Tirana International School 17 October 2018 Important Dates October 15-26 - Food Drive for Food Bank Albania 17 - PSG Meeting 18-25 - Digital Citizenship Week 23 - Picture Day 26 - Fall Festival 31 - Traditional Parent/Teacher Conference - No School for Students November 1-4 - CEESA MS Boys Football/Belgrade 15-18 - CEESA MS Robotics/Warsaw 15-18 - CEESA MS/HS x-country/Sofia 19-23 Fall Into Reading Director's Desk Dear Parents, Students and Friends of TIS, Hopefully everyone had a wonderful break last week and is returning to school rested and ready to learn. We are excited that students are happy about seeing friends and being back in class as new units of study are being opened. Next week we look forward to seeing everyone at the annual Fall Festival on Friday, October 26, 2018. In order for us to better plan, we ask that you register here so that we can know about your participation. We are counting on parents to participate in the Trunk or Treat portion of the evening in order for it to be successful. Last year we had about 70 cars involved and we hope to have as many this year. It is not required to decorate your car, just bring some small treats (candies, fruit, pencils, stickers, etc.) to give out to students that come by your vehicle. If you have any questions, please write to robert-jackson@qsi.org and I'll do my best to answer them. Looking Forward, Robert S. Jackson, Director Parent/Teacher Conferences On Wednesday, October 31, TIS will have parent/teacher conferences. You may sign up for a slot to visit your child's teacher by clicking on the link below. In addition, several other teachers (foreign language, specialists, counselor and administration) will be available on a drop in basis in the cafeteria. For middle school and secondary parents, you may book slots with all core subject teachers through the booking site. We look forward to seeing you on the 31st. As a reminder, there is no school for children that day. Middle States Association In February 2019 TIS will be visited by a team from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools to secure our accreditation for the next 7 years. So what is accreditation? According to MSA, "Accreditation is a self-evaluation process that schools and school systems voluntarily use to demonstrate they are meeting a defined set of research-based performance standards. The standards examine schools in a holistic way, supplementing student-testing data to provide a more complete measure of a school’s performance and chart a strategic and realistic course for continuous school improvement." Over the next several months, we will continue to provide information about this important process. Science Survey As a part of our accreditation, TIS is conducting a survey on our science curriculum. Your input is appreciated and will be quite valuable as we make improvements to the school. Picture Day Next week on Tuesday and Wednesday, we will hold our annual picture days. Later this week we will send out a schedule and some instructions on how you can make your child's photo special by having him or her bring in a personal item from home. CEESA travel season is upon us. This November TIS will send teams to football, cross country, and robotics tournaments throughout Europe. CEESA requires that students participating in these events be hosted by familes from the hosting school. It is great to know that our students are well taken care of while they are away. Please note that participation in CEESA events also requires TIS to host events throughout the year. In February we will be hosting High School Speech and Debate. In April we will host the Middle School Knowledge Bowl. We will be calling on parents to host students from other international schools when these events happen. Thank you in advance for your help.
Rules for Parents The following rules are intended for the use of all respective parents hosting for CEESA sponsored events. For the duration of the event you stand in place of the visiting student’s parents. Please exercise all supervision and care that you would normally exercise with your own children and observe all CEESA rules below.
Treasure Hunt The 9 year old class has had a blast exploring changes in land forms, sediment, and formation of rocks in class. Since nothing beats an exciting hands-on experience to deepen learning, we decided to go out on a field trip to the outskirts of Tirana to explore earth's changing surface. The experience led the children to carve and climb slate clay dunes caused by erosion. They took an exciting hike up a mountain and collected samples of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, and were quite impressed by the breaking up of rocks caused by a waterfall. On the way back students exchanged impressions and made sketches of their observations The highlight of the trip was an unexpected visit to a local quarry. Here they found actual brachiopod fossils on the rocks that had been extracted from the mountain. Best treasure hunt EVER! Shape compositions In art class the little artists are learning about geometric and organic shapes as part of the unit on art elements. They have applied in their artwork flat shapes by creating lines, textures, using watercolors, black contour and areas enclosed by other shapes such as triangles, circles, and squares. They have looked at some of the art pieces by famous painters like Kandinsky and Matisse, and recreated their own version of abstract shapes. This process is a great way to learn visual composition by expressing themselves freely and creatively. 11 year old students and the design process. 11 year old students are exercising their brains. They have been learning about various forms of energy and energy transformations. They will use their newly acquired knowledge to build a toy that demonstrates and teaches potential energy to the 8 year old students. The 11 year old class is using the design process, collaborating ideas, getting and giving peer feedback, revising and improving on their models. The work can be challenging but they are finding it rewarding as well. Physics Inside and Out As these AP Physics students are finding out Physics is the place where Mathematics touches the material world. Inside these students are studying one dimensional kinematics with an experiment they designed themselves. Outside they are learning how to read a compass to find their bearings while they study vectors in a large as life setting. We are off to a great start and it looks like an exciting year ahead. Nature Collections In our first Science unit, the Fives learned about “Nature Collections”. Throughout our science blocks, they generated questions related to collections from nature as well as explored, sorted, graphed, molded imprints of rocks and painted lovely colorful leaves gathered from scavenger hunts out in our beautiful TIS forest. To culminate this unit of study, the Fantastic Fives worked in collaborative groups designing a display to present their “Collections” hands on activities to their parents. A fun time was had by all and the students saved the day showcasing their projects with plenty of self confidence and charisma. A huge thank you goes to all the parents who found time to support our students’ learning with their presence and happy faces. Who would win the battle? The students in Spanish class have been studying animals and adjectives. The spotlight of this unit was the card game "War". Students had to study the two animals and answer the question "Who would win the battle?" Sometimes it was an easy answer (elephant vs. kitten), but sometimes they had to really think about it (elephant vs. hippo). “Sounding Out” Phonics instruction is an essential component of learning to read and involves learning how to decode words by correlating sounds with letters. There are many phases to sounding out new words. The first of these is CVC words (consonant-vowel consonant). We are learning how to say the individual sounds of 3 letter words that follow this pattern. For example, /c/-/a/-/t/, /f/-/u/-/n/, /m/- /a/-/p/. 6 year old class focusing on moment skills and flexibility. Is it better to be a LOSER or a NOBODY? Students in Mr. Stalker’s 11 year-old class got a chance to explore this question as we recently completed the Novel Study Unit. The class read Loser written by Jerry Spinelli. Loser is a coming of age young adult novel first published in 2002. It details the growth of Donald Zinkoff, who is branded a "loser" by his classmates due to his clumsiness, poor performance in school and athletics, and sometimes clueless enthusiasm ("Loser (novel)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia). Reading this novel is a great way to start the year because it highlights many of the Success Orientations that we promote at Tirana International School. The story provides limitless possibilities for discussion regarding issues that face some of our young students. As part of the final assessment, students were tasked to create a movie poster for the novel including reviews, potential actors and actresses, ratings, and lessons learned. Busy Bees! The bumblebees have had a busy week learning about fall. They all worked together to paint a mural with real leaves. Then they used one of the shapes they learned about before break to make their own individual fall trees - triangles! Hands on Activities Hands on activities are always a great way to teach students. They learn and have fun at the same time. In reading they are learning about the letters and words, beginning and ending sounds, and little poems about each letter. |