A lot has been written in recent years about resilience as a vital skill for success. It is that ability to overcome those things beyond our control, those setbacks and to continue moving forward. Right now, I feel this is like enduring the rains this year. In an educational sense, right now this is a skill that several of our year groups need. For our D2 students, the DP exams can be an emotional roller-coaster. They have little control over the questions they see in the exams, and they come out of some feeling like the top of the world, and in others, simply flattened. Now matter what, the next exam is still going to come so the capability to look past what has just occurred and move forward taking the next test to the best of their ability is a huge benefit overall.
This skill does just not appear overnight. Our P6 students have been working on their Exhibition for the last 8 weeks and have had to face their fair share of challenges. They have persevered and will finally get to share the results of their efforts with the community this coming week. It is at this age that students need to start developing resilience with regards to their schoolwork and life. For us as teachers and parents, we just need to support them when things go wrong and encourage them to keep at things. If we start with younger students then by the time they get to the Diploma and university, they will be well along the road.
The ISM Brownie Guides will be organising a garage sale on Saturday, May 12th, from 10 am to 1pm.
If you are leaving Moshi this summer this is an ideal opportunity for you to sell items you do not wish to take with you. It’s also a great place to pick up some bargains; toys, books, shoes, kitchenware and bedding, etc
You can support this event by hiring a table to sell your goods or by coming to buy from the stalls. Refreshments will be on sale throughout the morning. Tables must be paid for in advance at the main school office. The price for a table is 20,000 TSH.
Please see Deborah Mills, P5 teacher, (deborahmills@ed.ismoshi.com) if you have any questions about this event.
Diploma News
One-third of the D2 final IB exams have been taken. With the exams continuing through May 18th. Graduation will take place on Saturday afternoon May 19th and the previous evening, May 18th at 6:30 pm we will gather for a celebratory buffet dinner at AMEG.
Reminders:
Please purchase tickets at Tsh 40,000 by this Fri May 11th if you need additional. Half price for 12 and under. ISM will pay for the D2 graduate and two family members. No one will be admitted without a ticket.
Join us on Friday May 18th from 8:30 am-12:30pm for the decorating of Karibu Hall which for decades has been a wonderful family event. The festive/celebratory spirit predominates so kindly join us for that! Don’t miss it!
On May 24th the D1 students will start their four days of end-of-D1-exams (2-hour exam in each subject.)
Rick Fitzpatrick
MYP News
MAP Tests M1-M3 – Results
The MAP tests have been sent to you the parents, if you have questions, please contact us. The teachers will use these results to customise student learning according to student needs.
M4 End Year Examinations
As part of examination skills training, the M4 will do end year examinations from May 24-29 in all subjects except in Arts, PHE, Design and Life Skills. The exam schedule will be released by early next week.
MAY 2018 Examinations
The examinations will be between May 8th and 18th. Some of these exams are scheduled to end after 3:00pm. Day students and parents are encouraged to note the days when exams end late and facilitate transport from school. The revision schedule was sent to respective parents and students on Thursday May 3.
On Friday May 18, the Interdisciplinary Learning examination will start at 12:10pm. Day students and parents are requested to arrange for an early lunch which will start at 11:30am.
Other events in the MYP calendar include:
May 21-25 – M5 Work Experience
May 28 – 31 M5 Preparation for the M5 Ceremony
June 1 – M5 Ceremony
June 8-12 – MYP Service Focus Days
David Ochieng
The M1’s and M2’s will be organizing a teacher lock-up and a bake sale in the coming month. All money goes towards fundraising for the Day Care center for our Focus week.
We would also like some pots, pans, drying racks, plastic bottles/bags, kitchen utensils, CD’s, and bottle caps for the sound/activity wall. The sound/activity wall is for the Day Care kids to play with, and to entertain themselves.
Please see any of the M1/2 students or Ms. Mary Pantlin (marypantlin@ed.ismoshi.com) if you have any questions about our events or the donations.
Boarding News
The D2 students have written final exams for a week. They will continue with these exams until the 18th of this month, when they will have a final dinner and then have the official graduation ceremony on 19th. The D2 boarders will be allowed to go home after graduation. They will be expected to clear their room as soon as they can.
Private parties
Although the school organizes celebrations for the D2 graduation, the students have usually additionally opted to arrange their own private parties off-campus. These are likely to be on 19th May after the official ceremony. These student-organized parties are not school events and we cannot, as a school, take responsibility for them
For parents of boarders
Boarders staying in school that weekend will NOT be allowed to attend any unsupervised parties. If boarders do want to attend, they can only do so if their parents agree and they have been taken out of the school’s care by staying with another family for the weekend. Even if you have already indicated on the Parental Consent form that your child may sign out to friends at weekends, we would like to further confirm that it is acceptable on this particular weekend. If you have children intending to sign out for this weekend, could you please contact us with that confirmation? You may contact either the boarding parent or the Head of Boarding by whatever means that is most convenient (telephone, letter, or email). Boarders will be expected to remain in school for the weekend if we have not heard from you before MONDAY, MAY 14th.
We would also suggest on this occasion, that you contact the host family directly to discuss what you feel would be appropriate arrangements.
Renovations in the Kipepeo dorm are ongoing, and the first room, the common space and kitchen completed. We expect the full work to be done in June. Work on the Kilele dorm will start after the graduation and the students have gone home. We are expecting the work on that dorm to be done by the start of the school year. Students have been in to see the changes and have been impressed with the new layouts.
