Posted by Ms Catasti on Tuesday, February 28th 2012
There will be an Introduction to the Elementary curriculum workshop suited to new parents to YIS and interested community members. This is a repeat of the parent workshop held in October at the beginning of the school year. This will be presented by the ES Principal, Ms Jacquie Pender, and the ES Vice Principal / PYP Coordinator, Shanel Catasti.
When: Wednesday, February 29th, 2012, 9:00 – 10:30 AM
Where: Cafeteria
The Five Minute University – Father Guido Sarducci teaches what an average college graduate knows after five years from graduation in five minutes. Does this type of education prepare our students for the 21st century?
IB Learner Profile – The IB learner profile is the IB mission statement translated into a set of learning outcomes for the 21st century.
Posted by Kim Cofino on Wednesday, February 8th 2012
Once again, we had a great discussion at our recent Technology and Literacy Coffee Morning! Our focus this month was on the use of Google Calendar to keep up with assignments and projects, particularly in Middle School.
For an overview of Google Calendar (and especially the recent update with the “new look”), watch this short video:
This session was about a new process we just started in grades 6, 7, and 8, which we think will help students, teachers and parents kept track of the ongoing projects and assignments that students are working on. Basically, we have created a shared calendar for each tutor group, where teachers will record all major assignments on the due date. This means all assignments for each tutor group are recorded in one calendar! Each of these calendars are also embedded on the teachers’ blogs. Here’s an example from Ms. Cofino.
Not only is it great to be able to visit your child’s tutors’ blog to see the upcoming assignments, but you can do so much more!
Students and parents can:
subscribe to this calendar, and have it display on their own Google Calendar, laptop or phone, and
set up reminders by e-mail, pop-up message, or phone alarm for each individual assignment!
Last month we got started by creating a Google Account (to subscribe to teacher and student blogs through Google Reader), and we can now use this same account to subscribe to the new assignment calendars in middle school.
We are just in the initial stages of this process, and will be introducing these calendars to students in the near future. Please ask them about their assignment calendar in a few weeks and have them help you subscribe too!
In addition to our discussion about Google Calendar, we also discussed how the Connected Learning Community is going for our middle school students. A few of the key points that came up were:
Students are learning how to collaborate effectively on their computer, often this is a support to their homework, through chatting. Although this may initially seem like casual conversation, students are regularly talking about their work, sharing tips and understandings, and helping each other stay organized.
In the first few months of the program, students had an increased amount of homework that needed to be completed on the computer, which may have been surprising, especially to grade 6 parents. Although they are using their computer more for homework, this does not mean they are using the computer all day in school too. We use the laptops when they are needed, just like we would use a pencil and paper.
Students are being supported in learning how to balance both on-screen and off-screen time. Students are not allowed to use their laptops at break, and may only use them at lunch in the (supervised) CLC Workroom. Our goals are to ensure that students have enough time to interact socially with their peers, and that they start developing healthy habits.
Often when students are “playing” on the computer, it seems like they are “wasting time”, but actually, research has shown how much students are learning when they are perceived to be playing. This recent study conducted by Mimi Ito through the MITPress highlights the different types of playing, and how students are learning: Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out.
We really enjoy all of these opportunities for informal conversation with parents. Looking forward to seeing you again in March!
Our next Parent Technology and Literacy Coffee Morning will be: Wednesday, March 7th in the Loft. We will be talking about one of our most frequently used tools here at YIS: Google Docs. Teachers and students are regularly collaborating on documents, sharing their work via collections, and publishing finished pieces on their blog. Come to this session to learn how Google Docs work, how we use them here at school and why we find them so valuable! Bring your laptop for a hands-on experience.
Posted by Ms Catasti on Thursday, January 26th 2012
As a parent, do you find yourself asking:
What is my child learning in mathematics?
How can I help my child become an efficient problem solver?
How do children best learn mathematics?
How can parents promote quality thinking and learning?
How can I help my child in mathematics?
If so, then please come along to our Mathematics workshop for Elementary parents on Tuesday February 7th 2012, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM in the Loft.
The international presenter will be Michael Ymer, a specialist mathematics consultant from Melbourne, Australia. He is involved in many Professional Development programs in schools across Australia and Asia. Michael is an enthusiastic and entertaining presenter who has a clear and practical approach to the challenges that confront schools and parents in mathematics. On this evening Michael will address the following issues
Parents are welcome to register for this event by emailing goddardd@yis.ac.jp to confirm their attendance.
Posted by Ms Catasti on Friday, November 18th 2011
On WEDNESDAY November 22, 2011, parents of elementary are invited to attend a workshop hosted by Mrs. Blum, Literacy Coordinator and Grade 5 teacher, and Ms. Cowdy, Literacy Coordinator and Kindergarten teacher.
