ISF's Monthly Newsletter - February 2016

eISF

The Newsletter of the International School of Florence

CAS Creativity - Activity - Service February 2016 - Volume 46

HEAD OF SCHOOL MESSAGE Dear Parents of ISF, I hope that you and your children had an opportunity to relax and spend some time together over the past week. With the flu season behind us (fingers crossed), and the temperatures rising as we head into March, energy levels at school are running high again.

Spirit Week - Opposite Day

ISF is lucky enough to share this beautiful city with a UNICEF research center. Located in the former Ospedale degli Innocenti, where abandoned infants and children were cared for for over five centuries, the research center continues a long tradition of focusing on the wellbeing of children. One area of current research is the place of the internet in the lives of young people today. Unfortunately, a parental view of this topic often revolves around the issues of ‘too much time’ and ‘too many risks’. In early March, we will be running a pilot event at the Upper School, with UNICEF researchers, high school students and parents, to open up discussion and share data about what we know, believe and think about the role of the internet in young people’s lives today.

Another March event that high school students are looking forward to is the Student Forum, one day of educational talks and activities organized entirely by the Student Council. Students will have an opportunity to experience learning in a slightly different way. The aim is to provide students with the chance to focus on topics that are of current interest, outside of the standard structure of the scheduled classroom day.

Looking back, just before the winter break, the Junior School enjoyed a week of celebrations based on the multiple nationalities and cultures that populate our school. Whether watching (in wide-eyed awe) a Chinese New Year lion dance, or appreciating a fabulous intercontinental food fair, or thinking about the cultures and nations that combine to make each of us unique, International Week allowed us to highlight what makes attending school here extra special.

Finally, the pages of this edition of the newsletter also focus on a constant here at ISF, our Community/ Activity and Service (CAS) program. A fundamental part of what we want our students to learn is the importance of looking beyond the confines of self. Each student is asked to use his or her interests, talents and opportunities for growth to positively impact the world around us – be that local or global, within the walls of our villas, in the gardens and streets of Florence, or beyond, reaching communities in other parts of the world.

For more information about weekly events at the Junior and Upper Schools, I invite you to consult our website every Friday.

With best wishes, Debra Williams “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” - Einstein

News from the School Board The search for a new Upper School campus continues. While Villa I Cedri in Bagno a Ripoli remains a valid possibility and is under study, the Facilities Committee recently conducted further site visits of available properties for rent or sale around Florence. We expect to have an updated report to staff and families in the spring, where other options and strategies will be shared.

As always, the Board welcomes any suggestions and feedback. Please go to the website and click on the online suggestion box. Tell us if you know of a great property that is going to be available for sale or for rent. Tell us what is most important to you about school facilities. Help us flesh out the dream for the ISF of the future!

Are you following us? facebook.com/isf.florence - twitter.com/isf_florence - instagram.com/isf_florence - flickr.com/photos/isf-florence

CAS - Busajo Ethiopia Everything started with a pair of socks and finished with 30 happy children. In the days before the Christmas vacation the EAL 6 and 7 classes organized a ‘Sock Exchange’, when everybody had to bring a pair of socks for a friend and one that would be donated to Busajo.

What is Busajo? Busajo is a charity in Ethiopia that saves many children from poverty and from living on the streets. Lucia Montanarini, one of the co-founders of the project, came to speak to us about what they do, in order to tell us where these socks were actually going. She told us that Busajo is the name of a man who was one of the first children to be helped by the organization; he was found as a young boy looking after other street children. The word Busajo is an Amharic word that means “The one who can see into the future”. Through generous donations, the organization has built a school, houses where the children live, a football field, and volleyball and basketball courts. The boys are taught technical skills, while the girls are taught homemaking skills which will help them in the future. There is a vegetable garden on the campus, where the children work to produce vegetables which are used in the kitchen. Four of the children have already gone to university. As Lucia said, “We don’t give the children money; we give them an education in order to give them the opportunity to have a future.” “Don’t give them the fish, give them the fishing line and teach them how to catch fish.”

