Author: Cebu International School

CIS Corporation Announcement

The Annual Meeting of the CIS Corporation will be held via videoconferencing  on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 5pm.

Membership

The members of the CIS Corporation shall comprised of the parents or guardians,  whether of Philippine or foreign nationality of students who are currently enrolled in the School and who have studied at the School for at least one (1) school year. Full membership are parents or guardians whose child/ren have studied at CIS for one year and have paid the annual membership fee are eligible to vote. Associate members are parents or guardians who are currently enrolled but who have not studied at the School for at least one (1) school year and have paid the annual membership fee are entitled to attend membership meetings but with no right to vote.

Due to the restrictions of the GCQ , we send details for arranging payment of the 200 pesos Corporation fee to those who express an interest in contributing to the school  by becoming a member. This may be done by contacting our Superintendent’s Secretary Ms. Azela Diapana adiapana@cis.edu.ph. If CIS parents would also like to know more about being a CIS Board of Trustee, they may also contact Ms. Azela for details. The deadline for membership and nominations of new Trustees is September 3 at 12 noon.

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary School Principal

Dear Elementary Community,

This past week a few of our faculty have been able to access the school campus to make use of the more stable internet, and pick up school resources. Several teachers have even been able to collaboratively plan using the same physical spaces, while also honoring social distancing norms, and taking Covid-19 safety precautions. These planning conversations are examples of how our teachers continue to seek ways to enhance the learning being received by your children, and ensuring the curriculum is being delivered in a way that is consistent with our CIS core beliefs.

While checking in with some of the teachers who have been able to access the campus, I came across Coach Jay running his live synchronous classes from his PE classroom. Beside his laptop, Coach Jay has set up two large speakers, and he had a selection of balls, skipping ropes and exercise mats, along with a large whiteboard full of PE learning engagements.“I love it!” he said with a big smile on his face. The students are clearly loving his classes as well.

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle and High School Principal

Best wishes for a long weekend. Your children definitely deserve it, and, knowing how much support you are providing in your own homes to help them to be successful, you certainly deserve one as well. I wanted to share some of the learning experiences our students have been engaged in over the past week. First, though, we wanted to share a video created by Daniel Monfre, our eLearning Coordinator, containing tips on how to maximize your use of some of the Google tools we are using at CIS. Mr Monfre is a Certified Google Trainer and we think you will find his insights to be very helpful.

Remote Learning Tips for Students and Families

by Dan Monfre, eLearning Coordinator

Hello CIS community. We understand how overwhelming it can be to stay organized during remote learning. This short video will discuss an overview of Google Classroom from the students’ perspective, review Classroom summary settings for guardians, the Classroom To-Do list and Calendar for students, and a brief overview of organization and search tools in Google Drive. We hope these tools will help students organize their work and help parents stay connected with the learning process.

Sections In the video (for quick access):

• Google Classroom & Classroom Summaries (Click here: 00:39)
• Classroom To-Do & Calendar (Click here: 02:35)
• Google Drive (Click here: 03:23)

Guardian email summary settings: https://classroom.google.com/gs

Creating up a Google account: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/27441

Glimpses of Student Learning in MHS

Language Acquisition is arguably one of the most challenging subject areas to orchestrate and navigate within the scope of remote learning. Our teachers are doing a remarkable job of leading our students in their Language Acquisition classes.

In Mandarin 8/9 students, for example, are mastering their color vocabulary, paired with other frequently used words through reciting the color song. After learning the song, students are expected to recite the color song without looking at the lyrics.

After singing the song, students are recording themselves finding examples of each color and showing them to the camera while saying the color. For example, holding an apple and say “这是红色。zhè shì hóng sè.” 

Students are also using the padlet tool to write letters in Mandarin to distant pen pals who are in the Mandarin class of a former CIS teacher. Students in both classes are sharing about their lives, backgrounds, daily routines, hobbies, and also their experiences with remote learning. These two Mandarin classes are also sharing videos on Flipgrid. This kind of interaction makes the communication (i.e. the use of the language) engaging and relevant for students.

Our Grade 12 Mandarin ab initio class (which only began learning Mandarin at the start of last year) is also using the flipgrid tool. They are composing short essays, using an exemplar for guidance, and are recording these essays orally and sharing them on flipgrid. One of the great learning aspects of flipgrid is that classmates can access all of the videos (so it works like a message board) and then can record their feedback on each one, thus making this activity dynamic and engaging.

Our Grade 12 Spanish B class, which is operating at an admirable level of Spanish fluency, engaged in a debate (in Spanish) on Tuesday focused on one of the primary DP Oral topics of Identities, narrowed more specifically on the subtopic: Concepts of Beauty. The debate questions was: “Should we restrict or censor fashion and the diffusion of fashion to control people’s perception of beauty” (i.e. should we restrict freedom in this area or not). Students had prepared the debate in previous classes including learning very specific vocabulary to enable them to be precise in their arguments. The teacher also engineered and facilitated group meetings to prepare the pros and contras, and also to prepare counterarguments on this topic.

