Crossroads Issue 25: December 2015

25 DEC 2015 MIC(P) 131/08/2015

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pg 14 รท X WHY CO M M O N CO R E M ATH? pg 22 BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS FOR KIDS, FROM TEACHERS!

pg 38 NEVERLAND

A Singapore American School community service publication

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EDITOR’S NOTE/CONTENTS

TELLING THE RIGHT STORY You made it!

Congratulations on an unbelievable first semester. You did a lot. In fact, your first semester looked a little something like this: you met teachers at open house, worked with a Newbery Award winner, got healthy at the wellness conference, traveled abroad for Classroom Without Walls, hosted an Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools (IASAS) soccer exchange, hosted a Pulitzer Prize winner, had fun at the Parent Teacher Association BBQ, embraced diversity at UN Day, took your SATs, won an IASAS soccer championship, took a deep breath during fall break, ran away from zombies, performed at the 19th annual music festival, hosted another incredible TEDx event, gave Peter Pan some dance moves, hosted Yulefest and another holiday music collage, and now, finally, you can take another deep breath!

By Kyle Aldous Director of Communications

Whew.

There is always something happening here at SAS, and we’re working hard to make sure your unique stories are told. Read our best up-to-date event recaps and teacher features on the Perspectives blog on our school website. (sas.edu.sg/perspectives) Crossroads, our print magazine that you’re holding in your hands now, highlights features and articles about important topics in our community. This issue, we reveal more about common core math and professional learning communities.

We want to give you insight into topics that are important to the

direction of SAS, and a behindthe-scenes look at what is driving learning for your child.

In order to tell the right stories, we need your help. We love receiving story suggestions from students, families, and faculty. If you have a story idea, let us know by emailing communications@sas.edu.sg.

Our community is strengthened by the stories you share. If there is something regarding student learning, strategic plans, or anything else that you are curious about, let us know and we can get the story!

But for now, relax! Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year with your family and friends!

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EDITOR’S NOTE/CONTENTS

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From the superintendent

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Five Minutes

The learning environment

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Advancement

22

Elementary SCHOOL

26 27

HIGH SCHOOL

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ALUMNI

36 38

MIDDLE SCHOOL

BOOSTER club & PTA

CAMPUS SCENE

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From the Superintendent

CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND THE BLESSINGS OF LIVING INTERNATIONALLY

By Dr. Chip Kimball Superintendent

I love traveling with my wife, Cheryl. Her favorite part of travel is meeting new people, the more culturally diverse, the better. She smiles, says hello to anyone in any context, laughs, makes funny faces, and naturally breaks down any barriers with her demeanor and spirit. I am the benefactor of her antics, as once she breaks the ice, I love engaging in conversation and learning about others’ experiences, their life stories, and what has brought meaning to their lives.

Internationally, we are privileged to meet incredibly interesting people.

Sometimes they are nomads, and other times they are locals who have never left their community, but in all cases, they have a story to tell.

During fall break, Cheryl and I went on a dive trip to the Philippines.

We were excited to get into the groove of life on an island slightly less frenzied than Singapore, to explore the beauty and diversity of the marine life, and to learn more about the Philippines. We rented motorbikes one day to explore the island we were on and better understand the local scene. Cheryl, being a labor and delivery nurse for 25 years, asked where the babies are born, and we were soon invited to the village’s delivery clinic. She got to know the midwife and they talked about medical practice in the Philippines. The next day, Cheryl was asked to rush to the clinic for a delivery, and a few hours later had delivered a baby girl. The mother named the little girl Cheryl. Wow! As expatriates, we have unique opportunities to engage with people from all parts of the

world. We experience customs, celebrations, and cultures in an authentic way that wouldn’t be possible in our home countries.

These are the kinds of experiences we want for each and every student at SAS. We know that their worldviews will change when they do not see the world entirely through their domestic perspectives, but will see it much, much differently. This is a good thing.

As SAS families get ready to travel throughout the region and the world over the winter break, our students will interact with people from literally every corner of the globe. Our students are regularly in the Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, and all across Asia. They are seeing things and doing things that the majority of the world just doesn’t get to do. As a result, their experiences are shaping their thinking, their values, and their hearts, building worldviews and competencies that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

When the SAS team developed our desired student learning outcomes, we knew that academic competencies and skills would not be enough. Our staff and community made it clear that cultural competence should be a priority and would be a distinguisher for our school.

Importantly, cultural competence will be required for our students to be competitive in the increasingly connected global workplace.

What does it mean to be culturally competent? Through

the SAS curriculum and extended experiences, our students become aware of their own cultural values, beliefs, and perceptions, and then learn about the values, beliefs, and perceptions of others. As a result, they can better appreciate those around them and develop skills to interact with them effectively. Understanding leads to relationships, and relationships lead to meaningful interactions that can be significant both personally and professionally.

Being in a school with cultural diversity has always been an advantage for our students. We don’t need to be an expert in every culture to share the most important lessons of cultural diversity with our students, but having students with a high level of cultural awareness and competence is now key when working across borders and cultures. We have an enormous responsibility to ensure that our students develop cultural awareness and are engaged in acts of citizenship, not only within our school, but also as active members of our global community.

Our world needs critical thinkers, communicators, collaborators, and creators. Our students will be fully prepared to take on the world’s most complex challenges when they are also adept at maneuvering, understanding, and embracing the intricacies of our world’s diverse cultures.

Our classrooms offer daily experiences and opportunities to learn about our own and others’ traditions and cultures. From

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Chinese New Year celebrations in kindergarten to AsiaFest in second grade, and from service learning in middle school to Interim Semester in high school, our curriculum thoughtfully engages our students with their fellow global citizens in a way that promotes understanding and appreciation.

We are blessed to have the opportunity to regularly interact with citizens of other nations.

Our lives are so much richer for these rewarding interactions we have each day here in Singapore and throughout the world. Such interactions will make our students better people, and ultimately will make the world a better place.

From the Superintendent

“If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships: the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same

CULTURAL COMPETENCE Cultural competence requires the ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. Students gain an awareness of their own cultural worldview, cross cultural skills, and a positive attitude towards cultural differences.

world at peace.�

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Five minutes

MINUTES

WITH SUSAN SHAW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DEPUTY PRINCIPAL

By Sandhya Bala and Clara Fong Communications Interns

Sandy Bala is a junior at Singapore American School and a member of the SAS Communications and Alumni Relations Work Study Program. Sandy enjoys photography, writing, and traveling.

Susan Shaw is the elementary school deputy principal for fourth and fifth grade. Originally from New Zealand, Ms. Shaw has been living in Singapore for the past 16 years. She enjoys her role in the elementary school because she can help young children realize their potential. Having been a third grade teacher before, she has a good understanding of what students need at each grade level.

Learn more about Ms. Shaw below!

Clara Fong is a junior at Singapore American School and a member of the SAS Communications and Alumni Relations Work Study Program. Clara enjoys reading about current events, eating home-cooked food and practicing fencing in her free time.

What do you like to do on the weekends?

What is one message you always instill in your students?

Hang out with my family. We go to movies, ride our bikes, meet up with friends, and use our Universal Studios passes on a regular basis!

Try, try, and try again. You can achieve great things.

What do you like about teaching in international schools in England, Turkey, the United States, Venezuela, and now Singapore?

Din Tai Fung.

The different cultures I’ve experienced, the fabulous places I’ve traveled to, and the wonderful people I’ve met.

Best part of your job?

Where is home for you?

The smiling faces of students arriving at school in the mornings.

It’s a great way to start any day!

Singapore; I met my lovely husband in Singapore, and we have had our family and make our life here.

What’s your favorite restaurant?

What is your dream vacation spot?

Picton, Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.

What is your favorite part of the school year? Why? The beginning of the school year, when students, teachers, and parents are all fresh from summer vacation and filled with excitement, hope, wonder, and possibility for the new school year.

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Five minutes

We heard that you are a big rugby fan. What’s your favorite team and why?

Do you have any advice for families who are new to Singapore?

The mighty All Blacks. Their coach says that great people make great rugby players, they’re first in the world to win the Rugby World Cup three times, and twice in a row, and they are just regular people who do great things on the rugby pitch.

Give yourselves time to settle in, ask for help when you need it, and do as much as you can as a family. There are some wonderful activities for families in and around Singapore, including many great events on the SAS campus.

What is your favorite spot on campus?

The rainforest! Thank you to Mr. Early and everyone who had the foresight to keep some of it when SAS was built.

What is your favorite Mr. Ho dish?

Fish and chips!

How would you sum up the experience of being in school in five words or fewer, and why?

Make the most of it. There are so many opportunities to try new things, to succeed and to fail, and to have fantastic support from your teachers and family members throughout.

Who’s your role model?

My parents. When times were tough they still kept going.

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The learning environment

By Louise Donaghey Summer Semester Director

Exciting plans are underway for the 2016 Summer Semester at Singapore American School.

Summer Semester Program Overview (preschool to grade twelve)

Based on feedback from last summer, our Summer Semester leadership team has been working to ensure that the 2016 Summer Semester will continue to enhance and extend learning in exciting and innovative ways. We have assembled a team of dynamic SAS educators and partnered with other world leaders to develop a program that optimizes personalized learning opportunities for all our students.

Summer Semester will diversify and accelerate learning from the academic school year. It will allow students to explore new learning paths not available through existing course offerings.