The Busajo association is something that I like, and I hope it will continue to grow. I hope that it will help not only the Ethiopian children, but even many other kids who are left on the streets all over the world.

(Compilation of several articles written by students in EAL 7)

http://www.busajo.org/en/index.html

CAS Week 2016

During CAS Week, January 25 – January 29, students were given the choice of working in the following places: ISF Junior School, ISF Upper School, Angeli Del Bello, Oxfam, Camp Darby Library, Busajo. The students carried out duties, working under a supervisor, and wrote daily reflections on their experiences. The following are ‘snippets’ from their reflections: • I understood the importance of time in these 5 days. We shouldn’t spend time on unnecessary things …

• I strongly felt adults’ responsibility in having to take care of everything.

• I managed to improve my sense of responsibility, increase my patience and improve my multi-tasking skills.

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CAS Week was fabulous. I understood the importance of time and responsibility in those days. It was different and unforgettable.

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CAS Week was interesting and showed me how the library is run.

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During CAS week I spent my time helping people. Even though I didn’t earn money, I got something better – an emotional reward that paid for everything!

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I learned why people follow their hobby, because that hobby makes them feel happy.

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Very interesting to learn how Oxfam Italia operates, and what they do for people in need of help. It also stimulated reflections on the unequal sharing of resources.

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I understood the importance of responsibility and organization. It was fun, educational and unforgettable.

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It made me understand how important sports are in everyday life for students.

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CAS Week was fun, informative and fatiguing! A good kind of fatigue though, like I had done something beneficial!

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CAS Week was very enjoyable because I enjoyed working physically in such a wonderful area.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking not only the students for their hard and enthusiastic work, but also the Supervisors of the various activities who sent reviews on how the students had executed their duties. We look forward to another successful CAS Week next year.

Sue Yiannakis, CAS Coordinator

CAS Week at the Junior School

CAS - Angeli per un Giorno On Sunday, February 7th, a few students from the International School of Florence along with Mrs.Vieillard, the French teacher, came forward to help out at the Carnival event for Angeli per un Giorno at the Junior School. This program allows for ISF students to encounter children coming from difficult backgrounds and staying in local institutes.

The children seemed to have a wonderful time with the variety of activities in which they could move from one to the other depending on what they liked. There were many choices, such as: music, drawing, dancing, dressing up, face painting and fun sports, all led by the students. At the end of the day the children enjoyed a snack that was distributed by the students and financed through a big bake sale at school. The money also allowed us to buy arts and crafts.

It was a genuinely enjoyable and valuable afternoon for all of us. At the beginning the children might have seemed closed and shy but the students showed them positivity and care and they eventually opened up. These events really helped me and the other students understand more about how lucky we are and how unfortunate some children can be. We are all looking forward to the next event, just to have another chance to make these children's life a bit brighter!! Julia Antonioli, Grade 9

THIMUN 2016 - An unforgettable Experience Every January, The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN), one of the world’s biggest MUNs, is held in the World Forum Convention Center situated in The Hague, Netherlands. Around 3500 students from across the globe participate in a simulation of the United Nations, where they represent delegations of multiple countries and debate solutions for global issues.

This year, ISF was assigned the delegation of Portugal and throughout the week, my classmates and I debated topics, such as measures to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), through the eyes of a Portuguese diplomat. I was fortunate enough to represent the Ambassador of Portugal where I had the honor to hold and wave the Portuguese flag in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies among other Ambassadors.

It has been a truly rewarding experience to meet so many people from around the world, to passionately discuss international affairs and to see so many adolescents try to make the world a better place. Not only have we made memories (or, as we call it, MUNmories), but we have also developed our public speaking skills and our confidence, and blossomed as young, global citizens. THIMUN 2016, among the other MUNs I’ve attended, will always be an unforgettable experience. By Kathryn Randene, Grade 11

Grade 12 - Speed Dating Math

The grade 12 Mathematical Studies class spent some time doing a mathematical version of speed dating; one partner helping another to solve a problem in 3 minutes before moving on. The session was so successful that some students arranged to carry on in their own time.

