15: Friday November 27th 2020 SEC

From the Secondary SSLT

Why do we encourage STEAM at the ABC?

Here at the ABC, whether we are online or in school, we promote and encourage engagement in STEAM. The LRC team works day in day out to ensure that our students have the opportunity to explore their interests, those which relate to the subjects they are studying to develop meaningful self-driven projects. Having access to these experiences and opportunities sets our students above the rest through developing independent learning skills and fostering their creativity. 

What is STEAM?

"STEAM is an educational approach, focuses on the whole child, through inquiry, problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration using Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. STEAM focuses on the learning process and provides students with learning opportunities to investigate, plan, and develop meaningful open-ended projects" (LRC ABC).

STEAM education - building skills or the future

This approach teaches children more than science and mathematical concepts. It focuses on hands-on learning related to real-world problems and helps develop a variety of skill sets in preparation for your child's future. 

These skills include media and technology literacy, productivity, social skills, communication, flexibility and initiative. Other skills attained through STEAM education include problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, curiosity, decision making, leadership, entrepreneurship, acceptance of failure and more. Regardless of the future career path considered, these skill sets go a long way to preparing your children to be innovative.

 

STEAM education - the importance of innovation

The ability to think critically is the basis of innovation, and through innovation, our students have the potential to change the world. 

What STEAM opportunities do we provide for students? 

Activities such as STEAM Fest and CIMAT provide opportunities for students to engage in meaningful, relevant project development through the design thinking cyclical approach, with the UN Sustainable Development Goals as the focus. Through this work, students learn that their contributions, ideas and inventions are valuable to society and are empowered to take steps in directions of their choosing to help make a difference both locally and globally.

What is CIMAT? (https://cimatvirtual.com/) 

The CIMAT National Fair is an ABC born project which seeks to recognize and reward students from 9th to 12th grade who present innovative projects in the STEAM disciplines, with the aim that they serve as an inspiration to all young Salvadorans. 

CIMAT was held this year online on 14th November and lead by our very own Sebastian Tona and Andrea Croymeyer who are on the executive team. Well done and thank you for all the hard work both of these students and their teams,have put into organizing this event! 

We would also like to announce that Club Recilectura (organized by Hilda Gómez) won first prize in the area of Arts! They are an extremely motivated, proactive team of students who have continued working diligently online each week of the school year, at their request, despite the present situation. Jubran Lemus is the Leader of Club Recilectura, and he is the one that represented the team during the awards.

Here is the link to their page for more information.

Christmas Basket Campaign. 

Notices from staff: 

The IGCA has organised the Turtle Release 2020 to take place this Saturday 28 November at Playa San Blas, La Libertad. The event can be seen on abcigca Instagram Livestream at 8:30 am. Join us and support this conservation project.

Dates for your diary

SECONDARY

December

Tuesday 1st - AVANZO - G12 off timetable all day

Thursday 3rd - Grade 11/12 Learning Review Day

Monday 7th - Real Spanish Oral IB Exam

Tuesday 8th - Grade 9 Learning Review Day

Friday 18th - Last Day of Term 

Monday 21st - Christmas holidays start

15: Friday November 27th 2020

 From the Head of Primary

Next week, in Primary, we are celebrating Wellbeing Week. There will not be any changes to the timetable but around 50% of curriculum time will be devoted to activities focused on Wellbeing. Time dedicated to educating our students about the importance of wellbeing, and getting them to try out different activities which can help to improve wellbeing. We live at a time where children are feeling more under pressure than ever, the added stress of living through a global pandemic means that helping children with their emotional wellbeing is more vital than ever. Here are five simple steps to help with your child's wellbeing: 

 

Step 1. "Be yourself"

Helping children to recognise their character strengths is a great way to build their confidence and appreciate the uniqueness they bring to the world. By shifting the focus from the things they can’t do to what they can, you emphasise the positive aspects of their character. Character strengths aren’t dependent on an outcome or a particular achievement; they’re the core virtues that make us who we are. Encourage children to notice and appreciate their own strengths, and those of others too.

Step 2: "Be grateful"

It can be easy to feel other people’s lives are better than our own, especially when we’re bombarded with perfect images on social media. We can get stuck thinking others are more beautiful, have more money and fun, or simply ‘have more’. And children are just as susceptible as adults to this comparison trap. So how can we help them (and ourselves)? One idea is to bring attention to what’s working well in your/their life by developing gratitude skills. To develop these skills, you can use techniques such as starting a gratitude jar, writing a gratitude journal or having a gratitude conversation

. Step 3: "Be mindful"

Our minds can be very busy, getting pulled into thinking about the past or worrying about the future. Finding ways to focus on what’s happening in the present moment is another way to build your child’s wellbeing. There are different ways to help children develop their mindfulness skills, which will probably work best if you join in too (especially if there are younger children involved). A way in which you can help develop these skills is drawing for 10 minutes. Set a timer for 10 minutes and challenge the children to draw something they can see. This activity isn’t about what the drawing looks like, it’s about whether they are able to focus on the activity and bring their attention back when it wanders.