2016 Summer Semester program dates: June 6 to June 17 (Session 1, two weeks) June 20 to July 1 (Session 2, two weeks)

Students have three attendance options: • Session 1 • Session 2 • Session 1 and 2

The program focuses on the whole child and presents learning opportunities in three distinct categories: intellectual curiosity, creative expression, and sports and wellness. Students will have an opportunity to select programs from all categories.

Intellectual curiosity

Stimulate your mind by engaging in challenging academic courses and projects. Courses are designed for deep intellectual exploration accompanied by authentic projects developed by students in their areas of passion and interest.

Learners will ask and answer questions, discovering relevant and significant information on a range of academic topics.

Creative expression

Awaken your inner artist in multiple

ways. The creative process is an excellent way to develop the brain and have fun at the same time.

Learners can explore new areas of creativity or develop in areas already fun and familiar to them.

Sports and wellness

Maximize your body and mind through physical activity and sports.

Through a selection of team sports and individual activities, Summer Semester provides an opportunity for you to pursue activities and sports of interest.

World Leading Partners SAS continues to partner with world leaders in a variety of fields to offer leading programs not available elsewhere in Singapore. These partners include Columbia Business School, Stanford University PreCollegiate Summer Institutes, and DigiPen Institute of Technology.

They have designed exclusive programs for the SAS Summer Semester student. Students in these programs will receive a certificate of participation from the partnering organizations. In other high school courses, students will receive SAS credit for their Summer Semester work.

Registration Registration will be open to SAS and non-SAS students. The application process will be online through the SAS website. More information about registration and course details will be available soon.

We look forward to providing this personalized learning experience for your child. We are excited that each learner will have the opportunity to pursue their passions and create their own learning path through the structures we provide.

Dr. Tim Stuart executive director of strategic programs Dan Skimin high school summer semester director Louise Donaghey early childhood center/elementary school/middle school summer semester director

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The learning environment

BEHIND THE SCENES OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

By Kyle Aldous Director of Communications

“She only got an A because she’s in Mrs. ___’s class and they don’t have pop quizzes.”

“What do my students need to learn?” This is a slight variation that makes a huge impact.

“Mr. ___ is such a hard grader. He’s going to mess up my GPA.”

Historically, teachers are given a classroom of students, a curriculum to follow, and a set of test score targets to hit. They often operated by themselves, except for the occasional visit from a principal.

Their fellow teachers certainly never critiqued their work. Their lesson plans themselves were often created in isolation, and after a few years of teaching, it would become easy for a teacher to turn to their “go-to” lessons, approaches, and assessments.

Have you heard your child say something similar? Or maybe you remember saying something similar during your time in school.

Inconsistency among teachers has long been a norm in education.

However, over the past ten years, there has been a growing movement in education to change the system behind student learning, and Singapore American School has been aligned with this approach for several years now.

It’s called professional learning communities (PLCs).

What is a PLC? A PLC is simply a team of teachers who meet regularly to improve student learning.

The key to this definition is student learning. It sounds intuitive. Isn’t student learning what teachers have always been focused on? Not quite.

Instead, the focus has often been more on teaching methods.

In old methods of teaching, teachers asked, “What should I teach?” With PLCs, teachers ask,

In fact, the culture within many schools does not invite collegial feedback. As a result, many teachers reflected a “go it alone” attitude and worked by themselves.

This extreme level of autonomy often led to students comparing the way different teachers grade. As teachers became more ingrained in their particular methods and approaches, the camaraderie among teachers often led to a lack of mutual criticism or even positive feedback among colleagues.

The concept of a team of teachers meeting regularly to improve student learning may not sound groundbreaking, but in the context of how education has been run for hundreds of years, it is.

What do PLCs do?

There are four questions that drive everything a PLC does.

1. What do students need to learn?

2. How will we know if they learned it?

3. What will we do if they don’t learn it?

4. What will we do if they already know it?

These questions are the basis of the learning that takes place in each division at SAS. “Currently, the middle school is identifying patterns in what students have learned well and not as well over the last few years in middle school,” said middle school math teacher Mrs. Karen Feist-Coppell. “We are using those patterns to circle back to question one, which is what students should learn, and to realign the curriculum to increase learning.”

1. What do students need to learn?

Traditionally, teachers have focused on teaching methods. When teachers would get together for collaborative planning meetings, they would focus on tactics and strategies for conveying information. “I will use a movie to show this,” or “we will run this

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experiment to learn about this concept.” While this is a great way to share teaching methods, it doesn’t quite get to the heart of whether students are learning what they need to learn.

During a recent kindergarten PLC meeting, there was passionate debate surrounding certain concepts in the addition and subtraction unit. A team of eight teachers proposed different ideas while the PLC leader, kindergarten teacher Ms. Lisa Wan asked individuals to defend their proposals.

“To ensure all students have an opportunity to master the same essential learning, school leaders must engage every teacher in a collaborative process to study, to clarify and most importantly to commit to teaching the common curriculum” (Dufour, 2010).

Ms. Wan says, “This is why it is important to focus both on what needs to be learned and teaching methodologies. However, in order to provide effective teaching methods in response to student needs, it is paramount that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of what students need to learn. Hence, the powerful role of professional learning communities.”

The learning environment

PLCs talk about standards and power standards. All of the standards are taught within the course of the school year, but PLCs also act collaboratively to select power standards which are skills and concepts that they feel are a must for students to know.

PLCs use three words to determine what these power standards are: endurance, essentialness, and leverage.

Endurance Is this a skill that will be necessary for the coming years and throughout the rest of the student’s life?

E.g.: Reading is a skill that endures throughout the student’s entire life.

Essentialness Is this skill a foundational building block for future skills?

E.g.: Sentence construction is a skill that is necessary in order to be able to write reports or do literary analysis.

Leverage Is this a skill that can be used across other subjects?

E.g.: Analyzing data is a skill that is beneficial in math, science, social

studies, and many other areas of learning.

As a group, teachers’ attention is primarily directed at ensuring that students learn exactly what they need to learn. They completely tailor what they teach to the group of students they are currently working with.

2. How will we know if they learned it?

Traditionally, this is where things get dicey. A teacher working in isolation would create an assessment, administer it to their students, and assess whether their students understood the information that was taught.

PLCs work together to create three types of assessments; pre-assessment, formative, and summative. Common assessments are a hallmark of a PLC and allow students to be tested similarly.

The PLC develops standards and holds all students accountable in a similar fashion. The obvious advantage to this method is the removal of inconsistency, but another advantage is that teachers are provided common data that lets them truly measure the understanding and comprehension of students throughout each grade level.

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“A well-written common assessment can be a powerful tool that provides students and teachers with meaningful information about student learning,” said middle school social studies teacher Dr. Vicki Rogers. “It also fosters transparency and collaboration amongst teachers, which in turn helps to ensure we are calibrating our instruction and assessment, and meeting the needs of each and every student. More than accountability, common assessments ensure that we are focusing on how to improve student learning and instructional practice.”

3. and 4. What will we do if they don’t know it? What will we do if they already know it?

These last two principles are grouped together as they focus wholly on the outliers within a classroom. When a student is behind or ahead, it places a teacher in a unique position. How do you tailor a lesson for kids who are learning at a variety of levels? In a PLC meeting about students’ needs, it is easy to identify groups of students across a grade level in similar situations. The PLC works together to find solutions for bringing kids up to speed, as well as to find opportunities to encourage high-performing students to stretch their learning even further.

The learning environment

Translating the Jargon Common Formative Assessments: An assessment used to check in on students’ progress during the unit (such as a quiz or writing exercise) Common Summative Assessments: A assessment created by a PLC that covers an entire unit of content (such as a test, quiz, writing sample, or project) Professional Learning Community (PLC): A group of teachers who meet regularly to improve student learning.

Power Standards: Course material determined a by PLC to be absolutely necessary for students to understand.

Standards: Learning goals set for our students.

Response to Intervention (RTI): A plan to help a student who is either ahead or behind. This plan is driven by the power standards.

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The learning environment

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The learning environment

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WHYCOMMON

Why Common Core Math?

“Mathematics is the study of repeated patterns, not memorized facts and procedures.

Understanding where procedures come from and why they work helps us see how all of math is connected.

I teach math because I enjoy helping students get beyond facts and procedures. Students regularly gasp with surprise when they see an interconnected pattern in math.

Every year, my goal is to help every student find at least one thing in math that they think is beautiful.”

SAS eighth grade math teacher, Mrs. Karen Feist-Coppell

If you sneak into a math class in the SAS elementary school, you may hear these conversations:

Student A: There are five rows of six squares each. They add up to 30.

Teacher: Thank you! Does anybody have a question or comment?

Would anyone like to agree or disagree?

Student B shows the class his M&M cookie drawing.

30 = 5 x 6 6 cookies with 5 m&ms each

Student B: I agree with A. Here are six cookies with five M&Ms each.

There are 30 M&Ms together. So 30 is 6 x 5.

Teacher: How are these two models of 6 x 5 similar and different? ====== Student C: “14 + 7 is 12.”

Student D: “I disagree, 14 + 7 is 21.”

Teacher: “What do the rest of you think about it? C says it’s 12, while D says it’s 21. Have a chat with your neighbor. What do you think is going on here? Please show me and prove it.”

Student A: 30 is 6 multiplied by 5.

Student E: “I agree with C. First you have 1. Next, 4 + 7 is 11, so you add that to 1. 1 + 11 is 12.”

Teacher: Great! Can you show us how you know that?

Student A shows everyone this:

Student F: “I think D is right. The 1 is actually worth 10, so you add 10 to 11. 10 + 11 is 21.”