Preparing for the Gala

Our Parent Association is already in full gear to organise yet another successful fundraiser gala.

The exciting theme this year will be Masquerade Ball and we can’t wait to inform you about more details in due time. The website www.isfgala.org will soon be up and running.

Spanish Grade 9 - An Alumni Visit La Visita de Marjorie Llosa-Larrabure Hace tres semanas, durante la clase de Español del grado 9, Marjorie Llosa-Larrabure, una ex estudiante de nuestra escuela, vino para hablar de su libro. El título es The Last Petal on the Daisy, y cuando ella empezó el libro, era para mantener vivo sus recuerdos. Pero se volvió un cuento de ficción que responde a algunas preguntas importantes: ¿Cómo se puede salir adelante cuando pierdes las cosas que te definen? ¿Cómo se puede continuar cuando pierdes las personas más importantes para ti? Es una hisstoria muy personal, un cuento que va a tirar los sentimientos de quien está leyendo. Para mí era muy interesante escuchar a Marjorie; no solamente mientras estaba hablando por el libro, pero también cuando estaba hablando de su tiempo estudiando en nuestra escuela. Es muy estimulante si puedes ver a un ex estudiante, una persona que estaba en tus zapatos, y ver a esta persona encontrar mucho éxito. Entonces, para concluir, quiero agradecer a Marjorie por su visita a nuestra clase, y también a las otras clases. Espero qué tu vayas a continuar explorando tu talento, y quiero decir que todos de nosotros al ISF estamos muy orgullosos y felices por ti. Felicitaciones por todo.

Three weeks ago, during a Grade 9 Spanish class, Marjorie Llosa-Larrabure, a former student here at our school, came to discuss her new book. It is called The Last Petal on the Daisy, and when she began writing it, the book was a memoir. However it evolved into a work of fiction, one that answers several key questions; how can you cope with the loss of the things that define you? How do you continue when you lose the people most important to you? It is a very intimate story, a tale that will pull at the heartstrings of the readers. For me personally it was very interesting to listen to Marjorie; not only while she discussed her book, but also while she talked about her time at our school. It is very inspiring to see a former student, someone who was in my shoes, go on to find great success. So to conclude, I’d like to extend my gratitude towards Marjorie for her visit to our classes, and to the other classes as well. Marjorie, I hope you will continue to explore your talent, and I want to say, from all of us at ISF, that we are very proud and happy for you. Congratulations on everything. By Sebastian Culpepper

IB ENGLISH - MYSTERY GUEST Sculpting in Florence The mystery guest who appeared in the IB English B class on Friday, February 5 was interviewed by the students, and turned out to be: Jason Arkles, who landed in Florence by accident in 1996 after having been a street artist for a while in Paris. “Being a street artist is almost like being homeless.” says Mr. Arkles with a smile on his face.

Jason now has his own independent studio in Florence where he spends 14 hours a day sculpting pieces on request. He went on to explain how being a sculptor requires much more than just the artistic side of it: he has worked as a plumber in order to make functional fountains. I asked him whether he had achieved his goal, or if there was something else that he wanted to do. He told me, “I don’t want to do anything else ‘cause this is what I love doing and there is so much more I want to learn.”

Florence might be one of the best places in the world in which to be a sculptor, and Mr. Arkles is the only American to have a permanent, visible, life-sized marble piece on display on the streets of Florence. The statue of St. Mark can be admired outside the church of St. Mark in Via Maggio.

Jason has a sense of humor and is an incredible artist with a passion for what he does. “As long as I can survive by doing this, I won’t stop.” By Kristian Line, Grade 12

Einstein's right again: Scientists detect ripples in gravity Science explained We now live in a universe that we know is humming with gravitational waves. This month the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Washington D.C. made the historic announcement that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) had proved a key component of Albert Einstein’s general relativity. We asked Science Teacher Massimo Boscherini to brake it down for us: ‘You throw a stone in the pond: as the stone hits the surface, ripples are formed that move radially outwards, becoming larger in witdth but smaller in height. A leaf, floting on the water a few metres away, bobs up and down for a few seconds, then is still again. As we observe that leaf, we have evidence of something that disturbed the water, and we might even reconstruct what event caused its movement.

