Moshi Campus News – 9 March 2019

It is often said that this quarter is the longest and while it does often have the greatest number of actual school days, I do not think this is what people mean.  The third quarter seems to be the quarter that personifies perseverance.  If you look at the D2 students they have had the Mock exams, completed internal assessments and other work like TOK essays. The M5 students have had a similar last quarter with the Personal Project, Mock Exams and Portfolio work.

This extends beyond those two groups of students and even academics.  If you look back at the last quarter in the school calendar, it is full of OP Trips, sports events, house events and other things like the Khanga Gala and IB film crew visits.  It does mean people are jumping quickly from one event to another, whether they are students, parents or teachers.  So, I do hope that everyone takes advantage of this break to relax, have some down time and that you return in April fully recharged.

The end of Quarter Assembly is scheduled to start at 7:45am and should be done by 9am on Wednesday.

Primary students will be dismissed at 10:15am on Friday.

Have a safe and fun holiday,
Bob Cofer

On Thursday we have the Primary Student Led Conferences that run from 8am until 3pm.

On Friday we have the Secondary Parent Conferences that run from 8:30am until 12:30pm.

For both conferences, please use the online signup to book a slot.  The data for parent’s name, student’s name and email address all transfer from ManageBac so those would be the details to enter.  Please remember that the classes are called IB Primary Years, IB Middle Years and IB Diploma.  If you still have trouble, please contact me.  If the data in ManageBac is incorrect, please contact Grace to fix this.

Bob Cofer

Please remember that Monday the 11th of March will be last day for sending in money if you are interested in purchasing a copy of the Joseph’s Coat DVD.

At the secondary assembly on Monday the video that we externally produced about the SEP and the beehive fences was shown.  For those who missed it and would like to see it please follow this link, it is worth the watch.

SEP Tinga Tinga Beehive Project

There will be a St Patrick’s Themed Game Day at the Stables on March 14th. Primary will start at 1400, and Secondary at 1500. Spectators welcome…wearing GREEN is encouraged!

Carol Dwek’s idea of “growth mindset” has been en vogue in educational psychology for some years now. Of course, Dwek did not “invent” the concept, it is a trait that she and others observed in certain people. In time, this inspired her to explore ways to develop this quality in people who do not, perhaps, share this natural propensity.

As you can appreciate, most schools advocate the idea of instilling in students a belief that “their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence.” However, schools often face the challenge of translating this notion to younger learners, particularly in the Primary School.

This is where the “Power of Yet” comes in. This was the focus of our Primary Gathering last week. From day one in EC, teachers and EAs are mindful of their role in helping students see challenges as opportunities to learn. The idea that “I can’t do it…YET!” Teachers strive to encourage students to face challenges in a positive way and, as research shows, this only has a beneficial impact on learning in the long run. In contrast, Dwek’s notion of “fixed mindset” references those who see challenges as insurmountable obstacles and, ultimately, believe that people do not change. The idea that “I can’t do it” or “I’ll never be able to do it.”

With Student Led Conferences just around the corner, it is timely to recognise that part of developing the Power of Yet in young learners is recognising the importance of the learning process over the end product. As adults, we should also realise the impact of the language we use when discussing learning with children.

As teachers and parents, we can remind them that “failure” is an integral part of learning, we can even ask them directly:

• “How did you grow as a learner throughout this unit?”
• “What went wrong during the process?”
• “What did you find particularly challenging?”
• “What strategy could you try next time?”
• “What do you still not understand yet?”

For sure, we can still offer praise but we must do so in the right way. Praise that focuses on the strategies a student chose and his or her reasoning behind this choice. The use of “yet” highlights the value of the process over the results. However, the essential caveat to the whole conversation is this idea of strategy. Students must realise that in order to grow as a learner, you need to strategise as oppose to simply repeating the same thing again and again ad nauseum. The Power of Yet takes time. It takes applied effort. Remember, we can all reach for the stars.

Ben Morley

It has been a busy and eventful Third Quarter for our diploma students, and the final week promises to be no exception to this. We are holding a final assembly on Wednesday 13th from 7:45 to 9:00 in the Karibu Hall, at which we will acknowledge and award our highest performing D2 scholars and the Learner Profile attributes of Inquirer and Communicator. Reports for D2 students for Quarter 3 will be released via Managebac on Thursday and on Friday we are holding the PTC, Parent-Teacher Conferences. Parents, you are welcome and encouraged to attend these two events, and all diploma students are reminded that attendance to classes remains mandatory up to the very end of this quarter.

Anthony Hemmens

M5 -Paint and Curtains at Kibo Secondary School
On Wednesday February 6, the M5 student leaders accompanied by their Form Tutor went to take measurements at Kibo Secondary School. They are now set to purchase all materials they need to buy curtains and paint the girls’ dormitory. The team reported a fruitful discussion with the school leadership on further avenues for cooperation.