30 = 5 x 6

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The learning environment

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CORE MATH? At Singapore American School, our math program is centered around focus, rigor, and coherence, and is in its third year of full Common Core standard implementation. Common Core standards are divided into Standards for Mathematical Practice and Standards for Mathematical Content.

Standards for Mathematical Practice describe varieties of expertise that mathematics educators should seek to develop in K-12 students, aspiring for them to: • Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, • Reason abstractly and quantitatively, • Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, • Model with mathematics, • Use appropriate tools strategically, • Attend to precision, • Look for and make use of structure, and • Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Standards for Mathematical Content are listed in the website http:// www.corestandards.org/Math/ by grade level, and they combine procedure and understanding with application. Students are encouraged not to rely heavily on procedures but rather to truly understand topics by considering analogous problems, representing problems coherently, justifying their conclusions, explaining mathematics accurately to other students, and so on. Students learn to use alternative approaches and multiple representations.

How Common Core Helps For every student to be a confident user of math, a powerful quantitative thinker, and a productive problem solver, the SAS math program aims to balance mathematical skills, concepts, and applications with instructional practices that emphasize explaining, justifying, and practicing number sense. This is why teachers ask “Why?” “How do you know that?” and “Can you explain your

By Koh Xin Tian Communications Specialist

thinking?” first, even when students arrive at the correct answer to a problem, instead of telling them only if they’re correct or wrong.

Instructional coach Mrs. Gynelle Gaskell says, “In the Common Core, there’s a balance between conceptual development, procedural fluency, and application.

It’s not just important to memorize things, and not just about understanding concepts, but being able to bring the two together and applying them to new situations.”

Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Ms. Treena Casey says, “We may ask students to prove that 72 is 8 x 9, and they can use any strategy to explain and justify it. By being able to explain your thinking and understand why things are the way they are, you can unpack more complex problems as you move up through the school.”

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The learning environment

History

Misconceptions

Then and Now

According to Ms. Casey, when SAS went through its math subject renewal process a few years ago, teachers saw that education experts and teachers in the US had been exploring math practices in high-performing nations and states, which informed the development of the Common Core standards. As an American school, SAS wanted to look at the ideals. After due deliberation of the research processes of Common Core developers, and what they were asking students to do in mathematics, SAS teachers determined that it was a good fit for our school.

One misconception that some parents have about math at SAS and the Common Core is that it is too easy. Mrs. Gaskell says, “When a student has just memorized things or only knows how to compute with algorithms, but has no idea what it means, he doesn’t have his conceptual knowledge tied to his procedural fluency, and cannot apply what he knows to new situations. In third or fourth grade, a student may have memorized 9 x 5 but not know how it is related to 9 x 4, or how to represent 9 x 5.” So even though a student may appear to know math at a high level, he may not understand it or be able to apply it to more challenging situations.

Eighth grade mathematics teacher Mrs. Karen Feist-Coppell says, “Previously, in an algebra course at SAS (comparable to our Math 8+ course), more time was spent memorizing a formula and practicing the skill of using numbers in the formula. Students would practice roughly twenty straightforward equations, followed by only two or three applied problems.

As most SAS students are US passport holders, and Common Core mathematics was adopted in over 40 states, it made sense for SAS to ensure a good transition back to the US system for our students given our context as a school. The resulting recommendation was to align our math curriculum to the Common Core. We implement the standards with fidelity and brought in consultants and experts to help us maximize our ability to implement them well.

“With an approach based on the Common Core Content and Practice Standards, the approach is flipped; it starts with the applied problem.” Here is an extract from a problem used in SAS Math 8+ classes from Connected Mathematics 3, pg 62-63: After an animal receives flea medicine, the medicine breaks down in the animal’s bloodstream.

With each hour, there is less medicine in the blood.

A dog receives a 400 milligram dose of flea medicine. The table and graph below show the amount of medicine in the dog’s bloodstream each hour for six hours after the dose.

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The learning environment

Study the pattern of change in the graph and the table.

Active Medicine in Blood (mg)

450

Time Active Since Medicine Dose(hr) in Blood (mg)

375 300

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

225 150 75 0 0

1

2

3

4

5

400 100 25 6.25 1.5625 0.3907 0.0977

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Time Since Dose(hr)

1. How does the amount of active medicine in the dog’s blood change from one hour to the next?

2. Write an equation to model the relationship between the number of hours h since the dose is given and the milligrams of active medicine m.

3. Does the relationship displayed in the table and graph above represent an exponential function? Explain.

“We start with an applied situation.

This creates interest in learning, as students see how it might actually be used in real life. Students analyze the situation by making tables and drawing graphs. By finding repeated patterns in the tables and graphs, they are able to come up with a standard formula, understanding where it comes from, and why it works,” Mrs. FeistCoppell shares.

“Math is a language just as we use English, French, Chinese, or Braille.

It’s a language to translate the world around you. Because you can see patterns, you can solve problems, but it’s almost more than solving problems.”

Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Ms. Treena Casey

“Math is a way to understand the world. I enjoy being able to help students make sense of and love math, and bringing my excitement to their parents who say, ‘Oh! So that’s how to get kids to understand math.’ Math isn’t as humdrum as learning a strategy and following it.

It’s more about making sense of life, and being excited because of it.”

Instructional coach, Mrs. Gynelle Gaskell

References “About the Standards | Common Core State Standards Initiative” http://www.corestandards.org/ about-the-standards/ “Mathematics Standards | Common Core State Standards Initiative” http://www.corestandards.org/ Math/ Thanks to Ms. Jill Carpenter (Math Enrichment).

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ADVANCEMENT

WHY I GIVE

An Interview with Adrian and Carol Yeap

By Anne Duncan Associate Director of Advancement for Annual Giving and Stewardship

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ADVANCEMENT

Photo caption: When Adrian and Carol were married in 1997, they wanted to have wedding photos taken on campus with a group of SAS students.

Unfortunately, their wedding was in June and the students were on vacation. Despite this, they still had wedding photos taken on our campus. We wanted to help them recreate the photo that they hoped for almost 20 years ago!

“Now, it is time to help others.”

Mr. Adrian Yeap and Mrs. Carol Yeap on why they support the SAS Foundation For over 20 years, Yeap Transport has managed the school buses that bring our students from their homes to Singapore American School and back. Since founder Mr. William Yeap purchased his first bus to drive for Tanglin Trust School in 1973, Yeap Transport has built its business on good safety records and good customer service.

At the time, the head of the Tanglin Trust School’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) managed their school’s buses. When their school decided it had outgrown this model and needed to hire a bus manager, the PTA president approached Mr. William Yeap with a contract and later told Adrian, “I chose your father to be the key contractor because he was always the last one to leave the school when the other drivers had left, and he was always willing to take a child who had missed the bus home.”

So, in 1979, Mr. William Yeap brought the contract home and asked his son Adrian, only 11 at the time, to explain it to him, since Mr. William Yeap was not fully fluent in English. Adrian tried to help, but Mr. William Yeap’s friend who worked in a law office read the contract and advised them not to sign it. But Mr. William Yeap was hungry and ambitious, so he signed it anyway.

Fast forward to 1993. Singapore American School was now operating out of three campuses (Ulu Pandan, King’s Road, and a short-term satellite campus at Baytree condominiums) and facing a move to the Woodlands campus.

SAS needed a reliable partner to provide safe transport for over 3,000 students who would be traveling mostly from downtown Singapore each day. Enter Adrian Yeap.

In 1993, when Adrian Yeap was completing his National Service duties, SAS contacted the Yeaps to ask if they could operate SAS’s bus service. Adrian had been a vehicle mechanic in National Service as an army vocation, and for two years, he had been trained to look after the Singapore army’s large fleet of vehicles. He looked at his father and said, “I think I am going to do this for the rest of my life.”

The SAS Years In 1995, former SAS superintendent Dr. Don Bergman came back from his summer vacation and invited Adrian into his office. He gave Adrian a school bus magazine and told him about the National School Transportation Association (NSTA). Mr. Bergman sent Adrian to the United States for a NSTA conference where Adrian learned the business from fellow bus operators who were happy to share all their knowledge with him when they realized that because he was a bus operator in Singapore, his company was not a competitor.

Adrian and Carol Yeap are very grateful to Singapore American School for its support and encouragement; gaining the additional knowledge to run their business safely and efficiently has helped their business grow and change as the landscape of Singapore has evolved. The Yeaps face many challenges today in the current market. The biggest challenges are the high cost of vehicle certificates of entitlement, their bus drivers nearing retirement age, the recruitment of new drivers, as well as the development of the MRT rail network in Singapore.

With MRT growth, there is less need for buses during daytime business hours, so contracted buses are finding it difficult to remain in business.

Why Philanthropy Matters to the Yeaps Adrian and Carol Yeap have supported the SAS Foundation over the past two years. They made special gifts to both the makerspace and the rainforest annual giving campaigns. When Adrian first came to Carol with the idea that they support the school in this way, she felt it was very much in line with what they wished to do as a family and as a company. They feel that Yeap Transport is around today because of the generous parents and staff of the schools they serve.

Adrian and Carol say, “We want to give back as we can. The family owes a debt that we cannot repay.”

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Mr. Adrian Yeap started working for his father as a bus monitor when he was just 12 years old, watching kids who were older than him. He would ride the bus in the mornings before his school started at Anglo Chinese School (Barker Road). In later years, the bus rules changed and today, only women can hold this position. Coincidentally, Adrian was stationed in the army near Portsdown Road, just across from Tanglin Trust School where his father Mr. William Yeap worked. Adrian would wave to his father from across the street.