Rosemary Bango
Summer Short Course
This summer ISM will host, for the first time, a short course for 16-18 year olds from around the world focusing on peace and conflict. The short course will explore the topic of conflict in three dimensions: politics, culture and environment. The Short Course will include a mixture of on-campus workshops, field trips, community service and work-shopping around the development of a personal project. There is funding available so if you know any students who would benefit from this type of experiential learning apply here: https://sites.google.com/view/umoja-short-course-tanzania/apply?authuser=0
Gemma May
Sports News
To all students, please note practices are still going on until the final week of May 28th. It is important that you attend all practice sessions, as this off-season work helps improve fitness and skills.
The last weekend of NTAA competition for all sports was scheduled for Saturday May 5th with ISM hosting the U15 and U19 Netball 3rd Round, however this has been postponed due to the weather.
As the season and year progress please keep up with all the info, news, and sports reports by reading the Moshi Campus News.
Go Leopards
Scott Hibbard
Swimming Update
The ISM swimmers went to Mwanza last weekend to participate in their final swim meet of this school year. The students had a wonderful weekend, with lots of PB’s and all swimmers got medals in their relay races. Delhem Rashid had an outstanding performance with a total of 7 medals, 5 silver medals for the individual races and 2 medals in the relay races. Elijah Renju won a silver medal for 25 butterfly and his mother Jenny got two golden medals in 50 freestyle and 50 breaststroke. Many thanks to Sabini for all his hard work and for training the students. Next year we will continue with the swimming program and we hope to build a strong team that will compete in regional swim meets and meets in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza.
Primary News
We are all looking forward to seeing the P6 children’s final Exhibition presentations this week. After weeks of research and analysis, our eldest primary children will share the results of their inquiries with the wider community. This is always an exciting time for any PYP school.
This week the P1 – P5 children started their final unit of the academic year. Meanwhile the EC children continue to learn about different forms of storytelling.
Kate Schermbrucker
EC News
This week EC told lots of jokes and thought about how important fun and laughter are to a balanced lifestyle.
Whats a pirate’s favourite letter? RRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
What did zero say to eight? Nice Belt!!!!!
The children have been working hard on writing their numbers to various levels. We wrote short sentences and labels for a picture of Mr. Bean. We used the tablets to record each other saying and doing hilarious things.
Next week we will look into nursery rhymes. Our story archetype is Tragedy (think Humpty Dumpty) and our focus is Rhyme and Verse. Our learner attribute will be Communicator.
Through puppets and role play we will explore negotiating, sharing and what makes us sad or happy during play.
Owain Evans
P 1/2 News
The children have begun to inquire into the central idea; Sources of historical evidence help us learn about the past. They studied pictures of children from the past. The children in these pictures were playing different games. We collected evidence of what kind of games were played in the past from these pictures. They were excited to learn that ‘Leap the Frog’ was also played many years ago.
Old diaries and biographies tell us a lot about the past. We have all started writing in our diaries this week.
P5 shared with us information from biographies they had read as seen in the picture. Next week, we will begin collecting old pictures of ourselves as well as look into how old letters tell us about the past.
Word problem solving in maths can be daunting at first. The children have been working on creating pictures and writing number sentences to help solve them. Next week, they will measuring the lengths and weights of objects.
Show and Tell: Janieck and Jasmijn
Mboka Mwasongwe
P 2/3 News
This week the P2/3`s have been busy writing poems about water sources. They have begun to write what they believe is the most important thing about water. In class many of the children have engaged in deep conversations about water conservation and the importance of water worldwide. Please encourage your child to share their knowledge and learning at home.
Please feel free to email or talk to me about any action that your child has shown at home regarding saving water, reusing or reducing water usage.
This Friday is P2/3 Primary Gathering, they will be preparing for and practicing how to read poems out loud to an audience.
In Math, we will be continuing to estimate, measure and compare water volume using standard unit’s milliliters and liters.
Monday – Homework
Tuesday – Library, PE
Wednesday: French
Thursday: Swimming all children are to swim unless they have a note / email from a doctor or parent.
Friday: P2/3 present at the Primary Gathering
Have a wonderful weekend
Clare Hibbard
P4 News
The children are very excited about their new unit which focuses on design. The central idea of the unit is The process of design can help people express their creativity. The students will focus on the IB attitude of commitment and explore how grit and perseverance are crucial in designing and creating. Students will be challenged to collaborate and to think ‘outside the box’. Please send in any junk material and old toys the students can tinker with. Any donations of duct tape, string, twine, skewers would be welcomed!
Julie Bowen
P5 News
This week saw the P5 students complete their designs of a ideal country with a system of government which would best promote human rights (see photo.) The children also worked on a biography fact sheet of a political figure or a human rights activist using the information they had gleaned from reading biographies in class and researching on the internet. We shared this work with the P1/2 class on Friday morning and it is now displayed on the breezeway. In Maths this week we worked on very basic algebra equations. The children will continue working on this area at their own levels of ability next week.
Next week we will begin our final unit of inquiry for the year. Our central idea is “Humans change physically, socially and emotionally throughout their life cycle.” The lines of inquiry are
Adolescence and change. (CHANGE)
Consequences of the choices people make. (CAUSATION)
Strategies and techniques for dealing with physical, social and emotional changes. (RESPONSIBILITY)
We always enjoy listening to outside experts so please contact me if you would like to come into class to speak to the children.
Deborah Mills
P6 News
Congratulations P6s of 2018, the Exhibition is here! The students have worked well towards preparing for their presentations. We have 5 groups who have taken various actions in the community to make a positive difference.
Thank you Dr Marsden for popping into our classroom this week and sharing information on Cambridge Analytica’s ongoing case and how we now have plastic which is mixed with carbohydrates to make it biodegrade faster. It was very interesting!
Exhibition presentations are happening this coming week- 8th May for ISM students and the evening of 9th May, for P6 parents, ISM teachers and other members of staff.