SHARKThe American International School of Rotterdam

From the Director

“...If you have additional language abilities and would be willing to help us....”

Happy Friday everyone! As part of our efforts to rebrand the school with a new logo and website, we have also reworked the school brochure. One of the areas in the brochure that we are highlighting is how we will be implementing an improved language program next year to ensure that our students develop stronger literacy skills in both English and a second language.

The goal of this program is to ensure that students receive 45 minutes of language instruction everyday in a language other than English so that students improve their fluency, but also develop strong literacy skills that allow them to pursue extended learning opportunities or easily enter a university in the home country or re-integrate into their home country’s education system. Over the next few years, our intent is to dramatically increase the number of language

offerings at the school.

In order to promote this program we are translating the school brochure into: Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Polish and Turkish. We would like to translate the brochure (approximately 800 words) into languages beyond the ones I have just mentioned. If you have additional language abilities and would be willing to help us do some translation of school materials into additional languages, we would really appreciate your help. If you are interested in assisting, please email me directly (neal.dilk@aisr.nl).

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Neal Dilk

Directorneal.dilk@aisr.nl

1/3

08.02.13.Bulletin...

Be our Rossetta Stone!

Elementary Principal’s Message

“... all of the effort turned into a tremendous success..”

During the rest of this year, I will be highlighting certain events from each grade level to keep you up-to-date with some of the wonderful things that are happening in our classrooms.

Mr. Gooding and I are very proud of our 3rd graders!

'On January 24th, the AISR third graders held a bake sale, which culminated a three-week effort to raise money for a healthier lunch program at St. Andrew's Secondary school in Naivasha, Kenya (http://standrewstarabete.weebly.com/blog.html). The fundraiser, which is a part of the IPC unit, 'Young Entrepreneurs: Money & Trade,' started with an introduction to the needs at St. Andrew's and then turned into lessons about how the class could effectively advertise those needs to the AISR greater community. From there, the students organized a week long coin drive, which was then followed up with the all-day bake sale. In the end, all of the effort turned into a tremendous success. After careful coin counting in class, the third graders are happy to report that we raised 601 euros for St. Andrew's, and in the process, we also learned a little something about the values of teamwork and hard work. Thank you to the many people who helped us along the way.'

Reminder: ‘Request Only Parent Teacher Conferences’ will take place on Wednesday, February 27 and Thursday, February 28. You can contact your child’s teacher and make an appointment for either of these days. I’m sharing an article with you this week that has some interesting tips regarding the safe use of the Internet.

Internet use and safety When your child is older and wants to explore on their own, it is a good idea to keep the computer in a family room or a place you share.

The Internet can be a great source of fun and learning for your child, and you needn't be frightened of your child using it if you follow some simple rules:

• Always sit with young children when they use the Internet.

• With an older child who wants to explore on their own, it is a good idea to keep the computer in a family room or a place you share.

• Be aware you can adjust browser settings and filters to protect children from unsuitable sites. For more help with this check out the Net SMART rules.

• Talk to your child about how to stay safe and let them know they can speak to you if they find themselves in any sort of trouble.

• There are plenty of safe places for children to play and learn on the web, get to know them and maybe save these as short-cuts in your favorites folder.

• Social networking sites aimed at grown-ups, such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, are not suitable for children. The suggested minimum age for most social networking sites is 13.

Finally, here are a number of websites offering help and support to both children and grown-ups, if you are viewing this online the links will be ‘clickable’:

NSPCC - Keeping your child safe online

Thinkuknow - Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre

CBBC's Stay Safe - BBC Health - Internet Safety

Have a great weekend and since there isn’t a Shark next week, I would like to wish you all a very enjoyable February vacation.

Sincerely, Anne-Marie Blitz

2/3

Secondary Principal’s Message

“... Donʼt forget that ʻRequest Only Parent-Teacher Conferencesʼ will take place on Wednesday, February 27th and Thursday, February 28th.”

Dear Parents,

As we approach the last week before vacation, please be reminded about two important upcoming events.

Our Science Fair Night is on Tuesday evening in the cafeteria and students are busy with final preparations. Please contact Nina Markham or Sanna Ponziani with any questions.

On Thursday from 8:15am-5:00pm, all students in grades 9-12 will be involved in a UWC training day, along with approximately 20 students from other local schools. Please note that bus students will be sent home on a late bus at 5:00 but if your child does not use school transportation, alternate arrangements need to be made. You are welcome to attend any or all of this exciting event. Our special guests include the Director of Erasmiaans, the Director of Laurens College, the Liaison for Vrijwilligerswerk Rotterdam and some other distinguished guests associated with the UWC.

For the next several editions of the Shark, I am going to be featuring different subjects so you can take a closer look at what is going on in classrooms. For this issue, highlights from some of our math classes are included. We hope you enjoy these snapshots of student learning.

In Foundations of Algebra, students have recently been learning about linear relations and patterns in graphs, tables and equations. They have been learning to link information in table, graph and equation with each other and to explore strategies to find the equation of a straight line. This unit culminated with a project in which students were to draw a geometric figure on a coordinate grid and find an equation of lines forming the sides of the geometric figure.

Some of our 11th grade and Pre-Calculus students have been learning how to write programs on their calculators while they learn some important ideas about Calculus. Now they are able to estimate the area under a curve quickly and accurately, using their clever programs. The 12th grade IB students are also learning some Calculus at the moment and are figuring out how velocity and position graphs are related. They can tell you how fast something is travelling at any one moment in time. For example, a ball thrown into the air, which goes up to a certain point, then falls down to the ground – do you think it is moving at the same speed all the way?

As many of you know, we have been spending time on our math program here and are excited about some of the changes we have made. Please contact me directly with any further questions about Mathematics at AISR.

I wish you an enjoyable vacation and look forward to seeing you next week and during Parent-Teacher conferences.

Thank you for your continued support and kind regards,

Alison Lipp

Secondary Principal and Curriculum Directoralison.lipp@aisr.nl

3/3