Moshi Campus News – 26 Oct 14

This week we will be celebrating UN Day on Monday, 27th October in a special assembly to commemorate the cultural diversity at ISM. Please think about what your child can wear on this day, either their National Dress or National colours. Primary will be singing our traditional UN Day song, so please do stay after you drop off your child and join us in Karibu Hall for this assembly at 7.45 am.

International School Moshi was established on 24th October 1969 and we celebrated our 45th anniversary on Friday with a birthday cake for all students and staff. The Student Council also announced the day as “Twins Day” leading to some interesting twinning arrangements and costumes!

It was a week full of celebration as we also marked Diwali – the Festival of Light – on Thursday.

The Moshi PA will also be meeting on Monday, 27th October after the assembly. If you would like to discuss any issues with the PA, you are welcome to join them for coffee in Bob Horton’s office between 8:10 and 8:40 that morning.

Trinity University in Texas, USA will be making a presentation to our students on Wednesday, 29th October at 3pm. Trinity offers undergraduate degree courses in a variety of subjects and also offers a wide variety of scholarships and grant aid.

A letter went home last week about ISM ‘trick or treat’ events on Friday 31st October. Please sign up for this event by returning the slip attached to that letter. Please let your child’s class teacher know if you did not receive the information and are interested in taking part. The afternoon/ evening will look like this: For Primary Meet in school car park at 2.45pm. Drive round ISM family homes for ‘trick or treat’ activities. Party at Moshi club after this event from 4.30pm to 6.30pm. Tickets available from Ms Annalee after school everyday at 1pm.
For Secondary Meet in school car park at 6.15 pm. ‘Trick or treat’ events round ISM family homes. Disco in dining hall from 8.30pm to 10.15pm. Day students welcome. The disco is open to secondary students only.

We will be conducting a presentation on International School Moshi at the Sea Cliff Hotel in Dar es Salaam on Saturday, 1st November at 10am. If you know of any families in Dar who may wish to enrol their children in ISM in 2015, please encourage them to join us for the event.
We are also inviting any parents or alumni based in Dar to join us for drinks in the Sea Cliff Kaskazi Lounge on Friday evening at 7pm.

If your child will be leaving ISM in the next few months, could you please let me know as soon as possible on ? This may then enable us to offer places to students currently on our waiting lists.

We are fast approaching the deadline for registration for the ACT and SAT tests due to be held in Moshi in December. Any D2 students planning to take these tests (necessary for US college admission) must register in the next few days.

The Outdoor Pursuits trip to Mandara Hut on Kilimanjaro will take place from 1st to 2nd November. All places on the trip are now taken. We wish all participants from both campuses the best for this trip.

As we start quarter 2, the MYP classes are all delving deeply into some new units that will hopefully prove to be very interesting and informative and help the students to raise their level of musicianship. The M5 class, in preparation for writing their very own song for their graduation ceremony at the end of the year, is learning more about some specific musical elements through the lens of different musical genres. Music such as jazz, folk, and classical will all be studied and small groups will write their own piece of music, in the style of the genre they are looking at. M4s are doing an in-depth study of Blues music, and how cultural and historical events of the time influenced the genre itself. The M3 class is taking a trip west and looking at music and dance from West Africa, and how everyday life can be inspiration for a culture’s aesthetic ideals. M2 has started a unit on sound production, looking at how exactly sound happens, and what that means for different instruments. We will hopefully be creating and making our own instruments and then write a piece of music for them! Finally, the M1 class will look at instruments from a different perspective: the innovations that occurred with instrument-making over time and how that changed the role of the instruments in large ensembles. We have lots to learn in the next 8 weeks!

Primary Advanced Swimming Team & Football Team Our competitive teams will be doing extra sessions as part of their training. If your child has been chosen for the swim/football team they will have received a letter this week with details. They need to attend the following sessions which will be working towards the Swim meets & tournaments.
Advanced Swimming team with Coach Weds 14.00- 15.00 Sat 10.30-12.00
Football team Thurs 14.00 – 15.30 (30 extra minutes)

We currently have a few student teachers at school. Mr Owen is doing a teaching practice with Ms Sarah’s P3 class. Ms Inma is teaching with Ms Debbie in the Special Needs department and helping out with some primary PE classes. Both are affiliated to a Danish University. We also have Mr Simpson from Iowa arriving to do a short teaching practice with Mr Wright’s English classes. We welcome them into our ISM family for this brief period.

