Moshi Campus News – 19 Sep 15

The Islamic holiday of Eid al Adha is now confirmed for Thursday, 24th September. As this is a national public holiday, there will be no classes on that day. There will be activities for boarding students.

With the revised holiday date this week, we have needed to make some other calendar changes: Our Secondary Inter-House Sports Day will now take place on Monday, 21st September. Secondary students should come to school in their house colours. Sports events will take place from 7:30am to 4pm and their will be no regular classes, CAS or Sports activities for secondary students on this day.
The Peace Day Assembly has now been moved to Monday, 28th September. This is a chance for our community to reflect on conflict resolution both at home and abroad. Parents are very welcome at our assembly 7.40-8.15 am in Karibu Hall where we will hear some presentations from the students. All students are asked to wear blue and white on this spirit day.
The primary sports day will take place as originally scheduled on Friday, 25th September – see below.

Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be presenting to our diploma students on Wednesday, 23rd September at 9am. For the last four consecutive years, an ISM student has won a full scholarship to Harvard, and they are hoping that more ISM students will apply in the future. This is also the first visit of MIT to Moshi Campus. They will also be presenting to our Arusha Campus students at 12:30pm the day before.

The primary students are gearing up for an active morning on Friday, 25th September for their annual sports day which takes place from 8am to 12 noon. There will be fun sports games as well as some traditional athletic activities, all events will contribute towards the primary sports day house cup. Who will win this year? Mawenzi (green), Meru (yellow), or Kibo (blue)? Please can all primary students wear their house T-shirts on this spirit day. Parents are very welcome to come and support their children.

The next PA Committe meeting is on Monday, 21st September. Parents are welcome to meet the committee in Bob Horton’s office from 8am to 8:30am to discuss any issues.
We hope to see many parents and teachers at the PA Picnic to be held at TPC in Moshi on Saturday, 26th September.
Many thanks to the PA for their great support of activities within the school. PA has recently used funds generated from fund-raising events to:

Build play equipment for the Primary boarding houses

Purchase a climbing wall for the side of Karibu Hall

Purchase an online subscription to the New York Times for all students

Obtain an exercise machine for the new fitness room

 
These pictures are from yesterday’s Primary Gathering.
 

Save the date – ISM Hallowe’en Parties will be held on Friday, November 6th ISM will once again hold Hallowe’en events for Primary and Secondary day students and boarders.
Primary Event – 3.30-6.30pm (approx.) Have you ever been to a ‘Trunk or treat’? Well now is your chance! We are looking for parents, friends and teachers of ISM to decorate their car trunks (boots!) in a creative way and provide tricks or treats for the children. Check out ‘trunk or treat’ websites for lots of fun ideas. Cars will be parked at ISM and the children will visit your car to get treats/play games/be tricked in some way! It’s up to you. Prizes will be given for the most creative car boots. After this there will be games, food and a fancy dress parade. Prizes will be given for the most creative costume.
Secondary Event – 6.30- 10.30pm (approx) The secondary students will go on a trick or treat bus tour around Moshi. Day students will have to travel with their parents due to limited spaces on the bus and truck. There will be a disco and other surprises back at school.
If you are interested in helping to organize either of these events please meet at the ISM Duka on Wednesday, 23rd September at 3pm and/or contact the relevant person below:

Christine Brandsma – if you would like to host secondary students at your home for trick or treating

Annalee Horton – if you would like to help with the primary event in any way.

Elena Gullickson – if you can help chaperone the secondary disco.

At ISM we are fortunate to have a group of caring and dedicated teaching assistants to help our students and teachers. The assistants are often trained Tanzanian teachers. They also receive extra training at ISM workshops held on Friday afternoons. We recently began the new season of workshops when Ms Kate guided the Teaching Assistants through a series of activities relating to the IB and the PYP. They focused hard, reflected on their work and came away with a better understanding of their connection to the worldwide IB family.

Congratulations to all who took part in the Tennis Tournament held at Arusha Gymkhana on 12 and 13 September sponsored by Jubilee Tyres.
Sahil came 1st in Boys under 6 years, Swantje came 1st in Girls under 6 years, and Jay reached the quarter finals for Boys under 8.

