Moshi Campus News – 16 May 2020

The big news this week will be the Moshi PYPx Virtual Primary Exhibition. The P6 students have been working hard this semester in areas of their own interest and are now ready to share this work with you.  The work has been collated in a section of the website that will open this next week and allow you to look through their work at your leisure and leave comments.  As well students and parents should have received a Google Form inviting you to the presentations with live question and answer sessions.  Below you will see more about some of these projects.

This week we had a dual campus D1 parent meeting.  With a turnout of out of nearly 60 parents this represented nearly half the D1 student body, so thank you to those that joined us. 

With everything going on, we have still been working with the UWC National Committees to plan for new students to join us for next year. This process is well underway and most of the places are just undergoing final verification.

Lastly, I have been remiss in introducing Penny Fitchet.  Penny is a versatile teacher who was scheduled to join us next year but has been able to join at a distance this year in support of some English classes.  Welcome Penny.

Bob Cofer

The P6 students have been working up to the final minute on their presentations. Several children have put their action plans into place this week. Townes has been working hard at home and has made a Youtube video asking, “What can we learn from the Hadzabe tribe?” Check it out here.

If you keep your eyes peeled, you’ll see that Ms. Kacey has a supporting role.

Tanya has issued a recycling plastic pledge that she wants people to sign.

Raymond wants you to pledge not to buy products that contain wild animal parts.

Thank you to Ms. Elisha for working these children on how to use QR codes.

Malveer has created an advert about green energy and electric cars.

These children, along with their classmates, are setting a fine example to the rest of the PYP students about what it means to live the attributes of the Learner Profile. They are knowledgeable and open-minded inquirers, thinkers and risk-takers. Ms. Grace emailed a form to all parents on Wednesday inviting you to sign up to watch the presentations. They will be presenting Monday – Friday next week at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00 each day on Zoom.
We look forward to seeing you on Zoom. If you have not received the sign-up form, please email me on deborahmills@uwcea.org.

Before the world was turned upside down, the teaching staff would meet every Monday morning for a “Break Time Briefing.” This was an opportunity to touch base with each other about the week ahead, to recognise any significant events over the previous weekend, share important announcements and remind each other of upcoming happenings across the school. At the end of each of these briefings, the Staff Association would present a couple of people with a Learner Profile Certificate.

Much in the way that we award certificates in our Primary Gatherings or Whole School Assemblies, these awards recognised members of the teaching staff who had demonstrated attributes of the IB Learner Profile.

Any member of staff could nominate a colleague for a certificate. Each week, it was a wonderful opportunity to recognise our colleagues, let them know that we value and appreciate them and recognise their efforts. Of course, at the moment, our Briefings have disappeared. However, not to be deterred, we have introduced weekly “Shout Outs” instead. Each week, people email me a very short video recognising one of their colleagues. A “Shout Out.” This might be for supporting and helping them, for doing something creative with online learning, for being positive and making people smile, for going above and beyond in some way…or just because someone needs some love and they wanted to let them know someone else is thinking about them.

I then put these short clips together and share them with the staff. Simple. To steal a Dylan William phrase, we are all building the airplane as we fly and, oftentimes, we only hear about the parts that are not working. This can be a little demoralising. Hopefully, these “Shout Outs” are a chance to celebrate that we are still part of a community. We are all doing our best and are here for each other. With this in mind, I invite you to recognise one of your teachers, someone in your family, a classmate or, even, a friend with a “Shout Out” of your own. Drop them a line to let them know you are grateful for having them in your lives. Small gestures like this can have a huge impact on how someone is feeling. Give it a try.

Ben Morley

The D2 students are in a strange place at the moment. In a normal year we would be reaching the end of the exam season and getting ready for graduation. Instead the students are off campus wondering what will happen next. Plans are underway for a virtual celebration of their time at the school and possibly a physical one later. They have been sent a form to fill in to help us with that. I have now finished reviewing all their CAS portfolios and I remain impressed with what they have done. It is important at this stage they stay in contact with us, particularly about their future plans.

