Kitty Cat Capers
On February 6th, 169 K3 students put on a performance of “Kitty Cat Capers”. In preparation for the show, the students practiced the songs, rehearsed the movements, designed the stage and decorations, memorized their lines, planned and created their costumes and had a LOT of fun! They put on a spectacular production for K1 and K2 students as well as their parents. More photo’s on page 7. By: Katie Hoffman, K3 Performing and Visual Arts Teacher Photo Credit: Leona Kelly and Jorge Rodriguez February 27, 2020
Coming soon -
Contents: Director’s Message
PAC Summaries
Counselors Corner
From Elementary
3
From Kindergarten
5
9
4
11
From Secondary
14
From the Director What marks the middle of the year for many students is the report card which helps to inform them and their parents on learning progress. As a school, we would also like to take this opportunity to give a bit of a report on our progress. We are pleased to formally announce our new guiding statements to the community! At the recent Partners for Learning event, I spoke about the current goals of the school and what initiatives are in progress as we continually work on school improvement. This year we have been very focused on building a plan for greater curriculum coherence, planning the delivery of instruction to meet our students’ diverse learning needs, and improving our systems and structures around being One School. Creating the plan for these big initiatives has meant engaging consultants, auditing our current programs, and laying a strong foundation upon which we can implement changes and improvements. We continue to gather feedback on the strengths and areas for improvement as a school and we are excited about the positive changes that are already occurring around the school. As with any learning process, feedback on that process is critical. The best way for you as parents to provide us feedback on what is going well and what changes you’d like us to consider in the future is by completing the CIS survey linked here.
3
Kindergarten PAC: The GSS PAC discussed the following topics: • KG HomeLearning Policy • KG Parent Education Session • Report Cards & Parent Conferences • Teaching Strategies Gold & Creative Curriculum Adoption
As a reminder: Parents are encouraged to contact the KG PAC if they have suggestions around topics for PAC meetings: - Ying Wu - ying.wu@kaust.edu.sa - Hind Aljohani - hind.aljohani@kaust.edu.sa - Rebecca Buttigieg - rebeccabuttigieg@icloud.com - Anna Solarska-Combe - annascombe@gmail.com
Elementary PAC: The GSS PAC discussed the following topics: • Update on GES’s Emergency Learning Plan 1. Presentation of structures and processes in place in case or interruption to programming • Evaluation of the cafeteria’s menu Discuss ways to gather feedback • Discussion about “home learning” Explore other options. Discuss what’s currently working well and not working well As a reminder: Parents are encouraged to contact the GES PAC if they have suggestions around topics for PAC meetings: https://www.facebook.com/TheKAUSTSchool/
- Anna Rautek - anna.rautek@kaust.edu.sa - Ahmad Kadoura - ahmad.kadoura@kaust.edu.sa - Mani Sarathy - mani.sarathy@kaust.edu.sa - Andreia Farinha - andreia.farinha@kaust.edu.sa - Ana Margarida Costa anamargarida.costa@kaust.edu.sa - Faisal Wali - faisal.wali@kaust.edu.sa - Meriem Laleg - taousmeriem.laleg@kaust.edu.sa
In a nutshell:
Summaries of February’s PAC meetings Secondary PAC: The GSS PAC discussed the following topics: • Safety measures on school hiking trips in the local area • Tap Water quality (checked every month and dispensers cleaned every holiday) • Different levels of mathematics courses in Grade 9 - 12 • Registration of students in the NOOR program has started • The MoE has changed the final exam dates. This may impact the deadlines for university and scholarship applications for Saudi Universities, which is relevant for some TKS students • Preparation sessions for SAT/entrance exams for 10 to 12th Grades by qualified volunteers • Reminder about the Partners for Learning Presentation & CIS Survey • E-Learning Plan in the event of a school closure As a reminder: Parents are encouraged to contact the GSS PAC if they have suggestions around topics for PAC meetings: - Hadeel Alsulaimany hadeel.sulaimany@kaust.edu.sa - Amr Atiah - amr.atiah@kaust.edu.sa - Brian Ross - brian.ross@kaust.edu.sa - Cherine Fayad - cherine.fayad@kaust.edu.sa - Hussein Hoteit - hussain.hoteit@kaust.edu.sa - Christine Rueping - christine.rueping@kaust.edu.sa -Abdulaziz Alfaraj - abdulaziz.alfaraj@kaust.edu.sa