KCMC has now informed us that the two patients previously microbiologically confirmed as cholera sufferers were subsequently found NOT to have cholera. A genetic sequencing test identified a different, less common and less dangerous bacterium that had caused their illness. It is a great relief for us to know that the cholera outbreak in the country has not spread to Moshi, but we will continue many of our intensified sanitation procedures nevertheless.
There have been a couple of cases of chickenpox (tetekuwanga) in our primary school. If your child has not previously caught this, be on the look out for the standard symptoms. You can read more at www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Chickenpox/Pages/Symptoms.aspx.

Our combined Arusha and Moshi M5 classes collaborated together for 3 days at Marangu Hotel last week with a focus on team-building and leadership. They worked very hard from the minute they arrived, working in teams to understand team dynamics and the roles and value of everyone in the team. They also gained a better understanding of leadership with a focus on the ‘leader in me’. The workshops were presented by a range of teachers from both campuses. Marangu Hotel were incredibly hospitable towards our ISM group of 49 people as we camped on their grounds and used their facilities for our many activities. The students were impeccably behaved and embraced the ideas with energy and enthusiasm. The students have gone home with a lot of food for thought and are now tying this ideas into their forthcoming Inter-disciplinary unit which has a focus on the MYP global context ‘identity and relationships’. They will be writing a reflection, performing role-plays in Language Acquisition classes (French/ English) and writing an essay connecting Leadership qualities to their current literature in Language & Literature (English/Kiswahili).

Mzungu Kichaa will be playing a special concert in Karibu Hall on Tuesday, October 13th (the evening before a public holiday) to support Mension, a mental health NGO working in Tanzania. Mzungu Kichaa is a well-known player on the Dar es Salaam music scene playing the Tanzanian style of Bongo Flava that mixes reggae, rap, afrofusion and traditional Tanzanian music. He has been nominated twice for a Danish World Music Award – in 2009 in the category “Best World Album” for “Tuko Pamoja” and in 2012 “Twende Kazi” was a candidate for “Best World Track”. This concert will be open to the public as well as to ISM students and our community. Tickets will be on sale on the door although entry to ISM students is being offered for free. Please tell your friends and others of this great opportunity to hear a superb musician – Did I mention that he is also an ex-ISM student?.
Check out his videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QnrVJkBKkM or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yKjBD9wxXU.

The M4 students from Arusha and Moshi spent last week from Tuesday the 8th until Friday on the slopes of West Kilimanjaro. Students started by comparing the biomass of vegetation at different altitudes then they recorded the temperatures at different altitudes. These temperatures were plotted on a graph by every student and a line of best fit drawn. They followed this with a detailed mathematical analysis of this data by calculating the gradient of the line drawn and performing statistical analysis (Spearman Ranking) to assess if the data on the scatter graph showed an acceptable fit with the line of best fit drawn. The student work done on this trip will be assessed as an Interdisciplinary Unit which combined the disciplines of Science and Mathematics and the mark and comment will be included on their end of semester report card.
The trip was by no means all work and students enjoyed games of predator-prey and capture the flag in the early evenings and also performed a talent show around a bonfire on the last night while munching popcorn and crisps.

The M2 class will be away from the 28th September to 1st October 2015 for an Interdiciplinary unit between Integrated Humanities and Mathematics. They will carry out their studies in Pangani coast and will be residing in the school’s beach house. The students have been given the letters detailing requirements, checklist and the amount to be paid for meals (for the day students). Students will also pay a refundable fee of Tsh 10,000 to borrow OP equipment.

