ISF Newsletter January 2023

THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF FLORENCE NEWSLETTER , January 2023

Editor-in-Chief

Tanya Bruckner

Editor

Nicola Pender

Design and layout

Tess Hitchcock

Printer

Tipografia Color Print

ISF alumni, families, faculty, and friends are welcomed and encouraged to submit ideas and articles for consideration.

Inquiries may be addressed to: communications@isfitaly.org

www.isfitaly.org

FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

SHARYN BADDELEY

Welcome back to school and to the new year 2023. I hope you all had a joyful break and are ready to be back at school. January starts the time when we see the most growth from our students because they know what to expect from their teachers, they are back in the habit of working at school and all the instructional pieces start to fit together. This year will be no exception. I am looking forward to how much our students grow between now and spring. You can help by making sure your child gets enough sleep each night and exercises each day. Consistency also has a huge positive impact on children. If your life is busy like mine, a calendar will help so that your children know what activities are planned for each day and it will also help them feel settled because they know what to expect.

We have a very busy term ahead with many events and activities planned.

Please make contact with me if you have any queries or questions.

Best wishes,

Sharyn Baddeley

BOARD SPOTLIGHT

MARCO FAZZINI, TREASURER

Name: Marco Fazzini

Children and grades: Cesare in Grade 6 and Giacomo in Grade 3

Profession: Full Professor of Business Administration at the European University in Rome and the founder of an advisory firm.

Years on the Board: 2 years

What is your role on the Board: Treasurer (hard work, but someone has to do it…)

How would you describe ISF in 3 words? Inclusive, future-oriented, and value-driven.

What is your favorite part of campus? Either, or both! Both campuses. And also the [campus] to come.

What makes ISF unique? The fact that students feel at home, with an open window to the world.

Where do you see ISF in the future? ISF must increasingly focus on program excellence to become a benchmark both locally and internationally. Looking at what has been done over the past 70 years, I would say that ISF is on the right track.

PARTNERSHIPS WITH FLORENCE

NICOLA PENDER DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT

Why are partnerships so important to ISF?

One of the many things that appealed to us as a family moving to ISF was the range of partners with which the school worked. From field trips to concerts, sports matches to museums, the students and the wider community greatly benefit from interacting with the wide range of organizations.

Partnerships can help to increase our knowledge and expertise, as well provide fun and exciting opportunities to try different things! Schools that have active partnerships with businesses are offering experiences to their students to extend the classroom into the community, providing better learning outcomes for students.

Part of my role at ISF is to increase the number and variety of school partnerships that the school has. ISF has been an important part of Florence for 70 years and we want to be fully involved with the city and beyond, meeting and learning from organizations across every sector of society.

If you or your organization might be willing to partner with ISF on a project please contact me via n.pender@isfitaly.org.

Please see the next page for one of our monthly articles in the Florentine, a partnership we have established to showcase the school to the wider community.

UPPER SCHOOL SPORTS

STEFANO FRIGERIO COMPETITIVE SPORTS COORDINATOR

We hope you enjoyed a great start of the new year with your family. In this January Newsletter I would like to wrap up an eventful and joyful first trimester at the Physical and Health Education department and in the Competitive Sports program.

We see these first months of action as the start of a path in the development of active individuals equipped with the knowledge and experience to make healthy choices in life.

During our first unit we dwelled into Invasion games and the main skills, rules and strategies involved with playing the game. In a panorama where many athletes tend to specialise in one sport early in their life we take a whole approach where students get to learn and practice new different skills and experience the same path to success in different games. We believe strongly in sports as a way to learn about new cultures and our multicultural department is a great representation of it. Each teacher brings a different skillset and background but shares a common approach to learning and positive thinking.

The anonymous survey that students were invited to fill at the end of the trimester showed an overall very positive feedback from students who generally appreciated the balance between the training of the skills through drills and the game time with our interclass tournaments. Our tournaments, a hit throughout all grades, will be back in the next weeks to get new chances to our bright students to shine.

At ISF we see the athletic department as a fundamental part of the school identity and a tool for the development of the student character. During these months we celebrated many chances for our young athletes had to match up against

fellow international school student and to train with some knowledgeable personnel. We have already scheduled games for the next months and we are looking into new options to participate in sports tournament and games abroad.