ISM Career Day
We are thankful to over seventeen professional and entrepreneurial members of our school community who have volunteered to do presentations regarding their careers and businesses to our D1 and M5 students next Thursday March 14. These presentations will also include the contemporary issues that affect their work practice and any professional bodies they subscribe to, among other things. This has all been organised as part of preparations to help our students make informed subject and career choices,

MYP Student Led Conferences
We are grateful to all of the parents who participated in the above survey. We recorded over 62% response rate. In summary, the majority of the parents need more information on MYP assessment, Personal Project, Service and Global Contexts communicated to them mainly through newsletters. They are also in favour of both SL (Student Led) and PT (Parent Teacher) conferences being run in an academic year but in different quarters with Quarter 3 preferred for SL conferences. Since Q3 for this year is ending next week, we shall give this suggestion priority in the next academic year.
We are working on the other suggestions and look forward to further input from parents as we continue implementing the MYP

M5 Candidates’ Timeline

• March 14 – M5 Mock results release; PP, Predicted and ePortfolio grades submission
• March 15 – Quarter 3 classes end
• April 1 – Q4 begins; Interdisciplinary Learning Examination material released by the IB
• May 14 – M5 eAssessments begin
• May 24 – M5 eAssessments end
• May 27 – M5 Work Experience Week begins
• June 8 – M5 Ceremony

David Ochieng

Mr Marsh has spent yesterday and today in Arusha with swimming events, he will be updating us on these and the house results in the next newsletter.  In the meantime, here are a few photos from Tuesday’s action.

The 2019 Secondary Swim Gala – Thank you to everyone that helped make this a success.

25 swimmers took part in the gala in Mwanza last weekend, including 4 parent swimmers (Jenny R, Simon T,  Maria C & Debbie B) and Coach Sabini! 2 meet records were broken – both in the Boys 12 & Under age group 100m Backstroke by Delhem (past record was set in 2018) and, in the Girls 15-16 age group 100m Backstroke by Maria (past record was set in 2014). All the children swam really well with many personal best times and medals won. Team ISM walked away with the following age group medals and trophies:

Elijah R – 2nd runner up in the Boys 8 & Under category
Delhem R – winner of the Boys 11-12 category
Anna B – 2nd runner up in the Girls 11-12 category
Maria B – 1st runner up in the Girls 15-16 category

Overall, TEAM ISM came 4th out of 8 schools/clubs participating:

1. Mwanza Swim Club – 3938 points
2. Bluefins (Dar) – 2764 points
3. TALISS (Dar) – 2082,5 points
4. ISM – 1879,5 points
5. FK Blue Marlins (Dar) – 1364 points
6. Geita Gold Int School – 376 points
7. Mwanza Int School – 308 points
8. Isamilo Int School – 80 points

A big congratulations to all the swimmers, coaches and parents who went to Mwanza! It was a very exciting weekend.

The last day of school this quarter will be Friday 15th March. Boarders are free to leave the same day, and are expected back to school for quarter 4 on Sunday 31st March. We have received travel details from a good number of parents. We encourage those parents whose children will need to use flights to book them early if they have not done so.  Kindly share the flight details with us so that we can plan for transport to and from the airport. Information about travel can be sent to the child’s boarding parent and to the Head of Boarding at rosemarybango@ed.ismoshi.com.

Kindly let us know if your child will need school transport to and from the airport on these dates.

We provide free school transport to and from Moshi airport and Kilimanjaro International Airport on the scheduled closing and opening dates. Kindly note that the school does not provide transport to and from Arusha airport. On other days, we charge $60 for transport one way. The information you give us about travel arrangements will assist in planning the transport schedule at the end of the quarter.

This weekend, boarders will have a special end of quarter dinner, and thereafter enjoy a dance in social centre.  Additionally this weekend the Diploma Art Exhibition opens Sunday evening.

Rosemary Bango

Our week started beautifully with the Math challenge where students collaboratively worked towards solving a problem. It was lovely to see the different age groups inquire, share strategies and apply themselves to the fullest. Congratulations to all the houses and 3 cheers to Kibo for taking the lead. Students have been busy preparing themselves for the SLCs. It is my hope that most of you have managed to sign up. I would encourage each of you to attend the conference and support your child in this celebration of learning.

Next week we will have Bhubesi Pride, a rugby team from the UK, which teaches children from various African countries how to play rugby as a means to empower and build capacity in Africa. You can read more about them on the link rugbyinafrica.org/about.

Thank you to all the parents for sending back all reading books. Students will be able to go into the library to read however the borrowing of books will resume in quarter 4.

Mr. Owain has also received numerous orders for the “Joseph” DVDs. Monday, 11th March will be last day for sending in money if you are interested in purchasing a copy.