from Tiffany Hill, KG Principal Dear Parents, The KG Parent-Teacher Conferences were a welcome opportunity for us to get together with all of you. This event followed the first-semester report cards and allowed parents and teachers to celebrate, discuss, and plan for each child’s learning and development in semester two. We appreciate the commitment to your child’s education by spending quality time connecting with teachers to share your feedback, ask questions, and hear strategies that you can use at home to support learning. Through the parent-teacher conferences, teachers strive to share your child’s individual learning journey and deepen their understanding of your child, through your eyes, to meet their needs. Teachers in Kindergarten use differentiation as a tool to do this. Differentiation means adjusting classroom engagements to the specific needs of the learner; this is a critical piece in teaching and learning in the early years. Here in the KG we use differentiation to ensure that all children are guided in the areas that they need to grow in, for example, socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively. Teachers use a variety of teaching approaches that target areas for growth and development through individual, small group, and whole-class learning engagements. “…just because there is a predictable pattern to growth, and a predictable season for blooming, doesn’t mean that every flower on the plant will bloom on the same day. Each flower opens at its own rate within the growing season. For a flower, the season for blooming may be a matter of weeks or months. In child development, some seasons may even last a few years.” – Amanda Morgan We look forward to seeing you at the Student-led Conferences that will take place later in the spring, where students will be sharing their learning. With kindness, Tiffany
PYP in the Kindergarten On January 29, Kindergarten parents attended a workshop, “PYP in the Kindergarten.” As an introduction, parents were informed about the updated PYP framework which includes a new section about learning in the early years. This PYP document identifies play, relationships, environment, and symbolic learning as central features of early years learning. The kindergarten leadership was pleased to communicate that these elements are already reflected in the Kindergarten Guiding Statements and have been an integral part of the Kindergarten philosophy for some years. The workshop provided an overview of the PYP framework and how it is implemented at TKS Kindergarten. Areas of emphasis were on the transdisciplinary nature of the program, and the importance of supporting all children’s social-emotional, physical, and academic development. After an introduction to the philosophy of the framework which has the child at the center, parents were made aware of the importance of the transdisciplinary skills, or “Approaches to Learning,” and how these skills grow and develop in complexity across all disciplines. They were then given an opportunity to “play” with materials that were set up at different stations in the room. While playing, they were encouraged to identify which Approaches to Learning the children were developing at each station: research, thinking, communication, social-emotional, or self-management skills. While exploring building a bridge with some wooden ramps, parents noticed that the children would be developing communication, research, as well as self-management skills such as resilience when engaged in this learning. Parents left the workshop with some recommendations of how they can support learning at home: play games, sing songs & rhymes, have conversations, encourage drawing and painting, make puzzles, go on walks, and read books with their kindergarten children. Parents are encouraged to attend the upcoming KG workshop in March which will be about Seesaw. By: Hannele Al Uariachi, KG Pedagogical Coordinator, Photo Credit: Jonathan Davidson, GES PYP Coordinator
K1 Arts For K1’s unit of inquiry, How We Express Ourselves, we went to visit the Ceramics Studio to experiment and learn about clay where we were welcomed with open arms by Mr. Chris. The students were given a variety of tools that we could use to help us create our faces. We added eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, and some hair! A week later, we went back to the ceramics room to add color to our faces. By: Charis Fack, K1 Teacher
K3 “Kitty Cat Capers”
Photos By:
Leona Kelly and Jorge Rodriguez
K1 Creators in a New Space 2020 brought the soft opening and development of new creative spaces in the Kindergarten. It is still quite early stages, but the creation of this space (yet to be named) provides more opportunity for inquiry and exploration into technologies both digital and non-digital. One of the first classes to use the new space was Ms. Ana’s K1 class as the children explored light painting, experimenting with how they might express themselves! Children were excited to move along to music while they saw their light creations reflected on screen. Later while watching their videos, the children shared some of their thinking about the different creations each group had made. Comments around the room included: “The picture looks crazy when the music is fast! We were jumping and the light moved faster!” “I can see the different lines and shapes the light made.” “I did not know we could make art with light” “The light painted but it then disappeared.” This experience gave the children the opportunity to view themselves as a creator using a tool that they would have not thought possible as a way to create art.
