Moshi Campus News – 3 Nov 2018

This week started with great news and ended with a scare, but a good scare.  As Ben notes below, we received wonderful news on Sunday night that our application to become a UWC was given Preliminary Approval.  This news was met with considerable joy on campus, and with a number of questions.  On Thursday Anna, Ben and myself met with parents and students to try to answer questions regarding what this means and the next steps in the process.  We will have more of these meetings as the year progresses so that the community is clear on the impacts.

Wednesday saw sports coming and going.  Our primary students were off to Kennedy House and I have heard that they did a great job.  This included students as young as EC.  At the same time, secondary students from Arusha campus, Kennedy House, SCIS and Braeburn came here to swim.

On Friday the parents, teachers and community came together for another yearly campus event.  The afternoon started with the primary Trunk-or-Treat and continued with the secondary haunted houses.

I would like to thank the PYP Halloween team for putting together a great time for the primary students. The haunted houses would not have been possible without the help of Christine B, Mary B, teacher and parent helpers plus other volunteers from our community.  I know that students talk about these for a while after the event.

Speaking of events, it is only three weeks until the 18th ISM Sports Weekend.  It will be a fun but busy weekend.  If you are interested in helping, please let Robin Marsh know as he would welcome extra support.

Bob Cofer

Next week, 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

OP Level 4 students hike towards Ol Doinyo Lengai, on their way to Lake Natron

“Good news is rare these days, and every glittering ounce of it should be cherished and hoarded and worshipped and fondled like a priceless diamond.” Hunter S. Thompson

This week, we received some extremely “good news” from Dilijan that our application for preliminary approval to become a UWC school has been successful.

As I am sure many of you are already aware, UWC (United World Colleges) is a global education movement that strives “to make education a force to unite people, nations and culture for peace and a sustainable future.” Central to the ethos of UWC is the belief that education can bring together young people on the basis of their shared humanity, regardless of national, socioeconomic, cultural, racial or religious background.

To reiterate what I shared in last week’s newsletter, our children are unwittingly bearing witness to a seemingly endless tide of nationalist, populist and xenophobic political forces across the globe. As UWC has already recognised, the movement’s aims and objectives are as relevant today as they were in 1962 when it was founded, perhaps even more so.

To quote Jens Waltermann, Executive Director of UWC International:

“Education has progressed greatly in the last decades in terms of reach and inclusiveness. But the skills that general education imparts can be used for good and for bad. Values and deep encounters with diversity which encourage students to reach across national and social divides are crucial if education is to impart a bias for good, for understanding and reconciliation and if it is to inspire selfless leadership.”

What will this mean to us at ISM? Well, this is an enormous question that we will begin to unpack together as a community over the coming months and beyond. What I hope is that being at our school will inspire students to “become agents of positive change” in the world.

What’s more, on graduating, our students will become part of a worldwide network of more than 60,000 alumni and, from my own experience as part of the UWC global community, many of them will go on to adopt a lifelong commitment to social responsibility.

I, for one, am very excited about the journey ahead.

Ben Morley

It was a rainy day when we left Moshi and we were apprehensive as we thought about the weather at our destination. No one wanted to trek in the rain. We arrived at Bullat Village and found a dry, beautiful panorama of the Ngorongoro highlands.

The beautiful weather held as we trekked Bullat to Empakaai, our second destination. Exhausted and elated, we settled into our ready-made tents. Before sunset we had an hour hike, descending to the lake and we were down with flamingos.     

On the third day, we trekked from Empakaai to Acacia where we enjoyed the best view of mountain, Ol Doinyo Lengai (Mountain of God). On the last day of our hike, we were guided through wonderful views of the rift valley and Lake Natron.

During our hike, we had frequent discussions with the local people and we asked some important questions. As I reflect on the whole trip, it is sobering to think how much a powerful and transformative education is needed to address some of the global issues we experienced such as climate change, preservation of geological heritage and culture. I recommend that all should take this trip at least once in their lives.

Linda Kileo

Monday saw the first Approaches To Learning session for the DP students of this year. Students were encouraged to reflect upon themselves as learners and to brainstorm the skills and attitudes that help to make an effective learner.

DP CAS projects continued this week with students making progress in their chosen groups. We presently have three DP Service groups, ISM Smokeless Kitchens, ISM Eco-En Club, ISM Simba Foundation Group. In this quarter ISM Smokeless Kitchens are planning to install their first cooking stove.