Step 4: "Be kind"

Kindness is a win-win for wellbeing. The research shows us that when we’re kind to others, we not only boost each recipient’s wellbeing; it tends to have the same effect on our own sense of wellness too. Being kind can help us connect with others, and our relationships play a crucial role in our mental health and wellbeing in the long term. There are hundreds of ways children and adults can show kindness every day. And it can be fun to sometimes turn these acts into larger events, to really emphasise their importance and value.

Step 5: "Be resilient"

Being resilient means bouncing back when you encounter challenges, setbacks or failures. We all go through times when we struggle, so building our resilience is crucial to helping us cope. One way to build resilience in children is to help them develop a growth mindset. This relates to the belief that our abilities and intelligence can develop with practice, feedback and effort. Children with a growth mindset are more likely to try again when they fail at something, and also to attempt to learn how they can improve.

Marianne Taylor

Head of Primary

November

Monday 30th: Start of Wellbeing Week

December

Monday 1st: Baby Bulldogs Webinar (for parents of children aged 12-30 months) 6pm

Thursday 3rd: Pre-Kinder & Kinder - Second selection of resources - available for collection between 2.30 and 4.00pm.

Friday 11th: Last day of Extracurricular Activities

Friday 11th: Deadline for donating to our Christmas Baskets campaign

Friday 11th: Deadline for completing ‘Parent Comment’ for your child’s report

Monday 14th: PK Christmas Show 2pm 

Monday 14th: Kinder Christmas Show 3pm 

Monday 14th: 2nd Grade Christmas Show 5pm 

Tuesday 15th: 3rd Grade Christmas Show 5pm 

Wednesday 16th: Prepa Christmas Show 2pm 

Wednesday 16th: 1st Grade Christmas Show 3pm 

Wednesday 16th: 4th Grade Christmas Show 5pm 

Thursday 17th: 5th Grade Christmas Show 5pm 

Friday 18th: Last Day of Term 

Monday 21st: Christmas Holidays start

January

Monday 11th: School resumes after Christmas Holiday

 

15: Friday November 27th 2020

From the Director

Dear ABC community,

I do hope you are all safe and well. 

Our plans for re-opening school in hybrid learning mode in the new year are almost complete now (and we have submitted all of the information that MinEd need at this stage). I will present them in full to Senior Management Team on Tuesday afternoon and the Full Board on Wednesday morning and, presuming they are approved, hope to communicate them out to you soon thereafter. Please remember that no one is going to be forced to return to school; if you (and 34% of you are in this category according to the survey results) do not feel ready or able to send your child into school we will still provide a full online learning experience for you. Please also remember that it is, especially in secondary school, extremely complex to balance the twin priorities of health and safety on the one hand and high-quality educational provision on the other. There will have to be compromises but we believe that the plans we are presenting, which respond flexibly to the different needs of children in different grades, represent the best possible solution for our children.

In other news, I can confirm that we will be having a drive-in style Graduation event on December 14th to recognise and celebrate the achievements of the Class of 2020. We always said that we would do whatever we could to try to arrange an in-person graduation experience for these students and families and so I am pleased to be able to make good on that promise with an event that I believe will be both safe and enjoyable.

Huge congratulations to all of our students and staff involved in the recent CIMAT event, especially the organisers.You made us all very proud! Read more about it all below…

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American brethren (and I am sure many others who likewise celebrated yesterday). Some musings below on the concept of thankfulness….

Thankfulness

So I learned something recently……did you know anything about the origins of the word “thank”? It turns out I certainly didn’t, and I honestly feel rather ashamed about that. I mean, I have been on this planet for all but half a century and until now I have never thought to look into the origins of a concept that is central to so much of human custom and etiquette. Language is just a device (albeit an incredibly sophisticated one) for trying to give expression to all of that rather messy, nefarious stuff we call thoughts and feelings. Because the meaning of words can be distilled, refined or diluted over the course of time, we can often find that our understanding of not only a word, but also of the concept it is trying to give meaning to, can be enhanced by researching its origins. So what are the origins of the word, “thank”?

thank (v.)