By : Ms. Ana Ferrufino - K1 Teacher & Ms. Candace Taylor-Weber - KG Ed Tech Coach & Librarian
Robotic Bug Mazes - K2 Creating mazes is a fun challenge for children, especially when the mazes are for robotic bugs called Hexbugs. There are some engineering considerations – what pathway design will keep the Hexbugs from getting stuck? Can we create a maze with more than one possible path? Will the Hexbugs always go the same way, or will they go multiple different ways? When the children started building, they first added another wall on the opposite side to create a real pathway. They kept moving the blocks and making new obstacles or ways for the bugs. Then they started adding blocks on top of the path and created tunnels. So much fun and so much learning! We all loved this activity. By: Ms. Virpi Abouzeid, Photo Credit: Ms. Abouzeid & Candace Taylor-Weber
Counselors Corner
from Chye de Ryckel, Elementary Associate Principal When learners have voice, choice, and ownership over their learning, they have what the PYP would call, Learner Agency. In GES we strive to create conditions where our students are motivated to learn about local and global issues while simultaneously developing skills, acquiring knowledge, and building understanding. GES has a robust transdisciplinary programme of inquiry, complete with thirty units spanning Grade 1 to Grade 5. It is our aim to make every unit accessible and engaging for each learner. Earlier this year a group of fourth graders had voice, choice, and a propensity to take action when engaging into a “How the World Works� unit. They learned about sustainable energy solutions that have minimal impact on the environment. After conducting their research, the group presented ideas for the school to Mr. Woodcock. Learner agency in GES expands beyond the student body. Teachers and administrators are also important members of the learning community and engage in yearlong or sometimes multi-year professional inquiries. A professional inquiry centers around an aspect of practice that the staff member would like to investigate and is always directly linked to student learning. Reflective journaling, coaching conversations, and pulling feedback from students (or teachers) are three of the seven practices that staff members engage in to challenge their thinking and develop new understandings. This year many teachers and administrators developed inquiries centered around one of our three big rocks: mathematics, reading, and a positive student culture. Parents are also an integral part of the GES learning community. We are grateful that hundreds of parents were able to join us for the Parent-Teacher Conferences earlier this month and are delighted each time our halls are filled with families for the student-led conferences. Similarly, we regularly welcome parents to information sessions about specific aspects of our program, for example the Grade 5 Exhibition a few weeks ago. Agency is present in GES because our learners (both the children and adults) partner with one another to take charge of what, where, why, and with whom they learn.
Coding with 1LT & 1TD
Over the past two weeks, 1LT and 1TD students have been developing their computation thinking through a variety of coding activities. The first was an unplugged lesson where no technology was used. The students were asked to take on the role of both the programmer and the robot. This activity provided them with the opportunity to identify and fix (debug) their list of steps (algorithm) in order to physically move their robot to the correct location. The students quickly learned that being specific with their language was vital, and that feedback mistakes helped identify errors in the code. After this, the students revisited Bee-Bots which some students first encountered in K3. Before working on a range of collaborative coding tasks, the students were given time to play with the Bee-bots so that they would have an understanding of how they work. A challenging step for students was transferring the physical input of the steps into written code for others to follow. Next, the students moved on to using the code.org course resource to program Angry Birds and Harvester. This wonderful resource features video tutorials and sequential activities that build nicely upon previous content and concepts. While this self-paced course explores a range of concepts such as sequencing and loops, there is emphasis on critical thinking and being persistent in the face of difficulty. Lastly, all of the above activities integrated nicely with the previous procedural writing unit that the students inquired into. Overall, the students have enjoyed the range of activities and no doubt felt challenged along the way. I have been particularly impressed by the way they have helped each other out to develop their skills and knowledge, and to try different solutions to overcome problems. By: Mr. Donovan Hall Grade 1 Educational Technology Coach