This quarter, M1 has been studying Ancient Greece. We have been looking at various aspects of life in Ancient Greece, including geography, politics, architecture, and mythology. Note-taking, map-making, timelines, and class discussions have helped us to sharpen our skills and expand our collective knowledge. As the philosopher Aristotle famously said, we are learning that “good habits formed at youth make all the difference.” – DH
The M2 class on the other hand, has been studying about the Coast and has been trying to address the following questions: What coastal landforms are formed by erosional and depositional processes? How do physical and human factors shape and affect coastlines? Are human actions the main cause for changing coastlines? They will be going to the coast of Pangani to work on an interdisciplinary study of coastal features with Mathematics on 28th of Sept 2015 to 1st Oct 2015. “She sells sea shells at the sea shore” – HN
Exploring Explorers – The M3 class has been conducting research on Explorers and trying to find out what motivated the great world travelers and what factors drove European Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries. Students will conduct research and also create model displays of their presentations. The legacy the Columbian Exchange will be investigated and in the process of the learning, students will also examine historical evidence from different angles. To the right and below are students at work. – HN
M4 Integrated Humanities (History) – An engaging study of the causes and course of the Great War of a century ago with a focus now on the East African campaign and its consequences for Moshi as seen through the Moshi Commonwealth Graves cemetery.
M5 Integrated Humanities (Geography) class has been studying about Development – “The haves and the Have Nots”. The main issues being how to reduce the gap between the rich and poor, measures of development, the Millenium Development Goals and to create awareness about the new Global Goals for Sustainable Development that the UN, through UNDP will officially announce on the 25th of September. www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2015/09/03/global-goals-campaign-2015.html.

The first month of Mr. Fitzpatrick’s four different diploma History classes has included coverage of an array of fascinating topics with regular writing assignments, student presentations and group discussions with the content including the following:
D1 History SL – Undertaking an in-depth analysis of the US Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s/60s with the recent highlights being learning about the 1961 Freedom Rides (www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcvsWXrS2PI) and individual student presentations of key motivational freedom songs such as ‘We Shall Overcome’ (www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJUkOLGLgwg).
D1 History HL – Analyzing (through historical source analysis and essay writing) the multi-faceted consequences of the late 19th century discovery of gold and diamonds in South Africa that contributed to the 1899-1902 Boer War (www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxeNhk1V-sg)
D2 History SL – Scrutinizing the competition-fueled nuclear arms race of the Cold War and then learning to effectively design cogent analytical essays to demonstrate knowledge acquired (www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/the-cold-war/the-nuclear-arms-race).
D2 History HL – German East Africa to Tanganyika to Tanzania – How and Why? An in-depth look at the role of the key figure (Julius Nyerere) and his political party (TANU) as well as pivotal events such as the Meru Lands Case (see https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume13/3-Recapping-the-Meru-land.pdf).
History comes alive at ISM in Room 11 as do the skills of amateur historians and emerging writers…but all engage and work hard to be successful – RF
Economics D1 class has gone through the basic introduction of the subject. It was interesting to read their essays on what they thought economics was before the class, thinking that it is all about money and business. Microeconomics has been introduced, starting with the market. The theory of demand and supply and market equilibrium has been examined. It came out clearly that students are able to relate to these terms, and can give real world examples of situations in the market. The use of price as a means of allocating scarce resources gave very interesting discussion.
D2 class has looked at the macroeconomic approach of the market through analysis of aggregate demand and aggregate supply. Use of demand side policies and supply side policies have been analysed, and these were brought closer to real word situations when they used the policies to deal with issues like unemployment and economic growth in the country. The causes of different types of unemployment were examined, plus solutions to these types of unemployment. The students continue to work on their internal assessment. – RB

Two ISM graduates presently studying at universities in the USA recently stopped by. All highlighted the tremendously positive effect their rigorous ISM IB DP study has had on their ability to do well in their tertiary education.
An admissions representative from Newfoundland, Canada’s Memorial university presented to DP students this week (see photo). Its attractive cost makes it one of the best bargains in North America and each year students leave ISM and enter Memorial.
Ten D2 Swahili B students will take their official IB exam (which includes two 90-minute exam papers) in mid-November. In advance of that they will be doing a mock written and oral exam.
The DPC reminded DP students that parent visits can be arranged as desired but one week lead time is required to do this.
Parents of DP boarders would be smart to continually (as the boarding team are doing) encourage students to use their “free time” well. At ISM the most successful students appear to follow the motto “work hard, play hard” vis a vis getting what needs to be done in terms of homework and general study on the subjects studied.
DP teachers are diligently preparing subject references for D2 students and marking or preparing assignments that will contribute to the reports students will receive in mid-October.
This interview with George Rupp, the recently appointed Chair of the IB board of governors, provides for interesting reading regarding the future direction of the IB – https://allafrica.com/stories/201509110241.html.
As usual, feel free to write or call with any questions or concerns related to your child’s program of study in the ISM DP.
Best regards, Rick Fitzpatrick – Diploma Coordinator