We are also introducing new teams into our programs, with the MS and HS Padel team as well as the MS and HS Tennis team. We are also glad to announce that we will offer American flag football for MS boy & girls and we are hoping for many new students to get involved with the Cinghiali!

We also want to take the chance to remind the students of the importance of committing to the teams you choose to guarantee a good number of students and better trainings and ultimately we want to thank the parents who are in the first line and manage the logistics of multiple children every day.

Even though we know many of you live in highly active households but we like to remind the importance for all the members to partake in physical activity of any type every day.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year.

JUNIOR SCHOOL SPORTS

GEMMA IANNONE JUNIOR SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER

At the Junior School the PE team along with the sports council have held many exciting initiatives to encourage competition and opportunities to compete in the community. From the beginning of the year when we had our first unit for Grades 4 and 5. Gaia and Iris won the Grade 4 tournament and the team of Tommaso, Jennifer, Eric and Zoya won the Grade 5 tournament.

Fitness Testing

The fitness test which is completed 3 times throughout the year saw a new record for the 1-minute jump rope fall that was previously held by Teà in 2018 beaten by Kate in Grade 4. The grade 5 girls’ record was equalled by Jennifer which is a record that is now jointly held by Emily from 2019.

The fastest, strongest and most resistant of Florence

In November 40 students from Grade 4, Grade 3 and the sports councilors joined many other schools from Florence to take part in the yearly event that supports the Firenze Maratona. The events were vortex throw (forte), 50m sprint (veloce) and 500m (resistente). ISF students did a great job and a special mention to the students that placed in the top 6 of each category.

1st Jennifer Votex throw

1st Claudio 500m run

2nd Balthazar Vortex throw

2nd Jacob 500m

3rd Kinsley 50m

4th Gaia 500m

6th Alessandro 50m

ISF placed in the top 5 schools

Firenze Marathon

On Sunday 27th November it was a beautiful morning to run in the streets of Florence for the Ginky Family Run. We had a great turn out from ISF students and families and ISF won 4th place in the number of participants winning €150 for the school.

ASSI Cross Country

Saturday 16th December the ASSI held the yearly cross country run for students in Grades 2 - 5. The small team made a big impact with:

Lucia 1st and Anita 5th for the girls Grades 2 and 3

Mia 5th place girls Grades 4 and 5

ISF came in 4th overall!

REGGIO CHILDREN

Anna Maria Bevilacqua and Bianca Papafava spent time in the Spring term last year attending a workshop at the Reggio Children - Loris Malaguzzi International Centre. Here are their reflections on their experience.

The three days we have spent in Reggio Emilia at Reggio Children - Loris Malaguzzi International Centre - were an immersion in beauty. By beauty we mean that of nature, that of children, of presence, of amazement at small things, that of attention to detail and awareness of the whole.

The Loris Malaguzzi International Centre is located near the station in the old industrial area of the city, in the middle of a green, tree-lined park. The building that houses it has been renovated combining tradition and innovation. In the large entrance hall, which also hosts the cafeteria, pass parents with their children, students, trainees, teachers, researchers and curious people from all over the world. Children from 6 to 10 years old make their way to their primary school classes or to the canteen. From the same hall, it’s possible to access the library (a wonderland for us!), the exhibition spaces (where we can see the projects made by the children), the workshops (clay, photography, paper, graphics, digital landscapes...), and the room dedicated to study groups.

Our three days are in fact not a course but we are, all together from all over the world, a study group. The welcome we receive is Emilian; frank, impeccable and familiar. The first thing we learn is that Reggio Children is not a method, not a technique, it is an ever-evolving educational approach that can inspire and enrich our own.

The Reggio Children approach is unique because of the collaboration that has been established since the war between the city, the municipal administration, families, teachers and

children. Reggio Children involves all the public, state-run and private infant-toddler centres and preschools in Reggio Emilia. Generations and generations of children spend the most significant years of their lives in a context designed for them that pervades the entire community in the area.

The most exciting part is the visit to the schools in the afternoon: a further plunge into beauty, care, and the educating community. We are welcomed by coordinators, teachers, assistants, cooks (and succulent snacks from the school kitchen, where everything is prepared fresh, from bread to vegetables, often in collaboration with the children). Each of our hosts answers our questions with enthusiasm and good sense. The spaces are set up with care and practicality: nature, digital, books, colours, wood, paper, clay are omnipresent... an infinity of cues and ideas to experiment with for our children!