Old English þancian, þoncian "to give thanks, thank, to recompense, to reward," from Proto-Germanic *thankojan, from *thankoz "thought; gratitude," from Proto Indo-European root *tong- "to think, feel."  It is related phonetically to “think” as “song” is to “sing”

Online Etymology Dictionary

In other words (sorry!) the word “thank’ has a shared heritage with the word “think”. There was a time in my Scottish childhood when I was guilty of using the word “thank” as the past participle for the verb “to think” and it now seems I was not so terribly wrong as I was then led to believe! 

Look again at the definition of the original Proto Indo-European word, “tong”- “to think, feel”. It seems that the heritage of the word thank lies right in the middle of the aforementioned “messy, nefarious stuff” and, therefore, right at the heart of the things that distinguish us as a species from the rest of the animal world. The verb “to thank”- expressions like, “to give thanks” and, “to feel thankful”- these are our best attempts at giving expression to something really quite profound, to a very unique human experience. They mean that we have reflected on (hence the links with the concept of thinking, I suppose) that action, that person, that experience and found it/him/her quite special in some way and we are also aware that a distinct and quite wonderful emotion has been evoked in us, as a result, that we feel we want to give expression to; that, I think, is why we say, “Thank you”.

The rules of custom and etiquette mean that we are all a little guilty perhaps, of using the phrase, “thank you” as little more than culturally demanded punctuation rather than an attempt to really express gratitude. So perhaps we should take a moment to think a little more deeply about the things, the experiences and the people in our lives that cause us to feel that elusive emotion we call gratitude* and, having felt that emotion, then see if we can find some satisfactory way to give expression to it.

*”Gratitude” shares its etymology with the word “grace”, by the way…

Stephen Lang

Director

14: Friday November 20th 2020 TSP

Last weekend, in the first time taking session for the Salvadorian Swimming Federation, 3 ABC swimmers shone and broke national records in the 11-12 age categories. Congratulations to Ariana Valle, Ivanka Bukele and Sebastián Contreras. Their results are an example of resilience, as their preparation has been challenging due to the pandemic. Good job, Bulldogs! 

We are 5 weeks away from finishing 2020, and, speaking of resilience, we are very satisfied with our students’ response, who in spite of current conditions, have gotten actively involved in our different sports activities, both in PE class and extracurriculars. It has been a challenging process, but our coaches and athletes are preparing, in great spirits and in the safest way possible, at home!

M. Cecilia Hernández

Athletic Director

14: Friday November 20th 2020 SEC

 From the Secondary Leadership Team

Independent learning, why is it so important?

In these times of uncertainty, there are skills that our students need to learn. One of the most important ones is to learn to be independent.

Being independent in many aspects of their lives, the one we consider to be important and the one we teach them is to be independent learners.

What does this mean? Well, is being able to think, act, and pursue their own studies autonomously, without the same levels of support they would receive from teachers at school.

So, in other words, our students need to be able to do their own research in all their subjects instead of expecting the teacher to give them all the materials they might need to solve their doubts and problems.

To become a good independent learner our students need to be:

• Motivated

• Resilient, to overcome challenges

• An excellent time manager

Your help at home to do some of these tips will help them to become independent learners. This skill is not just important to become a good student, but it will help them when they go to university and during their whole lives.

They need to read actively, we have in school many resources they can easily access and use: The  LRC Portal.  What about Smart Prep, Mathletics, MyiMaths, Quizlet, Quizzes, TedEd, My Homework App?  Read articles and other texts that broaden your understanding of subject, feel free to have a search through these links

Be persistent: it is important to keep trying even though a task maybe challenging

Seek help where necessary: Of course asking for support is an important part for becoming an independent learner. 

Setting goals and having discussions at home is also important, challenge them in conversations, debate with your children about important topics, ask them questions, engage in their school tasks. A great time to do this is while you are spending time with them as a family. 

Now more than ever during these difficult times we need to take advantage of all the positive opportunities that we have, and one of those is spending more time with your children, seek that time, take that opportunity and engage with them. 

The LSU has been working non stop with your children, here are the drop in sessions they are offering.