It was really nice to “meet” with so many of the D1 parents just now, thank you for your comments. A reminder the D1 online learning document can be accessed here. This gives you an overview of what is happening in all lessons and the times of all online lessons. Later today I will send the students and you the provisional IA deadline schedule. In addition to the class work, students should be thinking about the Extended Essay and I will also give more information about this by email.

Students have been emailed about the Young Aurora competition and we look forward to receiving their applications to be the UWCEA representative for this.

Over the year many of our students have written articles for online magazines or created their own magazine or you tube show. These are all collated here. My apologies if I have missed any, please let me know.

Margaret Brunt

We have persevered through another week, and are hopeful you have experienced something new while also finding time to express gratitude. We also hope that you also found a moment to read through this week’s Wellness Wednesday Weekly, while finding some enjoyment in this thing called life. (Always have to find a way to get in a Prince reference ?.)

This week, I am grateful for the wonderful meetings I had with students, and some parents, about the D1 Post Secondary Plans that are being shared with me. Our students are staying positive and focused on what the future will hold, while also being realistic about our current circumstances. Their outlook on life keeps me optimistic about what lies ahead of us as we weather this pandemic.

In addition, I remain amazed by the wealth of information that is available at the click of a button due to the ingenuity of those who are seeking new ways to connect and reach out. I am so grateful to all of the organizations and institutions that are providing information and resources via virtual presentations, social media, and enhanced websites as a result of this pandemic. Once again, this leads to a robust array of options for the upcoming weeks. 

I must stress that M5 and D1 students need to access Maia Learning via their school email address to find the details on upcoming events in the College Visits section of their account. Also, thank you to the parents who have completed the survey to request Parent Access to Maia Learning. I am doing a final call for interested parents, and then will send out information about the Maia Learning Parent Access presentation I will be facilitating on 28 May, right after the Arusha Campus Meet and Greet with the new University and Socio-Emotional Counselor. If you have not signed up for parent access to Maia Learning yet, please do so via this link by Monday 18 May.

There is always more, but limited space, so I will end with once again extending the invitation to meet with me via my calendar link (www.calendly.com/cassandraforduwcea). If you, or your student, would like to discuss anything related to university or socio-emotional counseling, please feel free to set up an appointment so that we can talk via Google Meet or Zoom.

Cassandra Ford

Distance Learning in the MYP

We remain grateful to the MYP parents and students for keeping up with the distance learning. We continue getting feedback and have tried to listen and act on suggestions as and when practical. I salute the parents/guardians for their resilience and patience. For more enquiries and/or clarifications, please contact me at myp_co@uwcea.org.

M5 Last Classes

The M5 distance lessons come to conclusion in two weeks’ time on Friday May 29. It has been a long year for them with the COVID19 pandemic cancelling not only on their examinations but other planned events. We are thankful they have coped well so far but encourage them, through parents/guardians to reach out in case they are in need of any support.

M5 Project week

This is scheduled for Monday June 1 to Thursday June 4. Students have already begun researching on their careers based on a framework of questions developed after they voted for this project. We request parents to facilitate this exciting research. This support includes helping to arrange interviews with people currently blazing the trail in the students’ chosen careers.

M5 Online Ceremony

This will take place on June 5 in the afternoon. Students continue to play various roles. While some of the M5 students are sprucing up their speeches, others are busy capturing the salient and memorable events of the year. The whole class is engaged in one thing or the other as they bid MYP goodbye. We shall give guidelines on how this virtual event is taking shape as we approach the event.

David Ochieng

I would like to start the news by commending the parents for their utmost commitment and cooperation. The quality of work being sent back to us, as well as the commitment from the children, is really impressive. Please note that our reports for the semester will include in school and at home learning so this work is really important in helping the teachers gauge students’ progress.

This week all roads were leading to the Arusha PYP Exhibition. The presentations were amazing and very informative. I managed to watch the last one and really enjoyed it. Congratulations Ms. Amanda, Ms. Carmen, the primary team, and most importantly the P6 students. Next week, we begin our PYP Exhibition presentations. Please do sign up to watch our P6s shine. All the best P6 team, you guys are awesome!

