Niva Gazette April-May 2017

Student Online Magazine | Niva International School

Vol. 14, Issue: 02: April-May 2017

GRADUATIONS @

NIVA

JOURNALISM CLUB Punyapa Leephokanon (Angie), 9N Le Thao Chi Tran (Claire), 9G Jakob Meyer Herman (Jake), 11G Natasong Yuan, 10G Kamolchan Tongthiraj (Moon), 10G Samiksha Subrahmanya (Sonu), 9G Song Lee Lee, 8N Hyeok Jin Choe (Timmy), 11N Aeron Jan Role De Guzman, 10G Ioru Yasuda, 11N ADVISORS: Mr. Gabe and Mr. Bem NIVA Post is an online newsletter showcasing activities and information about the school. For any inquiries or to submit articles, send an email to gabrielp@nivais.com. To submit photos, email the pictures to beme@nivais.com.

WASC Malaysia Trip By: Moon, Grade 10N

“My main focus was on AP Calculus class and what test markers look for,” stated Mr. David W., a math teacher who, along with Mr. Phillipe, an elementary teacher, and Mr. Gabriel, an English teacher, went on a trip for an ASC WASC session, the 15th Annual EARCOS Teachers’ Conference, on March 28-3, 2017 at Sutera Harbor Resort, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. “[I learned] how to prepare students to take AP Calculus, how the Big Ideas in AP Calculus spreads through the entire course,” he remarked, reflecting on the AP Calculus year plan. “[And] common errors that students make when answering questions.

Students do the actual calculations and fail to answer it. They don’t answer what the question asks. For example: what is the amount of people at the zoo on a particular time interval?

Students solve for the amount of people without considering the time interval.”

SONGKRAN By: Jake, Grade 11G

Songkran is known nationwide for epic water fights that shut down major streets across the country and attracts young celebrants and visitors from around the world. Splashing others with water confers blessing and represents cleansing and a fresh start — and coming at the hottest time of the year, it's also a welcome respite from the scorching tropical heat.

Niva International School celebrated Songkran with probably the best school water fight to ever exist. It was a refreshing celebration especially for a time when the school year is slowly coming to an end, and the heat is steadily rising.

MangaHigh Party By: Natasong, Grade 10N On the 19th of April 2017, all of NIVA from grades 1 to 12 joined together, in the Heisler Hall, to celebrate the achievements of students that have contributed to NIVA International School’s success in winning the first place in Thailand, and third in all of Asia, in the Asia Math Superstars Competition that took place on March. The Manga High Challenge organizers sent Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals to NIVA to all of the students who have won more than 100 points during the competition, along with a $750 Amazon Gift voucher being awarded to the school.

An astounding number of over 200 NIVA students were recognized that morning, with the top scorers receiving up to 4 gold medals! Following the award ceremony, was the celebratory Pizza party lunch that consisted of a hundred pizzas for the whole school. Our math skills finally paid off and also helped get our school in being recognized around the world!

SPORTS DAY

By: Aeron, Grade 10G

This year`s sports day was a great and fun event. The 4 teams competed in 4 different athletic sports namely Basketball, Volleyball, Badminton, and an all “new” category -- Swimming. The events were very intense with very close scores. However, after a team chant competition, the winning team was decided. It was the Green team who took first place, followed by the Blue team, the Yellow team, and then the Red team. We all ended the day with a cool dance with our teachers, which was documented in a 360° video.

Graduations 2017 ELEMENTARY

COVER FEATURE MAY 19, 2017

The Elementary graduation had many memorable highlights. One of them was also because it was the first time the elementary had gowns which made the event more meaningful.

HIGH SCHOOL

MAY 24, 2017

This was the best Graduation to date. The speeches from the students had most of the audience touched and crying, and the “heart-warming� aura in the room made everyone feel happiness.

KINDERGARTEN

JUNE 1, 2017

The KG Graduation honored the achievements of the students and a special message from Mr. Anthony, honoring the parents and teachers for their nurturing efforts, sent blissful vibes in the hall.