On Friday we welcomed Jake Mason from the University of British Columbia, to our campus. Jake spoke for half an hour to our DP students about life at UBC and in Canada more generally. Many of our DP students took advantage of this opportunity to stay on after the presentation and talk to Jake to get a better understanding of what university life is all about and some of the requirements for application.

Anthony Hemmens

M4 Class

Biology

The students were learning about plant structures at the cellular level and completed a number of activities designed to help them practise using a microscope and draw microscope images accurately.  Alongside is a microscopy image of plant tissues captured with a mobile phone during a microscopy skills class by students. The image shows plant tissue mounted onto a microscope slide – all prepared by a student.

Community Service
The M4 had a very successful bake sale on Monday raising 350,000 Tanzanian shillings to go towards building playground equipment at the Kili Orphanage. Both day and boarding students were able to contribute goods they had baked which sold out very quickly. The students are working to have the equipment installed.

On Thursday, they visited the orphanage and worked with young children who enjoyed doing the Art work using marking pencils.

IDU Trip
The M4 students from both campuses will go to West Kili on Tuesday the 13th November and return on Friday 16th November at 12:30pm. The trip is an interdisciplinary unit between Mathematics and Science. They will be accompanied by Ms Teresa Solero, Mr. Will Melhado and Ms Hilda Kashasha from the Moshi campus.

M5 Class

May 2019 Registration

The M5 were successfully registered for the May 2019 examination over the October break. The IB has just released the materials for the ePortolio subjects in French Language Acquisition; English Language Acquisition Proficient; and Art on Friday November 2. The teachers will be using this to plan and implement the work required for the portfolio which will be due in mid-February 2019.

Personal Project
The M5 students have handed in their first draft report to supervisors. They are in the process of receiving feedback which they will incorporate into the final reports.

Community Service
The M5 students have made a decision to work with Kibo Secondary School for their class project this academic year. The students accompanied by their Form Tutor and MYP Coordinator, engaged their peers at the school in ice-breaking games and quizzes. While exploring areas for future cooperation with the school, Kibo Secondary School Principal identified their biggest challenge as getting a permanent source of water to help them grow vegetables on top of the bumper harvest of maize they get every season. The M5 students are establishing a relationship with the school aimed at uniting them with other communities around them and identifying the importance of helping others.

David Ochieng

The highlight of the weekend for boarders was the Halloween celebrations on Friday. Primary boarders had their celebrations on campus on Friday afternoon, while the secondary boarders joined the ISM community in visiting the haunted houses in Shanty Town.

Today there is a netball tournament on campus, which is keeping boarders busy and entertained.

From this quarter, there is subject specific help provided to boarders by different teachers in the evening. Students have responded very well to this new offering and we know that the boarders will benefit from extra help given by these teachers in the evening.

Rosemary Bango

It has been a very busy week for the ISM Leopards.  On Wednesday we had our Primary athletics team attending the Kennedy House Mini Athletics Meet so they could hone their skills in preparation for the main event on Friday the 9th November at ISMAC.  A huge thank you to Coach Elly for taking the athletes and getting them ready to compete. At the same time ISM hosted an NTAA Secondary Swim Meet.  We had plenty of swimmers in the water and the team swam so well that they were crowned the winners of the meet. Special mention must go to Coach Sabini for training and preparing the swimmers for the event, Debbie Bachmann and Christine Brandsma for all their time and effort coordinating the hours of admin that is needed to run a swim meet.  The community and PTA really stepped up to help with countless volunteers, parents and student helpers.  The meet was a huge success as a result of your time and dedication to ISM.

This weekend we will be hosting the NTAA U15 Netball tournament and we wish the team all the best.  Please come down and show your support for our Leopards.

On Wednesday afternoon, ISM hosted the first NTAA Secondary Swim Meet of the year. 5 schools participated with the outcome of ISM winning the meet! There were some very exciting races, especially in the relays. Many thanks to all the ISM grounds staff, Coach Sabini, the swimming parents, teachers and  ISM students who helped out as timers, runners, marshals, DJ and judges – without you the gala would not have been the success it was!

NTAA Swim Meet Results:

1. ISM Leopards – 995 points
2. ISMAC – 710 points
3. SCIS – 642 points
4. Braeburn – 615 points
5. Kenney House – 264 points

As mentioned previously we will be taking a primary team to compete in the Athletics event at ISMAC on Friday the 9th November.  As there are many events happening at one time it would be greatly appreciated if we could have some volunteers who could accompany the trip to either chaperone students, help with getting students to their events or to help time/measure an event on the day. Please contact me robinmarsh@ed.ismoshi.com ASAP if you can help.

