TISA Times 30 January 2015

Contents

Director 2 Primary Principal 3 TISA Video 3 Primary Winter Concert 4 P8 Host Azerbaijani Poets 5 MYP Report 6 1 to 1 Program 7 Arts Week 8 PTA Update 9 Mother Language Day 9 Athletics News 10 Board Report 11

Calendar

February

3 M1-M3 ISA Secondary Parents' Meeting

4 Secondary PAC Meeting

6 M1-DP2 Reports distributed

6 Family Bingo Night

9 M5 Parents' Meeting for World of Work

10 P8 Parents' Exhibition Meeting

10-20 M3 Science Challenge

11 Planning Afternoon

11-14 TISA Invitational Basketball Classic

12 P8 Open House

13 P6-P8 Assembly

13 M4-DP2 Valentine's Day Dance

16-20 P1-DP2 Festival of Languages Week

16 Parents' Introduction to Festival of Languages (in English)

17 Parents' Introduction to Festival of Languages (in Russian)

18 P7 Open House

19 P5 Open House

19 M1-DP2 Mother Tongue Workshops and Assembly

20 P1-P8 Festival of Languages Assembly

20 Battle of the Bands

25 M1-M5 Service Clubs

26 P4 Open House

26-27 M1-DP2 Secondary Production

27 P1-P8 Parents' Introduction to the PYP

www.tisa.az

[email protected]

30t h January 2015 2014-2015 I s sue 5

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As usual, the Principals and I attended the Search Associates recruitment fairs in Bangkok and London earlier this month in order to hire teachers for the next school year. In addition to the new TISA Director and new Primary Principal, who were both appointed last term, we needed to recruit a number of new teachers and administrators for 2015-16. We have had a very successful recruitment season so far and we have attracted some very experienced international teachers. The following will be joining TISA in August: Secondary School Greg Cowan is from Australia and he will be Head of the Secondary Science Department. He is currently Head of Science at the International School of Helsinki in Finland. Greg is a Chemistry specialist and has been teaching IB and MYP classes for eight years. Catherine McNaught, also originally from Australia, is also joining the Secondary School Science Department. Catherine specialises in Chemistry as well as Mathematics and IT and is an experienced DP and MYP teacher. She currently teaches at Chatsworth International School in Singapore. Nicky Scales is from the UK will be joining us from the International School of Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Nicky has taught in several international schools

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including Vienna International School and will take up the post of IB Physics and MYP Science teacher at TISA. Kevin and Emma Bradley, both from the UK, are joining our Humanities team and have international experience covering the IB DP and MYP. Kevin is himself a graduate of the IB Diploma programme and is certified to teach IB Business Studies and IB Geography. They currently teach at the Beijing City International School in China. Anna Sudra, originally from the US, graduated from the Harvard School of Education after completing her first degree at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Anna is an IB Diploma graduate from the International School of Kenya and is an experienced DP and MYP Visual Arts teacher. She currently teaches at the Northbridge International School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Sarah and Theo Borgerding, both from the US, will join us from the International Schools Group in Saudi Arabia. Both have extensive international experience. Sarah will be our new Secondary Counsellor and Theo will join the Secondary English Department. They have two children, who will join P8 and M2. Des O’Sullivan, from Cork in Ireland, will be taking up the post of EAL teacher in the Secondary

NEW STAFF FOR 2015-16

NEW STAFF FOR 2015-16…continued

TISA Times of 11 Director

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School. Des is currently teaching EAL, English and Geography at Wellington College International School in Tianjin, China. Primary and Secondary School Sofia Martyn is from England and is joining us from the David Johnson Drama College in Manchester where, for the past year, she has been a Drama teacher, Director and Producer. Previously she worked at the King’s College School in Madrid where she taught whole school Music and Drama. She will be working as a Drama and Music teacher in both Primary and Secondary. Primary School Hewa Thompson has been appointed Primary School Assistant Principal. He is originally from New Zealand. He has extensive PYP, teaching and administrative experience and is currently the Head of School at Wroclaw International School in Poland. He is an experienced PYP workshop leader and school visitor. Hewa will be accompanied by his Korean wife and two children. Dominic Thomas will be the new TISA PYP Coordinator. Dom is from the UK and he has worked at Suzhou Singapore International School in China since 2005. He has been the full-time PYP Coordinator for the last six years. He is also an experienced PYP workshop leader and school visitor. Dom’s wife, who is Turkish, will accompany him. Karen Noble is Australian and has taught overseas for over a decade. She has most recently taught at