THAI TEACHERS Professional Development By: Moon, Grade 10N “When you see a student’s behavior, remember that it is based on their brain, not their character. Do not scold the student, but rather, try to develop their neuro-activity,” remarked Ms. NiOrn, one of the Thai language and culture teachers, who went to Brain-based Learning in Thailand, for a professional development on April 7th, 2017. The instructor of this institute was a former teacher who has a child with special needs. Her child does not do schoolwork, speak, or meet others’ eyes. She then researched information about this behavior and discovered that neurology is the underlying factor. BBL Thailand offers workshops on how to use teaching methods that stimulate the brain to improve a student’s behavior. One of the examples is using colored sticks to construct shapes given, then building your own shape from it. Colors stimulates a person’s train of thought and alertness. Sticks stimulates creativity in building a new shape.

SENIORS DRAMA

By: Song Lee, Grade 8N

The Seniors presented their English Drama on May 11, 2017. This was their last performace in school before they graduate. The performace was about different breakup situations between couples and how they were dumped by their lovers. Each of them had different reasons why they were dumped. But by sharing their sad stories to each other through a therapy session, they ended up dating the other members in the therapy session and become happy. After watching the performance, I asked my classmates about what they thought about

the performance. Some of them answered that the performances were really enjoyable and funny. It was centralized in one theme and had different characters and covered some diverse situations. In my personal opinion, I liked that they were trying to tell the audience about friendships and by sharing their painful stories through therapy and that airing out their feelings helped them get better. I personally enjoyed watching their last performance in Niva international school and I will miss them a lot.

WORKOUT Workshop The Workout Workshop day was organized

by Grade 12. They organized many stations, where each station helped students learn different kinds of exercises that were easy to do. There was one station that focused on healthy eating where they taught how to make vegetable rolls with lettuce, carrot,

By: Angie, Grade 9N

crab sticks and other ingredients. It was healthy, easy to make, and delicious as well.

This activity brought students from different grades together to perform exercises and healthy activities, encouraging the students to do more exercises and learn more about things that are good for their body.

Kindergarten SPORTS DAY This year’s Kindergarten’s sports day was on the 21st of April, 2017. The students, along with their parents, were able to participate in various and enjoyable sports and parlor games. They started the day with a Warm-up exercise led by Ms. Lulu. The students were divided into 4 teams: Yellow team, Green team, Blue team and Red team. Each of the teams played against each other while the teachers and parents cheered for their children. Some of the other games included the parents to participate as well. They started off with some fun relays. The first relay was a baton relay race, which was a relay race by passing their own house colored batons to the next runner. The second one was a water

By: Song Lee, Grade 8N

relay race which was a race about filling the empty water buckets with a cup. The third one was a shoe relay race where each team place all their shoes in the circled area and the students had to find their shoes, put them on, and run back to their base. The cotton candy race was a relay race about moving all the cotton candies from one point to another point without using their hands. The last race was the blanket relay race where the parents participated and used a blanket to transport the student in their team, from one point to another point, using blankets. The winning team was determined by the highest scores and all the students received medals and trophies by their rankings.

Congratulations to our Kindergarten Teacher, Kruu Jang who got married on May 8, 2017

Secondary SCIENCE FAIR On the 23rd of May, Niva Grades 6 -12 joined together in the Heisler Hall to witness the Science projects presented by the grades 10 and 11 of the AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics and Environmental Science classes. The fair started off with a presentation on how to make biodiesel, an environmental-friendly fuel for cars. The AP Biology class had different groups. Two groups performed animal dissections to demonstrate the organs and their functions

By: Natasong, Grade 10G

such as on a chicken and fish. Fermentation and other organic processes were also explained though Kimchi making. The Chemistry class mixed elements together to create chemical reactions, ranging from liquid chemicals to creating different colored flames. Models that demonstrated natural phenomena’s such as momentum, electricity, or waves were presented by the Physics class. A big thank you to Mr. Rey for organizing this great event!