A big week is coming up. In Monday’s assembly time we will run a healthy life style quiz for the whole school.  Teams will answer different questions about how to lead a healthy life, scores will be collated, and a house champion will be crowned.  On Friday Primary will also have the inter house tug of war, to decide who has the most muscle power.

GO LEOPARDS

Robin Marsh

Thank you P5s for the lovely sharing today during gathering. It was great to to learn about the day of the dead celebrated in Mexico and connect with our loved ones that have passed on.

The Halloween celebration was so “spooktastic!” Thank you to all the parents that set up their trunks, the P.T.A. and all our community members for making this event so much fun! Three cheers to Ms Debbie for organizing another very successful Halloween event!

Remember to hand in your “Joseph” logos by next Friday and the winning design goes on a school t-shirt as the costume for the musical.

I will update you soon with more details about the musical.

Cathy Wambua Saha

Thank you to everyone who made it to our shared learning on Friday, the children enjoyed showing you all what they have been doing and it was a fine way to finish our unit. Next week we’ll begin with a tuning in activity designed to find out a little more about what the children know about animals, how to care for them and the ways in which we interact with them as humans. We will think about our interests and where we would like our learning to travel.

Please remember to bring library bags and swimming costumes each Friday.

Owain Evans

Our research into plants found in different biomes began well this week. The children chose five areas to look into; deserts, oceans, arctic, the savannah and the rainforest. In their groups, they looked through videos and picked out two or three main plants that they will focus on next week.

Thank you to all of you for helping us with our plant project. If you haven’t started, please do so this weekend. We are looking forward to hearing about the outcomes of the children’s choices.

Some of you suggested great areas for us to visit in order to observe plant growth and how it connects with us and the environment. We have some great ideas building up. If you would like to come in and share some of your knowledge with us, please let us know.

As we continue learning our math facts, please help us to practice at home. We have been working hard in our online program (ZEARN) and we are making great progress.

Show and Tell: Simreet and Tiago

Mboka Mwasongwe

This week in P 2/3 we have been busy creating Halloween decorations, as well as learning how to write cinquain poems. Students have written cinquains about Halloween, and this learning will be translated to relate to their unit of inquiry next week by writing cinquains about homes. In math we have been working on number sense and adding a tens place value. In reading, we have focused on fluency and different reading strategies and how to engage with vocabulary that students find difficult. We have found artistic inspiration in Tiziana Rinaldi and her illustrations of her home. Students will be learning various artistic skills in order to recreate their own adaptations of a Tiziana Rinaldi painting.

A big shout out to all the students who took part in the Primary NTAA Athletics this past Wednesday! Well done P 2/3 Leopards!

Elisha Jaffer

The students have made great connections in this unit and are using very technical words to describe changes between states of matter. In the coming week, we will be predicting the changes that will occur as matter transforms into different states. Students will be recording the instructions of different processes and learning how to record scientific findings and will continue to expand their vocabulary for the language connections. In Maths, we will be calculating perimeter and measuring spaces around irregular shapes as well. We will also review different 2D and 3D shapes.

Cathy Wambua Saha

Encore- Encore! The class did an excellent job with their play this Friday during the Primary Gathering. They were all very happy with their performance, and so was the audience. This week was full of activity and preparation for the skit. The children were able to learn about another culture while making decorations for the play. It was special to hear stories about great grandparents and other loved ones.

In Math we are studying Polygons. The students completed a quiz today on perimeter and polygon identification. In reading we are enjoying “Stig”, a story about a boy with a unique friend. In writing, we are going to start working on personal migration stories, as well as a narrative about someone who migrates. Please share some time with your child talking about your family’s migration to Moshi, Tanzania.

Please remember swim gear on Thursdays, and water bottles every day.

Thank you,

Sarah Brummel

This week the children have been working on using literary devices such as similes and onomatopoeia in their writing. We are working on individual mystery stories and a class picture book and will continue with these activities next week. In maths each child has been working on specific areas that need further practice. Next week we will return to a whole class focus on division and also using parentheses. We have been working on Sudoku puzzles which the children find enjoyable but challenging! For our unit of inquiry we will be investigating balloon power and elastic band power next week and also making exploding vitamin C rockets. The photo shows our explorations into potential and kinetic energy using the stomp rocket.

Please note there is a tug of war house challenge on Friday 9th November and the children should wear their house shirts on that day.

Deborah Mills