Developing Digital Citizenship in Grade 3 An exciting aspect for students moving up to Grade Three at TKS is being trusted with a laptop for the first time. With this newfound privilege comes newfound responsibility. Throughout the year, students become better acquainted with how they can responsibly leverage technology in their learning journey. As students grow in their skills with their laptops, school accounts and educational programs, they participate in focussed lessons around how they can become digital citizens who use technology responsibly to learn, create, and participate. Over the course of the last few weeks, all third grade students have engaged in lessons around media balance, cyberbullying, media literacy and online communication. One of the culminating lessons had each class define for themselves how they can make strong, safe online communities. From this work, they created their own online agreements that they would follow to help guide them when online with others. Being a parent of both a GES and GSS child, I know that having our children grow and interact more within the online world can be scary for us as parents. Looking at the different agreements and behaviours they these third graders have created, I am sure you will agree that they are taking these online steps seriously and responsibly By: Derek Halverson, Educational Technology Coach
GES Cooking Club Yes, you heard me right, this year GES offered to its students a Cooking Club and it was beyond successful according to the students themselves. The excitement, the enjoyment, and the creativity were all there as they cooked, prepared, tasted, spread around school, and took home as well their makings. Some foods were sweet and others savoury. We made pizza, mug cakes, corn flakes sweets, and many irresistible recipes. The commitment and the positive energy were our elements of success. I have to say that all of this wouldn’t have happened without the guidance and support of Mr. Evan Bryceland. Also the students of sixth grade: Malak, Sabah, Zahraa, Shirhan and Ms. Azhar as well as the cafeteria staff. Indeed we all worked together having in mind part of the TKS Mission, “Together we ignite curiosity, inspire creativity and investigate solutions.” The promise Mr. Evan and myself have to share with you that the Cooking Club will be offered annually. By: Rawdhah Radwan, Islamic Studies Teacher
from David Tigchelaar, GSS Principal This month we engaged in the following events: • Gr12 Mid Year Exams • A Parent Information session for Gr12 parents on DP and TKS exams on February 10 • Three-way-conferences on February 11 and 12 • The WISE Internship Fair on February 12 • Sports Day on February 13 • The U14 Girls RSAC Football hosted by TKS on February 14 • RSAC Cross Country on February 16 • TKS Sci-Café on February 17 - “Modeling and Machine Learning”. • Arts Night on February 23 • Gr10 Personal Project Community Showcase on February 26 We look forward to the following events in March: • March 4 - Saudi University Fair from 5 - 8 pm • March 4 – SAIKAC U16 Girls Basketball @AISR • March 6 - SAIKAC U16 Boys/Girls Basket -ball @AISR • March 9 - Track and Field from 4:30pm – 8:30pm @Safaa Stadium • March 8 - Variety Show at 4:30 @ TKS in GSS Auditorium • March 12/13 - SAIKAC U19 Basketball (Boys) @TKS • March 12/13 - SAIKAC U14 Boys and Girls football@BISJ.
Design Thinking - KAUST Mobile Application The following students participated in a wonderful opportunity run by the KAUST Smart Team to come up with one Kaust Mobile app: Judy Hejazi - G12 Blake Remington – G11 Malak Justaniah – G10 Naga Kare – G10 Jawad Harakeh – G10 Saif AlAttar - G10 Michael Church - G10 Hamza Khasawneh - G10 Youssef Elhagrasy - G10 Hassan Alghanim - G10 Arnab Chakraborty – G9 Joanne Lai - G9 The students worked in teams with the different community members to unfold the following key elements of the app: * Building a brand and logo and to come up with a name for the one mobile app * Design the look and feel of the app (background, colour, font) * Useful content (nearest pet cemetery, list of technical divers at Kaust etc) The students tapped into their creative and innovative skillset as they delved deeper into the screen design, followed by building the high-fidelity prototype using inVision Studio. Here are some comments made by some of the students: “it allowed us to express some creative aspects of our personality”, Hassan Alghanim, grade 10. “it gave us an opportunity outside of school to express our creative ideas and apply design principles to innovate a real life application” Jawad Harakeh, grade 10. “Gave us introduction to inVision studio and the guidance provided has opened up a new door of interest in graphic designing” Michael Church, grade 10. “was able to learn about the design of apps and the process taken” Joanne Lai, grade 9. “I loved taking the role of a graphic designer for a design that I felt was not very good, however, the encouragement I received from the team was very encouraging and a confidence booster” Judy Hejazi, grade 12 By: Azra Hanif, EdTech Coach
