Moshi Campus News – 27 Oct 18

This week was one of those that shows how special the ISM community is. This Thursday our MYP students were investigating the different cultures that are represented in the community and sharing this with the rest of us in a series of presentations. Also, on Thursday a group of students were off on the Ngorongoro OP trip.  While I envy them the trip in general, I am not so sure about the weather.

Of course the highlight of the week was International Day.  On Friday we got to celebrate the 28 different countries represented here on campus and how they make us who we are.  We also celebrated ISM turning 49 this past week.  Two of the highlights for me from this assembly were the presentation by the Memory Project and the work they have done.  The other was the presentation by the P4 class recognizing longstanding members of staff and their contributions to the ISM community.

I must thank the PTA once again this year for all that they do.  In addition to organizing the activities after the assembly, they donated the money for the new sound system that was used for the assembly.

Again this year we were dazzled by different international dress and stuffed with international food.  While I must confess I only managed to sample food from six stalls, what I did not get to looked just as good.

On another note, Anna, our Director, and our Board Chairperson, Tine Hemelings have travelled to Armenia this week. Anna and Tine are our standard bearers at the UWC International Board Meeting where they will present our case with a view to gain Preliminary Approval to become a UWC.

Bob Cofer

International Day and ISM’s 49th Birthday

In two weeks, we will be heading to Dar to meet with parents of existing students, prospective families and alumni. On Thursday November 8th we will be at the Protea Hotel Dar es Salaam Courtyard from 6:30pm until 9pm.  On Saturday the 10th we will be at the Mediterraneo Hotel and Restaurant from 10am until noon.  If you are unable to join us at either of those times, please contact us and we will try and arrange a time to meet you on Friday.

Bob Cofer

According to Wikipedia, intercultural intelligence (or ICI) describes the capability to function effectively in culturally diverse settings and consists of different dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioral) which are correlated to effectiveness in a global environment (cultural judgement and decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance in culturally diverse settings). Intercultural intelligence differs from cultural intelligence in that it is based on a belief in interculturalism while CQ is based on a belief in multiculturalism. The term was first used in 2006 in response to the qualities observed in international executives that enabled them to succeed globally.

On Thursday, students across the campus were involved as presenters or as audience members in a huge variety of presentations from our M3 students. Students shared and showcased aspects of their own cultural heritage and it was testament to the rich and diverse community we are all fortunate to be a part of. Presentations focused on Tanzania, the Chagga, Hindu festivals, Islam, Holland to name a few.

Promoting peace, celebrating diversity and exploring intercultural understanding in this way is a meaningful and powerful example of how we must constantly strive to live our ISM mission to develop “balanced global citizens who are empowered to act responsibly in a complex world.”

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, our children are unwittingly bearing witness to a seemingly endless tide of nationalist, populist and xenophobic political forces across the globe. International Day was a wonderful showcase of our richly diverse community but it is shared experiences such as our “Culture Share Day” that are a pathway to a deeper, collective understanding and a shared humanity. Let’s hope it becomes an annual fixture and congratulations to everyone involved.

Ben Morley

D1 and D2 students have made a great start to the opening week of the Second Quarter. Monday saw the submission of the Final Copy of the D2 Extended Essay task. All the students met this deadline and produced some really impressive work; I spoke to many of the students and there was a general sense of pride in the work they had produced. Well done D2.

D2 students in Physics and Biology have handed in their draft IAs and will receive feedback soon, while in Chemistry they are now in the planning stages. Maths HL and SL students should now have begun their research, and so will be starting to write up their ideas; some class time will be provided to help them with this all important task. Students of mathematical studies have collected their data and will now be carrying out different mathematical processes to analyse it. Boarders are encouraged to attend the Subject Enrichment Study Hall for Maths on Monday and Saturday if they need help.

This week saw the start of the Writing and Research course for D1 students, led by Ms. Chavez. This course aims to provide our DP students with the essential skills to be effective scholars and succeed in their IA tasks and the Extended Essay.

On Monday of next week (October 29th) all DP students will benefit from the first ATL (Approaches To Learning) session of the academic year. The purpose of this is to encourage our students to develop the essential skills for learning success.