Now imagine to replace the stone with two black holes, orbiting around each other and, within 10 seconds, spiralling and merging into a single, larger, black hole. In an instant, this event produced more energy than all of the stars in the Universe at the same time.

The result was a huge ripple in the space-time continuum, as predicted by Albert Einstein exactly 100 years ago. This ripple, that stretched and compressed the fabric of space and time, travelled for more than one billion years, becoming fainter and fainter, until it hit two very sensitive instruments, the gravitational waves detectors of the LIGO experiment in the US. They bobbed, and became still again. And by analising the data of the two detectors, scientists were able to reconstruct this cosmic cataclism that occured when our Earth was home of simple uni- and pluricellular organisms.

It is said that the most astounding fact of the Universe is that we can understand it. The detection of gravitational waves opens a new era of exploration of the cosmos. From Galileo's telescope, which proved that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe, to Penzias and Wilson use of radio waves to detect the echo of the Big Bang, each technological advance is helping us understand what the Universe is made of, how it originated, how it evolved and eventually how it will come to an end, if any.’

Junior School - PYP Evaluation Visit

Five years ago the International School of Florence, Junior School was re-evaluated by the International Baccalaureate Organization. Based on the results of that evaluation, we were granted permission to continue implement of the Primary Years Programme for another five years. As these five years are coming to a close; our next evaluation visit is due and will take place in mid March 2016.

This evaluation process will evaluate how well the Junior School adheres to the “Practices and Standards” outlined by the IBO for the Primary Years Programme. These standards address every aspect of a school: Philosophy; Leadership and Structure; Resources and Support; Collaborative Planning; Written Curriculum; Teaching and Learning; and Assessment. If you are interested in knowing more about the PYP, please go to the IBO.org website – and look at the Primary Years Programme.

In preparation for this evaluation visit the staff and faculty at the Junior School began a “Self-Study” in March of 2014. The “Self-Study” is a very arduous process through which the staff reflects on every aspect of the school to assess our strengths and weaknesses in relation to the “Practices and Standards” established by IBO for the Primary Years Programme. The staff has worked very diligently to complete our Self-Study. It was submitted to the IBO in December 2015. It is submitted in advance of the evaluation visit so the evaluators have an opportunity to read how we have evaluated our performance prior to their visiting our school.

The results of this visit will be very useful to us, as it will be the foundation for our Five-Year-ActionPlan. The Evaluation Report will provide clear direction to us on how to improve and solidify best practices as IB World School implementing the Primary Years Programme. So although the Self-Study process is time consuming, and was at times frustrating, it is an invaluable part of our self-reflection as a school as we strive to improve and strengthen our program. This Self-Study is also one of the major sources of information on which the IBO will rely when providing us with recommendations on how to continuing improving the educational experiences we provide to your children.

By Melissa Rossini, PYP Coordinator

Grade 5 - UNICEF INSIGHTS Catherine Maternowska, Caleb Cameron’s mom, spoke with the fifth graders about her work as Child Protection Specialist with UNICEF.

Grade 4 - Ancient Civilisations

The Greek team and the Egyptian team presented their research on Ancient Civilisations. The Greeks made a newspaper and the Egyptians a powerpoint presentation. Both teams did a great job.

REPORT GIVING CEREMONY AT THE JUNIOR SCHOOL Martin Donnellan personally handed out the mid-year comprehensive reports to the students.

JS Library - Once upon a time…

In February Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen sent snow and icicles to the Junior School library.

