 8-10 will run from 9:00 until 10:00 Basketball for ages 5-7 will run from 10:00 until 11:00 Basketball for ages 11-13 will run from 11:00 until 12:00 The cost for the gymnastics is 6000 Leke for the six-week session. Payment will be made directly to the coaches at the first session. The gymnastics training will be conducted by 3 coaches with extensive experience in the United States and Albania. There is no cost for the basketball program. Both programs are open to boys and girls. The schedule has been organized so that children may participate in both activities. Registration for the Saturday Sports program can be completed by filling out the Google form HERE The Valdete Trust, an organization TIS has partnered with in the past, is holding a fundraiser on February 8th. Please see the image for details and contact information. The Valdete Trust exists to provide care, education, and support to people in Albania with muscular dystrophy or other degenerative conditions. |