GRADE 6 Language and Literature and Individuals and Societies The Grade 6 students have been productively busy for the past few weeks. Students planned, organized and set up an ‘Ancient Civilisation Museum’ where they put on a display of artifacts that they created as a part of our investigation into Ancient Civilizations. Students from the Elementary school were invited to visit the museum. Knowing that their work was to be viewed by a ‘real’ audience and display for all the school to see motivated the students to create both engaging and educational pieces. Grade 6 recently began a new unit in which students will be investigating the refugee crisis. This unit has strong cross disciplinary connections. In Language and Literature students are reading novels based around the theme of ‘adversity and challenge’, while in Individuals and Societies they are gathering data on the refugee situation in a chosen host country. We were very fortunate to Skype Mrs Buthaina Ahmad Abu Ali, the mother of Elementary school teacher Ms Rena. She shared her story with the children of fleeing Palestine in 1945, when she was 5 years old. Having the opportunity to hear personal stories helps to make the learning both relevant and real for the students. The students had the opportunity to ask questions that allowed them to explore more about our global contexts of ‘Fairness and Inequity’ and ‘Adversity’. Thank you to Ms Rema for allowing this opportunity to speak with your mother. By: The Grade 6 LL and I&S Team; Kate Muschamp, Ashley Quinn and Poonam Merchant
Some of the Grade 4 comments included:
Virtual Reality in Science On Thursday, February 6th, Ms Azra, EdTech Coach assisted Mr Wylie’s 9th grade Biology class with the opportunity to use Virtual Reality (VR) to further their understanding of different types of cells. For many students, it was their first time to ever use VR in a classroom setting. When you first place the headset on, you’re immediately sucked into the world of VR and how realistic the cells and their organelles look. When looking at cell diagrams on paper or screen, you’re only able to see a 2D version. This can sometimes limit the understanding students try to achieve -- that is until seeing it in 3D. When using the VR, we were able to completely see the tiny cells on a much larger scale in 3D. When looking at the prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells, we saw enlarged structures of the cells that we could walk around to observe the image with clear details. Our teacher, Mr. Wylie, had it also projected on the SmartBoard, and was able to zoom into certain parts of the cell and explain to us more in-depth about what was going on. The vast majority enjoyed the experience and found it very useful. I asked a couple of students on what type of experiences they had using VR in the class:
Mariam Hoteit, G9 Student
Yousef Abdelaal, G9 Student
“I really feel like the VR experience is a great tool that helps educate students who want to know more about cells, and I highly recommend it for future classes.” – Adityaraja Alevoor “I like that it tried to represent a cell and did it in a really nice job; it was surreal. We also learned about it (the cell) while looking at it. I would do it again; it was a great learning experience and entertaining.” – Omamah Jamil “What I liked about it is that we got to learn the parts of the cell through different ways instead of just talking about it on the board. We also got to see it in 3D, got to see like the inner parts of the cell.” – Layan Bakhdar
Layan Bakhdar, G9 Student
By: Mariam Hoteit, SCA Communications Officer Photos: Reece Lennon
G12 Red Sea Science Trip As an integral component of the Grade 12 Biology, and Environmental Systems and Ecology (ESS) IB DP courses, four teachers took sixteen students out on to the Red Sea to learn some practical ecology techniques. Students swam along line transects and did a numerical count of fish that they had learned to classify. They also analysed the water using test kits that were taken out on the boat. The students were fully engaged in these activities. It is opportunities like this that make The KAUST School stand out from many others. Such exposure and practice of these ecological skills will be useful in their upcoming IB DP exams in May. By: Emma L. Nason PhD Head of Science,Teacher of Biology
Emma Nason; Mitch Maclarn; Sue Rhodes and John Danaher
TKS and Jeddah Women’s Football Even though the football season is over, the U16 Sharks girls squad have been playing regular Wednesday night games against KAUST’s own Miraas women’s football team. Miraas have a sister team in Jeddah, who recently finished second in the inaugural 2019 Jeddah Women’s Football League, and this team kindly invited us down to the city to play a friendly fixture against them. The game would be on Saturday, February 8th. It was 60 minutes long, and every player in the Sharks team got plenty of game-time. The final score was a 4-4 draw which was a good reflection of the high standard of attacking football that both teams played. This is an especially good result for the U16 Sharks team, given our oldest player is 15, our youngest player is 12, and we were playing against a fast, skillful team of adults. Emilia Salvador scored 4 goals for the Sharks and Rital Alali pulled off a series of amazing saves in goal. Everyone had a fun time and also learned a lot from the experience! More games are definitely planned for the future, to both strengthen ties between KAUST and local women’s football teams, and provide our TKS students with meaningful extra-curricular experiences. Special thanks go to Wedyan Babatain for organizing and refereeing the friendly and Silvia Salvador for coaching support. By: Andrew Wright, Photo Credit: Silvia Salvador Images by: Miraas