Dear TIS community,

We continue to move forward with recovering from the pandemic and getting back to pre-COVID conditions. I am pleased to inform you that TIS will have a mask-optional policy starting on Monday, May 16. With transmission low in Tashkent and no cases reported the past two weeks in our community, masks will be optional both outdoors and indoors. The COVID response team will monitor conditions and act accordingly. Note that our mask protocols for close contacts and cases returning to school remain the same. 

It has been nice to families using the school campus on weekends! Our peaceful park setting is an oasis in the city and the perfect place for families to enjoy time together. I ask people coming to campus to keep it tidy. Please clean up after your dog and if you have a lot of rubbish, to take it with you. 

I had the pleasure of accompanying the grade 9 students on the School Without Walls trip last week. We camped in front of a gorgeous river valley with Big Chimgan Peak as a backdrop. The students challenged themselves to adapt to sleeping in the wilderness and hiking to the top of steep ravines. It is rewarding to see students overcome their fears and connect with each other as they have these new experiences. We are planning more outdoor adventures and exploring the incredible nature that Uzbekistan has to offer in the 2022-2023 school year. 

Finally, our maintenance personnel installed new lights on our sports field and evening games and events can be held. I am excited to think about the possibility of activities that can avoid the heat of the day and extend team training sessions in the late fall. 

Student-Led Conferences

Student-Led Conferences will be held on May 19.

There will be no school for Elementary students on this day.

Families were sent an email on Sunday May 8 to sign up.  If you did not receive an email please contact Ms. Larisa (elemassistant@tashschool.org)

Families sign up for a one hour homeroom block.

Families can visit the specialists areas before or after their booked time in the homeroom.

NOTE:  Specialist areas will NOT BE OPEN from 12:30 to 13:30 to allow staff to have lunch.

What Student-Led Conferences are:

An opportunity for students to lead and be empowered to share and reflect on their learning and growth.

For the homeroom:

Students will guide their families through several stations that will allow:

Families to view the classroom and learning environment

Families to engage with different types of learning activities 

Students to share evidence of their learning and and use these to show their growth and development 

 

For the specialists areas:

Students will guide the families through different activities and evidence to show their learning and growth over the year.

This is an opportunity for our TIS students to share what they are proud of.

This is not a time that you can have individual meetings with teachers.  Your interactions will be led by your child.

The students and teachers have been working hard over the past two weeks to get ready for the conferences.  Please ask your child about what they plan to share with you.  The students are very excited!

We look forward to seeing you all on campus.

Bizarre Bazaar

As part of their How we organize ourselves unit of inquiry, our Grade 4 students ran a Bizarre Bazaar. These students were inquiring into economic systems and worked to establish businesses that sold products and services to students, parents and staff.  Through experience our students learned about everything from product design and sourcing to customer service and making change.  It is great to see our students developing entrepreneurial skills.

Grade 3 Environmental Exhibition

It was great to welcome parents on campus to engage with the work that our Grade 3 students have been doing to learn about effects that our actions and practices are having on different aspects of the environment. Our students presented research and shared both big and small action that we can take to effect change.

Grade 5 Overnight Trip

Although Covid did not allow our Grade 5 students to take an overnight trip in September, we were able to make it happen this week.  This is a time that students are working together and learning about who they are as individuals and who we are as a community.  This has turned into an opportunity to build skills for the transition into the Secondary and we we fortunate to have Mr. Tate, our TIS MYP Coordinator, join on the trip to build relationships with our students.

Dear families, 

We had an amazing couple of weeks. School without walls. Volleyball and athletics tournaments as well as planning for music and drama performances in the coming weeks. 

School without walls

Last week, we had over 250 students and teachers traveled to different destinations around Chimgan and Parkent for our first overnight trip in 2.5 years. Students were staying in different places which varied in type and location, starting with a nice resort for the Grade 11 students who were working on the DP Core and their college applications to Grade 9 and 10 who were camping in the mountains. No matter where the students stayed, they explored the nature in their surroundings, their own perceptions of the world around them and how to create different experiences. They connected with others, not just students but also their teachers and chaperones, some of whom they did not know very well prior to the trip. Finally, the trips included opportunities to challenge themselves, on hikes, staying overnight in a new location without their parents while not having access to their phone. 

Thank you for trusting us with your children. The trip Telegram Channels will be operational until early next week when they will be closed down. 

If you would like to give us any feedback on the trips, please complete this very brief survey. 

Feedback from our last set of conferences

I know it is already some time ago but we would welcome some input from you to help us plan for the conferences for the coming year. Should they be in person, virtual or a mix? Do we need to have an evening session? Please take a moment to share your thoughts with us. CONFERENCE INPUT

Looking ahead. 

We have a lot of important events coming up in the next 5 weeks as well as exams for Grade 9, 10 and 11, starting on Monday, 30 May. The grade level teams and teachers will be providing exam techniques as well as revision guidance. 

Other events this month include:  

• MS Football, 14 May
• Grade 11 art show, 16 and 17 May in the MPR
• Grade 9 Music and Drama performance: 18 May at 17.30 to 19.00
• Grade 8 Music and Drama performance: 25 May at 17.00 to 18.00
• Grade 12 Graduation: 27 May at 18.00 (invite only)
• JV Volleyball Tournament: 26 and 28 May

RAFT

Finally the grade level coordinators have started the transition process for our leaving students, using the RAFT model. RAFT is an acronym for Reconciliation, Affirmation, Farewell & Think Destination. There will be a parent presentation about this later this month.

