From the Director
Dear ABC Community:
I am very proud of these young men and women. Please allow me to explain why. As a language arts teacher (albeit in English), words are very interesting to me.
You can ask my Spanish teacher, a very patient lady, I assure you. I love the connections between words and also the etymology. And certainly, one word, in particular, has held my attention.
The word mature: really, what does it mean? What is this concept of maturity? In my life I have met many immature older people, and, equally, I have met many young people mature beyond their years.
We are going to explore the origins of the word "maduro" or mature. The first syllable, originally was "meh", and is from ancient Persia and means an amount or quantity. In fact it is part of the words, "measure" or "meter". And, “duro”, we all understand, means, "resistant", "resilient", then: an amount of resilience. Sounds good to me, but how much? We don't have a scale or a passing mark.
Am I mature? I do not know. Old, yes. But mature, I think not. At least I'm still learning. But of this I am sure: for everything they have been through, for everything they have endured, everything they have overcome so far, up to now. These are the most mature ABC graduates, period.
Congratulations Class of 2021, I am incredibly proud of you.
Stephen Lang
Director
From the Head of Primary
We have spent the day celebrating the end of in-person learning for this year.
Let's hope that we can return to normal soon, but in the meantime I am happy to report
that thanks to parent collaboration we have a hybrid system which keeps children learning,
happy and safe.
Grade 5 Graduation
Tonight we will be celebrating our Grade 5’s moving on to secondary. As ABC students and ROCs, they all believe and demonstrate our school motto Effort Leads to Success. Their success is due to their effort, when they faced difficult math problems in 5th grade or when I was their Prepa teacher and they struggled to communicate with me in English. Have a look at some of my old Prepa Taylor photos here. We are so proud of them. Well done 5th Grade!
Holiday Learning
Next week, once the term has finished, we will relaunch the parent portals for each grade which will give you access to a range of resources you can use to support your child over the summer. Please try to continue reading with your child regularly, the Reading AZ platform will be available for this or you can borrow books from the library for the summer holidays (contact susangavidia@abc-net.edu.sv) before Wednesday 16th June. Please try to talk to your children about maths in the real world, ask them to share the pizza for dinner equally or help you work out how much things cost when you are at the supermarket. Also try to encourage them to write often, for example, messages/emails/letters to family and friends or shopping lists. Encourage them to spend lots of time playing outside and watch films and TV in their second language.
Thank-you
As we come to the end of the school year, I would like to say a big thank you to the primary leadership team, Tom McNeil, Deputy Head, Ana Cabrera, National Director and Raquel Suarez Assistant Head.
The primary key stage and grade leaders have also done an amazing job, leading their teams through the most challenging year of their careers; Nick Ware, Ian Truscott, Tanya Rampone, Andrea Amaya, Georgina Chadwick, Lourdes Guadron, Dalitt Pineda, Maria José Caceres and Mayra Caceres. Also thank you to the curriculum team Carolina Aviles and Elisa Hernandez in IPC, Emma Williams in Maths, Ana Mena in Life Skills, Edda Padilla in English. Finally a big thank you to Guadelupe Guzman who led a special pandemic wellbeing project and Raquel Zapeda for leading our LSU Team.
So much happens behind the scenes in a school, and their individual passion for education means that they go above and beyond. We are very lucky to have such a strong dedicated team. I must also say thank you to the wonderful primary secretaries Claudia, Luz and Deysi, who have kept the machine turning.
Getting to know our teaching assistants
Kathy Chávez de Barrios
I worked for 18 years with the Montessori method with pre-school children here in El Salvador. I took the "Educador con Valores y Método Montessori'' diploma course by ASED MONTESSORI GUATEMALA. As well as a diploma course with Maite Vallet called "Lectura Comprensiva y Escritura''. I first started to work at a bilingual school as a substitute teacher. Then I was offered a formal position as a teacher assistant. That's when I truly knew I wanted to be a preschool teacher.Through the years, I have discovered the magic kids can develop and create learning through play. It's a way to express themselves, find out what they like and dislike, know they are capable of doing and achieve big things, and challenge themselves. I have learnt that, yes, kids need traditional education, but more than that, they need guidance to be shown how things can be done in a better or different way, that it’s ok to think out of the box. They sure are capable of many things, and they deserve to know we believe in them. Working here at the ABC reassures me that teaching is my life, my passion and that I want to help those little minds grow and become whatever they dream of and believe they can be.
Camila Beltranena
Since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to work with children. What I enjoy the most about being a teacher is seeing children achieve their goals and overcome challenges that may seem difficult at the time. My first job was working in a summer camp when I was 16 as junior staff. After I graduated school I did an internship in Fundacion Forja for 1 year. This foundation helps create programs that build character and values in children in private or public schools. I then began working at the ABC in 2017 and I've worked with First grade, Prepa, and Kindergarten. In summer 2018 I did an internship at El Barquito de Papel Preschool. Finally during the pandemic after wandering into the virtual learning world, I created my own business of an online summer camp. I love working at the ABC because of its wonderful curriculum. Also its community is very supportive and I feel grateful to be a part of it. The ABC is where I fell in love with learning through play. I really like learning through play, any subject that may interest the children can be learnt through play.