6th grade every Thursday P3 - In Ms Ale's classroom in google meet: https://g.co/meet/lsuale

7th grade every Monday P6 - In Ms Ale's classroom in google meet: https://g.co/meet/lsuale

8th grade every Thursday P7 - In Ms Ale's classroom in google meet: https://g.co/meet/lsuale

9th grade every  Wednesday P5 -  In Ms Claudia's classroom in google meet: https://g.co/meet/claudialsu

10th grade every Monday P8 - In Ms Claudia's classroom in google meet: https://g.co/meet/claudialsu

11th grade  every Wednesday P1 -  In Ms Claudia's classroom in google meet: https://g.co/meet/claudialsu

12th grade every Monday P3 -  In Ms Claudia's classroom in google meet: https://g.co/meet/claudialsu

Kind regards,

Carmen Chávez

Assistant Headteacher - Student Wellbeing

Dates for your diary

SECONDARY

November

Monday 23rd - Virtual lessons as normal

Monday 30th - Friday 4th December - Wellbeing Week

December

Thursday 3rd - Grade 11/12 Learning Review Day

Monday 7th - Real Spanish Oral IB Exam

Tuesday 8th - Grade 9 Learning Review Day

Friday 18th - Last Day of Term 

Monday 21st - Christmas holidays start

14: Friday November 20th 2020 PRI

 From the Head of Primary

Plans for school reopening in January

The primary team is working to make sure we can offer all primary children physical classes in January. We are following MINED guidelines as they are released. We are also committed to offering a full online curriculum to any students that are unable to attend physically. Our plan will balance the safety of our community with the best possible provision for student’s well being and academic success. Thank you to those parents who have completed the survey, once we know how many students intend to return in January we can then finalise and share with you more detailed plans for consultation. In the meantime please feel free to contact me with questions, concerns or suggestions.

Learning: Knowledge, Skills and Understanding

You may or may not have seen the following poster which is our primary definition of learning.

This model for describing learning is taken from the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). 

What is KSU?

Knowledge - Knowledge is commonly viewed as ‘awareness of bits of information’... things you just know! When you can recall important dates, multiplication facts or the ingredients of a recipe. We acquire knowledge through listening, observing, experimenting, reading and discussing things. 

Questions we ask students: When did ... happen? Where was...? What is ...called? Who ...?

Skills - Skills are the things that we can do, we acquire skills through practice. We know children need to employ a broad range of skills across the curriculum. They include academic skills, motor skills, interpersonal/communication skills, problem-solving skills, creative thinking skills, teamwork skills and independent learning skills.

Questions we ask students: What can you do better than before? What have you been practising? How do you do this? Write instructions for how to…

Understanding - Understanding is something that we acquire once we gain new knowledge and practice new skills.  We are able to understand things when we can, make connections, explain ideas and concepts in our own words. Understanding is usually defined as the moment when you make connections between different pieces of information or apply both knowledge and skills to allow reflection, adaptation and creativity.

Questions we ask students: How would you apply…? Explain in your own words… Write your own version of… Design/Create your own… Find a new way to.... Find the differences between…

Why do we use KSU?

To support children with their learning we need to be really clear about what we want them to learn so that we can break it down into easily manageable steps, and provide the right support and resources for each part of the learning process. Especially when we think about individual children, what type of learning they find easy and try to analyse how to help them when they are struggling. For example, when a lower primary child is struggling to write, is it because they don’t know the letter sounds, they haven’t mastered the skill of holding a pencil comfortably or they have not yet understood the purpose of writing. Thinking about Understanding as a different type of learning ensures learning is more challenging, encourages deeper thinking skills, creativity and independence.

Dates for your diary

PRIMARY

November

Monday 30th: Start of Wellbeing Week

December

Friday 11th: Last day of Extracurricular Activities

Monday 14th: PK Christmas Show 2pm 

Monday 14th: Kinder Christmas Show 3pm 

Monday 14th: 2nd Grade Christmas Show 5pm 

Tuesday 15th: 3rd Grade Christmas Show 5pm 

Wednesday 16th: Prepa Christmas Show 2pm 

Wednesday 16th: 1st Grade Christmas Show 3pm 

Wednesday 16th: 4th Grade Christmas Show 5pm 

Thursday 17th: 5th Grade Christmas Show 5pm 

Friday 18th: Last Day of Term 

Monday 21st: Christmas Holidays start

January

Monday 11th: School resumes after Christmas Holiday

14: Friday November 20th 2020

From the Director

First of all, thank you to all of you who have so promptly filled out the return to school survey. If you have been too busy to manage it, don’t worry...it will remain open over the weekend. Thank you also for your patience while school was closed this week. It had been our plan to take some time off of lessons in the beginning of December to engage in some exciting and refreshing wellbeing activities but we have postponed this in the light of the lost curriculum time this week. We continue to represent to the MinEd the reasons why we should be treated differently in these school closure cases. 

On an entirely different tack, Sunday will mark the 57th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. Here is a little of what we have been missing:

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”

“One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.”

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future. 

“A child miseducated is a child lost.” 

“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly. ” 

“If not us, who? If not now, when?”

“If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.” 

“If more politicians knew poetry and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place to live in” 

Stephen Lang

Director