St. Mark's International School Newsletter 2017-2018 vol 2

TRILINGUAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATION  Member of association of christian schools international

ST. MARK’S

 Member of australian council for educational research

 Affiliated with hanyu shuiping kaoshi chinese proficiency testing

 Member of

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

international schools association of thailand

2017-2018 Newsletter Vol. 2 Oct 2017

Academically Aspiring - Caringly Christian - Experientially Enriching

Always Be Safe!

Learning Maths by Baking Cookies Editorial Advisory Board: John Ruangmethanon & Dr. Listati Liu Editor: Dean Leaman Writer, Artwork & Cover Photography : Keurkoon Phoomwittaya

High School Collaborates with World Vision  Fire Drill 2017 Featured items in Students‘ S P A C E : Kantawat Guntayuong, Zandeli O'Sullivan, Thanaporn Wongchan, Phawipunya Indarakris, Annabelle Pepyat & St. Mark‘s Radio from Year 5 Copyright © 2017 by St. Mark's International School Read Newsletters Online at http://stmarks.ac.th/

These past two months, we‘ve focused on collaboration between parents, teachers, and students through parent coffee meetings, staff team-building activities on Professional Development Day, and the first meeting of our High School students with a selected non-profit organisation— World Vision Foundation of Thailand.

As we have expanded our school activities in this year, we have more delightful news about events of which to inform you. Now printed copies of our newsletters are available for our school family. We hope you enjoy them!

Blessings, St. Mark‘s Editorial Team

Parents Coffee Meeting St. Mark‟s International School Administration organised our first parents coffee meeting of this semester to give an opportunity for our teachers to collaborate with parents on their children‟s learning experiences.

Our teachers kept the parents updated on their teaching techniques and gave advices on how parents can help children to reach their learning goals. After the meeting everyone enjoyed finger foods and drinks at the school canteen.

1

St. Mark’s Teachers Gather for Staff Professional Development Day On September 18th, our amazing teachers participated in their annual Professional Development Day. It was a day filled with laughter and insightful thoughts shared through discussion. In each group, the teachers were given different scenarios for which they had to think of good solutions and act them out, playing their roles as teachers and

To watch our video please visit:

students in front of everyone.

https://goo.gl/vjt3u2

Some of the values that we talked about were being positive and having fun, as well as supporting our students to be the best people they can be by encouraging them to continue to grow in their talents. In the afternoon session, our staff enjoyed learning about first aid through examples that are applicable to our daily life here at school.

Fun Activities on School Open Day St. Mark‘s International School welcomed prospective parents who joined in our Open Day on October 6th. We gave a brief introduction to our Australian-Singaporean curriculum and shared stories about school life, class activities, school social events, extracurricular activities, friendships and other precious memories.

We also invited visitors to participate first-hand with educational puzzles.

After a tour around the school, we opened a Question and Answer session to learn more about us.

2

Student Life BRainstorming Business ideas

Video available in Parents‘ Gateway

A great start-up business leads to a creative way to

late areas of interest they might have. This activity as-

solve problems. But what industry does our business

sists them in doing just that. Knowing themselves well

fall into? How do we even start to make it happen?

enough allows them to be more decisive and confident in an ever-changing global environment.”

As our Year 9s learned about entrepreneurship, they also got to know more about themselves. In this busi-

This activity was a starting point for our students to

ness brainstorming session, our students did not just go

think about what they are passionate about. After a

straight into planning a business model. Instead, they

while they will find themselves more connected with

began by brainstorming about their topics of interests.

what personally drives them.

Mr. Mitchell Kuntz the High School Business Studies

“Passion allows an individual to truly identify what might

teacher explained that, “one of the key aspects of being

make an industry better and how they might add value.

successful in business is being decisive. However, at

It is fuel for improvement,” Mr. Mitchell added.

this stage of their lives, they might find it difficult to iso-

3

Video available in Parents‘ Gateway

“Our Treasure” English Speaking Assignment Everyone must have at least one object that he or she has emotional connection with because it reminds them of their past memories, relationships and success.