ADVANCEMENT

The Yeaps have three children: a daughter, Charis, in Secondary One (grade seven), a son, Caleb, in Primary Five (grade five), and a daughter, Caitlin, in Primary Four (grade four).

Charis, Caleb, and Caitlin Yeap like to visit to SAS on our last day of school to see all the buses honking and celebrating.

The Yeaps have been asked to consult throughout Asia with other international schools. This is another way that they give back: by sharing their knowledge with other schools.

They have consulted with Beijing International School, Shanghai American School, and the International School of Kuala Lumpur.

Fun Facts about

the Yeaps

Mr. Adrian Yeap met Carol in 1997. Carol managed finance for Yeap Transport. Today, she serves as Chief Financial Officer of the company.

Mr. Adrian Yeap often dresses up in a mascot costume for the last day of school.

Last year, students asked him to dress as a Minion, but the costume didn’t fit!

Many families think Yeap Transport owns the buses, but they are actually a bus management company that owns only 15% of their bus fleet. Their drivers and bus owners are independent contractors.

Singapore American School has the cleanest fleet of buses in Singapore, and the Yeaps are very proud of this because it keeps our students and their drivers from the harmful effects of additional pollution.

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ADVANCEMENT

Eagle

The

Society

By Sarah Morris Chief Advancement Officer

By now, you may have heard about our Eagle Society, a new way of recognizing and honoring donors who give $1,000 SGD or more annually to support learning and development at SAS through one of our two foundations. But what exactly is it, and how does it pertain to our parent and alumni communities?

This year marks the tenth year of our fundraising activities here at SAS. During this decade, the school’s fundraising efforts centered around one signature annual event, called the Star Appeal through 2014, and last year, the Eagle Gala. The Star Appeal and Eagle Gala were large gala fundraising events that brought in the vast majority of the philanthropic contributions for the school during a given year. They

were successful, they were fun, and they built community. They were also very people-dependent, with co-chairs and committee members putting in many hours and heroic efforts to call in favors, asking their friends and colleagues to give, donate auction items, and to attend.

communications and invitations to on- and off-campus events and activities depending on the level of gift that they make. We think that with this focus and structure, we will be better able to communicate with our donors, ultimately resulting in greater participation among our parent and alumni communities.

This year, we have reimagined our fundraising efforts so that they are mission-driven, with everything we do and every ask we make directly connected to the impact of philanthropy on our school. As a result, we are moving away from one large-scale fundraiser and have created the Eagle Society to thank, engage, and celebrate our donors on an ongoing basis throughout the year. This new giving society will also serve to build community, with donors receiving special

Please mark your calendar for Friday, April 22, 2016, when we will come together as an Eagle Society for the first time and celebrate our school’s 60th anniversary. More information will be forthcoming to the donor community in early 2016, and in the meantime, if you would like to make a qualifying gift to join the Eagle Society, you may do so at

www.sas.edu.sg/giving

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Elementary SCHOOL

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS FOR KIDS, FROM TEACHERS!

By ECC Faculty and Staff Early Childhood Center

Aesop’s Fables and Grimms’ Fairy Tales

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

On a day-to-day basis, I prefer stories from Aesop’s Fables and Grimms’ Fairy Tales. These books contain many small stories that I can tell my kid at bedtime. I believe kids can continuously learn something from each story with the guidance of parents.

This is my favorite bedtime story for young learners because the words in this book are soothing and gentle. The story indicates the end of the play day and that it’s now time for rest. This is a gentle story about a little bunny who prepares for bed by wishing everything in his room good night.

This is a story of the Nutbrown Hares, sharing their love for one another, just like the title says: Guess How Much I Love You. My favorite line is, “I love you right up to the moon -- and back.” It is a great book to cuddle up with and read together at night before bed.

- Emma Ma, Chinese language teacher Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day I love wordless picture books, such as Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day. These books support natural dialogue around the pictures, and allow great opportunities for adults to model how to make inferences.

Adults can “wonder out loud” in predicting what might happen next, or in making a good guess about how a problem will be solved.

- Robyn Rogers, speech teacher Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker A student in my class brought his copy of this book from home for me to read aloud. I enjoy the illustrations!

- Peggy Mason, pre-kindergarten teacher

- Kiran Randhawa, pre-kindergarten teacher Travel through this book and say good night to all that is around.

Simple, soft, peaceful colors. I read it as a child!

- Randi Shuster, pre-kindergarten teacher It provides young children with a ritual of naming, sequencing, and saying goodnight to inanimate objects too!

- Laura Schuster, expressive arts teacher, early childhood center

- Robin Balshaw, pre-kindergarten teacher Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney The book is about Mama Llama who is putting Baby Llama to bed.

An adventure ensues as Mama Llama has to go downstairs and leave Baby Llama alone in the dark.

The book ends sweetly, with a goodnight kiss, an “I love you” from Mama Llama, and eventually Baby Llama goes to sleep. Perfect segue into sleep time!

- Samantha Ierullo, pre-kindergarten teacher

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Love You Forever by Robert Munsch It’s a good way to end the day and reinforce that no matter what happens during the day, you are still loved.

- Sherry Lyons, pre-kindergarten teacher I read this book to both of my own children on a regular basis.

Even in their older years, they love to hear the tune of the song and relate to how even though they grow and change, they are loved unconditionally. My students also are drawn in by the repetitive nature of the story and song as well as the ability to relate to the story since it’s about family, growth, and change.

- Laura Jo Evans, preschool teacher My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz During festival periods, I will get some story books related to each festival to let kids gain knowledge about particular festivals, such as

Elementary SCHOOL

My First Chinese New Year, Bringing in the New Year, The Moon Lady by Amy Tan, and Moon Cakes by Loretta Seto.

- Emma Ma, Chinese language teacher Owl Babies By Martin Waddell Mama Owl goes out hunting for the night, and her three owl babies get progressively more worried and scared that something has happened to her, but of course Mama comes home and the three little owls couldn’t be happier.

My boys loved how there is an oldest, a middle, and a youngest owl. They also like how the oldest tries to reassure the younger ones, and how the youngest always says the same thing. The story was one I read over and over, a true favorite in my house!

- Nancy Devine, preschool teacher

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson This wonderful book explores the wonder of imagination and memory, and the importance of family relationships. The beautiful rhyming text, and repeated songs throughout the book make it a joy to read and listen to.

- Hannah Olsen, pre-kindergarten teacher Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox The green sheep is missing! On your hunt to find him, you will encounter his colorful and adventurous friends.

This lovely book encompasses rhyme, colors, and opposites. Fox is one of my favorite authors and her book is perfect for bedtime.

- Jo McIlroy, early childhood center coordinator

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Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge

by Mem Fox This book is a favorite! It’s a sweet, heart-of-the-matter story about young Wildfred and his nonagenarian pals who live in the nursing home next door.

I like it because Wilfred, of generous trust and spirit, sets out to help his best friend Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper find her “lost” memory. For my family, this link between the youngest and the oldest is very important and meaningful. We have enjoyed this book for years! I also like that the elderly people in the story have wrinkles, big bellies, wispy grey hair, and slurp their soup.

- Jodi Wert, preschool teacher

Elementary SCHOOL

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MIDDLE school

WHEN THE AKIMOTOS WENT TO WAR: AN UNTOLD STORY OF FAMILY, PATRIOTISM AND SACRIFICE DURING WORLD WAR II

By Koh Xin Tian Communications Specialist

Matthew Elms, a social studies teacher at Singapore American School, created a lesson plan for social studies and English classrooms after doing extensive research on the Akimoto brothers who fought alongside one another in World War II. The Understanding Sacrifice program took Elms to Europe to learn about US Army Pfc. John Akimoto and US Army Pvt. Victor Akimoto from Los Angeles, California. A Japanese American Family’s Experience During WWII incorporates role-playing and graphic organizers for students to gain a deeper understanding of issues that Japanese Americans faced during the war. Through a single family’s account of the war, students gain an understanding of what it meant to be a JapaneseAmerican during World War II and the impact the war had on families.

Elms’s lesson plan is hosted on ABMCeducation.org along with those of the 17 other teachers who participated in Understanding Sacrifice. Elms took the project a step further and penned a young adult, non-fiction book that details the full story of the Akimoto brothers titled When the Akimotos Went to War: An untold story of family, patriotism and sacrifice during World War II.

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HiGH school

AMERICAN PASTIMES COME TO SAS

By Kyle Aldous Director of Communications

In 2016-17, for the first time in SAS school history, boys’ baseball and girls’ fast-pitch softball will be offered as Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools (IASAS) varsity sports. As a bonus, SAS has been chosen to host the inaugural IASAS baseball and softball competition in spring 2017.

In late September, representatives from each of the IASAS schools met and voted to make the change to move away from slow-pitch softball.

Since its inception in 1982, IASAS offered slow-pitch softball as the third season sport for both girls and boys. The decision to offer slow-pitch softball was originally made due to constraints in many IASAS schools’ facilities. Their fields weren’t large enough to accommodate baseball or fast-pitch softball.

The proposal to change the sports included three key points: • Many IASAS schools now have facilities large enough to support fast-pitch baseball and softball.

• Slow-pitch softball does not prepare the student athletes for participation in an NCAA sanctioned sport. Slow-pitch softball is widely considered a recreational sport.