Throughout the study group we compare ourselves, we ask questions, we continually note the commonalities between the Reggio Children Approach and our school and the PYP - the content, the goals, the process to achieve them, are unquestionably the same. Inevitably doubts and discouragement arise: how much of this do we manage to put into practice in the daily rhythm, confronting fatigue, our own limitations, large groups, and the objective challenges of an international community like ISF?

We leave with these questions, with beauty in our eyes and with the desire to put an avalanche of ideas into practice.

And once back at school, in May and June - normally the most tiring and stressful period, when like the children, you can’t wait for the holidays to come- for us, we saw more beauty around us, we knew how to appreciate and enhance it.

Ideas became experiments, every day bringing an interesting

ANNA MARIA BEVILACQUA AND BIANCA PAPAFAVA EARLY YEARS AND FOUNDATION TEACHERS

challenge. The days challenge turned into another day to get to the bottom of a process, to have real dialogue with the children. Stretching into another day, it became the start of a project. School became a great learning group and where it ended, it could have continued!

And now - in the next academic year - we continue, resuming after a summer rest, the challenges begin again with new children, new families, new and old colleagues, with 70 years of ISF community and Reggio Emilia in our hearts.

LITERACY

You may have noticed one of the Junior School’s strategic goals is: To continue the journey adopting and adapting best practices from the TCRWP to enhance our Literacy approach in collaboration with Tonya Gilchrist. If you have a child at the Junior School, you may have heard them talking about Readers or Writers workshop, but you may not know what the acronym stands for, or why we are adopting this approach at the Junior School.

The Teachers College Readers and Writers Project was founded by Lucy Calkins in 1981 originally designed to increase the amount of writing in classrooms, through the use of texts as models for writing. Later this focus widened to include reading and support for all components of balanced literacy.

At the Junior School we use the Teachers College Units of Study in Phonics for Foundation to Grade 2 and the Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop Units of Study in Foundation through to Grade 5. The common aim of the workshop model is to help young people become avid and skilled readers, writers and inquirers.

Each unit within the curriculum provides students with instruction, opportunities for practice, and concrete, achievable goals so they can progress toward being proficient, joyful readers and writers, as well as so they can meet and exceed high standards for reading and writing. Each unit is structured into several bends that are woven into class units of inquiry, transferring students’ learning across the curriculum and throughout their lives. Many of the reading and writing skills unfold in a similar way across units and across grade levels, each time increasing in complexity.

The workshop model uses a predictable routine which starts with a brief minilesson by the teacher. Minilessons offer explicit instruction in skills and strategies that students can add to their toolbox. Then students are given work time where they practice reading and writing and are able to draw upon the strategies they have developed across each unit. While students work independently, teachers use data, from assessments and observations, to work with students in individual conferences or in small groups as needed to meet all students’ needs. Each session ends with a share, bringing the community of learners back together again.

Over the course of the last 3 years, our staff has participated in summer institutes, conference days and study groups led by the TCRWP on the implementation of best-practice literacy curriculum; studying their students’ growth and adapting instruction based on our context as a PYP school.

This year, we have also been supported by Tonya Gilchrist, who is an international learning strategist and expert in both the TCRWP and PYP curriculum. She specializes in helping schools around the world amplify inquiry and honor agency for deep learning and transfer across languages, literacies, and disciplines. Tonya is working with the whole staff and students to maximize the learning potential between the workshop model and our existing curriculum.

Through our renewed focus on literacy this year, we have seen students’ enthusiasm for reading and writing soar and there is a tangible buzz around school each time we have a publishing party or unit celebration.

NICKY SHAMASH AND MAGGIE SALERNO VICE PRINCIPAL OF LEARNING AND GRADE 1 TEACHER

LIBRARY AND ICT

Since the first day of the school year, the ICT Integrator and the Librarian have desired to collaborate. The main goal for the school library is the Information Literacy Media program, where we teach students how to find, select, evaluate and use effectively the information that they need for their learning process. The ICT program also deals with these topics, so we designed a set of lessons called “The Information Blocks.” From October to December 2022, we have delivered the following three blocks:

I-BLOCK: Discovering the Library Resources

S-BLOCK: Finding Information

O-BLOCK: Referencing

We have been in 27 classes, addressing 383 students. We intend to continue with the Blocks this semester, adding the T-BLOCK on Academic Writing to the set.