Primary classes will end on Friday, the 15th of March at 10:15 a.m. Quarter 4 will resume on Monday, the 1st of April and clubs will start on Monday the 8th of April.

I wish all our families a pleasant break.

Cathy Wambua-Saha

As we move towards the end of another fantastic term of learning I am reminded of how hard the EC children have worked. It is not only in the new knowledge they’ve gained through our units but also through interactions with each other and the many other members of our community. They’ve been visited weekly by P5 reading buddies. Many people read to them during book week as Mystery readers. All our parents mix with them in the mornings and at afternoon pickup times. Secondary students have shared their French compositions with them, and teachers, students and auxiliary staff all drop in to the classroom regularly or stop us to chat as we travel around school.

It’s lovely to teach in a learning community like ours. I know the children love to learn here too. As we move away from traditional modes of learning and towards a future where education and personal development becomes the shared responsibility of each and every one of us, I can see that our EC children are flexible, relaxed and ready to achieve their potential.

Owain Evans

This has been a week of telling time, writer’s workshops and appreciating teachers.

P1s have been learning to read o’clock and half past on the analogue clock. P2s have reviewed their knowledge and added to their knowledge of reading quarter past/to on the analogue and digital clocks. Please help us to keep on reviewing this at home for ‘practice makes perfect’.

Editing and drafting are a big part of writing. This week, we learned how stories can come from pictures. We drew 6 pictures of our chosen story to highlight beginning, problem, solution and ending. We then added sentences to the pictures. P1s will work on creating another story using similar steps next week while P2s will take it further and transform their sentences into paragraphs.

Teachers work very hard and it was an honour to appreciate them on Monday with words of encouragement and little badges that the children had made. The children were awarded with smiles and a few tears of joy. Let us keep on noticing those who work around us.

Mboka Mwasongwe

We started off this week with a fun Math Challenge which was organized brilliantly by Ms. Mboka, asante sana. The students had to use their problem solving skills to figure out the best way to solve a mathematical word problem. This prompted a fun week where students looked at open ended math problems, and tried to figure out how to solve them. We have also introduced the writing process this week. Students have used a graphic organizer to plan stories in groups. This encouraged collaboration, and cooperation amongst the students while being facilitated by the teacher. The students have completed their short stories and are currently working on creating storyboards to showcase them.

It is hard to believe that next week is the last week of the quarter. We have a whole school assembly on Wednesday morning, Student Led Conferences on Thursday, and a short end to the day on Friday, school will end at 10:15am on this day. Students have asked to have a class party on the Friday, could I please request parents to send in a party snack then. We will also take a dip in the swimming pool on Friday, so please send in togs.

Elisha Jaffer

The P4s have worked super hard this week in selecting pieces for their portfolios, writing reflections for their selected pieces, preparing for their Summative Assessments and creating centers for the SLCs. They surely deserve the upcoming break. I would like to encourage all parents to sign-up and attend the conferences so you can celebrate your child’s efforts with them.

In the coming week, we will be presenting our Summative Assessments in class. Some of the P4s will also be presenting at the end of quarter assembly on Wednesday from 7:45 so you are all welcome to that as well.

Classes and clubs will continue as usual with the exception of Thursday. We will have swimming on Friday however library books will not be borrowed until we resume learning in Q4.

Cathy Wambua-Saha

One more week to go until a well-deserved vacation. The class worked with dedication and focus to complete their summatives this week. In class, their groups created two media releases for a reason why screentime and drinking soda is good for you. At home, they showed responsibility getting their final drafts complete. Next Tuesday, we will share them in class during our U of I time in the afternoon. You are welcome to come and join us at 11:45.

Today, we had six of the students swimming in Arusha, while one of our students has been playing tennis in Nairobi this week. I look forward to hearing stories from our athletes on Monday. Next Thursday are the Student Led Conferences. The class is looking forward to showing you their work, and sharing some of the programs they enjoy using and games that help they learn.

Please ensure your child has a water bottle at school.

Sarah Brummel

The P6 students started the week by sharing their body systems models and slide shows with parents and PYP classes (see photo.) Thank you to all who were able to attend. Then they began the important task of choosing an area to inquire into for our PYP Exhibition. We started by looking at global issues that have a local relevance. The children talked to their classmates, parents, friends and other community members. They have followed their interests and are going to inquire into plastic pollution, fair treatment of animals, equal opportunities, limited food resources and the use of technology. Each group has decided upon a central idea and lines of inquiry. Our future maths classes will focus on percentages and graphs as these will be useful skills when presenting data collected as part of the exhibition process. Next week the children will start their Exhibition research and will also have an extended rugby session with the visiting Bhubesi Pride coaches on Tuesday, attend the end of quarter assembly on Wednesday and get ready for Student Led Conferences on Thursday. By Friday they will surely be ready for the holiday!

Deborah Mills