Niva Film Festival

By: Sonu, Grade 9G

*Winning Film - Click on the picture to load video Exotic Film Productions, the tenth grade group (Sumai, Anna, Lily, Cyrel, Aeron), presented a film called, “Inescapable”. In their horror-comedy, a group of friends explore an abandoned building at night, and then run into and try to escape from a ghost named Kyra. The film is humorous and fun to watch, even with its horror elements.

Four exhilarating short films were unveiled at the NIVA Film Festival on the 20th of April.

The films were written, filmed, directed, and edited by our very own students. The event was held in the Heisler Hall and the secondary school students were invited to view the films. They were judged by Mr. Alex, Mr. Matt, Mr. David, and Dr. Lisa on their content, quality, and editing.

Group Lollipop, the sixth grade group (Title, Nicky, Paris, Jennifer, Aja, Linda) showed us their crazy and exciting lives in a short film they called, “Coolest Daily Life Ever”. The “Dork Diaries” inspired film was creatively and cutely edited, with short one-shots that showed the most amusing parts of their daily lives. The film even featured adorable cameos of their siblings!

The ninth grade group, also known as YodaProductions (Mark, Nadine, Nadia, James, Angie, Chopin), also showcased their version of a horror movie with the film entitles, “Happy Birthday”. The film followed their main character, whose birthday was slightly more gruesome and murderous than he may have wanted. The audience even got a surprise appearance from the killer himself! YodaProductions went on to win second place.

The first place went to Group, NoName, with their stunning animated film, “Never Fly”. This carefully hand drawn animation told the breathtaking story of a girl with wings, and it was beautifully told, enough so that the ending truly moved everyone deeply. It’s safe to say they deserved first place for this incredible production.

*Visit HERE for the YouTube video or copy/paste the link below in your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGnPYoIkmxY&t=32s

University Advice from Mr. Jason By: Natasong, 10G Mr. Jason Koch, the guidance counselor of Niva, gives out valuable advice for all the students who are looking to get to college. “The one thing that everybody needs is they need to graduate from high school. You actually need that diploma.

You cannot go to college without it.” Everything else varies from country to country, each university has different requirements for the preferred major. “Generally speaking, in Thailand, first you need the high school diploma, and various test scores. If you have above 3.5 for your GPA, and 1200 for the SAT, you will be able to go to most places. Grades are important if you want to get accepted from the university of your choice.”

Highlight Say Yes to Success

By: Claire, Grade 9G

On April 26, 2017, an acclaimed businessman named, Mr. Manoj Kumar visited the school to hold a seminar about Options Trading in the finance field for middle and high school students.

Mr. Kumar is an alumni of the University of Texas and a student of Warren Buffett.

He has been in the business field for 13 years and has made great profit with options trading, which is a method of passive income. Through his presentation, students and teachers alike were able to dive deeper into this field and learn the steps to success: Invest, Networking, Confidence, and Monetization. His presentation was not only focused on options but also explained the stock market, different success techniques, and how they apply to a variety of jobs.

In addition, Mr. Kumar gave us personal words of encouragement such as ‘Dream So Big’ and advices about the obstacles that business students will face. In one activity, he demonstrated a concept about capitalism by rewarding money to students who got answers correct.

20 students and teachers in NIVA who participated in the capitalism excercise got their pocket money doubled!

A few pictures of some “Life Skills� crafts from the Thai Department

Grade 5 FIELD TRIP TO FOODLAND By: Suzi, Grade 5 On May 9, we, the Grade 5 students, went to Foodland Ladprao. We went there to practice our decimal addition and subtraction skills in the real world. On top of that, we learned to be independent. It was fun because we got to choose our partners. At the same time, we had to follow a few rules such as not to run, not to go out of the premise without an adult supervision, and not to disturb other customers.

Our teacher gave us a piece of paper with questions, which was like a scavenger hunt.

We had to roam around Foodland to find the items mentioned in the questions. After all was done, we had to give the paper back to our teacher. Now came the fun part; We were given 100 baht each. We could buy any kind of food we wanted but we couldn't go over our budget. Most of us succeeded! We also want to thank Foodland for offering us snacks and drinks at the end of the activity. It was very nice of them. We really enjoyed the trip and hope to go there again.