On Thursday of next week (November 1st) ISM will be visited by a representative from UBC (University of British Columbia), from 12:00 to 13:00 in the Rafiki Hall. This visit will be compulsory attendance for all DP students and parents are strongly encourage to attend also, to learn more about UBC specifically and university application generally.

Anthony Hemmens

Thank you so much to everyone who made Friday’s international day event such a success. It was a great afternoon. We raised a great sum of money and look forward to parent and school suggestions as to how we can spend these funds to the betterment of the school and the ISM community. Please do email or tell committee members your suggestions.

We now look forward to some more events. On Wednesday 31st we will have a stand at the secondary swim meet and are looking for any contributions of goods to sell, please let us know if you can, all proceeds will go to the ISM sports program.

On Wednesday November 28th we will be having the PTA AGM. This will be in the evening (most likely a 6.30pm start) with the actual time and location to be confirmed but please note the date in your diary. We would love to have a good turn out for fruitful discussions.

Once again thank you again for the great support.
From the PTA committee

As their service activity M4 have been working with Kili Orphange. A group of ISM students have visited to identify what is needed and some children from the orphanage have visited ISM. The older children have been able to play football, netball and other sports. The younger children played in the playground and did some colouring. All of this while interacting with the M4 students.

One of the improvements we would like to make is to buy some playground equipment to go in the open space they have. In order to do this the M4 students are having a bake sale on Monday 29th October from 10:15 to 10:35 in the breeze way by the staff room. Please bring money to spend.

The U-13 netball boys and girls have played through sunshine and rain and made ISM proud today. We had a tough schedule with 3 back to back matches to kick off the day. In typical Arusha fashion, each game varied in terms of the weather! The Leopards ended the tournament in 4th place with Amira Sambuli in M2 being crowned the Player of the Tournament. Special shout-out to Zuberi in P6, who was the youngest player for the Leopards today, and showed poise, great resilience and exceptional skill. Well done Leopards!

Next weekend the U-15 Netball team will be taking on the competition here in Moshi. 

On Wednesday the 31st, we have a double dose of sports.  The PYP will be heading to Kennedy House for an athletics competition.  Meanwhile the NTAA swimmers will be in Moshi for the first swim meet of the year.  Both of these events are scheduled to start around noon.

Please remember that we have the Sports Weekend in 4 weeks from November 23rd to 25th.  Please keep an eye on this space for more information.
Robin Marsh

Thank you to everyone that sent us the updated Health forms that were sent home over the break. These forms are filled annually, and your cooperation in updating the information is critical. If you need new copies, kindly access these forms from our website and email them to us.

In boarding, one of our most challenging, and important roles is supporting students in their studies.  We have more teachers involved in this role this year and they will be having subject specific study halls Monday through Thursday evening.

We marked the International Day in Rafiki Hall on Friday 26th October. There was fun, dance, clothing and food from different communities around the world to embrace diversity.

Rosemary Bango

This week’s highlights: It was great to see how well the Primary represented the school as we marked ISM’s 49th birthday and International Day Assembly. Thank you PTA and the parent community for completing this day with the delicious tastes from around the world.

The P4s acknowledged the longest serving members of our community:

• Mr Abbas – one of guards who stands at the car park in the mornings, has been at ISM for 30 years
• Mama Fausta – a very pleasant and chatty cleaner found around the senior school block, has been at ISM for 30 years.
• Mama Mariana – our cake boss. She bakes the cakes at ISM including the “gi-normous” one we had for ISM’s birthday. She has been at ISM for 30 years.
• Coach Sabini – our swimming coach has been at the school for 31 years.
• Mama Felista – one of our cooks has been at ISM for 33 years.
• Ms Rose Premsingh – the Director’s PA  has been at the school for 38 years.
• Mr Juma – our lifeguard and pool attendant has been at ISM for 39 years.

Clubs: Our after school activities have started smoothly and students are quite excited. The clubs that were to be run in the pitch might have to be done indoors if the rains continue over the coming week. The swimming clubs especially for the younger ones (Tadpole and Intermediate) will happen once it gets a little warmer.

Students are encouraged to bring their house shoes to wear in the classroom.

