TIS News - Friday, February 11
Dear TIS Community,
It was a touching and joyous groundbreaking ceremony this afternoon. TIS celebrated the start of the construction of the new elementary school building! We are excited for the elementary students and faculty and staff that will be in the new building next school year.
Live-stream recording of the ceremony will be coming soon.
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Besides the newsletter, there are many ways to keep informed with TIS news.
TIS is starting a podcast feed where community members talk about many different aspects of school. We plan to develop the podcasting format enough to start a feed on popular podcasting platforms in the coming months.
https://www.tashschool.org/podcast/
I often “Tweet” photos and videos from things that come up daily at school and share resources with education leaders around the world. You can follow me at the address below. Other TIS faculty use Twitter as well. You can search for the #tashschool to find their Twitter feeds. Note that due to geographic server laws in Uzbekistan, you need a VPN (virtual private network) to access Twitter.
https://twitter.com/billkralovec
Writing helps me think through issues and leadership challenges. I maintain a professional blog where readers can get some context to my leadership decisions.
https://globalschoolleadership.com/
We also have the following regular Social Media feeds from the school, PTO and other TIS groups:
TIS E2W Construction Progress (Instagram Account).
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Human Resources & Development Manager Vacancy
TIS is looking for an HR & Development Manager for the 2022-2023 school year. The position will be starting in July, 2022 and we hope to fill the position by the end of February. The ideal candidate will be a locally-hired expatriate or a local with international experience. The job description can be found at this link. The deadline to apply is February 25, but we will fill the vacancy when a suitable candidate is found. Candidates can send a CV/Resume and email of interest to the Yuliya Kartashova (execassistant@tashschool.org).
Dear Elementary Families,
It has been an incredibly exciting week for everyone on campus. We were able to have a full week with all students on campus for the first time since December. We celebrated World Read Aloud Day with other schools around the world and we hosted seven international authors who read to our students. Our grade 5 students have been working on their PYP Exhibition, this week working with mentors across the school to work on social skills. To top it all off we were able to celebrate the ground breaking for our new Elementary Buidling,
COVID Testing and Protocols
On Monday, February 14 we will again be COVID antigen testing all our students on campus.
PS1 and PS2 parents please bring your child on campus so that you can administer the test. Remember that we will need you to wait at least 15 minutes to confirm the test results.
Students in KG - Grade 5 will test in their classrooms.
World Read Aloud Day
We were very fortunate to have seven international award-winning authors meet our students and read to them online. We were treated to some special books that haven’t even been released, and found out that M.O. Yuksel’s parents were originally from Uzbekistan. A hug thank you to Ms. Sayyora in the library for arranging this fantastic opportunity for our students. Also, check out Ms. Nargiza's "Multilingual Moments at TIS" blog for more photos and videos from the World Read Aloud Day.
Kindness Week
The new week we will be celebrating Kindness Week in the Elementary School. Our student council, with the support of Ms. Shahknoza, have been preparing some great activities. Student council members will be reading stories about kindness. We will also be collecting 100 stories and messages of kindness. Different classes are all taking on different ways to celebrate kindness at TIS. Ask your child what things they will be doing.
100th Day of School
To celebrate the 100th day of school for this year, we will be doing several different things. We will be working together to collect 100 two-kilogram bags of flour to donate to needy families in our neighborhood. We will be building a Tower of Flour in the Elementary building. This way we can do some math, celebrate the 100th day of school, Kindness Week, and take some action for our local community. Please encourage your child to bring one 2 KG bag of flour to donate any day next week. Watch our Facebook and Instagram pages to see the amount grow until we reach 100!
Dear families,
We have had a busy time since being back on campus. Please take a moment to read through everything that has been happening.
Feedback from the last set of conferences
Thank you to the parents who have already responded. We would very much appreciate your feedback on this matter to determine whether the additional time on the Thursday evening was useful or not. The survey only takes a couple of minutes at most. Thank you in advance for your help. LINK TO SURVEY
Grade 12 Mock Exams
These past 10 days, when you went up to the 3rd floor of the Main Building, you could see signs asking you to be quiet as exams were in progress. Why? Because our Grade 12 students were sitting their mock exams. The mock exams help students prepare for the IB World Exams in May 2022, in many different ways. They teach students how to study for high pressure, high stakes examinations. Mock exams also give students a good indication of how much they have learned from their courses so far and what gaps they need to fill.
Stress Management Workshop
This session will define what stress is, go through identifying various types of stressors you and your children may face, and suggest different ways to approach/cope with each situation. Please join us on Thursday, 17 February from 8.30 to 9.30 on Google Meet.
Grade 8 Science
Students in grade are studying the cardiovascular system by dissecting pig’s heart during science class. It is always great to do hands-on experiments which help students gain a better understanding of how things work.
Grade 10 - Looking ahead
Grade 10 had their first presentation about subject choices and pathways from the DP Coordinator. Over the next couple of weeks, they will receive more information from their subject teachers as to the nature of the different courses.
Please take some time to chat to your child about this topic. The attached presentation might be of help.
Grade 6 PSEL
Today Grade 6 learned about child protection and safeguarding. They had a great discussion on what that means and what it can look like. They also asked some fantastic questions in order to clarify their understanding. One of the key messages for the students was "If you see/know something, say something." They split up into small groups to discuss what stops us from doing the right thing/speaking up. They then began to brainstorm some ways we can become more comfortable speaking up/doing the right thing. When the students came back together in a larger group, they shared their ideas of how to help make it feel safer and more comfortable to reach out for help.
Ninth Grade I&S
The ninth-grade I&S classes are finishing a unit on Conflict. It has focused on the first half of the twentieth century. Students chose an event or aspect of the conflicts of the time period and then researched it extensively. They worked as historians and used primary and secondary sources. Afterward, each student created an exhibit to share in a virtual museum.
The museum is now open to the general public at: https://prezi.com/view/2qUXOk0BU72tnFyaT2OB/
Grade 10 Personal Project
The Personal Project (PP) is an extended, independent piece of project work completed by each student during the last year of their MYP. Project topics may be creative or research-based and, ideally, they should reflect a student’s personal interest. In the table below you can see some examples of this year’s cohort
Students began the PP process in Grade 10 during the first semester. Time was allocated from the PSEL program with 4 sessions dedicated to supporting and providing students with the necessary information for them to embark on their Personal project Journey. This was led by the Grade level Coordinator and his team of Homeroom teachers. In December students were given 2 more PSEL sessions where the focus was on refining their project development, with specific focus on them documenting the ATL’s used in the project. After the winter break, students were given 6 lessons to work on finalising their product and report. The school will host a Grade 10 PP exhibition on 9th March where students showcase their work to the wider community.
Congratulations to the TIS High School Knowledge Bowl team for their victory in the CEESA Knowledge Bowl tournament hosted online this year by the International School of Belgrade.
For the second year in a row, TIS took home first place out of 13 CEESA schools.
Simone Hanibal (G10) also placed first in the individual competition.
In March TIS hopes to send a team to compete in the CEESA Middle School Knowledge Bowl competition.
