Dear Parents, We now find ourselves in May, with all our secondary students somewhat older and hopefully wiser than at the start of the year. Our year 13 students began the 'end’ of their school careers yesterday as the IB diploma and courses exams began, and we wish them a successful three weeks culminating with graduation on May 24th. This May post is a little diverse and includes:
Thanks for student-led conferences An invitation for a Coffee and Questions session Sharing the success of our rooftop garden A request for beach toys for our Dreams We Believe In project Some options for online taxi services
Warm regards, Julian
Student-led Conference and Academic Transition Thank you to all who joined your children for last week’s middle school student-led conferences. Although it may seem like a formality to those of you who regularly discuss learning at home, that is the exact intention. Conducting selfevaluation and review in a formal setting adds to the idea that learning can be analyzed, practiced and learned, adding to what psychologists increasingly recognise is a growth mindset. Students with a growth mindset are more likely to
persevere with studying and face challenges with enthusiasm. This is the kind of attitude which supports our students’ successes in such aspects of school life as the Year 11 Personal Project, the Diploma Years and the IB Extended Essay. These were the basis of the academic transition programmes run on May 1st for students in Years 10, 11 and 12, and we hope that these prove to be a useful start to these exciting new challenges. Coffee and Questions: Thursday, 12th May, 8:00 - 9:30 am The fact that learning success is underpinned by a certain attitude is stressed in the new MYP Approaches to Learning (ATL) expectations. Attributes like perseverance are given a priority, and MYP schools are now challenged to develop them. We will be sharing more about the new ATL skills and other key secondary developments at our Coffee and Questions session from 8:00 to 9:30 on Thursday. James MacDonald, our Head of School, will also be there to share some whole school developments. As usual we will have some time to address your questions, and it would help us if you could confirm your attendance and also submit any questions in advance in the boxes at the foot of this blog. Real-life Context, Real-life Skills There is a lot of research which links the idea of ‘purpose’ to motivation, memory and understanding. Teachers strive to create authentic contexts in the classroom to take advantage of this, linking units to real-world problems or setting projects which mimic the challenges faced by adult scientists, musicians, actors and writers. Much is currently written about developing entrepreneurial skills, and authentic projects such as the NIST rooftop garden are seen as valuable ways in which young people can develop the experiences that they otherwise only experience outside of school. Our rooftop agriculture is steadily becoming acclaimed beyond NIST and Bangkok, and you may enjoy reading these links, one to Jamie Oliver’s food revolution blog and another via the influential educator Cathy Berger Kaye, both of which celebrate the project in different ways. Well done to teachers Brian Johnson and Philip Branston, and the student team, for an amazing year of work in the rooftop garden project. Jamie Oliver: http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/news-content/exciting-urbanagriculture-growing-above Cathy Berger Kaye: http://www.cbkassociates.com/2014/04/02/get-your-garden-on-and-see-what-else-grows/ Dreams We Believe In Another excellent example of social entrepreneurship at NIST is the well-established Dreams We Believe In project. This is a request from their student organisers: Beach Toy Drive at NIST this Thursday and Friday (8-9 May) Dreams We Believe In (DWBI) is taking 70 HIV-positive children who live at the Mercy Center in Klong Toey on a beach trip on Sunday, May 18. The beach means a lot of fun, and we really want the kids to have the full experience, from sand castles to swimming, so we need your help! This Thursday and Friday (8th and 9th of May), we're conducting a beach toy drive to collect any extra buckets, spades, tubes or other beach toys you may want to donate. We'll be collecting the items at the school gate in the morning, so simply drop them off in the boxes labelled "Beach Toys". Please contribute to make this trip a valuable experience for the children :) Please feel free to email us with any questions at 16aeyc@nist.ac.th or 16patrapornt@nist.ac.th Thank you! Taxi Apps If you are have older children at NIST who travel quite a lot by taxi there are some useful apps available for smartphones, suggested by one of our caring teachers, which will help them to arrange taxis which are likely to be safer, more reliable and trackable. They are:
GrabTaxi EasyTaxi, a normal taxi service that allows users sign in to the app with the agreement of using the meter. Details are recorded on your phone, and it tracks where you are on the map with GPS. Uber needs a credit card and is a limo service, so parents will have to set it up with a credit card. The service is less common, so you often have to wait a bit longer for taxis to arrive, but you can track how far away they are through the app. The cars are also tracked by GPS, and students can easily send their ETA through the app to parents. The cost is only about 40 THB more than a normal taxi.