Following nearly nine months of work, D2 students completed their Extended Essay. This is a major accomplishment and milestone in their DP study. For those on ‘full diploma’ status the EE plus the TOK class form the core and from which up to 3 bonus points can be attained towards their final IB score. DP teachers and D2 celebrated and marked the EE completion event with an afternoon ice cream party on Thursday afternoon at the ISM dining hall. The EE completion celebration coincidentally took place on D2 student Twan’s 18th birthday and he will likely not forget it since his peers all surprised him with a big cheer and with the ‘happy birthday’ song upon his arrival.
D1 Life Skills students examined this week Harvard University Psychologist Howard Gardner’s ground-breaking ‘Multiple Intelligences’ (www.uwcea.org/dip43) and (www.uwcea.org/dip44). Thereafter and under the theme of internationalism (a central feature of an IB education at ISM) students watched and reflected on this powerful video-story from the NY Times which portrays the life of a Monrovia, Liberia ambulance driver. “Fighting Ebola Outbreak Street by Street” at www.uwcea.org/dip45.
Many of us IB DP teachers aim to teach our students – albeit perhaps not explicitly – the idea of grit that is the topic of this article – www.uwcea.org/dip46.
One sign of a great IB school is its investment in staff development. Last weekend I attended the Africa, Europe and Middle East regional conference with over 1,000 other educators. I left the event with a sense that ISM is truly on the right track on so many fronts in terms of what we do as an IB World School. Collaboration, Engaged Learning, Reflection, Service Learning, Technology-driven lessons, Peer Observation, ‘Beyond the Box’ (so one step beyond out of the box) Innovative lessons, Reflection, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Inquiry-based Learning… are some of the themes of the outstanding sessions/presentations. The fact that ISM’s faculty particularly in the IB DP on Moshi campus that I know best are doing many of these things is exciting and bodes well for the future as we prepare students for the 21st century world.
One super presentation with Ian Piper, the Danube International School Head examined – Great Learning – as defined as ‘excellent technical quality, with an understanding of the individual, that is ethically pursued and socially responsible and learning that is engaging and enjoyable.’ Dr. Pipes reported that this Great Learning approach grew out of a fascinating, innovative program called the Good Works project that is worth reading about at www.thegoodproject.org.
The impressive IB Director General, Siva Kumari, highlighted that the 1000th IB school has just been authorized and the critical thinking / IB learner profile continues to hold the test of time; 1.2 million have now studied in IB programs.
An incredibly sharp and tech savvy Chinese national who teaches at a US university Dr. Yong Zhao (zhaolearning.com) gave a fascinating presentation on globalization and education for the future.
Feel free to contact me with any questions about your son/daughter’s progress in the ISM IB DP on Moshi campus. Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick – DP Coordinator

Unit of Inquiry Central Idea: We share our planet with animals and try to interact with them in responsible ways. Lines of Inquiry:

• Types of animals on our planet
• Habitats and organizations that support animal life
• Our responsibilities towards animals

Information for Parents Monday will be a special assembly for UN Day. The children should all dress in clothing that represents their home countries. All of primary will be singing, and of course you are welcome to attend.
On Friday your child will be able to participate in the Hallowe’en Trick or Treat event. We will not wear costumes to school that day, but a costume should be worn if you are attending the special after-school event. Please plan to stay with your child that afternoon. We will meet in the car park at 2:45pm. A permission slip was sent last week. Please return it so we can get a count of how many plan to attend. Also let us know if your child will be attending with an adult other than yourself.
Literacy Focus for the Week This week the P1 students will continue to work on letter sounds and writing sen-tences. The P2 students will work on writing stories using the words “first”, “next”, “then”, and “finally”.
Math Focus for the Week P1 students will work on adding strategies and adding doubles to 10. The P2 students will work with the hundred chart. They will also be working with tens and units.


Unit of Inquiry We will continue to learn about homes around the world. This week we will study a variety of homes and what makes them special.
What to Bring to School: Children need a hat for playtime and a healthful snack every day.
Timetable Monday: Library (we will choose new books) Wednesday: PE (wear PE shoes and a house T shirt) Thursday:Swimming (please send swimwear)

What a fantastic first week of the Quarter we have had. We have achieved so much this week in our learning and have had lots of fun too. We discussed Harvest festivals around the world and thought about the foods we are thankful for, and celebrated Diwali by hearing the story of Rama and Sita and making Rangoli patterns.
We welcomed a new teacher to the P3 classroom this week. Mr Owen has joined us from Scotland. He is a third year student teacher who will be with us for a total of 6 weeks.
Language Focus for the Week: This week the children are continuing their work on story settings, mood and atmosphere. They will be experimenting with a wide range of powerful adjectives, and use their skills to write a paragraph that describes a setting.
Maths Focus for the Week: Naming, describing, comparing and sorting 2D shapes.
Unit of Inquiry: We will be looking at Arts and Crafts from around the world.
Please Remember that: Monday: PE and homework folders sent home. Thursday: Swimming and library day. Friday: All homework folders to be handed in. Spelling test day.
Monday is UN Day and the children are asked to wear their National Costumes or clothes that represent their National colours. Could I ask that they also bring their PE kits that day?

Information for Parents This week we have really learned a lot about different types of energy sources. In addition to learning about traditional sources of energy, we discovered some new ideas that people have. Ask your child about how the human body can be used to generate electricity.
Language focus for the week Our language lessons will focus on verb tenses. Students will begin reading chapter books in their reading groups on Thursday, so they may have some assigned reading for homework.
Maths focus for the week Thank you for completing the home energy survey for homework last week. We will be using the data as part of our new math unit on recording and analyzing data. Next week we will focus on using frequency tables, bar graphs, and pictographs.
Unit of Inquiry We are going further into our inquiry cycle as we begin our summative assessment. Students will be choosing an energy source to research. They will prepare a presentation to convoke people to use/not use the energy source that they researched. We will be looking at persuasion techniques and how to find information.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday: UN Assembly (Please wear the colors or cultural dress of your home country) Tuesday: PE (Wear PE shoes and house shirt) Thursday: Swimming (bring swimming kit) Library (bring books)

This week the students have been investigating the law of inertia as part of their unit on the solar system. They worked in small groups to carry out a science experiment which showed that an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless a force is applied. For this they had to think of the aims of the experiment, the equipment required, how to draw a diagram and write about the process, work out a prediction, and also decide on the independent, dependent and control variables. As they carried out the experiment they had to record the results and finally write a conclusion which related to the original aims of the investigation. Current Unit (Central Idea): Life on Earth is dependent on how the solar system works
This week: Maths: Translations
English: Writing a conclusion to a newspaper report
Monday: Homework will be set for the week | Library session Wednesday: Swimming session Friday: Homework due in | PE lesson

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