ISK NEWSLETTER Heritage of Fine Schooling, Celebrating 20 Years of Excellence

January 2016

International School of Kuantan Page 1

Dear ISK Community, At the close of last semester, I was pleased to introduce ISK’s initiative in implement-ing Google Apps for Education or GAFE. As previously mentioned, GAFE allows ISK students and teachers to work collaboratively in the classroom through applications such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. Another additional benefit in using GAFE is the ability to use Google Classroom. Google Support gives the following description of Classroom: “Classroom is a free web-based platform that integrates your Google Apps for Educa-tion account with all your Google Apps services, including Google Docs, Gmail, and Google Calendar. Classroom saves time and paper, and makes it easy to create clas-ses, distribute assignments, communicate, and stay organized.” https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6020279?hl=en The biggest advantage of Classroom, however, lies in its ability to increase communi-cation between teachers and parents. Every single ISK student has been given a unique Gmail account with a username and password. In addition to allowing students to send and receive emails, this account opens up the entire Google Apps for Education plat-form, including Classroom. It is the intent of ISK that students and parents share this account, primarily so parents know what is happening in each and every class. Each week your children’s teachers post weekly assignments and learning objectives online, describing the learning and activities that are taking place at school. Through Classroom (https://classroom.google.com), you will be able to see what is happening in each class, as well as know what homework has been assigned. You will also be able to communicate directly with teachers if you have any questions or concerns. It is our hope that through Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom, parent-teacher communication will increase and a renewed and more beneficial partnership will grow. If you are unsure what your son or daughter’s Gmail account information is, if you would like for us to share account information with you, or if you have any questions at all, please email me directly at principal@isk.edu.my and I would be happy to assist you. I feel that the more the ISK can do to help parents stay up-to-date in their children’s education, the better they learn and grow. Together with Google, we can help increase the partnership between the school and your home, helping to make our students more successful each day. Yours in Education, Benjamin Tamte

Increased Parent-Teacher

Communication Through

Google Classroom

“The wisest mind has

something yet to learn.”

- George Santayana

World National Holi-days in February:

08 - 09 Chinese New

Year

Substitute Holiday

(South Korea)

11 National Founda

tion day (Japan)

14 Valentine’s day

15 Washington’s

Birthday (USA)

Shahid Dibash

(Bangladesh)

Magha Puja

(Thailand)

22 Nawam Full Moon

Poya day (Sri

Lanka)

25 Special non-

working holiday

February 2016

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29

https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6020279?hl=enhttps://classroom.google.commailto:principal@isk.edu.my

ISK Newsletter

International School of Kuantan Page 2

January 2016

ISK Welcomes New Mandarin

Teacher Ms. Lee Siew Har

Hello, my name is Lee Siew Har. My students call me Lĭ Lăo Shi. Please let me take this opportunity to intro-duce myself as the newly appointed Mandarin teacher for ISK.

I joined Kinta Teachers Training College in 1982. After graduation, I was posted to a primary Chinese school in Kuala Lumpur. Since then I have dedicated my life to edu-cation; 23 years in a primary Chinese school, 7 years in a national school and 3 years at Imperia College.

During my years of service, I have provided effective classroom management, creative lesson plans, detailed evaluations and counseling advice. I have coached stu-dents in essay writing and debate competitions. Hence I was lucky enough to be awarded a Certificate of Excellent Work Performance in 1999 and 2009 from The Ministry of Education Malaysia.

I like to spend time working in the garden and writing articles for local Chinese news paper. If you are interest-ed in learning Di Zi Gui, you are welcome to visit the Kuantan Confucius Centre Sunday morning to share Chi-nese culture and moral principles.

Social Studies and English teacher,

Mr. Marc Letarte, continuing with

ISK for a further two school years

I am happy to announce an extension to my time here

at ISK. ISK and I have recently decided that it would be in

the best interest of all involved if I remain with the school

until at least the end of the 2017-2018 school year. I must

admit that I am excited at the prospect of continuing to

build a great school here and in helping Mr. Ben and the

rest of our team and staff grow ISK into the school we

know it can become.

Looking back it has been a great two years for myself

and my family here in Malaysia. In fact, so many things

have happened in that time that is hard to believe it has

already been two years. I just wanted to say thank you to

all the people here who have made me feel welcome and

valued and who have shared their lives and stories with

me. May we continue to grow and learn together. ISK

boleh.

Bonjour! My name is Kee. I was born in Kuantan and completed my secondary education

in SMK Tengku Ampuan Afzan and SMK Abdul Rahman Talib. I left my hometown to study

chemistry at the University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur) where I developed a passion for or-

ganic chemistry, and graduated with honors in 2000. A year later, I was awarded a tutorship

from University of Malaya to pursue a Master of Science degree (M.Sc). I enjoyed research

so much that I decided to stay on to pursue a Ph.D. My Ph.D was fully supported by a fellowship from the Malaysian

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). After postdoctoral appointments, I joined the Centre of

Natural Products and Drug Discovery (CENAR) as a Research Fellow. My research activities were centered on the

design and synthesis of biologically important compounds. I have also been mentoring and coaching students for

more than 10 years.