Unit of Inquiry Many thanks to Ms Stephanie and Gelske (Janieck’s Mum) for coming in to work with the children. Stephanie made delicious banana muffins with them and Gelske taught them how to make the flower arrangements that were sent home. The children were able to reflect on their learning extremely well. There are still four weeks left of this unit so if you can spare time to come in and teach the class in small groups or as a whole class we would be very grateful. This week we will spend some time concentrating on what we can learn in the big primary playground. The children will continue with their books about all their learning at school and we will make a big class book about the teachers that help them to learn in their specialist lessons such as the librarian, the swimming coaches and the IT assistant Ms Grace.
Literacy The children will draw and write about their weekend. We will also continue to focus on rhyming stories and nursery rhymes. EC1 children will be introduced to the Letterland characters Golden Girl and Oscar Orange and the sounds these letters make. EC2 children who know most of their letter sounds will work on word families with the short vowel sound o. They will also play games such as word bingo, pairs game and snap to learn high frequency words.
Numeracy We spent last week sorting 2D shapes according to colour, shape, straight and curved edges, number of sides, thick and thin shapes. This week the children will continue to work with 2D shapes and spend more time describing their properties and making patterns and pictures. For number work the children will play games such as dominoes and bingo. This encourages children to cooperate in small groups as well as develop counting skills and recognition of numbers.
On Monday EC1 will swim and EC2 will have PE. Tuesday is library Thursday is a public holiday Friday is Primary Sports Day and EC will be racing and taking part in fun sporting events for part of the morning. You are very welcome to attend this event. There will be no swimming for EC2 on Friday. If you cannot attend Sports Day the children will be able to remain at school until 12.35 as usual.

Information for Parents Thank you for attending our Primary Gathering on Friday. Those of you who were there saw your children do a great job sharing what they have learned with the rest of the Primary school. They were excited to share, and it is good experience for them to present in front of an audience.

There will be no school on Thursday this week, as it is a national holiday.
Our Primary Sports Day will be on Friday, September 25th. We are hoping you will join us for at least some of the day. We will begin the day of sports around 7:45, and we are expected to finish up when school is out at 12:35. The children will all be competing in various events, and they will be earning points for their houses. It is important that each child wear his/her house shirt that day. Thanks for your help with that, and we hope to see you there cheering us on.
Language focus for the week Group 1 children will continue to focus on initial consonant sounds this week, and the group 2 children will spend a lot of time focusing on reading informational texts.
Maths focus for the week Both groups will be working on adding and subtracting using a number line. Group 1 will work with numbers from 0 to 20, and group 2 will work with numbers to 100.
Unit of Inquiry We will finish our unit on healthy living this week. The children will create a daily schedule that shows how they can keep healthy throughout the day.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday PE (wear PE shoes and a house T shirt) Tuesday Library (please send your books in the library bag) Friday Sports Day (wear PE shoes and a house T-shirt)

Our first unit is due to finish on Wednesday. This week the students worked hard on preparing for their summative assessment activity which will show their learning from this unit. Their task is to work with a small group to deliver a news report. The news report should show their understanding of the different elements of the unit. They will be assessed using an individual checklist which they helped to prepare, i.e. it includes elements which they chose, with help from the teacher. They have used this checklist to help them prepare with their group. We watched a number of different news reports from the internet to remind us of the style of a real news broadcast. The children then collaborated in their small teams. Each team watched a rehearsal by another team and gave them valuable peer feedback, including ideas for how to improve.
Unit: Transdisciplinary Theme: Where we are in place and time Central Idea: Our host country has its own unique identity
Unit and English Focus: This week the students will perform their final news reports to the rest of the class. We are looking forward to Imani’s mother coming in to speak to us about the people of Tanzania. We will reflect upon the unit to help us improve and develop further. We will prepare items for our student portfolios.
Maths Focus: Mental and written strategies for addition
What to bring to school every day: A water bottle and a healthy snack.
The Week Ahead: Monday: Homework will be sent home | Swimming lesson – please bring a separate bag containing a swimming costume, towel, flip flops (or similar to walk to the pool) and googles if desired. Tuesday: Library session Thursday: Eid Holiday – no lessons Friday: Homework due in | Primary Sports Day
Kate Schermbrucker – P2/3 Teacher and PYP Coordinator

