Category: Staff

NEW Appraisal committee

Interested in forming part of the committee to review the appraisal process for next year? We are looking for representation across the school. Please contact me by Friday March 6 if you would like to join Danny, Bob and myself in this exciting opportunity.

PPP Presentation: Start up a business

Jose in G10 has been working on his PPP about starting up a business. He is going to present in the MYP/DP LGR on Tue, Mar. 3 lunch 1 (12:30-1:00pm) and needs audience for his presentation. He also needs help from the audience to fill out a survey for his PPP product. Please come and support Jose if you have time.

“In this presentation the main aspects of starting up a business will be discussed. I will talk about the product, financial, advertising, human resources, and negotiating skills. This presentation’s purposes are to show my PPP learning and to serve as a basic guideline for others so that they can get started up on a business themselves.”

Venue: MYP/DP LGR

Time: Mar. 3, Tue, lunch 1, for 30min

Audience: Grade 9-12 students, teachers

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Thank you!

Language Acquisition

Misconception 2: More exposure to language will accelerate acquisition.

More language MAY slow down learning. For students who struggle with the language, researching the topic and talking about it in the home language will help them to get both a better understanding of the content and of what is going on in the classroom. This will help to give them the confidence to use the language they already know.

Book Week – Bell Songs, Spine Poems, and Shelfies (oh my!)

Book week is coming up (March 16th-20th) and we would like your help with a few things:

  1. Bell songs – Maximum 15 seconds of you reading a poem, a quote, or some piece of literature.
  2. Shelfies – Bookshelf + Selfie = Shelfie
  3. Spine Poetry – Stack up books to create a poem or short story

Submissions should be placed in the proper folder on teacher large storage here afp://largestorage.nanjing-school.com/Teacher_1Yr_Temp_Large/Book Week 2015  (link only works in Safari)

We also invite students to submit Shelfies and Spine Poetry and there is a corresponding folder on Student large storage afp://largestorage.nanjing-school.com/Student_1Yr_Temp_Large/Book Week 2015 (link only works in Safari)

Bell songs must be submitted before 5 pm on Wednesday March 11th. For more information, there are examples and instructions in the folder or you can email emilyjohnson@staff.nanjing-school.com

School Forms are Online

New – Find all forms online that were in the mailroom as a hard-copy.

Note: Forms through the Daily Bulletin.

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Have a Form to add?  Please submit it to Tom Johnson

Friday Games!

Come have fun and play a variety of games every Friday during lunch time in C136 across from IT! We will provide games and you can also bring your own to share. UNO, Spoons, Jenga and many other games will be played. Everyone is welcome for lots of laughter and fun!

Language Acquisition

Each week the Language Acquisition Post will look at different language related topics. The theme for this week is Common Misconceptions

Misconception 1: Children are better second language learners than adults.

  • Children ARE better at learning pronunciation (pronunciation is not an indicator of fluency).
  • Children ARE better at interacting in social situations.
  •  Children USE simpler syntax and vocabulary so the standard for success is lower.

Learning a second language is as difficult for a child. It may be more difficult, as children do not have access to the memory techniques and other strategies that more experienced learners use to acquire vocabulary and the grammatical rules of a language. Children are likely to be shyer and more embarrassed. Children from some cultural backgrounds are extremely anxious when singled out and called upon to perform in a language they are in the process of learning,

 

Post INSET thank you

Thank you to everyone for your enthusiasm and deep thinking over the course of INSET week – including the limericks and doodles 🙂
A special thanks to Arek and his amazing facilities team for preparation of venues throughout the week, and for the Friday celebration. Thank you to Chartwells for the delicious spread on Friday. Thank you to Amy for devising such a beautiful schedule.
A gigantic thank you to all of the conference session and iPad redefinition leaders. And deep gratitude to Marina, Kasson, and Juan.

A survey requesting feedback on February INSET will be sent out soon.

I wish you a great week of student learning inspired by some of the profound discussion that took place over the week.

Ukulele Workshop

Fellow Ukulelists,

Thank you for attending one of the ukulele sessions this week. I hope that you found it informative and fun, and that you aren’t too scared of Gs and G7s! Many thanks to Bonnie, who taught me to play the ukulele in the first place, and who was a great help today (even if she did start a round!).

All resources are found on: TeacherLargeStorage / Ukulele INSET Workshop. There you will find:

– INSET iBook (view in iBooks Author or on your iPad)

– INSET iBook that has been PDFed (videos won’t play)

– video of how to tune your ukulele using GarageBand

– Axis of Awesome 4 Chord youtube video

– miscellaneous resources – YouTube tutorials, TABs, chord sheets, lyrics, etc.

Throughout the year, I will continue throwing in more resources.

I have had a large number of people inquiry about buying ukuleles. Possible to buy off Taobao, but with very poor quality. Also possible to buy off music-street in Shanghai, if you are in the area. Lydia Yang’s music store (near Little Suguo) has a good variety of quality and sizes, and so I’ve emailed her to start a conversation about how / when we can get some ukuleles for any teachers interested.

I’ll keep you informed.

Until then, please check out Jake Shimabukuro – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQlz0G66ng

Update from Jakarta Intercultural School

A number of colleagues have asked what is happening with Neil Bantleman and Ferdi Tjeong. They are still in gaol with about 4 weeks left before the judges make a ruling. Currently they are presenting their evidence. Laurie will be going to JIS in March for accreditation and he will take a couple of cards. I will leave these in the staffroom until Tuesday for anyone to sign (or email me and I will add your name.) These messages from around the world give much support and add strength to these men, their wives and the JIS community!   Thank you!

 

LAST DAY OF INSET

Good morning – welcome to Day 5 of INSET,

I hope that everyone enjoyed a stimulating day yesterday!

After PLTs, enjoy the final two conference sessions this week. The choices of sessions can be seen in both foyers and in the screen shots below. As there have been a couple of changes since Monday, please check for these updates.

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Thank you enormously for all of our colleagues who have shared their passions with us this week.

And finally – our teachers certainly have rhythm and rhyme! Please make any further contributions to the limericks and other poems by 1:00pm today. Check out the NIS talent on Office 365.

See you all for our INSET celebration in the PAC at 3:00.

Enjoy,
Arden