• Many IASAS schools have athletic departments staffed with individuals capable of providing the skill set necessary to be able to successfully compete.

“We are so excited to finally offer baseball and fast-pitch softball as IASAS sports! These are sports that our students have demonstrated tremendous passion for, and are sports they can pursue at the collegiate level if they desire. We cannot wait for the inaugural season for these two new sports,” said athletic director Mr. Kim Criens.

Many students are excited about the change because they will now have the opportunity to pursue baseball as a varsity sport instead of having to go to an off campus organization.

“I play for the varsity volleyball team here at SAS and I play baseball, my main sport, for a club team.

When I was a freshman I didn’t want to play softball because it took time away from baseball practice and distracted me from baseball.

However, changing from softball to baseball will prevent that from happening. It’s a good thing to make baseball an IASAS sport because baseball could spread out to Southeast Asia through the IASAS schools,” said high school junior, Kio Underwood.

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High school

STRESSEDOUT! The other morning I received an alarming email. The subject heading: Emergency, please call!

My initial thoughts: someone died or was seriously injured. Fortunately, neither was the case. The email was a plea from a distraught mother.

Her eleventh grade son had had a terrible night. With papers, projects, sports practice, and exams the following day, this kid had more on his proverbial plate than he could handle. The stress was debilitating.

Mom was worried something worse might result, prompting her clarion call for help.

Fortunately, the stress this young man experienced was not a common occurrence. Working with teachers we were able to postpone or remove some of his school tasks.

For some kids, however, stress and stress responses are the norm.

The word stress, first coined by Hans Selye in 1936, was used to describe a non-specific response of the body to any demand for change. Over the years the term has been expanded to include conditions or feelings that exceed what one is capable of managing.

In its simplest form, stress is both a physiological and psychological response to some perceived or present danger. In school settings, stress manifests in a myriad of ways: a pending speech, anticipating meeting friends, participating in a musical or sporting event, dealing with the drama of social media, or prepping for an upcoming exam.

By Jeff Devens Ph.D. School Psychologist

Stress is fueled by perception, and if left unchecked, metastasizes.

alarm clock. They eventually get to bed sometime around 1:00 a.m.

But what if stress didn’t have to be perceived as an enemy? What if it were possible to channel these feelings into positive outcomes?

Nearly all the teens I work with who report pervasive and ongoing stress have little to poor time management skills, and typically fit into one of two common patterns.

These scenarios are not presented, nor are they to be interpreted, as bad kids making poor decisions. My contention is quite the opposite: without boundaries, technology isn’t an aid to stress reduction. It’s an impediment. With the above in mind, I want to offer one suggestion that I believe could significantly impact the level of stress kids experience: have a set time, regardless of your child’s emotional state(s), for their computer and smartphones to come out of their room.

Stress-inducing routine one: Teen comes home from school and sleeps three to five hours, eats dinner in their room in front of their computer, showers for about an hour, settles into work near 9:00 p.m., eventually retreating to bed, smartphone in hand, sometime around 2:00 a.m.…or whenever they feel like it.

Stress-inducing routine two: Teen comes home from school, sits behind their laptop a few hours, eats (usually under protest with family), retreats back to room, showers, continues doing “schoolwork” until parents enter their room suggesting that “It’s time for bed.” (Parents have already made their presence known several times before this with little to no success). Finally, around 11:00 p.m., parents insist, “It’s time for bed!” whereupon they are met with resistance in the form of stress responses.

Parents take computer, but the teen protests that they must have their smartphone as this serves as their

When your teen’s competition for completing schoolwork is the world wide web, academics will lose out, and when this happens consistently there will be excessive stress. I’m not so naive to believe that this one step will reduce all stress, but it is a starting point. Management and monitoring of child and adolescent technology is one of the most pressing issues that parents, many parents, are struggling with. If this article resonates with what’s occurring in your home, I encourage you to reach out to your child’s counselor or school psychologist for support.

1. What if my child tells me they need more time on their computer?

I would agree to this under two conditions. First, I would want to take a look at their search history to see where they have been online

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for the past several hours, days, or weeks. If they erase their search history, or have a ghost screen*, they are not being truthful.

Second, talk with your child’s teacher. Ask them, on average, how much time for homework is needed.

If they truly do need more time, this should be provided. On average, high school students report having 3 to 3.5 hours of homework each night. Most teens I work with who report being consistently stressed spend between two to four hours a night on social media, gaming, or watching shows.

2. What if my teenager refuses to give up their computer or phone?

Sadly, this does happen. Speak with your child’s counselor or the school psychologist. They can help create a plan to reinforce the structures you are attempting to establish. We do have cases where we have removed the computer from a student and/or require them to turn in their smartphones to the front office throughout the day. We partner with teachers, informing them of the ongoing conflicts around technology and offering additional supports to the student and parents. We also have desktop computers that the student can access while at school, or laptops they can use for classes (we restrict online access to certain sites). The goal is to establish boundaries and balance.

HiGH school

3. My teen tells me they need their phone to wake them up in the morning.

Buy them a clock radio. If you leave them with their smartphone, you’ve left them with total access to the Internet in the palm of their hand. The latest research from Pew Research Center notes that approximately 75 percent of females access the Internet primarily through their smartphones, not laptop computers. *Ghost Screen: This is when a student has multiple screens that they move back and forth to display different types of “stuff.” One screen, for example, may show school-related work. The other will show social media, movies, etc. To determine if they are doing this, swipe all four fingers across your kids’ trackpad (from left to right) when you view their computers. The four-finger sweep will reveal if the other screen is being utilized.

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High school

MODEL UNITED NATIONS VISITS THE EMBASSY

By Sunita Srivatsan Communications Intern Sunita Srivatsan is a junior at Singapore American School and a member of the SAS Communications and Alumni Relations Work Study Program. She loves public speaking and service, as a member of Debate and Model United Nations and a leader of three service clubs. She also enjoys music and tutoring in various subjects as an officer of the Science National Honor Society and Math Club.

What do regional conflicts in the Middle East, gun control, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership have in common? These are all issues that were discussed by US ambassador Kirk Wagar with a delegation of SAS students and teachers.

Diplomatic relations are becoming increasingly important to the way our globalizing world functions. As expected at SAS, many aspects of the understanding of global issues that we have in our community stem from Singaporean and US perspectives. Therefore, it was an incredible experience for SAS students who participate in the Model United Nations (MUN) club to visit the US embassy, and get a feel for how real diplomacy — in the context of these perspectives — plays out.

On Friday, December 4, 2015, our delegation of high school MUN students, myself included, along with one of our MUN sponsors and MUN director Mr. Ian Coppell, travelled to the US embassy to meet with Ambassador Wagar. It was exciting to visit the US Embassy building, highly fortified on the outside, yet extremely welcoming on the inside. The ambassador

chatted with us about his role in overcoming the geographical distance between the US and Asia to establish economic, social, and political ties in the region.

This isn’t the first time SAS students have heard Ambassador Wagar speak. Around a year ago, he visited our school to discuss his own personal journey transitioning from being an MUN participant to holding one of the most highly sought after ambassadorial positions in the US (the Singapore embassy is the second most popular place of indicated interest to work for US-based diplomats).

His story particularly resonated with us as MUN students, since we are a group of aspiring global citizens and diplomats.

Our chat with Ambassador Wagar was so special because of his sincere, honest, and open opinions on relevant and potentially controversial global issues. His speaking style was conversational, yet showed his expertise on the issues brought up. This year, we got to hear about the challenges and successes of his past 12 months.

This included his reflections on not only political relationships, but also

economic partnerships, and even personal growth.

The ambassador detailed his personal growth and experiences as a political appointee. It was inspirational to hear how MUN has shaped his life, especially in terms of the preparatory knowledge and connections that MUN gave him.

He mentioned how some of his closest friends are people he met at college-level MUN conferences, and this was especially exciting for our delegation to hear.

Additionally, Ambassador Wagar answered a variety of student questions regarding his perspectives on global issues. Our questions covered a broad range of topics, from the ideological contrast between Singapore and the US and the impact of regional conflicts on local diplomacy to the presidential race in the US and the relationship between gun control and racial tensions.

SAS senior Simmy Chauhan reflected on the question and answer session, specifically on a question regarding the ideological differences between Singapore and the US. She said, “What was

31

really interesting to me was the ambassador’s comment on how Singapore is more pragmatic, while the US is more philosophical.

It makes me wonder, as he mentioned, if the nations are that way because of the people who live in it, or because that’s how each government shaped its country.”

A key takeaway for me regarding ambassadorial roles was how much Ambassador Wagar stressed the importance of local institutional knowledge and cooperation. He brought up how Singapore is such a crucial location in this region of the world, and one extremely important part of developing relations here is the perspective brought by Singaporean locals. As Ambassador Wagar pointed out, the knowledge of local ideologies and customs they bring is crucial to the functioning of an internationally located embassy.

Also, it was intriguing to hear him speak not only with patriotism but also with acceptance of the fact that mistakes are natural and have been made by everyone, including the US, in the past. His discussion of the relationship between the US

HiGH school

and China, with Singapore acting as a mediator, was a particularly interesting elaboration on this topic.

Senior Mark Schoen said, “The thing that stood out to me the most was when he was talking about how the US is going to stay on top because of the diverse backgrounds the nation is made up of.”

After the talk, I thanked the ambassador and presented him with a small token of appreciation on behalf of our delegation: an original print of Singaporean life from the year 1882 provided by Mr. Coppell.