This week the P4s have been exceptionally busy interviewing different members of staff who have been at the school for 5 years and more. They were finding out about the history of ISM and the information they got was invaluable.

Unit of Inquiry Next week, we wind up our unit with our Summative Assessment and reflections. We will set up a museum in our class and students will present to their peers, who will assess their understanding of the different elements of the Unit.
Language Arts Students have improved greatly in their creativity and using different conventions of writing. Next week we will be focusing on listening to audio stories, identifying adjectives, past tense words and discussing the elements of a story.
Math Students came up with creative ways of measuring length using non- standard units and will be moving on to using cm, meters and inches. In number, they will continue to focus on the mental math strategies and subtraction with regrouping. Some of the students will need to look back at concepts they learned on fact families in order to understand addition and subtraction concepts better.

Information for Parents We will have a shorter week of instruction next week due to the Eid Holiday. We will have no school on Thursday, September 24th. We will still have primary sports day on Friday, September 25th so please make sure that children are wearing their house shirt and that they have a hat and water bottle. The Peace Day assembly has been moved to the 28th of September. We will be wrapping up our first unit of inquiry this week and the summative assessments are turning out great! We can’t wait to share them with you.
Language focus for the week We will be focusing on writing narratives this week. Miss Alley will be doing some prewriting activities with them to get them started. Students are reading chapter books for their guided reading groups and have been assigned passages to read before Wednesday.
Maths focus for the week Have you ever wondered why we use a base ten number system? This week students will inquire into this topic as they continue to learn about place value. Students will generate questions they have about how our number system works and research to discover more about it.

Unit of Inquiry Summative assessments will be completed this week. Students are creating online presentations using prezi.com to share their opinion on a chosen topic in many different ways. Students have used artwork, written work, videos, and sound recordings to express their thoughts and ideas. I am impressed with how well they have learned to use the web site and input their work into it. We will share them with you next week when they are completed.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday PE (wear PE shoes and a house T shirt) Thursday No school Friday Primary sports day (please wear PE shoes, house shirt and a hat)

We have had a busy week in P6. On Friday the students set up their individual tables and received visitors of all ages, who asked questions regarding their chosen and researched hero. Throughout the unit we have been gradually building up the knowledge and skills required for this task and all the students got positive feedback from their visitors. They should be feeling very proud of themselves. On Wednesday we had a bakesale, organised by Ananya, Emily, Dhriti and Paulyne, in order to raise money for Mwereni Primary School. They raised approximately TSh 300,000 and will be attending a series of CAS meetings in order to decide how to best spend it. Thank you for all the extra effort from home this week with costumes, cake and money contributions.
In Maths we have been problem solving using all fours operations, although we spent some extra time practising various methods of working out division as it became apparent that this was a weaker area. In English we have been practising our presenting voices and have been asking questions in response to listening.
Unit of Inquiry: This is the final three days of We look to Heroes to show us who we can be. We will reflect on Friday’s activity, as well as our learning journey over the entire Heroes unit. As a fun way to finish we will have two art sessions on Superheroes.
English language focus: Invent your own Superhero. We will experience a range of creative thinking and writing activities, producing a list poem and a recipe for making a Superhero.

Maths focus: We will continue with problem solving activities that are Hero-themed. They include measuring units (money and length) so there will be some revision of this.
Thursday 24th September: Eid Holiday. No lessons. Friday 25th September: Primary Sports Day. 8am-12:00 on the field. Parents and guardians welcome. Monday 28th September: Peace Day. Students to wear Blue and White.

 

IN THIS ISSUE