Carmen de Figueroa
I studied for the Diplomado de Inglés como Segunda Lengua in the US and I received the Licenciada en Ciencias de la Educación, Especialidad Educación Parvularia from the Universidad Evangélica de El Salvador. I have also taken many extra diploma courses including “Déficit de Atención en niños y niñas con/sin Hiperactividad” and “Creatividad e Innovación en las Metodologías de Enseñanza Aprendizaje". I began working in education in 2000 as a Maestra Bilingue de Parvularia at Kinder American Children’s Paradise. I then worked in many different schools before becoming an ICT assistant at the ABC in 2016. Since then I have also worked as a classroom assistant in 3rd, 4th and 5th Grade. I have several reasons why I like to work at ABC, the main one is because I think it is an institution that allows us to grow, there is constant training to improve and prepare ourselves more and more and be better teachers for our students. I think it is a job that offers us job stability which is extremely important to be able to work in a more reliable way. I like that the school is not only interested in the well being of each student but also of each one of us as teachers. School makes us feel good and motivates us to always be involved in all activities.
Dates for your Diary
PRIMARY
June
Friday 11th - Grade 5 Moving On Assembly & EL2S Awards - 4:00 pm- Auditorium
Monday 14th - All students online
Monday 14th- Primary Reports will be sent home this week
Monday 14th - Steam Fest (through 16th june)
Tuesday 15th - All students online
Wednesday 16th - All students online
Wednesday 16th - Last day of school
Thursday 17th - Father’s Day
Tuesday 22nd - Teacher’s Day
From the Secondary Leadership Team
What a year! Thanks to all of you - staff, students, parents and carers, siblings, extended family and community members - for supporting each other and the ABC as a whole throughout the most difficult period in the school’s fifty year history. The Weekly this week looks back at the end of the ABC careers of the Class of 2021, and forward to the start of the next academic year. Read on for details of Graduation, Senior Exit, STEAM Fest and Girls in STEM, and a look ahead to the new school year in August.
Graduation and Senior Exit
The graduation ceremony last night was a wonderful event, which was not only witnessed by hundreds in the auditorium in a full socially distanced environment but by over 500 people through the livestream version online. Students spoke passionately about their pride in being ABC students and now alumni, and made us all proud. Congratulations to the Class of 2021; we hope you will be able to come back and visit us often over the coming years.
Graduation was not the only event this week; today (Friday) students were able to celebrate their final day on campus with the traditional Senior Exit. The students toured the campus in their cars, before sharing a picnic during which time staff were able to say their goodbyes, and yes - at the end, they jumped in the pool! A fitting farewell to a year group that will be missed.
Girls in Stem and STEAM Fest
Mrs Garcia is proud to share the work of Ana Sofia in 10th grade who has started a new
initiative called STEMPoderate!” STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is a
hugely important focus especially for young women and girls as we do our part to foster
openness and opportunity for all regardless of their background including their gender.
You can read more about this special project here.
STEAM Fest has been a great success again this year. The Top Designer Award winners have now been published and you can see the names and the projects on the STEAM Fest webpage. Please note, the projects themselves are limited to viewing by the ABC community at present in order to protect student privacy. Please do encourage your children to log in with their ABC credentials to see the full range of top creative projects developed this school year.
iSAMS Reports
The end of year reports will be published to students and parents via the iSAMS portals at the dates shown below:
Grade 10 and 12 - Thursday 10th June (published)
Grades 6, 7, 8, 9 & 11 - Monday 14th June
Please download your reports in PDF format to your devices if you would like to access them over the summer holidays. On Sunday 20th June, iSAMS will be closed for maintenance and preparation for August. You will be informed when iSAMS is back open for students to check their timetables for the new school year.
Looking ahead to August
As you know, if we are permitted to reopen the ABC fully in August, we are 100% ready to do so. Our timetable, class sets, rooms and teachers have been organised to ensure that regardless of a hybrid or full opening, we are ready. Look out next week for information about the exact times of the school day; you may remember from my previous writing on the subject that we have made enormous advances in our hybrid provision to ensure that all students in all grades have the opportunity to study all their subjects in person, even in a hybrid model. To do this, we have removed the long break in the middle of the day and will have just one morning drop-off and one lunchtime pick-up for all students. I hope this makes it easier for parents to arrange transport, and will ensure that students have a shorter day which will make it easier for students to participate in personal activities in the afternoon.
Until then, may I wish you the most safe and restful of summer breaks.
Dates for your diary
SECONDARY
June
Saturday 12th - Grade 10 Picnic-9:30am ABC Field; Class of 2021: Graduation Dinner
Monday 14th to Wednesday 16th - All Secondary grades online
Monday 14th - Grade 9 and Grade 11 PTC online all day
Tuesday 15th - ABC Secondary Talent Show online - 1:50pm
Wednesday 16th - End of year virtual assemblies and last Day of School Year 20-21
Thursday 17th - Father's Day (school closed)
Tribal Chiefs from 8th to 11th grade were trained in “Personal Leadership Training” course this semester.
We would like to congratulate the Tribal Chiefs who participated in this course, which shaped and supported their leadership, and also provided them with tools to boost their service skills among the community.
The course was offered online by the Academia Británica Cuscatleca in alliance with Universidad José Simeón Cañas. Congratulations Tribal Chiefs!
Javier Crespo, 8th
Gerardo Cuellar, 8th
Ana Paula Arguello, 8th
Hugo Perdomo, 9th
Anabella Funes, 9th
Mauricio Loucel, 9th
Ximena Truscott, 10th
Ana Sofía Santamaría, 10th
Pablo Cruz del Pino, 10th
Sebastián Ortíz, 10th
Sebastian Huete, 11th
Gerardo Mendoza Lemus, 11th
Adriana Guerra, 11th
No comments:
Post a Comment