Prekindergarten children braved the freezing conditions and learnt all about how the Snow Queen spirited Kay away to her ice palace. They also learned about how his friend Gerda travelled to the Snow Queen’s land to rescue him and how she melted his heart with her tears of love. The children realized that the story had many similarities with another story where a young girl, Anna, goes on a quest to rescue her sister, Elsa, who has used her powers to shut herself away in her ice palace. In the end after accidentally turning her sister in to frozen ice, Elsa’s tears of true love bring Anna back to life. Can you guess this story inspired by Andersen’s Snow Queen? April Child, JS Librarian

Paul Cook - ICT / Dean of Students How many years have you worked at ISF and what is your earliest memory?

I began teaching full time at the American School of Florence in 1987. I was the Physical Education teacher to students in grades 1 to 12. Student numbers were obviously much smaller than what they currently are at ISF. We may have had about 12 students in each grade then.

Please explain your current role at ISF to us.

I teach two classes, ICT 10 and IB Information Technology in a Global Society. I am also Dean of Students which includes various non-academic responsibilities as well as all scheduling for students and teachers and supporting teachers with any student disciplinary issues.

How has the school changed since you started?

The school started off as the American School of Florence and then its name changed to the American International School of Florence when the International Baccalaureate program was introduced to the school and then the American part of the name was dropped with the school name becoming the International School of Florence. From a school of 120 students I have seen it grow to over 400! And moving the middle and high schools from Bagno a Ripoli to Viuzzo di Gattaia was a major change!

Your favourite ISF moment?

I have many favourite moments. One that stands out is the after school soccer club that was held every Friday afternoon at Bagno a Ripoli. We played in all weathers and quite often we played until we could no longer see the soccer ball as it got so dark! The Friday soccer club became a ritual for all who participated in it.

Who is your favourite hero of fiction?

I used to love watching Robin Hood on television (it was a series then) when I was a youngster. The idea of living in a beautiful forest and robbing the rich to give to the poor seemed so heroic, even though it was forbidden!


 Which living person do you most admire?

There are many people who can be admired today but one who strikes me as being a fantastic person is Pope Francis.

A person who is not afraid to tell the truth and who is not afraid of changing centuries' old traditions.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Winston Churchill is a great favourite of mine. A great leader in the face of adversity even though I don't really identify myself with him. Definitely a great person to look up to.

What is your motto?

'Just do it!' I like to get on with things rather than dither around and think about doing things.

Are you sportive?

I was Physical Education teacher at ISF for almost 20 years so I have had a good basis for keeping fit. I run with my dog every day in the mountains where I live. I am also very interested in following a number of sports especially rugby.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I'm not sure if perfect happiness can exist but being happy is a state of being which I strive for. It's important to enjoy one's job, have lots of interests to follow, be healthy mentally and physically and always try to help others as there are so many people in this world who need help.

Which quality do you admire most in a person?

Being emotionally intelligent is a quality which I admire in people. Keeping cool, calm and collected at all times is such an admirable quality.

Which book are you reading right now?

More than a book reader I like to read periodicals such as The Economist and various information technology periodicals.

Do you have an insider tip for Florence?

I have lived outside of Florence for many years now as I am a countryside person. I like the peace and tranquility of the non-urban areas. So, no insider tips for Florence from me.

What would you consider your greatest achievement?

One single greatest achievement is difficult to recall. Maybe staying healthy and not missing a day's work!

What advice would you have for all ISF students?

I have worked at this school for many years and I must say that I have enjoyed every day at ISF. This school is a great place to learn as the environment is so positive and friendly. Once a student leaves ISF they always tend to come back as it brings back so many warm memories for them. So, appreciate your stay at ISF!

European College Consortium A consortium of European colleges came to school to give a workshop to students in Grade 11 and to present an abbreviated college fair.

Drug Awareness - Parent Coffee Morning

Dr. Smorlesi, Clinical Toxicologist at the Careggi Hospital made a presentation to parents and High School students on “Substance use and abuse, cigarette smoking and alcohol abuse�.

Parent Association - Shrove Tuesday The PA organized a delicious pancake sale to raise funds for the MS Student Council Valentine’s Dance.

Extra-Curricular Clubs

Junior School International Week

Stay in the loop!

Basketball Go Boars Go!

Middle School Valentine’s Dance