Hearing the ambassador talk was an incredible learning experience for us. Hearing from someone working in real-world diplomacy gave us a deeper understanding of topics that we’d previously only debated or discussed in simulations.

Sophomore Devansh Tandon said, “I think it was a great opportunity to gain exposure and meet an actual diplomat.”

Mr. Coppell also reflected on the experience, stating, “Our students could ask Ambassador Wagar

questions on any topic they wanted, and he always responded with depth and candor. He told us that he had just gotten off a plane from Hong Kong, yet felt very energized interacting with the students and very optimistic about the future.

It is events such as this that help maintain the strong relationship between the US Embassy and Singapore American School, both of which perform such an important role serving the needs of the US community here in Singapore.”

More than just his expertise, Ambassador Wagar is also extremely open and approachable, and the fact that he spent over an hour in his busy day talking to us meant a lot. Mr. Coppell worked hard to organize this visit, and our delegation learned a lot from the experience. Our MUN community would love to take part in many more similar opportunities in the future.

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High school

CHRISTMAS PINTER-TEST!

The Student Perspective: Anna Kitamura and Tammi Fung Singapore American School is known for being one of the most prestigious international schools, nurturing thousands of successful graduates since its establishment in 1956, all thanks to its talented teachers.

Having gone to SAS for over five years, it is impossible for us to deny that our teachers continue to leave us awestruck year after year.

Still, as confident as we are of their expertise in their respective fields, we were curious about their ability to perform in other domains, such as cooking and handicrafts.

We decided on the perfect way to put their skills to the test. Teachers were presented with a test that would determine exactly how qualified they were as cooks and crafters - and it was something from our own area of expertise: the Internet.

In light of the upcoming Christmas holiday, we assigned our teachers Christmas-themed pins, and gave them 48 hours to complete the task.

We gave teachers a photo of the pin we wanted them to make, instructions, and all the necessary materials.

The first pin we chose was a cupcake decorated to resemble a reindeer. The second pin we chose was a snowman sock. These are what we were hoping for:

Let’s take a look 1. The Reindeer Cupcakes Mr. Devin Kay, high school history teacher and family (wife Sharon, daughters Melody and Peighton, aged 4 and 3 respectively):

Ms. Hilda Huang, high school Chinese language teacher

This is their Pinter-test.

Pinterest is a social network that allows users to share and discover new interests by posting (or ‘pinning’) images or videos to their own page, or their friends’ pages, and browsing what other users have ‘pinned’. As simple as many Pinterest crafts appear, they tend to be much more complicated in reality, and therefore have produced a hilarious array of failed attempts.

Mrs. Amy Ferguson, middle school culinary teacher

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at how they did!

2. The Sock Snowman Mr. Jason Adkison, high school history and capstone teacher:

HiGH school

Not to our surprise, we were both extremely impressed by the pins our teachers were able to create.

While some of the materials we provided were not quite fitting to the standard of the original pin, and the heat of Singapore made it difficult for the reindeer cupcakes to be assembled before melting apart, our teachers were able to improvise, and went above and beyond our high expectations. This proved to us, once and for all, that teachers at SAS are as talented and qualified as they are made out to be. Who ever had a doubt?

Want to put your own skills to the test? Try out these pins and let us know how well you do!

Reindeer: http://www.yourcupofcake. com/2013/12/reindeer-cupcakes.html Snowman: http://www.darkroomanddearly. com/blog/rkroomanddearly. com/2011/12/10th-day-of-christmassock-snowmen.html

Merry Christmas xoxo

By Tammi Fung and Anna Kitamura Communications Interns

Mrs. Barbara Harvey, high school art teacher:

Tammi Fung is a junior at Singapore American School and a member of the SAS Communications and Alumni Relations Work Study Program.

Tammi enjoys writing, taking photographs, and snowboarding.

Anna Kitamura is a junior at Singapore American School and a member of the SAS Communications and Alumni Relations Work Study Program. Anna enjoys activities such as scuba diving and hiking, but also takes time to relax, write, and listen to music.

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Alumni

SAS ALUMNI WINS PENN STATE HACKATHON

By Edward Ahn Alumni (Class of 2014)

School: Carnegie Mellon University Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering Year: Sophomore Edward, tell us about your invention, FifthSense!

FifthSense is a communication interface for the visually impaired.

The device is essentially a haptic keyboard made of six buttons lying on top of six vibration motors. With this, people can transmit Braille messages through these buttons and receive Braille messages from the same buttons via vibrations, since Braille characters

are composed of six dots. We connected this to a personal assistant on an Android application that we also programmed during the event, demonstrating how the device can be used to make smartphones more accessible to the visually impaired.

How long did you attend Singapore American School?

I graduated from Singapore American School after attending for two years in eleventh and twelfth grade.

How did you become involved in robotics and engineering?

I enjoyed my technical advanced placement classes in high school, so I applied to colleges hoping to major in engineering. I was always interested in robotics as well, but never had the time to satisfy my interests in high school because I participated in two varsity sports. Coming to Carnegie Mellon University worked out well for me because I not only got to pursue electrical and computer engineering, but I was also accepted to the robotics major program. I’m also a member of the

35 Carnegie Mellon club volleyball team, as a result of playing varsity volleyball in high school.

Who are some of the most influential teachers you had at SAS? My SAS computer science teacher, Ms. Goode, influenced me a lot. She helped me realize that technology was something I wanted to pursue as a career, and encouraged me to apply to be an engineering major. I also learned my foundational knowledge of computer science in her class, which is still so important to me since my classes revolve around computers.

I also miss talking to Ms. White. I had a hard time liking chemistry, but she helped me push through her difficult class. I still remember the amazing chemistry demonstrations she had for us, such as “elephant’s toothpaste” or “exploding gummy bears.” Good times.

What made them so influential?

The teachers I thought were most influential were the ones who were willing to have conversations with us outside of class. I enjoyed dropping by my teachers’ classrooms even though I wasn’t currently taking their classes. The most influential teachers were also passionate about what they were teaching, which always made lectures more fun and interesting.

How did your time at SAS prepare you for Carnegie Mellon University?

I took a lot of rigorous courses in SAS, which helped me adjust to college-level courses easily. It really helps to have a strong work ethic to complete demanding assignments in college. More importantly, though, SAS has made me a global

Alumni

citizen, which helps me relate to many different types of people in college. Taking courses such as history of India in high school with a culturally diverse school population made me feel prepared for a future with increasing diversity and globalization.

device rather than a handheld device, but time constraints made that impossible. All four of us knew it was a fantastic idea nonetheless, so much that two of my teammates left the hackathon to go to Microcenter to buy parts for the project.

Give us an overview of how the idea for FifthSense came and the process for bringing the idea to life.

Though we worked quickly, we still ended up finishing the soldering only thirty minutes before the deadline. We also managed to upload mostly bug-free code into our device in the last ten minutes of the event, which doesn’t happen in the real world. With that, our device won the grand prize, the best hardware hack, and the AlphaLab Gear best hardware hack. As a result we were also invited to Facebook’s Global Hackathon Finals, which took place in November.

A hackathon is an event that college students compete in to build software or hardware projects in a short period of time. Participating in one is a great way to take time off homework to build a project and meet new people from different universities.

FifthSense came about in PennApps, one of the largest 36-hour hackathons in the nation hosted by University of Pennsylvania. I met my teammates the night before travelling from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. They were also electrical and computer engineering majors with additional majors/minors in robotics. We were hardware enthusiasts, so we brought along all of the hardware we possessed, such as chips, sensors, microcontrollers, and more.

My friend even brought a portable 3D printer along. Even with that much hardware, we still couldn’t come up with an idea until seven hours into the competition. That was around 3:00 a.m., when we finally decided to pursue a product for the visually impaired.

Though none of us are entirely certain of how this idea came about (we slept for only five hours during the whole competition), we think our interest in accessibility, hardware, and mobile devices led to this product. Our product was originally meant to be a wearable

What is the next step for FifthSense?

We are currently working to develop FifthSense further by looking for people who read Braille to try out the product.

What advice would you offer to a new student at SAS? Take advantage of the resources that SAS provides! I’ve heard that SAS now owns a lot of 3D printers, which is perfect for getting started on personal projects. I also recommend taking challenging courses, because the work you do in high school definitely pays off in college. Playing sports is also rewarding; I’m currently on Carnegie Mellon University’s club volleyball team.

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BOOSTER club

MONEY MATTERS

By Mary Kate Wallace Booster Club Treasurer

Thanks to many dedicated parent volunteers, the Booster Club has been giving back to the students at SAS for over 30 years. The Booster Club provides support to extracurricular, cultural, and scholastic activities of high school students. In addition to enhancing these activities through financial support, the Booster Club also works to assist the student body in building school spirit, encouraging teamwork, and promoting sportsmanship.

During the 2014-15 school year, the Booster Club funded high school student activities, programs, and clubs with more than $125,000. Funds are raised throughout the year through sales of uniforms, school supplies, and spirit merchandise as well as bake sales, barbeques, and social fundraisers. These funds are then distributed to various programs and clubs to enhance the high school experience.

The Booster Club awards over $50,000 in scholarships for Interim Semester trips and senior awards.

The scholarships for the Interim Semester trips are need-based and provide students with the necessary funds to experience an interim trip that they may not otherwise have had the means to afford. Senior awards honor graduating students who have taken an active role in building school community and contributing positively to the culture of SAS.