On Friday we have our Primary gathering being led by the P5s. Parents are welcome.

I wish you all a lovely weekend.

Cathy Wambua Saha

The EC children have had a rainy but eventful week settling back in. We’ve been re-capping our learning from the unit, clay sculpting, producing some lovely models from natural materials and guinea fowl feathers and producing decorations for next week’s halloween disco.

I hope you enjoyed International day. I was (as always!) super proud of our little ones’ contributions to the assembly. I thought they were very brave and showed a wonderful example of what our youngest students are capable of.

This week also saw our EC2 students begin to put letters together for the first time into simple words. It’s an exciting time in their learning.

Please join us next Friday to celebrate their unit learning. The children will present their work and we’ll share a short video about growing up.

Owain Evans

Our unit on plants has begun very well. We brainstormed our knowledge and created a spider web of ideas which sparked off some interesting questions. ‘Plants need love’, said Greener and we all agreed.

Next week we will be exploring what kind of plants grow in different parts of the world. The children are going to choose which parts of the world they would like to explore such as desert areas, under the sea and so on. They will be using different child friendly search engines to carry out their research as they work in groups. This will be an interesting time as they learn skills which they will be using for a long time to come.

It seems that the rains have come upon us a bit early. Please remember to send in indoor shoes as the tiled floor can be quite cold. You can also send in a sweater or jumper that can remain in the tray in case of sudden colder weather.

Show and Tell Friday: Sadie and Savannah

Mboka Mwasongwe

Happy International Day! P 2/3 would like to welcome Ms. Merle to our class, she has been a hit of energy and enthusiasm in the classroom. That does not mean learning has stopped. Students have been introduced to their new unit of inquiry on homes. We have discussed our perceptions on homes, and what makes our homes special. Students have illustrated this through a drawing of their homes, as well as writing poetry about home. These can both be found inside and outside our classroom. In math, we have been working on geometry and looked at what shapes we see in house structures.

If you would like to come in and talk to the students about traditions and cultures in your homes, please send me an email to set up a time to come and share with us! Also, please keep an eye out for a special email about next Friday!

Elisha Jaffer

The first week of quarter was great! The P4 did a fantastic job in our assembly as they acknowledged to the longest serving members of staff.

In class, we have been looking at what different words mean and how we can connect them to our learning. The students had some great ideas on different experiments we can do and also some of them have brought in some great books for us to use.

In the coming week, we will be looking at the different forms of materials and what they are used for and inquiring into what makes matter a solid, gas or a liquid. We will continue with measurement and writing procedures as our Math and Language connections.

Cathy Wambua Saha

We had a great week back exploring our new unit about migration. We are planning a skit for our turn to share at the primary gathering next week. It will be themed around migration to Mexico during Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. It is fun to share this Mexican holiday with the students.

Next week we will also start looking into our personal migration stories throughout our family’s history. Please be ready to share how your family got to Moshi, Tanzania. If anyone knows a lot of their family experience with migration and would like to present, we would enjoy listening.

Today’s International Day celebration and assembly made me very proud to be a new member of such a great community. Thank you to all who contributed delicious food and to our flag carriers.

We spent a lot of time inside due to the rain this week. Good job keeping positive and calm everyone. Thank you.

Bake Sale Monday!

Sarah Brummel

We had a lovely surprise in P6 this week. Our teaching student from last year, Ms. Signe, sent us a box of Lego as a gift all the way from Denmark. The children were very appreciative as they were able to play with it during the wet break times. Next week we will be sure to write letters to Ms. Signe thanking her for her kindness. The P6 students have been immersing themselves in reading mystery books and have started writing their own stories. We have looked at features of the mystery genre and have tried to employ literary techniques such as similes in our own writing. In maths we have been busy working on division. We will continue with both of these activities next week. The rainy weather spoiled our plans to investigate potential and kinetic energy with the stomp rocket and elastic band powered toys so we’re hoping for dry weather for these activities next week. If you know of anyone who would be happy to come into class and talk to the children about different uses of energy, or if you have a good idea for a field trip venue please let me know.

There is a Bake Sale at Monday break time – your child may wish to bring some spending money.

Deborah Mills