But we did not stop there. Since we enjoy working together and are both very creative individuals, we continued our collaboration. With the help of the IT Department and Massimo Boscherini, the Science Lead, we have created a “Maker Space” in the library. A space for students to be creative and innovative with different resources, like a 3D printer, a sewing machine, and materials, like paints or origami paper. They can freely enjoy this space during breaks or with their class. We are expecting the delivery of a green screen for filming videos, and we have just received a pin machine!

To celebrate the opening of the Maker Space, the ICT Integrator planned the “Hour of Code Week,” inviting students from

grades 6 to 8 to disassemble a computer and understand how it works. It was a success.

On the other hand, for Christmas, we offered “Christmas Crafts in the Library” with a Christmas card and origami decorations work-shop, and a Short Christmas Movies festival on the big screen, another way to promote the Maker Space among the students and allow them to discover the multiple possibilities of this corner.

For this new semester, we have different projects in mind. We will continue delivering lessons with the Information Blocks. We want to set up a Media Club as part of the ECA program. Students will be able to create videos, record a podcast, etc. For Valentine’s Day, we will make cards with lights. We want to create a website where we can upload all the digital resources and materials we are using in the Information Blocks program for students to access at all times and for classes to upload good sources of information for different subjects. The Maker Space will be our primary focus, and we want it to be dynamic and frequently used by the students and staff alike.

YASEMIN YALCINKAYA AND RAQUEL CECCONELLO ICT INTEGRATION SPECIALIST AND UPPER SCHOOL LIBRARIAN

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

DAVID BOOTH LEARNING LEAD FOR INDIVIDUALS & SOCIETIES

With the relaxation of coronavirus regulations in Italy, the Individuals and Societies Department set out to provide our Middle School students with a range of experiential learning experiences, aimed at educating them outside of the classroom walls and helping to reinforce what they’re learning in class. The Florence area is a gem for the social studies student and our aim is to ensure that our students have a uniquely Florentine experience, using not only the classroom, but also the locale as a laboratory for learning and cultivating their growth through meaningful and inspiring learning experiences.

In November 2022, Grade 6 visited Boboli Gardens with a range of measuring equipment in order to create a scaled map of a small portion of the gardens with a focus on how maps can provide us with a sense of time, place & space. In December, the Grade 6 International and Italian program social studies students weathered the Florentine winter as they explored the Fiesole Archaeological Site as part of an investigation into civilizations. Students took the role of historians by examining change and innovation as demonstrated through the ancient ruins of the site. They considered how civilizations have developed, bringing about change and innovation that often influence how we view them today whilst being tasked with considering how historical sites such as this could be better protected for the future? Grade 7 will soon be examining the identity and development of past societies by investigating the center of Florence, drawing on the perspectives of the people who lived there whilst Grade 9 have recently returned from The Museo del Tessuto, examining how innovations in science and technology can lead to revolutionary changes in the way we live and work.

These experiences are an integral part of Individuals and Societies approach to inquiry based learning, affording students the opportunity for speculating, exploring, questioning and connecting, where teachers challenge students to learn to work independently, as well as collaboratively through site visits. Experiential learning helps students foster a love for learning and a greater appreciation of their surroundings, whilst encouraging them to respect and understand the world around them, equipping them with the necessary skills to inquire into historical, geographical, political, social, economic, and cultural factors that affect individuals, societies and environments.

ISF CLASS OF 2023 EARLY ACCEPTANCES

Binghampton University SUNY

Butler University

Cambridge University

Colorado School of Mines

ESCP Business School

Hofstra University

IE University

Loyola Marymount University

LUISS

Marymount Manhattan College

Maastricht University

New York University

Northeastern University London

Oklahoma State University

Pace University

Politecnico

Santa Clara University

St. John’s University

Southern Methodist University

University of Bath

University of Bristol

University of California Berkeley

University of Edinburgh

University of Manchester

University Pennsylvania

University of St. Andrews

University of Southampton

University of Southern California

Villanova University

Yale University

DP VISUAL ARTS

THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING

FESTIVAL OF SONG

PUFFS PERFORMANCE

STAFF CAROLING

CHINESE NEW YEAR

UPCOMING PARENT EVENTS

Congratulations! Irene gave birth on 10/10/2022 to Nico Javarone Romeo at 1:35pm.