In English class, our Year 4s talked about their treasures; from the things they saved money to buy themselves, to trophies from a car race, to photograph albums of family trips.

While students talked about the items, they shared the values and stories connected to the objects they presented. One of them touchingly referred to her treasure as ―My Life‖ and spoke of the love that she receives from members of her family.

Video available in Parents‘ Gateway

Year 7s used a caliper to measure the sizes of

Measure Marbles In Progress

marbles. In addition to learning how to read the

lengths and calculate the circumference, they discovered the variances in the outcome of their measurements due to the visual angle of observation. Precise results require practice.

4

Learning Maths by Baking Cookies In Early Years, they used to count the numbers of cookies on the plate in their cooking class. Now they are in Year 2 and they are finding that learning math is useful for baking.

This activity was part of their chapter on measuring weight. To make the delicious cookies they must put in the proper amount of ingredients

Video available in Parents‘ Gateway

and spend just the right amount of time stirring them together. Putting them in the oven, they could smell their fresh baked yum-yum chocolate chip cookies! In just a few seconds all the cookies had magically disappeared.

“Together for Peace” Art Competition

This month our Primary students participated in the Together for Peace art competition. The winners from each class will have their artwork displayed for exhibition on International Day on October 20th.

5

High school Students Collaborate with World Vision Foundation of Thailand in Famine Project On 26 September 2017, our High School students had their first meeting with World Vision Foundation of Thailand to discuss their plans regarding the upcoming „Turn Notebooks into Meals‟ activity.

Our Year 7-9 students are taking leadership in making D.I.Y notebooks with our Primary students to raise funds for the World Vision nutrition program. The Famine Project on 18th October 2017 will also let them experience the hunger of children in need by participating in a four-hour fast. In anticipation of this event, our

Your child‘s story will be an inspiration to our

school community has been promoting aware-

parents‘ community!

ness of the needs of children by collecting donations for World Vision to help support children and families struggling with poverty.

We look forward to the upcoming event and hope that through real-life learning experiences our students will become successful and valuable citizens of tomorrow's world.

We would like to invite our school family to follow us on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/StMarksIntl where you will see snippets from our school such as class activities as well as school event photos and videos.

6

Extra-Curricular Activities

Taekwondo warm-up As the school bell rings, we pack up our books into bags and run to the gymnasium.

It is a joyous time to put on our white Taekwondo outfits, tie them tight and meet our club members again. This year we welcome new members to join in our little fun community here, too.

Taekwondo is an art form for protecting ourselves from danger. We make it fun here at Taekwondo Club after school because our teacher always find different warm-up activities before we start with the kicking. We stretch our arms and legs, and play a lively game, jumping in the colourful rings. You won‘t regret joining in our fun ECA!

7

Let’s All Be Chickens!

English

Drama

In English Drama Club, Mr. Russ let

club

students begin the lesson with fun

having

ice-breaking games. After playing a

time and play-

ball game for introduction, they sat

ing ice-breaking

in a circle getting ready for the next

members circle

games together.

game called I Wrote A Letter To My Friend. One student at a time had a turn to secretly drop a letter at the back of a friend. The friend would feel a little bit of a touch on his or

Students

her back – then both of them had a

competing

round run to compete for the seat.

for a seat in the ‗I Wrote A Letter To

To help build confidence in speaking and performing, they played

My

Friend‘

game.

animal guessing games. On the correct answer, everyone had to stand up and act out the animals together. Chickens went ‗Cluck,

Everyone

Cluck!‘ Dogs went ‗Woof, Woof!‘.

mimicking

Hmmm, what do ponies say?

the actions of chickens.

To watch our video please visit https://goo.gl/a8BjHb

Student Council Meeting At the beginning of this academic year our student representatives, selected from Year 3 to High School, had a meeting to collaborate on this leadership opportunity. Dr. Listati Liu, School Principal, talked with them about the purpose of Student Council, saying that they were being given an important role in assisting teachers in supervision duties, representing other students on issues discussed in class meetings, as well as overseeing fundraising projects for educational materials.