I strongly believe that a child’s education must begin at the beginning. This is one of the reasons why I decided to

leave the ivory tower and come back to be with my daughter, Lily. Apart from that I have always liked to impart my

knowledge and share it with other people.

In my free time I dabble a little in baking. Cookies anyone?

ISK Welcomes New Math & Science Teacher Dr. Kee Chin Hui

ISK Newsletter

International School of Kuantan Page 3

January 2016

ISK’s outdoor sports arena is now complete. Students can now enjoy playing either volleyball, tennis, futsal or netball outdoors.

First Year Anniversary of ISK’s New Campus

The ISK community celebrated the First Year Anniversary of ISK’s new campus on Friday, January 22, 2016. Students, parents and staff that attended the event were treated to lots of delicious food prepared by Chef Zul and parents even shared several home-made potluck dishes. It was a fun-filled and lively event, with a relaxed family get-together atmosphere, complete with Yee Sang. The Chinese new year is around the cor-ner and what better way to usher in the new year than with Yee Sang. Here’s to a great year ahead for the school and the ISK community!

ISK’s Outdoor Sports Arena

ISK Newsletter

International School of Kuantan Page 4

ISK Students participate in the MSSD Pahang Sports Tournament

January 2016

Basketball Under 15 & under 18 Category

From January 25th to the 27th, 2016 the ISK basketball

team and I participated in the Kuantan MSSD Basketball tournament. We

competed with teams from other schools; SMK Air Putih, SMK

Cenderawasih, and SMK Tanah Putih, in the qualifying rounds. We did not

make it into the next round because we are a newly formed team with not

much experience. However, we did gain valuable experience from participat-

ing in the tournament, and we all worked and played hard in each game. My

fellow team member; Eugene, Wilson, Vincent, Edwin, Zoeb, Swan, Harris,

Kay, and I have our coach to thank for all the points we did score, and his

expertise in getting us as far as we could reach.

By Mohammad Amiin, grade 12 (Student & athlete)

Badminton Under 15 & under 18 Category

On January 18 and 19, 2016, several ISK students participated in

the Pahang MSSD Badminton Tournament, held in Playground 6, Semambu.

The participants were Muchammad Yasin, Haswari, Haris, Zulhasnan Rafiq,

Gan Boon Bing, Liew Tong Min, Liew Tong Lin, and Tengku Ameera.

Some of us made it to the octafinal and quarter final rounds but we did not

get into the finals. Nevertheless all of our games were truly hard-fought.

Although we did not qualify for the finals, it was still a fun and great expe-

rience. Now we truly know where we really need to improve, and hopeful-

ly, with more practice we will win more games the next time we partici-

pate.

By Muchammad Yasin, grade 12 (Student & athlete)

ISK Newsletter

International School of Kuantan Page 5

What’s Happening in February at ISK

January 2016

Important Dates in

February

Feb-08 to 12 Chinese New Year

school holiday

Feb-18 to 20 SEA Forensics at ISKL

Feb-23 Day trip to Kuala Gandah

Elephant Sanctuary

Students

Dae Hun (Kevin)

Swan

Staff

Chef Dan

Ms. Lee

Birthdays in February

Reminder to return

quarter 1 & 2 report

cards

If you are unsure of whether you have returned your report cards please ask Ms. Rozana at the school’s office. Please return the re-port cards to the school’s office as soon as possible

Parent-Teacher

Association

A PTA meeting is due to be scheduled this February. We will be sending out a survey to parents in order to schedule a convenient date for the meeting.

February 2016

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29

Parental consent forms for

the field trip to the Kuala

Gandah Elephant Sanctu-

ary were distributed to stu-

dents on Friday, January

29, 2016

Please return completed

form by Friday, February 5,

2016.

ISK Newsletter

International School of Kuantan Page 6

Important Con-

tacts

Admission inquiries:

admission@isk.edu.my

Bus service & Admin-

istration inquiries:

Pn. Jannah

admin@isk.edu.my

Tel: +609 - 573 6010

Fax: +609 - 573 6023

For more information

on ISK, please visit:

www.isk.edu.my

Update contact info

Parents/Guardians are reminded to inform the school if contact de-

tails change. Please email admin@isk.edu.my with any change of

address, telephone number, email etc. We are concerned that

letters will not arrive to your home and e-mail correspondence will

not be received.

January 2016

www.facebook.com/

InternationalSchoolKuantan

Newsletter Editor:

Dr. Nurita Abu Tahir

A member of

Accredited by

International School of

Kuantan

is