Time: 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Location: LOFT
Contact: Kristen Blum blumk@yis.ac.jp or Tasha Cowdy cowdyt@yis.ac.jp
Here are a couple of inspirational TEDtalks videos about Mathematics. The great part about watching these is that at YIS, we have been adapting our programme and teaching methods for many years and a lot of what these guys are saying about what is wrong with Mathematics in schools does not apply to our programmes or to our teaching philosophy. We have made great efforts to develop an inquiry driven programme here at YIS that is dynamic, based on real world problems and will equip our students with the tools they will need to be successful and confident in their lives and careers.
Posted by Ms Catasti on Wednesday, November 9th 2011
On Tuesday November 15, 2011, parents of Kindergarten – Grade 2 are invited to attend a workshop hosted by Mr. Goddard, Maths Coordinator and Grade 5 teacher, and Ms Page, Kindergarten teacher.
Time: 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Location: Cafeteria
On Thursday November 17, 2011, parents of Grade 3-5 are invited to attend a workshop hosted by Mr. Goddard, Maths Coordinator and Grade 5 teacher, and Mr. Geddes, Grade 4 teacher.
Posted by Ms Catasti on Wednesday, November 9th 2011
On Thursday November 3rd, elementary parents participated in the Reading Together parent workshop, lead by Mary Lang and Audrey Brown. Thank you to the parents who made it along to this in-school event, and also to those who attended the Coffee and Conversation morning in the cafeteria.
Practical information for parents to support their child’s reading has been shared in the Reading Together Pamphlet which can be found on the Learning Support Blog.
This month’s Parent Technology & Literacy Coffee Morning was fantastic!
We offered a hands-on session for parents to bring their own laptops and get set up with a new tool: RSS. We love these hands-on sessions because parents are able to walk away from the session having accomplished something which will help them stay informed about their child’s learning. We focused on RSS this month because it’s a great way to keep up with all of the news shared on teacher and classrooms blogs housed on The Learning Hub.
We are very proud that all of our YIS teachers now have a blog on The Learning Hub where they share updates from their classes, homework and assignments, and new ideas and resources for students to engage with. Because each teacher has their own blog, this means that parents (and students) need to keep up with a variety of different blogs. That’s where RSS comes in!
Before RSS, you would have to go to each and every blog every day to see if something new has been posted. Instead, you can use an RSS Reader (we recommend Google Reader, because that’s what our students use), to receive all of the new updates in one place – kind of like e-mail for blogs and websites. Here’s another great Common Craft video to explain RSS:
So, once you’re ready to set up your own reader account, here are the steps:
At the top of the screen choose the “Feed Settings” dropdown menu and select “New Folder”
Give the folder a name (the name of your child is probably easiest)
Done! You have now created a folder for one of your childrens’ teachers’ blogs
You can easily add more blogs into that fold by clicking on each subscription at the left (one at a time) and selecting your new folder from the “Feed Settings” dropdown menu
Repeat steps 2 – 4 for each of your children to create the folder, then repeat step 6 to add the right subscriptions to the right folder
You can always take a subscription out of a folder by unchecking it in the “Feed Settings” menu
All of the parents who attended the session were able to complete this set-up. In the future, we’re going to add some advanced features, like subscribing only to posts about a certain class on a teacher’s blog!
Please join us next time for another hands-on Parent Technology & Literacy Coffee Morning! Our next meeting will be Wednesday, February 1 2012 in the Cafeteria. We will focus on using Google Calendars to keep track of homework and assignments. This is another great new feature of our Learning Hub blogs! Many teachers are posting assignments and deadlines using Google Calendar, which you (and your children) can subscribe to. Now you can have all of your calendars in one place, and you can keep up with the assignments and deadlines for each class your child is taking!
Posted by Ms Catasti on Wednesday, November 2nd 2011
SAVE the DATE!! Thursday, November 03, 2011
The first parent event is “Coffee and Conversation with ES Principal, VP and Head of Academics“.
Time: 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Location: Cafeteria
Parents are warmly invited to join Ms. Pender, Ms. Catasti and Mr. Stanworth for an informal get-together over coffee and pastries in the Cafeteria. They will briefly discuss recent developments at school, with a focus on the elementary school, but most of the session will be devoted to an open Q&A style discussion with parents. We have scheduled the event on a Japanese national holiday so that working spouses may also attend.
The second parent event is the “ES Parent Workshop Gr K-2 READING” hosted by Ms. Lang, Learning Support teacher and Ms. Brown, Grade 2 teacher. The focus for this workshop is how parents can help their young child learn to read.