As we are approaching the end of the school year, the PTO team is preparing for the annual reelection of some of the PTO Board positions. We are encouraging TIS parents and teachers to apply and become a part of the dynamic team to support the TIS community.

We are now accepting applications to the following position openings on the board for the 2022-2023 school year:

1. PTO President: Leads the PTO team and helps set the vision for the upcoming year; works closely with the Director and the Principals; creates agendas for and presides at the PTO Board and General meetings; works with the Treasurer on developing and implementing budget, makes executive decisions for the PTO Board.
2. Secretary: Prepares and keeps minutes of all meetings; assists the President by sending emails and social media notices and updates about monthly meetings, events, and activities; communicates with the TIS Promotions and Communications Coordinator to announce the PTO upcoming events and to build communication between the PTO and the TIS community; helps create poster announcements for the PTO events.
3. Volunteer co-Coordinator: Responsible for recruiting volunteers for all PTO events and activities; may also recruit for some school activities; works with other members of the PTO Board to determine volunteer needs, supervises and keeps records of current volunteers and their contact information.
4. Room Parent Coordinator: Recruits room parents for each elementary class; organises and trains volunteer room parents; helps room parents create class funds towards teachers’ gifts/end-of-year celebrations, and Spring Gala baskets; works with Elementary Principal to maintain a communication channel with parents. 

The elections will take place on Friday, June 3, during the PTO General meeting. Please come and support your favorite candidates.

Email us at pto@tashschool.org if you have any questions or would like to apply for any of the positions.

It’s performance time … 

Grade 9 prepares for a live production in the Black Box of Mark Ravenhill’s teen comedy “Totally Over You” 

Beginning in early February, the entire Grade 9 class began working on “Totally Over You”, a fun, musical production about high school friends who dream of being famous and learn to appreciate each other for who they really are!  The performance is an outcome of a combined Music/Drama class which integrates theatre elements including actors, musicians, lighting, costumes, set design, and marketing. This has shaped to be part of a post-pandemic process in which we reignite our performing arts family. You will see students support one another as someone may call for a line, there may be someone rushing onstage with a prop or costume piece, you may see some “behind the scenes” communication - this is a beautiful part of the process! We welcome this as our young artists are learning to become collaborators and leaders. In this performance, you will also see pieces of their process. Please come and support their Courage, Compassion, and Creativity as we redefine our Performing Arts Community here at TIS!  Tickets are limited and priority will be given to parents and family members. Ms. Liz and Mr. O look forward to welcoming you to celebrate this process with the Grade 9!

Following hot on the heels of Grade 9’s performance, Grade 8 Drama and Music students will be performing next week, and the students of the Music Academy, the Secondary Orchestra, and  Grade 10 Drama students will share their performances in June.

The Grade 11 Theatre students are in full preparation for their Research Presentation: a formal IBDP performance which demonstrates the students’ understanding of World Theatre traditions which will count towards 30% of the final grade for Standard Level students and 20% for Higher Level students

CEESA Middle School Knowledge Bowl

Eight middle schoolers successfully represented TIS in the CEESA Middle School Knowledge Bowl on April 29 and 30.  The virtual competition involved sixteen teams from nine countries.  Students answered a variety of challenging questions on topics in areas like science, history, and literature.

TIS had two teams that found themselves facing off in the semi-finals.  They eventually moved on, with one team taking first place and the other in fourth place.  On the second day of the event, there was an individual competition.  Six of TIS’ members took part in that.  Siobhan Jacobs won second place and Sophia Sheth won third place.  Other members of the TIS teams were Eilam Ben Hillel, Arina Aslakhanova, Vanshika Kalyan, Mattat Geller, Hannah Jeong, and Nigora Ashrapova.

These donations will be collected by Greener Tomorrows and sent to the Green Aral Sea project to combat the desertification of the region. Previously known as the world’s 4th largest lake, the Aral Sea is disappearing due to mass irrigation and poor water management. Today, the Aral Sea is just 1/10 of its original size. To raise awareness of this environmental crisis during Cyclothon, we will make announcements as our participants reach combined distance targets that demonstrate how the Aral Sea has shrunk over the last 50 years. Our overall target of 930km was the perimeter of the Aral Sea in 1960. 

To sign up for the Cyclothon, please use this Google Form. Students are also welcome to invite participants from outside of TIS, such as their parents or friends, to make the day even more memorable. Please make sure that anyone who wants to participate has signed up using the Google Form. 

At the event, there will be water provided for participants, a safety rodeo, food and drinks available to purchase, and student-led activities such as workshops and sales. We hope you can join us for a fantastic morning of outdoor activities to help support the Aral Sea!

 

Book returns, summer checkouts, textbooks…

As the end of the year is fast approaching, I would like to let you know of the following end-of-the-year dates and procedures for both elementary and secondary school libraries. 

• May 25: Last day for book checkouts 
• Jun 2: All outstanding library books must be returned by this date 
• June 13, 14, 15: Returning students can borrow books for the summer holidays. Gr 10 and 11  students may also borrow textbooks for summer. Elementary students must visit the library with their parents and/or guardians. 
• If you are traveling, you may prefer to borrow a Kindle or use Sora. Contact the library staff as soon as possible if you would like to borrow a Kindle so that we have time to customize a collection for your child.
• Books borrowed for summer are due back on the first day of school, Aug 16

Sayyora Tairova

School Librarian