NO. 02 FALL 2014 Secondary Newsletter

New Teacher Profile: Mr. Alex by Wendy, Yr. 8.1, and Audrey, Yr. 8.2

What’s It Like To Be MIS’s New Secondary Principal?

You may recognize this familiar face, but Mr. Alex has earned a spot in the New Teacher Profiles because this year he’s taken on a new role: secondary principal. Wendy, Yr. 8.1, and Audrey, Yr. 8.2, mustered the courage to step into the principal’s office to ask Mr. Alex some questions about what it’s like to be MIS’s new secondary principal. What do you expect your students to be in the future? I expect the students to be leaders in their fields and to always try their best. If they are going to be a doctor, be the best doctor. What are you doing differently from last year to improve MIS? I will try to listen and consider students’ suggestions and make MIS a happy and fun place to study. What are your plans for this year? There are many new plans and programs, like more elective classes and I want a new court behind the library. Why did you change from a maths teacher to a principal? I still teach maths. I wanted to become the principal, because I have been at MIS since the beginning, so I know MIS well and I want to make it better. How long will you stay in MIS? How long have you been in MIS? I have no plans to leave MIS. I’ve been here since the beginning of MIS. It has been 6 years, and that’s quite long. Whats it like to be a principal? It’s cool. I get all the birthday cakes from every birthday boys and girls.

More on pg. 2…

CALCULATING VICTORY AT MATHEMANIA MIS Scored Big, Winning 1st and 3rd Places, at Mathemania, a Citywide Math Competition

by Danny & Aung Zay, Yr. 10.2 Myanmar International School’s pride went up high into the sky thanks to the results of Year 10 students, Ivan and Jasmine, who won first and third place in Mathemania, a math competition between schools in Yangon. With determined ambition, the two students worked hard for weeks to be the best. Their hard work paid off. Ivan, Yr. 10.2, won $100,000 kyats for winning first place, while Jasmine, also Yr. 10.2, won $60,000 kyats, as well as the admiration and respect of their fellow peers, teachers, and even Principal Alex.

“I’m very proud of them and their progress over the years,” said Mr. Alex.

Ivan and Jasmine, both from Yr. 10.2, won first and third places respectively in Mathemania, a math competition between Yangon schools.

Mr. Alex was a maths teacher last year, but this year he’s our new secondary principal. What’s it like in the principal’s office? We find out.

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…Continued from pg. 1

CALCULATING VICTORY: MIS’S MATHEMANIA WINNERS

The moment you hear “maths”, you might freak out or maybe go crazy. But if you hear what Ms. Hale is doing in her maths class, you might just change your mind.

Ms. Hale’s project, Curves of Pursuit, teaches Year 10.2 students to create interesting 3D shapes to facilitate better learning. They’re assembling 3D shapes with just normal A4 paper.

“In every regular polygon, if you have equal sides and you connect them, then you can find the exact center of an

area,” explained Danny, a student in Ms. Hale’s class. “It’s interesting to experience this kind of learning since we’ve never done it before.”

Ms. Hale believes that students learn faster when they are able to apply a maths concept physically and manipulate it. They are creating strange shapes with interesting names like dodecahedron, tetrahedron and pentagonal pyramid.

Check out the project, which is on display on the fourth-floor bulletin board.

Ms. Hale checks on Violet (Yr. 10.2), who is gluing together a 3D shape as part of the Curves of Pursuit project in maths class. by Shannen, Yr. 11.2

MAKING MATHS FUN WITH 3D SHAPES Ms. Hale’s Curves of Pursuit Project Makes Maths Fun

MIS journalists Danny and Aung Zay asked these winners questions about their victory, as well as how to conquer maths in general.

An Interview with Ivan by Danny, Yr. 10.2 What was it like to compete in Mathemania? With every question I felt a sense of accomplishment, but a constant fear of failure. Did you study for the competition? Yes, quite extensively – weeks before the contest.

How did you feel while taking the test? I felt pretty nervous when I saw the questions, but this feeling just disappeared after finishing the test. Did you expect to win a prize when you signed up for this contest? No, I did not expect to win anything when I signed up. How did you feel when you were on the stage claiming the prize? I felt joyful and happy, as well as fright. Do you feel proud for your classmate Ivan, who won first place? I am very much proud of him for winning the first place in this contest.

How did you feel when you saw the questions? Surprised and exasperated, but eventually I figured them out. Were you surprised that you won? Quite frankly yes. I ran out of fingernails to bite when it was announced!

Interview with Jasmine by Aung Zay, Yr. 10.2 How did you practice before entering Mathemania, Jasmine? I practiced with our maths teacher, Ms. Hale.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S MIS’s Second Annual Spelling

Bee Spells Success

October, Yr. 10.1, takes a stab at spelling a word. He was stumped, so instead he spelled B-Y-E, and jumped off the stage.

by Ms. Nina How do you spell “winner”? This year, we spelled it V-I-C-T-O-R-I-A. Victoria, from Yr. 11.2, won MIS’s 2nd annual Spelling Bee Competition, which took place October 2. The two top spellers from each English class participated. Ultimately, it came down to Victoria and Violet, Yr. 10.2, but ultimately Victoria won with the words “creche” and “crochet”. Next up, 20 of MIS’s spellers will compete against other Yangon schools in a citywide Spelling Bee Competition that’s being held at Horizon on November 22.