The Booster Club also provides funding for the senior luncheon to celebrate the achievements, friendships, and memories made during their time at SAS. The luncheon is held on the last day of final exams. Continuing in the celebration of our graduating class, the Booster Club sponsors the balloon drop at the culmination of the graduation ceremony in honor of this momentous occasion.

The visual and performing arts programs receive funds from the Booster Club for receptions at various shows and performances.

These receptions celebrate the hard work and achievements of our students in art, dance, music, and theatre.

In additions to celebrating the arts, the Booster Club recognizes the academic achievements of our high school students. Each year, the Scholar List luncheon is organized and funded by the Booster Club to celebrate the academic achievements of high school students who have been named to the scholar list. Last year’s luncheon was attended by over 600 students.

In addition, popcorn days are held during exam review days at the end of each semester to provide a break for students at this stressful time of the school year.

The Booster Club also supports the athletics and activities office. The Booster Club provides funds for the office to purchase varsity team sports bags, participation patches for sports and performing arts, and awards and trophies presented to

athletes and performers. Funds are also used for other various requests from the office that support the athletic and performing arts programs in the high school.

High school clubs are also supported through monetary donations from the Booster Club. Clubs are able to submit applications for available funds to support their club mission. The Booster Club has donated over $37,000 to high school clubs since the inception of this program in 2010. Nearly 40 different high school clubs have been the recipients of a monetary donation to support the club mission.

The Booster Club parent volunteers work tirelessly throughout the year to raise funds to support high school students in their extracurricular, cultural, and academic endeavors. We are proud to be able to give back to SAS each year and to build school community and spirit in the high school through our fundraising efforts.

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PTA

A LETTER FROM A MOM

By Cayce Cirino Parent and Volunteer

A new country. A new home. A new school for my girls. The life of an expat is many things, but boring isn’t one of them. Coming to Singapore, I wanted to make friends, be involved with the school, basically make a new life. My first year was tougher than I expected.

Friends didn’t come as easily as they had in Shanghai, our last home, and I didn’t know how to change that.

Then I met someone involved with the PTA, and realized this was the way to make friends, get involved, and be a part of my girls’ school life -- all at the same time. I have been on the PTA board for about six months now, and it has given me more than I expected!

The PTA has shifted its focus this year to be more communitybuilding focused and more inclusive. This is just what I needed in my new expat life. I have met people through volunteering in my daughters’ classrooms and through attending events. I think I made more connections at one event than I did my whole first year here.

Helping with the back to school uniform sale, I met many new parents just starting their SAS adventure. When I was a tour guide for the second grade’s Asia Fest, I learned so much about Asia in just one afternoon. And I was amazed that the second graders knew the flags of so many Asian countries.

Back in the US, Social Studies would have focused on our town. Here my daughters are learning about different countries and different cultures -- first hand.

International Fair. I can’t wait to try foods from the different countries represented at SAS, as well as to learn more about this region of the world we now call home.

At the Welcome BBQ, my daughters ran around as if they had been at the school for years (not the one year and five months we’ve actually been here). My daughters are in kindergarten and second grade, so seeing the football players and cheerleaders as they were introduced as the “big kids” was very cool!

Whether you’ve been here six months or six years, stop by the PTA office next time you’re on campus and say hi. We would love to meet you and learn how we can help you and your family during your stay with us.

The PTA is in the planning stages to bring English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, Japanese flower arranging, Chinese painting, and more to parents at SAS. The County Fair and Food Fest have been combined to create the

I am truly blown away by the commitment to building an SAS community that the PTA and the SAS administration have shown.

I am eager to see what else this amazing and committed group will bring to the SAS community, and I am excited to be part of it.

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NEVERLAND

Over 400 students took to the stage during the fall dance showcase, Neverland. Congratulations to all of the choreographers, dancers, theater tech students, and volunteers who made it a magical show for our community.

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#SASEDU

Want to see your instagram photos, tweets, or Facebook posts end up here in Crossroads?

Start using #sasedu in everything you post about the school!

@aselley GO EAGLES!!! Early morning is where the hard work begins. #SAS_touch #sasedu @kearly98 @kellyychung @cindebraekt @emilyvfisher9 @sophialaw98 @sophiaaaa3 @morganwernerr @mackenzie_werner @sarah_mouton @louisa_blakeley @bailee.nelson @victoriaradke @sabrinagonzalezrussi @_alexislanglois @gabbykim12

@samericanschool So excited for tonight’s #TEDxYouthSAS event! We’ve got an incredible speaker list lined up! #TEDxyouth #SASedu #TEDx

@samericanschool Chip Kimball ate with preschoolers today. He explained that his name is David, but people call him Chip. Here, he will from now on be known to these kids as Chocolate Chip! #sasedu #preschool #eagles #SASrocks

@instanneagram The eagles have landed on our office tree! @sarahinsg don’t worry, we decorated your office too. @lauricoulter @samericanschool #SASedu

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@gachgal My Christmas Crew Photo cred to @douglastindall #sasedu #lightscameraaction

@sasmusicdept The joys of rolling 600 programs into scrolls in preparation for Yulefest 2015. #sasedu #sasmusicdept

@samericanschool Famous! Wrapping up our video shoot with Channel NewsAsia! #sasedu @justin_bratton

@samericanschool There’s a battle royale happening in the high school library as robotics students compete for the chance to travel to Taipei! #sasedu #robotics

@chipkimball Neverland at SAS. 400 kids. Incredible performance! #sasedu #sasrocks @SAmericanSchool

When Cafe Iguana closed its doors, Michael Ferguson knew exactly where this giant iguana would feel at home.

The rainforest is right here! Ms. Liddell collects fallen branches from the rainforest to line her walls.

An old keyboard donated by the music department has found new life as Ms. Liddell uses music to teach her budding scientists.

CAPTIVATING CLASSROOMS Elementary school science teacher Ms. Wendy Liddell is living her dream. Nine years ago she moved from being a second grade teacher to becoming a science teacher after she had a dream about her future classroom. Ms. Liddell’s room has a life of its own and continues to surprise and delight students, parents, and fellow teachers.

Courtesy of Mr. David Hoss, this extinct saber-tooth tiger skull has found a home in Ms. Liddell’s classroom.

A former professional ballerina, Ms. Liddell loves to show students the science behind movement.

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NOTABLE MENTIONS

1

2

MARATHON CLUB

On October 14, the elementary school Marathon Club held a celebration ceremony for its third to fifth grade students who completed a mile a day for one month until they completed 26 miles each, developing goalsetting skills for a healthy, active lifestyle.

Superintendent Dr. Chip Kimball, Elementary Principal Mr. David Hoss, and Deputy Principal Mrs. Susan Shaw congratulated the students for their resilience and determination as they completed their victory lap around the school. Thanks to PE teachers Ms. Anne Wenstrom, Mrs. Annika Ferrell, Ms. Jasper Lawrence, Mrs. Catherine Wheeler, Mr. David Schuster, Mr. Rory Brown, and instructional assistant Mr. Izzuddin Mohd Sharif for their mentorship and support.

ACADEMIC QUIZ CLUB

ACHIEVEMENTS

Number of students in Marathon Club:

312 students (99 in third grade, 118 in fourth grade, 95 in fifth grade)

Number of miles covered altogether by students in the past month:

8,623 miles.

That's more than the distance from Singapore to Seattle, Washington!

Our High School Academic Quiz Club Team A (Katherine Enright, Nicolas Gruenwald, Jennifer Osborne, and Aryaman Tummalapalli) won first place at the Concordia International School Invitational tournament held in Shanghai on October 10, qualifying for the 2016 High School National Championship Tournament.

Team B (Sheyna Cruz, Arjun Joshi, Soumil Mukherjee, and Yuki Yoshioka) won fourth place in the same tournament after a narrow loss to Team A earlier in the day.

During tournament play, four-person teams from the Academic Quiz Club compete to answer questions on a broad range of academic subjects including social studies, literature, sciences, art history, music, and general knowledge using a buzzer system. Timing is crucial, and rounds of 24 questions are often won or lost by margins of only a few points.

Congratulations!

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3

FIFTH GRADER MAKES PROFESSIONAL STAGE DEBUT

Fifth grade student Bjorn H. made his professional stage debut in Singapore on November 20. He appeared in 28 performances of the Wild Rice production of The Emperor's New Clothes, a family musical at the Drama Centre Theatre.

Bjorn sang, danced, and acted with 20 other amazing young local First Stage program performers, as well as professional actors, musicians, and comedians.

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U11 BASKETBALL TEAMS

Congratulations to all SAS U11 Basketball teams! Well done to U11 Girls, U11 Boys Blue, and U11 Boys Red in emerging second, second, and eighth in their division respectively.

We know that the measures of their success are not the statistics or wins, but rather their friendships, lessons, and maturing.

Thank you to all parents, administrators, Athletic Conference of Singapore International Schools League conveners, and to our dedicated coaches Mr. Gray, Mr. Schuster, and Mr. Brown, who shared their time, knowledge of the game, and enthusiasm with our young players. Thanks to our student players who made this season outstanding.

5

U9 SOCCER TEAMS

Congratulations to all SAS U9 Soccer teams. Our U9 Girls, U9 Boys Blue, U9 Boys Red, and U9 Boys White emerged first, third, fourth, and fifth in their divisions respectively.

We congratulate them for their effort, commitment to their teams, and dedication to their sport.

Thank you to all our committed student players, parents, administrators, and Athletic Conference of Singapore International Schools League conveners who helped make this soccer season special. Thank you to our dedicated coaches Mr. Saini, Mr. Fridaus, Mr. Yazi, and Mr. Mido.

