Arusha Campus News – 5 Feb 2021

Ella and her friends lead the audience participation of P6’s super share time ‘Music Through the Decades’. Well done Miss Carmen, Miss Rosemary and Mr Greg for getting us dancing and happy at the end of the week!

Another busy week…and a packed newsletter for you….so I will be brief.

Some photos of fantastic art – even on bread! – and poetry and physical exercise, punctuated by examples of collaboration camaraderie and contentment. We have a campus of happy children and teachers which makes me proud to be a member of their team.

Every lunchtime on Arusha Campus we are presented with a table such as the one in the picture above. A veritable banquet of mango and avocado salad, fresh pitta bread, baba ghanoush, hummus, pumpkin soup, fresh bread, green salad, hard boiled eggs etc AND that is just the salad table! How lucky we are to have such skilled and friendly catering staff looking after us.

Finally, but most importantly, my message to you this week about the coughs and colds going around is for the WHOLE FAMILY TO  STAY AT HOME if you or a family member is showing flu like symptoms. I can assure you all that if you are unwell or experience a cough or a cold, the whole community will know about it in a very short time. If you are in doubt STAY AT HOME. Furthermore, if you or your children come to School and ignore the ‘stay at home for 4 symptom free days after the last symptom’, then you will not be very popular in the community. That would be a shame as it is completely avoidable. Keep the whole family at home for this period of 4 symptom free days and we will avoid disharmony in the community and avert the prospect of online learning.

Happy weekend.

Phil

For the D2 class, I imagine it has been pretty stressful! They have finally finished their mock examinations and I’m sure they would like to thank everyone in the community for doing their best to keep the area around the examination center as quiet as possible.

In MYP, the M5s should have submitted the final section of the Personal Project draft for comment from their supervisors. Thanks to all the teachers who have supported these students through this major undertaking. I’m sure I’m not the only one looking forward to seeing the varied final products created this year. Project report writing boot camp is coming up next week – although it will be on campus this year.

Finally, the Secondary school is very pleased to announce we will once again have regular assemblies. We started this week on Tuesday (see above). Assemblies are a great way to celebrate our successes, share our talents, disseminate information, and build community.

Miss C

Jimmy (P4/5, above) drew a spectacular human organ diagram this week. Amazing!

At the beginning of each unit teachers create opportunities to understand students prior knowledge. At the end of the unit students show their understanding and learning. This can be achieved in a variety of ways through discussion, diagrams, charts, reflection. The P4/5 ‘Who We Are’ unit showed how much students learned. Haje produced a pre and post unit diagram of the body systems he knew. As you can see (below) he extended his knowledge greatly. Fantastic Haje!

EC and Nursery (above) got together this morning for an impromptu ‘Sing-off!’ and didnt they have a blast!

Ava concentrates hard on finding the answer – it’s there somewhere!

Some people might think that puzzles are play – well they are in a way – but the important thing is that we can learn from puzzles and they are fun. This puzzle is ‘The Dice Train’ which teaches us to practice mental fluency with added skills of systematic working and perseverance.

Miss Alina had such a creative idea this week in EC this week. Her little ones did something exciting with p4/5 in learning about global warming. This week they made earth toast – basically bread with an earth painted on it using food colouring. Then, by toasting the slices we demonstrated ‘global warming’. Get it? Fabulous.

ASSESSMENT IN THE MYP
Assessment is an integral part of the teaching and learning process, and feedback that is presented in a positive and supportive fashion enables students to excel.
In the MYP, assessments are what we call ‘criteria-related’. In other words:

 There is a specific set of skills or criteria assessed in each subject
 There is a description of what it means to achieve different levels of expertise
 Students are given a score based on how they compare to these descriptions and not
based on how they compare to others.
It is clear that assessments aim to:
 Support each student’s learning by providing positive feedback
 Enable the teachers to review the teaching & learning process
 Provide support to the students and enable them to deepen understanding
 Allow the students the opportunity to review their progress and set goals for better
performance in future.
Examples of Assessment Tasks

●       Compositions (musical, physical, artistic)
●       Creation of solutions or products in response to problems
●       Essays
●       Examinations
●       Questionnaires
●       Investigations
●       Research
●       Performances
●       Presentations (verbal, written, graphic, digital)

This quarter the M4s are learning about living organisms and the systems involved in organism interaction and exchange of genetic material. In this activity students were asked to perform a skit, which modeled the process of mitosis (cell division). Our units are designed to demonstrate learner profile attributes and this is a good example of where they are using different forms of COMMUNICATION to portray an idea.

The M5 Personal Projects are nearing completion and we are thrilled to see so many final prodcuts on display. Earlier this week, Noemie Meyr presented her fabulous project on Fast Fashion (pictured above). Noemie has been interested in fashion since she was very samll and this was an outstanding depiction of her research on the subject.

D2 students (above) practising on how to prepare a presentation for 15/20 minutes by extracting as much information as possible from a visual stimulus in French B.

The IB Diploma Language B Internal Assessment

Although the assessment outlines for Language B SL and HL are identical, the nature of the assessment differs and this is what distinguishes SL assessments from those of HL. Each IB course includes an Internal Assessment (IA), assessed by the teacher and moderated by the IB Organization. In language B, the IA is an individual oral based on a visual stimulus. The stimulus at language B SL is a visual image that is clearly relevant to one (or more) of the themes of the course. The stimulus at language B HL is an excerpt from one of the two literary works studied (for the May 2021 session however, HL students will have the choice between two excerpts from one literary work only). Once the SL students have picked a visual stimulus, they have 15 minutes to come up with a 3-4 minutes presentation before the actual oral. For HL, students have 20 minutes with the literary extract. The oral will then consist of the student’s presentation, followed by a discussion about the visual stimulus/literary extract then by a final general conversation on one of the five themes of the course.