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the International School of Phnom Penh, and has also previously taught in two international schools in Singapore. Karen is an experienced PYP teacher and her strengths are in teaching literacy, inquiry pedagogy and differentiation. Karen has two sons: her younger boy is thirteen and he will be enrolling at TISA. Karen will join the Lower Primary team. Dan and Lori Nellor are from the United States and have taught overseas at the Casablanca American School and more recently at the Anglo-American School in Moscow for the last four years. Dan will be joining the P8 team and has particular strengths in reading and writing workshops. He is interested in soccer, basketball and tennis coaching. Lori will be joining the Lower Primary team and is very experienced in teaching younger learners. She has been involved in working with the successful implementation of continuums to track emergent literacy, and she is passionate about inquiry pedagogy in the early years. Both are experienced PYP practitioners. Carolina Camero is a psychologist with a Master’s degree in bilingual education. She has had extensive classroom and learning support experience and is an experienced PYP practitioner. She will be joining the Primary School Learning Support team. Carolina is married to Tom Burton (the new TISA Primary Principal). We are very happy to be welcoming such a talented and experienced group of new recruits to the TISA team next year.

John Gillespie Director

The TISA Primary Singers. See page 4

Scottish Hogmanay P5. See page 4

NEW STAFF FOR 2015-16…continued

TISA Times of 11 Primary Principal & TISA Video

From the Primary Principal

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I would like to welcome all our returning students and parents to the next phase in our school year. It is always exciting to be able to welcome new students and their families to our Primary School. I was out of the school most of the first weeks recruiting new teachers. It was very pleasing to note how many teachers and administrators knew about TISA and were very positive. We are able to report a very successful recruiting season and John Gillespie has provided you with details of the new teachers in his article. I always think that the school year is like a marathon! The first term is a time when we start off and students, teachers and parents begin the partnership of learning and get to know each other on many levels. This phase of the year

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is when we ‘cover a lot of ground’. The teachers and students know each other and I would ask you to please help us as we work with your child/children to ‘cover the ground’. This includes the all important reading at home to and by your children, and the mathematics assignments. In the final stage of the year we ‘speed up to the end’, but more on that later. The term has got off to a very good start with students very settled. We have already started with the next round of Open Houses. P3 students presented to their parents on Wednesday morning. We look forward to meeting you at these events in other grades in the near future.

David Harrold Primary Principal

New TISA Video!

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It is here, the new and improved TISA promotional video! To see it, go to YouTube and type in the address below or do a search in Google and type in: 'The International School of Azerbaijan promotional video 2015' The purpose of the video is to give potential teachers and new families

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a small snapshot of Azerbaijan, Baku and TISA. Thank you to Mr. Michael, Ms. Aileen and Ms. Livia for their personal reflections on life at TISA.

Enjoy, Kimberlee Peters P6

http://youtu.be/hkVGG_3Utuo

New Zealand New Year P7. See page 4

Primary Winter Concert

TISA Times of 11 Primary Winter Concert

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Last month we rounded off a busy term with our annual P3-P8 Winter Concert. Our theme was ‘New Year Party’ and every student had the opportunity to perform. Parents and staff were clearly proud to see students of all ages shine. All members of staff involved with P3-P8 students also made valuable behind the scenes contributions to the development and performance of the concert. Thanks to Sean Barry who acted as school photographer for this event. Some of his photographs are included in this newsletter. You can see more by following this Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t0pe6ejndro1av5/AAA2kJfiC3LFvyS_TxJ3XAcba?dl=0 After the concert we invited parental feedback using a Google Docs survey. We really appreciated lots of positive comments from parents about the quality and variety of performances from each grade and from the TISA Singers who closed the show. This was the first time we had ever run the concert on two dates or provided tickets. The reason for

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ticketing was to ensure we had a similar size of audience on each day and that we didn’t have more audience members than seats. The support we had for this was greatly appreciated and really helped the performances to run smoothly. We had feedback about a few parents telling others that tickets were not needed, which left some people in the community feeing frustrated at following the guidelines about tickets when it seemed others had not. Assigning tickets really was an important aspect of organizing the event, however we did not want to cause any disappointment by refusing entry to people without tickets if there was room in the hall. Those without tickets were seated last. We have had some suggestions about refining the process of issuing tickets, which we will take into consideration next year. Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey, those who attended the concerts and most of all to the students for their lively and engaging performances.