On Monday, some of the Primary classes will be issuing learning packs. Your child’s teacher will communicate with you on this and if not then your child will continue with the set-up they are already in.
I wish you all a lovely weekend and hope that you all stay safe.

Cathy Wambua-Saha

This week we continued to look at how similar stories can be told in different ways through art by looking at a Cinderella story from the Middle East. The children produced more story shows and prepared to record their own special ‘talents’ for our upcoming Moshi Has Talent extravaganza. They explored non-standard measures and estimation.

Friday was the UN International Day of the Family. It couldn’t come at a more important time. I want to take the opportunity to thank all parents, family and household members who have been supporting our youngest students in EC to keep life as normal as possible through our daily study routines. Your hard work and persistence at home is simply fantastic. To date, and in just five weeks of online learning, our EC class has recorded 1373 separate interactions on seesaw. This is family in action.

Please be sure to join and support our P6 students in next week’s exhibition presentations!

Owain Evans

I have read very interesting and funny stories from the children this week about your escapades when you were younger. Thank you for sharing these with them. I will ask those who are willing to share them with us during our class zoom meeting on Monday.

Due to the PYP exhibition happening this coming week, we will have our class meeting at 2pm. This will allow everyone to freely join in as many presentations as possible to support our P6 students. Please don’t miss out on this monumental event.

This coming week, we will delve deeper into character descriptions as we read our books. We will look at how to describe a character by looking at their personality as well as their physical appearance. P2 will be learning how to use their adjectives effectively as they write sentences.

Family trees are the best way to learn more about your family. Let us make one as we keep on exploring the past.

Mboka Mwasongwe

This week in P3, we’ve jumped straight into our unit of inquiry; using books on Epic to research the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. The students have been keeping a moon journal, which based on the rains we’ve been having, will be quite sparse. Many students have spent independent time inquiring into questions they’ve had about the Solar System. Stephanie researched the number of moons in the Solar System and found out there are 203 moons!

Students have also been working on relating multiplication and division, division word problems, and practicing subtraction with regrouping. Next week, the students will begin researching a planet of their choice.

It’s been great seeing many students becoming increasingly comfortable conversing over Zoom. I’ve had a very long conversation with a student and been introduced to her bunnies this week!

Physical packages for P3 will be available to collect between 10am and 12pm on Monday 18th May 2020 from the car park.

Elisha Jaffer

The week has been so good with students sharing impressive work on Seesaw and keeping up with given tasks. I really enjoyed our Zoom hangout on Wednesday where some of the children were telling jokes and riddles, it was great fun.  On Monday (18th May), Ms. Zitha and I will issue a new learning pack that will have work for the next two weeks. I would like to encourage all P4 families to come and pick the packs from the car park from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. This coming week, we will also be working on our Summative Assessment and will present on  Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th. More instructions will be shared on Seesaw.

I would like to encourage all the P4 students to sign up to watch the PYP Exhibition as they will learn a lot from these presentations.

Cathy Wambua-Saha

Next week is a big wrap-up week. We are finishing our current unit, and everyone will be sharing their summative slideshows. Today during our meeting, everyone chose a day to share with the group. The P5 students will also be sharing their completed narratives next week. These will be our material for reading time. Please encourage your child to keep our tradition of questions and compliments alive. They will be asked to send an email with any questions or compliments that come up after they view other people’s work.

Another accomplishment to celebrate is the P6 Exhibitions. I am encouraging the P5 class to watch at least 5 presentations for their week’s work. We will take a pause from book clubs at 12:30 for the week to ensure that we can support the P6 class. Please assist them in signing up for time slots. They all received an email invite from Ms. Debbie, and now just need to enter their email for the 5 they would like to view.

Sarah Brummel

We had lots of fun this week watching the P6 Arusha Exhibition presentations. Finally it is our turn! We are so excited and proud to be part of the global cohort of PYP students who are presenting a Virtual Exhibition for the first time.  The children will be presenting on Zoom everyday next week at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00. Please sign up on the form that was emailed out and you will receive an invitation by email. There is a page on the website dedicated to the P6 presentations, the details of which will be shared next week.

Deborah Mills