From the Director’s Desk On Friday morning, the Parent Support Group presented a scrumptious brunch to the staff in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. With mouths full of pancakes (with real maple syrup!), quiche, muffins, tarts, fruit, and a most excellent coffee, all of the teachers and paraprofessionals, administrative and support staff, and guards expressed their gratitude for such thoughtfulness. Our Spelling Bee Champions were the shining stars of the week. Four spelling bees were held on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. Students from ages 6 through 18 competed for the coveted Best Speller in their age category! Congratulations to 3rd place winners Soumil Mishra, Sara Seehar, Leo Prochazka, and Evan Rudisile; 2nd place winners Putri Jones, Jack Oringderff, Faridun Abdullazoda, and Kadir Durmush; and 1st place winners Nyima Lama, Daniel Covert, Adam Boles, and Sam Solnson We also learned some fun facts about spelling bees during our morning announcements. Did you know that no one knows why we call it a Spelling ‘Bee’. Early guesses are that the word ‘bee’ referred to a community social gathering and that it was first used in print in 1769. It is the time of the year for our Climate Survey. Students ages 8 and up, staff, and all parents complete this survey which provides valuable information in our continuous efforts toward improvement. Please complete the survey to help us know where things are going right and where we can continue to make strides. Your input is extremely valuable. Here is the link to the parent survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YG5GQXV You can also find it in the body of the newsletter. There are five weeks left of school. We have several wonderful events during this time. The first is our Spring Musical Performance on Wednesday, May 23 at 5:00 p.m. at the Puppet Theater. A week later on May 30, Ms. Dilorom will host an Art Exhibition of student work representing work from every student in our school. The culminating event is the Celebration of Learning and Graduation Ceremony, which will take place between 12:30 and 3:30 on Friday, June 8th. During that time, all parents will be invited to take part in student-led celebrations of learning in each classroom followed by the annual slide show celebration, certificates of accomplishment and culminating in our celebration of Luise Kloever’s graduation from QSID. Please mark this very important afternoon in your calendar. The last day of school is June 15 (half-day). Please let us know if you will be departing earlier than that day. All students are expected to finish all academic requirements. We wish you a beautifully relaxing weekend QSID community! Kim Black and QSID Staff As we draw closer to the end of the school year, the minds and hearts of many families are pulled in different directions. Those who are leaving Tajikistan are trying to finish up all that needs to be done here while thinking about settling in to a new environment and all the stress associated with it. Those who remain worry about what the future here will be like without friends they have come to know and enjoy. These transitions are an inevitable part of this international life, but that does not make moving any easier. During the first week of May the school will begin a “Transitions” program for all of our students: those leaving and those remaining. Both groups will meet to talk about what is happening, their feelings and fears about the future, and each group will be given some suggestions for activities that will help them look at this transition time in a more positive light. Those remaining may also come home with a permission slip to be a New Student Buddy. This is an opportunity for our students to meet and become a buddy to an incoming student In August. Please read the information and return to Ms. Horton if your son/daughter would like to part of this program. While acknowledging that the grief that comes with saying good-bye is an unavoidable part of all transitions, we hope to help students happily anticipate new beginnings that transitions signal: times of hellos, of growth and change.
RUSSIAN CLASSESRecently we have had “ Traditions” Unit with Intermediate I class. The students were introduced to various traditions and cultures. Russian culture was the focus of our Unit. They have learned about Russian national food, clothes, holidays, folklore, composers, and scientists. They listened to Russian songs, read Russian stories, made projects about Russian national clothes. At the end of the Unit we decided to cook Russian national salad “Olivye”. The students were given a recipe of this salad which was written in Russian and made the salad without anyone’s help. They enjoyed peeling, cutting, and mixing all the ingredients. They had a chance to cook and then taste it.
Our 6 y.o. and 7 y.o. students learning food. They sing a sons, answer to the questions, make the projects and enjoy during their Russian class.
Dear Students, Families, and Colleagues, It has been such a wonderful experience being both a QSI parent and teacher for the past four years. I am so grateful for the chance to have met so many fabulous people here and to have learned so much from all of you. Our family has felt so loved and warmly embraced here in Dushanbe. It has been lovely to see how the school community has helped to grow and raise my daughter, Beatrix, into the curious and caring person that she is today. I will miss you all. Undoubtedly, I will really miss the students I have had the great pleasure to teach here. You are going to do such amazing things in life and I am so looking forward to seeing where you go and what you do. Teachers love it when you drop an email or get in touch to say what you are doing. Please do not forget to do this. Just as it made me happy to see your smiling (and sometimes not smiling!) faces in class every day, it will make me so happy to hear about the amazing things you are doing. I hope you left my classes loving at least one thing that we read. I also hope that writing papers feels comfortable for you now. Thank you for sharing your ideas and thoughts with me throughout these few years. It has been such pleasure getting to know all of you. Goodbye and best wishes to a truly fabulous school community. Warmest Regards, Alecia Rubino aleciarubino@gmail.com Dear Students, Parents and Colleagues, Working at QSI for the past nine years has been an incredible and most rewarding experience. I got to know an amazing people and made many new friends; most importantly I got to know you all. I have learned a great deal during this time, and I hope I have managed to share some of my knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for everything we did together. I now move on to new and exciting experiences somewhere else in USA and the world. It is therefore with mixed feelings that I say goodbye to you all. It is a small and round world so at some point we might bump into each other again. Хуш Бошед! Досвидaние! Good Bye! Miss Parvina Sharifova 4 year old Teacher. QSI Dushanbe Tajikistan
The word “Makerspace” has become a buzzword in schools over the past few years, and QSID is jumping on the bandwagon. A makerspace is exactly what it sounds like it should be: a workspace set aside specifically for creating, inventing and exploring tools and ideas. At our school we hope it will be a place for students to solve problems, tinker, and use their imaginations either as part of class challenges or as part of individual or small group activities. These can be high tech, low tech or no tech. As you do your spring cleaning, or just because you might have items that could be recycled, we would be happy to take them off your hands. From cloth to containers, plastic to play doh, wire to wood, we are looking for clean odds and ends that may be used to create a new toy or added to a sculpture or as part of a student invention we haven’t even thought of yet. Send these things in with your student, and it will be added to our supplies. At the moment, besides these miscellaneous items, we are hoping for a donation of a sewing machine or two. Thanks for your support as we continue to help our students become 21st century thinkers and problem-solvers. |