Aileen Young Primary Winter Concert Coordinator

Chinese New Year P8

New Year Fireworks P6

Russian New Year P4

Viennese Midnight Waltz P3

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International Day I have been the International Day coordinator for the past 6 years. Sadly, this was my last year coordinating this huge event. I can honestly say that this was one of the most memorable. Thank you to the following committee members for their energy, enthusiasm and efforts to making this year's International Day a huge success: Elizabeth O'Neill, Brigette Henk Gulatowska, Scott Mathyk, Gina Hinds, Mark Stride, Matthew Franklin, Maria Hamblin, Daniel Bergthold, Jo Green, Greg Skehan, Ebby Adukkalil and Lucy Norton. Aylin and Gunel started the day off as our enthusiastic MCs for the International Day assembly. We had a variety of performances including the Tango and Cha Cha, creative dances from Turkey and India, a musical performance from Russia, a song about the 50 states from the U.S.A, learning languages from the M2 students, a musical and dance production performed by talented guest artists from Azerbaijan and 3 inspiring songs sung by the TISA primary students. It was an assembly to remember! The day didn't end there. Staff and students rotated to 5 different workshops that included puppetry, dancing, singing, playing national games, henna, art

TISA Times of 11 P8 Host Azerbaijani Poets

P8 Host Azerbaijani Poets – January 2015

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This week our P8 students hosted two well-known and published Azerbaijani poets, Mr Najafzade Gasham and Miss Nurana Nur. It was an honour for the students as the poets spent quality time in each of the four P8 classrooms explaining their career path, their strengths and likes about poetry. Both Mr Najafzade Gasham and Miss Nurana Nur are members of the Azerbaijan Writers’ Union. Their poetry has been translated into several foreign languages; the Azerbaijani Government and Ministry of Education also endorse and celebrate their poetry.

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Our P8 students were able to listen to and enjoy Azerbaijani poetry before having a question and answer session with each poet. Many thanks to Miss Farida Aliyeva for organising this visit, Miss Inna Guliyeva for organising the transport to and from TISA for our guests and to Mr Khazar Novruzov and Miss Nargiz Rzayeva who translated the poetry for our students, thus enabling meaning to be made and a strong connection to be made with our current Unit of Inquiry - How We Express Ourselves.

Michael Hinds P8 Teacher

Assessment and Growth: Your Child’s MYP Report

TISA Times of 11 MYP Report

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Intelligence grows.1 Here the word “growth” implies not only that the quantity of knowledge (facts, figures, questions, concepts) is increasing, but more importantly that the ability to learn is developing. Your child’s MYP report celebrates this growth and supports the development of learning skills. It is assessment for learning, rather than of learning. This principle is at the heart of assessment here at TISA and has been supported by the changes in the MYP this year. You will likely notice some of these changes in your child’s report. The MYP report includes four elements for each subject studied: • Individual Criterion Levels: On

a scale of 0-8 for all subjects, these levels indicate your child’s progress towards meeting the subject objectives.

• Overall Subject Grade: On a scale of 1-7, these grades reflect the teacher’s overall, holistic assessment of your child’s work throughout the semester.

• Approaches to Learning Grade: These grades communicate how well your child is developing social, communication, self-management, research and thinking skills.

• Teacher Comment: Possibly the most important aspect of the report, the teacher’s comment provides insight into the report grades and strategies for improvement.

How can you use this information to help your child to learn more? One answer is to help him/her to think through the results, rather than respond to them emotionally. You may want to ask:

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• What can you do now that you couldn’t do at the beginning of the semester?

• In which subject do you feel you are learning really well? Why? Can you apply this to other subjects?

• In which criterion have you improved the most in this subject? What helped you to improve?

• What difficulties did you encounter this semester? What did you learn from this experience?

• Where do you think you can improve the most next semester? In which subjects? Which Criteria?

“Good feedback causes thinking.”2 Our aim is that the feedback your child receives on his report helps him to think about how this information can help him to move forward. We know that learning takes place step by step. We hope that your report helps you and your child to celebrate the steps already taken this semester, great or small, and more importantly to identify the next steps to help him learn more in the semester to come. 1 Carol S. Dweck, Stanford psychologist 2 Dylan William, British educator Your child will receive his/her MYP report on February 6th. If you would like to learn more about the elements of this report and ways to discuss them with your child, please join us that morning (February 6th) from 9:00 – 10:00 in the TISA 4 staff room for a cup of coffee and a discussion of MYP reporting. You can also contact me at any time with questions about the MYP at [email protected].

Marie Favret MYP Coordinator

The 1 to 1 Program Is Finally Complete!