While every member of the Student Council takes on the role of working with teachers and administrators, they can learn and take advice from the Student Council Advisers, Melanie Pepyat and Andrea Parreno, from Year 9 who have already had previous experience in school leadership.

8

Fire Drill On September 6th,

our teachers

set up fire drill activity stations for our students to explore and challenge themselves.

At Station 1,

they had to answer quiz relating to fire safety. In the next station, they received booklets of activities and space to let them create a fire escape plan for their houses. Stop, drop, and roll practice was a chal-

To watch our video please visit https://goo.gl/dxb2Sa

lenge at station 3.

Students got to practise splashing water on the fire spot by throwing blue balls as the representation of water to the red cup tower which represented fire. The last station was the most exciting simulated architecture of a building filled with smoke. Our teachers designed the dark smoke maze for them to practice crawling and finding the way to the fire escape. At mid day, the fire alarm rang calling all students and staff to move out from the school buildings and assemble together at the school basketball court.

9

Storytelling - Benefits and Tips Children have an innate love of stories. Stories create magic and a sense of wonder at the world. Stories teach us about life, about ourselves and about others. Storytelling is a unique way for students to develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for other cultures, and can promote a positive attitude to people from different lands, races and religions.

Storytelling and Intercultural Understanding There are a number of ways in which storytelling can enhance intercultural understanding and communication. Stories can…



allow children to explore their own cultural roots



allow children to experience diverse cultures



enable children to empathise with unfamiliar

Other benefits of using storytelling in the classroom Stories…

people/places/situations



offer insights into different traditions and values



Promote a feeling of well-being and relaxation



help children understand how wisdom is com-



Increase children's willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings

mon to all peoples/all cultures



offer insights into universal life experiences



Encourage active participation



help children consider new ideas



Increase verbal proficiency



reveal differences and commonalties of cultures



Encourage use of imagination and creativity



Encourage cooperation between students



Enhance listening skills

around the world

Commonalities of cultures around the world

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.— Jeremiah 33:3

Stories reveal universal truths about the world.

Through stories we see how very different people share the same life experiences and how human nature can transcend culture.

Extracted from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/ storytelling-benefits-tips

10

STUDENTS’ S

P

A

C E

A Place for free writing and creativity that lets your imagination spark

Thai storytelling about a rainbow by Kantawat Guntayuong, Year 2 student

St. Mark’s Radio "We know from studying at St. Mark‟s that there are all kinds of people all around the world; people of different colours, speaking different languages, eating different foods and celebrating different holidays. Most importantly God made us all and He loves us all just the same. When we think about this, it gives us reason to love each other the way God loves us.”

This is our first student podcast from St. Mark‟s

‘The World Is A Rainbow’

School Radio. We hope you enjoy! To listen to us, please visit:

https://soundcloud.com/stmarks-school

11

The featured work by Zandeli O'Sullivan (Year 3) is part of their Technology class activity. They learned to use Microsoft Word to write stories. In addition to practice writing in blogger styles, they designed their own presentation using different tools in the program.

12

Thanaporn Wongchan (Year 3) wrote a fictional story in Mandarin with a storyline about a boy who was playing basketball and fell asleep without doing his homework.

13

Creative Art Made From Tissue Rolls This activity was part of the Creative Art ECA. Our students used tissue rolls to make their own designs. They had the option to paint colours on their work, or just use a plain modern style with a simple but attractive look.

By Phawipunya Indarakris (Year 1)

By Annabelle Pepyat (Year 5)

14

900 Rama 9 Rd, Suanluang, Bangkok 10250 Thailand Email: info@stmarks.ac.th Phone:

+ 66 -2-300-5463

www.stmarks.ac.th

Guided by Christian philosophy, St. Mark's International School aims to provide quality Early Years through Secondary education, enabling each student to achieve their fullest potential by becoming confident, motivated, optimistic and responsible young citizens.

Connect With Us

StmarksIntl

Stmarksbkk