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Would you be scared if one day your fingers or your legs stopped moving? If your muscles stopped moving but your brain still functioned like nothing happened to your body? That is what would happen if you got Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gherigs disease. ALS is famous for two reasons: 1) It is the disease that Stephen Hawking has; and 2) it’s the reason everyone is doing the Ice Water Bucket Challenge! The Ice Water Bucket Challenge dares you to pour a bucket of ice water over your head. You’re meant to video yourself and post your video on YouTube, then nominate someone else to do the same thing and donate money to the ALS research. So far, the Ice Water Bucket Challenge has raised over US$100 million! Approximately 10% of MIS students have done the Ice Water Bucket Challenge. Will you be next? Donate to www.alsa.org. Photo: Su Thinzar, Yr. 9.2, dares to do the ice-water bucket challenge for charity.

WHAT’S TRENDING AT MIS?

by Su Thinzar, Yr. 9.2

Myanmar International School Secondary Newsletter

The Ice-Water Bucket Challenge

WEEK WITHOUT WALLS Taking Our Education Out of the Classroom and into the Real World

Week Without Walls (WWW) lets students break out of the four walls of a classroom to experience and apply education in the real world. This year (Nov. 3-7), six different trips were offered: four domestic trips and two international trips. We got the highlights from each. Beautiful Bali – Yr. 11 & 12

by Shannen, 11.2 and Syafiq, Yr. 12 The best part of the Bali trip was visiting the Green School. We were given a 45-minute

tour by the teacher of that school. We learnt that the Green School is made entirely out of bamboo and there are no walls! All the classrooms are very open so that the students can be close to nature. The school also has a protected area where they keep a very rare bird that is almost extinct. The Green School is a very lively and adventurous place for students to experience learning.

Malaysia & Singapore – Yr. 10 by Violet, Yr. 10.2 I couldn’t swim so I thought there was no way that I could snorkel. But it turns out snorkeling doesn’t require swimming experience. It was just a whole new experience getting to put on the snorkeling equipment and exploring underwater. It was indescribably awesome to float on the water! Whenever I looked down, there’d be gorgeous water plants and beautiful fish swimming around, going on about their lives underneath my feet. I also got to see a stingray!

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Mon & Kayin State – Yr. 9 & 10

by Daisy, Yr. 9.1 I enjoyed every single moment of the trip but the best moment for me was hiking on Mt. Zewkabin. That day we got up around 3:30a.m because we went to see the sunrise. Half way on top of the mountain, everyone wanted to go down but we don’t give up, we kept going. When we reached the top of the mountain, it was raining. We

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The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Myanmar International School Secondary Newsletter

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK What’s It Like To Be The New Kid at MIS?

by Aung Zay, Yr. 10.2

Dennis (Yr. 10.2), a new student to MIS this year, throws up his signature “Sups” greeting.

“Sups!” said Dennis, Yr. 10.2, as he shakes his fists. This word together with this gesture is like his trademark, and it makes other students pay attention to him. That’s one reason why Dennis has found it easy to make friends, even though he’s new to MIS this year. He believes that making new friends is not that hard for him, as he is a funny guy who always jokes about almost everything. He’s the kind of guy you want to hang out with for the whole day.

Dennis moved from Diplomatic School of Yangon to MIS this year

because his grandmother approved of MIS’s education system. Although Dennis says he enjoys most of the things in his new surroundings, he dislikes some subjects, and his biggest complaint is the old and torn text books. Nevertheless, Dennis says he intends to enjoy the education of our school, as well as his new friends.

Dennis isn’t the only new student this year – there are many! Perhaps this suggests that MIS’s reputation is increasing as more and more new students are applying to enter our school!

WEEK WITHOUT WALLS: TAKING OUR EDUCATION INTO THE WORLD …Continued from pg. 3 enjoyed their time there. Some students

were attacked by the monkeys, but luckily there were no serious injuries. I am one of the people who is scared of monkeys, but it was fun with the monkeys and all my friends around me.

Playful in Pyay – Yr. 8

by Danica & Nadi, Yr. 7 Our most memorable activity from our Pyay trip was when we went to Ayeyarwaddy Beach to be free and let out our inner wildness. At first we started out calm – we only played tag on the beach. But then one of the boys started World War III between the girls and boys from Year 7, which ended with everyone covered in sand! It was so much fun! As a souvenir of such a great day, I collected seashells to take home, while Mr. Edmer and some other boys found a cow skull to take back! What a souvenir!

didn’t get to see sunrise, but we saw some monkeys. It was raining very heavily, so we took nap. After the rain stopped we went down and went back to hotel.

Trekking to Inlé – Yr. 8 & 9

by Jane, Yr. 9.1 As part of our fun and adventurous Week Without Walls trip, we had a chance interview particularly interesting people. My friend, Haythi and I decided to interview two of the oldest Pa-O women, both expert weavers, from a Pa-O village we passed through on our trek from Kalaw to Inle. At their respective ages of 70 and

of. The 70-year old woman has 5 children and 8 grandchildren, while the 85-year old woman has 8 children and 20 grandchildren. Coming from economically competitive cities like Yangon, we have very little knowledge about life without the stress of money or the greed for wealth. "I was born here and I grew up here, so I am very happy to be here," explained the 70-year old woman when we asked whether she was happy or whether she would have enjoyed her life in the cities better. Monkeying Around in Bagan – Yr. 8 & 9

by Wendy, Yr. 8.1 The Bagan trip was so fun that most of us didn’t want to go back home. At the airport, we chatted our best moments. Most of us think that Mt. Popa was the best of all, especially spending time with the monkeys! Even people who were scared of monkeys