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Now in the third year of the TISA Technology and Learning Strategic Plan, we have rolled out MacBooks and iPads into hands of every student in P3 to DP2: an amazing achievement if one was to think back to where we were as recently as 2012. We are experiencing a boom in a balanced use of technology with the Primary School leading the way: there are some amazing examples of student-produced work done on iPads and Macbooks, which could not be possible without the use of technology. P4 students, for example, have been using an iPad app to make stop-motion animations, and their work is amazing! Most of the tasks that could be done without the use of technology are still being done by hand: we understand the need for students to keep performing tasks

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manually to develop their fine motor skills and grow into effective communicators by collaborating with other students.

Our next step in the 1 to 1 Program is to concentrate even more on enabling the students and teachers to create projects, learn new information and collaborate with others in the most effective way – often in a way that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

Naturally, we will continue working with the students on the importance of being responsible digital citizens – a person, who has presence not only in the “real” world around us, but also on the worldwide web.

Dan Egorov IT Director

TISA Times of 13 1 to 1 Program

Technology at TISA 2012 vs. 2015

TISA Times TISA Times

Page 12 of 13 Bingo Night Photos

Board Report

TISA Times of 11 Arts Week

Arts Week

What a joyful week at TISA! Arts Week was full of drumming, dancing and happiness, celebrating the culture of Azerbaijan. Here is a photo of P7J, with our resident drumming/dancing artists. The students of TISA were very enthusiastic about the workshops and look forward to participating in the Arts Assembly on Friday 30th January.

Charlotte Harvey Primary Performing Arts Teacher

Enjoying the work of Azerbaijan's young artists, TISA students visited the Baku Art Academy. Ceramics, painting, carpet weaving and life drawing were some of the activities the professors led us through.

Nicola Beale Primary Visual Art Teacher

International Mother Language Day

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Created by UNESCO (the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation), International Mother Tongue Day aims to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. TISA will be celebrating this special day with a whole week of specially designed activities that will run from 16th to 20th February 2015. We look forward to seeing both parents and children at some

TISA Times of 11 PTA & Mother Language Day

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time during the week. Keep a look out for the schedule of events that will be published shortly. Anyone willing to participate in the organisation of this event please contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more details of how you can support us.

Rebecca Greenall Secondary EAL Teacher

PTA Update

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On 29 November 2014 over 700 people attended the Tisa Winter Fair. It was a real community event with students, parents and teachers all coming together to make it a very enjoyable day. The total money raised from this event was a fantastic 20,172 AZN. The PTA wish to thank everyone who volunteered their time and energy in helping this year with a special thank you to the students in M1 to M5 who very successfully ran the games corridor. Half of the money raised has already been allocated to charity activities through the school Community and Service initiative. The other half will go to fund school Enrichment Projects to improve the lives of the students within the school. Such projects already funded include a sports bag for every student who leaves TISA, a hoodie for all the DP2 students to commemorate their final year, the new Lost and Found

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station and dress up costumes for the BTK children. The PTA are currently discussing what big project to sponsor this year and would welcome any ideas that you might have to be submitted to [email protected] by Friday 6 February. The ideas that are shortlisted will then be asked to submit a full proposal for consideration. You can look at full details of the PTA finances in the following link: https://app.box.com/s/f6ya24l5nmng6qxszgafetob0vbuagz3 Note for your diary: PTA Family Bingo Night on Friday 6 February 7pm TISA Lunch Hall.

The PTA

TISA Times

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Athletics News

From TISA Athletics

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It was a while ago, but it is worth still talking about. The TISA TITANS did very well in the SRAA Football and Volleyball Tournament in November! With the opening of the TISA 5 facility the event took on a whole new atmosphere. This, along with the new uniforms provided by the TITANS booster group, gave the players an added boost! The Titans dominated on the football pitch and gained the top prize in each of the age and gender divisions. All the athletes played very sound and efficient football displaying great teamwork and sportsmanship! In the new TISA 5 the volleyball teams did just about as well, reaching the finals in three out of the four divisions, but all but the Senior Boys’ team were unlucky this year. Some outstanding athletes were awarded certificates of achievement for their participation in the tournament a couple of weeks later. Most Valuable athletes in football were: Alasgar Mammedov, Millie Onslow, Joachim Haverkamp, Nicole Wallek

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Most Inspirational athletes in football were: Zachary Peters, Maria Terres, Eduard Smith, Cyriella Mbiguis Most Improved athletes in football were: Omar Aparicio, Michelle Guszcza, Mohammed Al Barwani, Selma Hadzic Most Valuable athletes in volleyball were: Kalani Ojestermeijer, Amalie Samuelsburg, Joachim Haverkamp, Tenneale Peitersaz Most Inspirational athletes in volleyball were: Clayton Draughon, Alexandra Kneifel, Regan O'Kane, Lara Ucucu Most Improved athletes in volleyball were: Alif Istafigary, Anne Lowe, Daniel Saavedra, Shanti Jacobsen Congratulations to all the athletes for a great season and thank you to all the coaches! GoooooTitans!