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6

CHINESE HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTIONS

Thirty five students were inducted into the Chinese Honor Society in a bilingual ceremony held in the high school library. Current officers who conducted the ceremony are president Ashley Shin, vice president Claire Freeman, treasurer Janice Liu, secretary Janvi Kalra, and events coordinator Anna Kitamura. Elementary school counselor Mr. Pearson was guest speaker.

Congratulations to: Christine Yeon Seo Koh Max Huang Se Young Chun Gabby Koh Honami Abe Jordana Weinberger Matthew Butler

8

Ji Yun Ok Clara Fong Tanvi Dutta Gupta Adit Bhartia Katherine Enright Tammi Fung Dylan Palladino Austin Lee Christen Yu Natalie Gault Jessica Zhu Diya Vuthandam Anya Parekh Elizabeth Yeo Kathryn Wilson Alex Cuozzo Colin Brindle Zack Atlas Gaby Hungate Caitlin Loi Ariel So Joshua Graves Natalie Weinrauch Vaness Wong Vanessa Smiley Kaitlin Crawford Jamie Uy Justine de Jesus

SCHOLASTIC WRITERS’ AWARD 2015

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MU ALPHA THETA (MATHEMATICS HONOR SOCIETY) INDUCTIONS

Students from grades eleven and twelve were inducted into Mu Alpha Theta, the math honor society, on October 27.

Congratulations to Justin Choi, Alex Cuozzo, Rhea Jain, Se Hwan Jeon, Vincent Liu, Yoon Namgoong, Freddie Shanel, Sunita Srivatsan, Liam Stanton, Hope Tanudisastro, and Lucas Zhang on your achievements! And thanks to faculty sponsor, high school math department chair Lance Murgatroyd.

Sixth grader Vidya Sundaram received an honorable mention in the Scholastic Writers’ Award 2015. Her piece won her $100.

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TRI-M MUSIC HONOR SOCIETY (MODERN MUSIC MASTERS) INDUCTIONS

11

MILITARY YOUTH OF THE YEAR

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On November 11, 12 high school students were inducted into the Tri-M Music Honor Society, which is a program of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). The Tri-M society aims to foster a greater continued interest and desire for excellence in music performance, to encourage appreciation and awareness in listening to music, to promote wider opportunities for sharing joy through music in school and in the community, to advance the spirit of good music and musical knowledge, and to enhance the reputation of SAS as a center for musical enrichment.

Congratulations to Justin Choi, Anna Kawachi, Richard Law, Benji Pelletier, and Sunita Srivatsan (band), Arjun Joshi and Will Mundy (choir), and Tammi Fung, Annie Kim, Jenny Kim, Sam Moseley, and Jay You (strings). Thanks to sponsors Mrs. Nanette Devens, Mr. Stephen Bonnette, and Mr. Jay Londgren.

Navy Region Center Singapore recognized its 2016 Boys and Girls Clubs of America Military Youth of the Year recipient, AJ Deguire, from eleventh grade at Singapore American School. The BGCA Military Youth of the Year program is an annual program founded in 1947 in which every Navy Child and Youth Program selects a military youth of the year, who goes on to participate at further levels of competition. It supports strong leadership, good character, a commitment to service, academic excellence, and a healthy lifestyle.

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SOHUM STRIKES AGAIN!

Sohum L. competed in the Singapore National Age Group Chess Championships and became the under-6 champion in the boys' category. Because of his high score he qualified to join the prestigious HP League at the Singapore Chess Federation which trains kids to represent Singapore in international tournaments such as the World Championships.

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SOPHOMORE SPARTAN

Congratulations to sophomore Taylor Buechel! Taylor won first place in her age division at the recent Spartan Race Singapore, a challenging run with obstacles.

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13

SG A TO Z: SINGAPORE THROUGH THE ALPHABET BY MRS. REBECCA GREEN

SG A to Z: Singapore Through the Alphabet is a self-published book by Mrs. Rebecca Green. She is a chronic doodler, and this year joined creative forces with Kaye Bach to form The Kapok Tree. Mrs. Green sees art and writing as intertwined creative outlets.

Her evening illustration time often guides her work as a teacher. The alphabet book began as her way to explore lettering, and soon became a guide to Singapore through the alphabet.

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BASKETBALL GOLD MEDALS Congratulations to our varsity boys' and girls' basketball teams. Our Eagle basketball teams both won first place at the Hong Kong International School holiday basketball tournament.

SWIMMING RECORD BREAKERS

Congratulations to Harley Lopez Miro, Kaitlyn Ritchey, Hadley Chang Ackerman, for setting new SAS records at the IASAS exchange in November.

Women 200 Free Relay 1:49.46 S. Erdamar, H. Lopez Miro, K. Ritchey, S. Brown

15 FRENCH IDOL

Congratulations to seventh grade student Shravya K. who participated in the November 2015 French Idol competition here in Singapore, performing Georges Moustaki's Ma Liberté.

This annual event in its ninth year was cohosted this year by Mr. Rachid (middle school French and Spanish teacher), held at the Alliance Française, and organized by the French Teachers' Association.

Women 400 Free Relay 3:59.19 H. Lopez Miro, C. Loi, K. Ritchey, S. Brown Women 400 Medley Relay 4:35.09 S. Brown, C. Loi, H. Ackerman, K. Ritchey Women 200 Free 2:05.21 Harley Lopez Miro Women 400 Free 4:22.00 Harley Lopez Miro Women 800 Free 9:21.61 Kaitlyn Ritchey

Women 100 Back 1:03.81 Harley Lopez Miro Women 200 Back 2:19.71 Harley Lopez Miro Women 50 Fly 28.84 Hadley Chang Ackerman Women 100 Fly 1:05.46 Hadley Chang Ackerman Women 200 Back 2:25.98 Hadley Chang Ackerman

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STAY CONNECTED

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Communication between school and home is vital to support student learning. We believe that students and parents benefit most by engaging directly with classroom teachers. Beyond that, SAS offers many additional tools to help parents stay connected to daily life on our campus.

SAS eNews Considered required reading for SAS parents, our weekly digital eNews is the prime go-to source for news about upcoming registrations, deadlines, conferences and report cards, events, and important news. Be sure to read the top school-wide section and each division that your children attend. And optionally, the PTA, Booster Booth, and community organizations include news and updates in the bottom section.

When: The last school day of every week Where: In your email inbox Support: If you don’t receive eNews, contact communications@sas.edu.sg

The SAS Website/MySAS Portal The SAS website is a place of vital information for parents, with calendars, lunch menus, links to teacher websites, PowerSchool, and Family Connection, absence forms, the parent directory, eNews archives, the Perspectives blog, and more. Now, all these links can be found in the MySAS portal. The portal has a school-wide section for general information, and a section for each division.

When: As needed Where: Top right corner of the SAS website; your username is your six-digit SASCard number. Click ‘Forgot Your Username/Password’ if necessary, and it will be emailed to you.

Support: communications@sas.edu.sg

Crossroads and Journeys Magazines and the Perspectives Blog

Crossroads, the school magazine, consists of articles submitted by members of the SAS community.

Check out the Notable Mentions feature at the back to see the achievements and milestones of our students and faculty. Journeys magazine ties the present SAS with our six decades of alumni.

The Perspectives blog, designed to highlight and share insight into each of the perspectives of our community, regularly features student reflections and achievements within our community.

When: The Perspectives Blog – weekly, Crossroads – quarterly, Journeys – twice each year Where: The Perspectives Blog can be found on the SAS website. Crossroads and Journeys are mailed to all current SAS families.

Support: communications@sas.edu.sg

Social Media

Connect with SAS on your favorite social media platform to celebrate all things SAS, stay in the know for upcoming activities, and see photos of campus life. We are on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, and Flickr. Post your own SAS photos and join the conversation!

When: Daily Where: Links can be found on the SAS website Support: communications@sas.edu.sg

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WORD ON THE STREET All I Want for Christmas is...

By Sandhya Bala and Clara Fong Communications Interns Sandy Bala is a junior at Singapore American School and a member of the SAS Communications and Alumni Relations Work Study Program. Sandy enjoys photography, writing and travelling to new places.

Clara Fong is a junior at Singapore American School and a member of the SAS Communications and Alumni Relations Work Study Program.

Clara enjoys reading about current events, eating home-cooked food and practicing fencing in her free time.

TARA A. 11TH GRADE

To see my best friends again.

SARA F. 8TH GRADE

New headphones.

MARTHA D. 5TH GRADE

I want Christmas to be a week later because it's my birthday that week.

HARSHA P. 6TH GRADE

We don't really celebrate Christmas, but if we did, then I would want a TV in our house.

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ETHAN S. 9TH GRADE

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SABRINA G. 10TH GRADE

ZARA D. PRESCHOOL

New fencing equipment.

To spend time with family.

A whole bunch of ponies!

XAVIER W. PRE-K

ANYA H. 4TH GRADE

KRISTI T. 12TH GRADE

A big Jurassic World set!

I think there’s a difference between a want and a need, so all I want for Christmas is what I need to live everyday.

All I want for Christmas is you!

40 WOODLANDS STREET 41 SINGAPORE 738547 PHONE: (65) 6363 3403 WEB: WWW.SAS.EDU.SG QUESTIONS? EMAIL US AT COMMUNICATIONS@SAS.EDU.SG CPE Registration Number: 196400340R Registration Period: 22 June 2011 to 21 June 2017 Accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)