D1 English Literature and Language students have composed their own poems in response to Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden. This creative work accompanies their study of the novel Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

By: Jennifer Gatheca

Our land is ours!
You seek nothing but to exploit it
Passed on from our ancestors it was
From the high mountains to the low valleys
Even when you come to devour them, you too are in awe

You claim you have come to save us
But we whom you call savage and foolish know of your plans
For ages we have lived in harmony
We shall not stand for manipulation and cruelty

Our land is ours!
We do not need your help
Send back your sons, for they will meet with resistance
All because we join hands in unity and solidarity
To fight against your supposed assistance
Our land is ours
And we shall fight for it ‘til the very end!

By: Makeya Van

The white man in Africa,
A gift from the Gods.
What he has done,
I can’t help but applaud.

An unsung hero,
Forced his power on these nations,
Through exploitation, murder and rape,
Brought an entire continent into devastation.

The white man in Africa,
He was just trying to be nice,
How else would these ‘pagan animals’
Be civilised without any strife?

He embarked on a long, treacherous journey,
To a land so foreign and discrete,
How did he tackle the lions, the cheetahs,
The scorching African heat?

The white man in Africa,
Whisked away gold and oil like a magician,
But would you like a stranger
Taking all your things without permission?

Taking your home, your dignity,
Enforcing his rules on your life.
Ignoring your fearful kindness,
And doing as he liked.

The white man in Africa,
I can understand his intentions,
But there is one thing so foolish,
A claim beyond my comprehension:

To call it a burden,
To make yourself the victim?
While you destroyed so many cultures
By imposing your ‘perfect system’.

By: Joan William Ritte

I yearn for something
More than what had before
Wine?
Beads?
Silk?
No, not that

Though never put to mouth
I can taste it
So close yet far

Papa died in agony
Searching for it
His time came
Before he found it
I don’t want to end like papa

It’s sold they say
At high price
I saved for it
When thought it’s enough
I went to shop
“Sir, it’s not enough,
Give us what you have, go get more”

For it’s sweetness
My land deed I gave
Labour I gave
Sweat I sweat
More coin I saved and gave

“Sorry Sir not  yet enough”
Huh!? Now what
For mercy I pleaded
For discount to be given
Much to dismay, it was never given.

One thing I noticed
Every time I went
The shopkeeper got fatter

I’m not alone
Many did same
Many will do same
Yet nothing to get
Refund non-existent
It will never be enough
What else should we give
For all is left is breath.

After a delayed start to CCA’s we finally saw our afternoon activity programme get under way. And didn’t the children make the most of it……here above is Kajuni huriling himself around in Capoeira CCA!

Sign-up procedures:

1. Sign-up on Google forms (email already sent to students).
2. To secure a spot on a trip, payment should be made directly at the accounts’ department asap. As there are limited places, priority will be given to students who finalized payment first.
For the Ngorongoro trip, a deposit of 25 % of the total cost should be made in January and the remaining balance should be paid by the end of February.
Our trip costs are made up of transport and food costs ; teachers, guides and porters costs, WMA
or National Park fees. The differing prices for Tanzanian and expatriate students reflect differing charges from WMA or National Parks. Prices below are in US dollars but payments can be done in TZ Shillings.

Onward and Upward

With a new month underway, we are continuing to find new ways to build resilience and empower our young people, and staff, during this very uncertain time. This week presented an opportunity to build awareness of mental health for children as we recognized Childfens Mental Health Week. We encourage your family to continue the conversation as we all benefit from better understanding the mental health challenges that are faced by children especially amid a global pandemic. Along with the resources shared for this week’s initiative, we encourage you to access the Covid-19 Counselor Resources which we continually update with information that we hope will be useful to support your child and family.

The power of perseverance continues to be on display as we celebrate Black History month. We invite you to take some time to explore the vast array of information that is available this month with a focus learning about the ways Black people around the world have overcome tremendous obstacles to find success in all facets of life. Reading the biographies of individuals who have paved a way out of no way can be very encouraging. Recently an author published these stories of Black Canadian Women to enlighten and educate about the impact they had on shaping the nation of Canada. (Link to embed: www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/02/10286036/black-history-month-canadian-women ) We hope you will find these short stories interesting and will seek to learn more with your child.

For the college side, we continue to invite parents of M4-D2 students to request Parent Access to their child’s Maia Learning Account where a majority of the post-secondary planning work will take place. You can send an email to counselor_moshi@uwcea.org with your child’s name, grade level, your name, and preferred email address in order to be provided access to follow along on your child’s planning journey. 

M4 through (still undecided) D2 students and families are reminded to participate in the various virtual presentations available to learn about colleges and universities around the world. If you would like some tips on how to help your child make the most of a College Fair opportunity, you can read this brief article Parent Tips: How to help your child prepare for a college fair and get out of their way. 

https://blog.gotocollegefairs.com/parent-tips-how-to-help-your-child-prepare-for-a-college-fair-and-then-get-out-of-their-way/

In addition, please review the constantly changing list of the upcoming events on this link, and register to attend one or two that interest you

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PkurQYYtwz1sdX5b44r22DgdZk4F-U8g/view?usp=sharing

Wishing you a wonderful weekend of wellness,

UWCEA School Counseling Team

Clear out your Christmas reads and donate your unwanted texts to our appeal! All books will be willingly received at our Main Reception.

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