Eric Buczkowski Athletics Coordinator and Head

of Physical Education

Page 10 of 11

TISA Times of 11 Board Meeting Report

From the PTA…continued

TISA Board of Governors Meeting Report, Wednesday 14 January 2015 Present: Wilbert Long, Reynold Ajodhasingh, Dave Hatfield, Michael Dickerson, Carol Hawkins, John Gillespie, David Harrold, Stephen Caskie, Alison Bainbridge, John Bowell Absent: Oddvar Samuelsberg 1. Welcome, Reynold Ajodhasingh

RA welcomed Board members. 2. TISA 5 Report, Ian McGregor

Now operational, but some aspects still to be resolved. Bleachers installed. Under-floor heating in gyms not working - design engineer assisting. Problems with AC units being resolved. Fire alarm is now working. Company commissioning the climbing wall and installing other gym equipment to visit in next 2-3 weeks; one motor needs to be repaired. Fire extinguishers to be delivered this week. Evacuation plans are up; emergency procedure booklets to be placed in all rooms. Construction of steps from the field: out to tender. JG will investigate possibility of Opening ceremony one Friday evening at the end of February or beginning of March.

3. Board Report a. Whole School Matters, John Gillespie 701 students P1-DP2; population stable but more than usual leavers expected at end of year. 251 new MacBooks have been rolled out to students to complete 1:1 programme. Vision panels installed in doors throughout the school in line with child protection expectations. Ordering process has begun for books and equipment for August 2015. PE uniforms have been finally received, distribution has begun. b. Primary Principal’s Report, David Harrold 2014 ended on a high with the Winter Festival, in which all Primary School students participated; it was well received by parents, and students thoroughly enjoyed participating. The final day featured a whole school assembly. Leavers were awarded certificates that include Learner Profile attributes their fellow students feel they have exemplified. The students and the staff band performed a range of items. The term has started well and lessons are up and running. Our current senior management focus is on staff placement and recruiting new staff for next year. c. Secondary Principal’s Report, Stephen Caskie We are in the final stages of selection for our Secondary classroom management system with two options remaining: Schoolology and ManageBac. A final decision will be made before the end of January and initial training for staff will begin in February. The Secondary Counselor has arrived and is now working with students on college applications and pastoral issues. We have now received the results of the ISA tests and will spend time analyzing them at the beginning of February. Early university applications very pleasing with offers received from Columbia, Cambridge, Northeastern, University of Michigan, University of Arizona, Texas A&M, UCL and Edinburgh. We continue to work on recruiting teachers for 2015/16.

4. Treasurer’s Report, Reynold Ajodhasingh

RA had previously distributed sent a financial summary with figures up to the end of December 2014: on track with budget after 5 months. RA will champion efficiency drive over next few months; to set up meeting with JG and TISA accountant at end of month.

5. Recruitment Update for August 2015, John Gillespie Director and Principals attended Search Associates teacher recruitment fairs in Bangkok and London in January: 7 Primary and 12 Secondary staff needed for 2015-16. 11 already hired by mid-January, 8 positions will hopefully be filled by the end of January.

6. Fees for 2015-16, John Gillespie Preliminary projections of income and expenditure for 2015-16 were presented to Board. To be revisited next month when there is more clarity over BP and other leavers and newcomers.

7. Calendar for 2015-16, John Gillespie

Current calendar pattern now well established, with 1 week’s holiday in October, 3 weeks in December-January and 2 weeks for Novruz. 2015-16 calendar approved for publication.

8. Any Other Business

(a) MD: progress on Measurement of School Performance and a number of possible criteria were presented for further discussion: number of TISA IB examiners, student absenteeism, DP1 exam predictions, ISA test results, teacher retention, student participation in extracurricular activities, university entry.

(b) JG: some teachers waiting for RPs for 6+ months - travel impeded over long weekends. BP is taking all possible steps to obtain RPs in a timely way.

(c) JB asked whether there was a fire safety review cycle - JG will raise with Business Manager. From the PTA…continued

TISA Times 30 January 2015

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