Grade 9 DRAMA The Grade 9G and 9N presented their first high school drama to a large audience. They took on their interpretations of Greek mythology and put their creative dialogues in their presentation. The acting was great and their confidence on stage was quite impressive. Congratulations to the students for a job well done.

Model United Nations (MUN)

By: Aeron, Grade 10G

The Model UN is a meeting of delegates from all around the world, representing their countries, to debate on world issues, and to vote for the passing of a resolution made and sponsored by other delegates. Then, looking at each resolution, we looked for errors or problems each solution may or may have, and then vote for the best resolution for a problem. Our students from Niva participated in this event for the first time, met new people, and learned a lot of new things from the event. There may have been some mistakes made, but we learned a lot of new thing from the experience. Hopefully, we will be able to return to next year’s MUN with the lessons that we have gained from this years experience and be much more ready for next time.

NIVA’s BEST for the month of APRIL & MAY 2017

GOLD AWARDS

This page is to honor the students who worked extra hard. The students who scored 3.75 and above on their final GPA for the third quarter were awarded with a Gold Award certificate.

Congratulations on a FANTASTIC third quarter!!!!

Grade 1

Mary Irene Itchayatikan (Irene)

Nitchakhun Khamsrikaew (PP) Grade 4

Thitirat Boonserm (Pingpong)

Pichaya Viwatassawin (Ming) Grade 6

Chutikarn Kanchanaart (Ujean)

Milin Udomsaph (Milin)

Tansiri Praditphonlert (Ninja)

Plaifa Tachapahapong (Pei-Pei)

Parisa Charoensook (Paris)

Kunapas Sumpunwetchakul (Kimnite)

MengHan Li (Linda) Grade 7

Bipasa Pradhan (Nanu)

Sanjana Subrahmanyan (Sanju)

Yixian Isaac Tan (Isaac) Grade 9

Kulchat Harnchanpanich (Kaopunn)

Thanita Kaninanant (Palmy)

Punyapa Leephokanon (Angie)

Samkisha Subrahmanya (Sonu)

Chayanid Mattapongsri (Drive)

Narika Pramunwong (Moma)

USA HOLIDAY ON SONGKRAN BREAK

By Aeron, Grade 10G

The best Songkran vacation is from the Chatvisuta family. Dada (G10) and Mell (G11) made a VLOG about their recent trip to New York, USA from April 10-17. It was their first time to go there and they had a wonderful experience. The video is all about their travels.

Click HERE or copy/paste the link in your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Q2Z_n63_A

By: Angie, Grade 9N

Grade 10

Piruda Chatvisuta (Dada)

Isabelle Yitong Tan (Belle)

Aeron Jan role De Guzman (Aeron)

Natasong Yuan (Jiawei)

Cyrel Clark Licardo Leano (Cyrel)

Nattamon Panichakul (Petch)

Sireeporn Laohabutr (Name)

Kamolchan Tongthiraj (Moon)

Ching-Lin Lee (Pei Pei)

Parichaya Leartvichayagamon (Nippon) Grade 11

Karitha Kongkhasai (Bonus)

Arina Sangphadung (Phia)

Puvis Thongthanomkul (Saab)

Nutaya Pimolsaengsuriya (Beamy)

Nuttavan Teevaranone (Lek)

Melada Chatvisuta (Mell)

Nuz Wattanaphakaseam (Peaky)

Maylin Cerf Catherine (Maylin)

Chanakan Rojanapenkul (Mimi)

Korawin Phagudom (Jazz) Grade 12

Pacharapus Khoomsyn (Tus)

Min Jeong Kim (Min)

Somsri Dumrongruxsoontorn (Pingping)

Puttinart Krungkraipetch (Perth)

Elamarie Carmel Dante Mission (Carmel)

Dome Bharinagul (Dome)

*Click the thumbnail to watch the video:

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NIVA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

18 Soi Phokaew 3, Yaek 9. Klong Chan, Ladprao 101, Bangkapi, Bangkok, 10240 Thailand

Tel: 02-948-4605-7