Students in Grade 8 Language & Literature class have been reflectively exploring their individual identities. They have each been tasked with making a collage that represents the different aspects of their identity, using specific criteria established by the teacher:

Here are a few examples:

Grade 10 Language and Literature classes have begun reading the novel, The Alchemist. They are learning to implement the “PEE” paragraph writing model (as seen in the graphic below) to develop the quality of their writing, and here, to specifically hone in on specific portions of the text, answering the following prompt:

What point does the old man’s story about the boy in the castle and drops of oil make? (pp. 30-32)

MYP Grade 10 Drama 

It can also be a challenge doing drama collectively as we are not able to be physically gathered together. Students instead are working through a unit focusing on monologues, which incorporates many of the same principles and techniques of drama, while allowing students to work independently. The Statement of Inquiry for this unit is: Performance style informs how a character is presented to an audience. For this unit, students have engaged in a process including recording a pre-assessment monologue video which was shared on Flipgrid (also with feedback from their classmates).

Student teams have now collaborated to identify and analyze excellent examples of monologues from a selected group of films; students have been able to choose both the films and the monologues therein, from which they will prepare and perform for their classmates.

Student Reflections:

I understood how a monologue should look as well as how it should be acted out. I learned that it conveys a lot of emotions depending on the story. I learned that it takes practice to perfect a monologue and that you have to be determined to do it so you can get it down nicely. I know that it isn’t easy to perform a monologue but it can be done if you put your heart and drive in it.  – Heinz T.

I understood that we need to put a lot of expression into our monologues so that the audience would interpret our characters in the way we want them to. – Brenton L.

To register for the SAT, you may click on this link.  If you need assistance, please feel free to email Ms. Jenny Basa at jbasa@cis.edu.ph.

Virtual College Visit

Nagoya University

To apply for admission, click here: https://admissions.g30.nagoya-u.ac.jp/

Tuesday August 25, 2020 at 1:00 – 2:00 PM (PH time)

To join the zoom meeting, click on this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89425897839?pwd=eXFzVFZHSUN4MUdsakFoN21rUURrdz09

Below is a short summary on the international programs offered by Nagoya University (NU).  

NU offers four-year undergraduate program in: Automotive Engineering (mechanical or electrical), Physics (science), Chemistry (science or engineering), Biology (science or agriculture), Economics, Law and Japanese in Asia Cultural Studies.  Since all the programs are taught in English, no Japanese language proficiency is required at the time of admission. However, Japanese language classes are offered after enrollment. 

NU offers up to 100% tuition scholarships to qualified applicants.

University of California

To apply for admission, click here: https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/apply-now.html

The UC application is self-reported by the student.  Applications are open at this time and can be submitted anytime from November 1 – 30.

UC will be “test-optional” for fall 2021 and fall 2022. Freshman applicants are not required to submit SAT/ACT test scores. Here’s the  Link for more information.

What does “test-optional” mean?

• You choose whether or not to submit SAT/ACT scores with your application.
• If you are unable or chose not to submit test scores, your application will still receive full consideration. 

You will need to answer 4 out of 8 questions. (Max: 350 words)

1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
2. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
5. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
8. Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?

For more information about the Personal Insight Questions, including writing exercises and worksheets, visit the UC admissions website .

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary School Principal

Dear Elementary Community,

We have now completed the 8th day of the 2020/2021 school year. I am proud of what has been achieved by our elementary community over these past weeks. Challenging times often bring people together and although we continue to find ourselves in a situation we would rather not be in, each of us are working strategically to ensure we continue to provide the best possible education for our children.  One of the changes you will have noticed in our Remote Learning program is the increase in synchronous face to face learning and teaching time. Video conferencing technology has enabled each student and teacher to connect far more frequently, making the school experience more meaningful. In our younger grades, we also have the goal of greater student independence with less reliance on the parent being constantly present to support learning a home.

Remote Learning Home Schedule
To support this goal, today you will receive a Synchronous (face to face) meeting schedule for your child. This schedule contains links and QR codes to each of the Synchronous (face to face) meetings your c

hild will be involved in. This document can be saved on a computer desktop, and can even be printed and put on the refrigerator door. Your child can then just follow the link or scan the QR code to enter their meeting at the assigned time. It is our hope that this document will make the process of taking part in Synchronous (face to face) learning sessions one step easier.

Please do continue to provide us with your feedback about the Remote Learning experience within your household. Our teaching team really appreciate the positive feedback, as it really builds their confidence and validates the challenging work they are involved in daily. We also value the feedback that tells us what is not working, as this allows us to fine-tune our program to better meet your family’s needs.

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle High School Principal

Digital Wellbeing

I had the opportunity to attend several virtual courses over the summer, most of which were focused on effective on-line instruction and the effective implementation of technology to help the MHS navigate this season of remote learning. One of the webinars I attended explored the topic of digital well-being, and I would like to share some insights over the next few weeks that I was able to glean from this webinar beginning with the following.

The importance of rituals and healthy routines

As we move back into our academic structure for the year, it may be helpful to try and recapture some of the beneficial routines you established last year which may have eroded over the summer. One of the benefits of remote learning is that we do have a greater level of flexibility as to how we define time, and one of the blessings of the quarantine is that we do not have to stress about leaving our houses at 6:20 and fighting Cebu traffic in order to arrive at school on time for first block. Still, it can be helpful for us to reestablish a sense of rhythm and routine as we start the year from our homes. Some important rituals worth protecting would be ones connected to our family time, which could be as simple as resolving to eat at least one meal each day with the entire family or having a weekly “games” night to laugh and bond (and even compete) together.

Another important area would be developing healthy habits and routines related to sleep and rest. If you were informed that there was a drug that was free, would make you feel wonderful, would improve your mood, was perfectly safe, and would actually increase your productivity, would you want it? Most of us would jump at such a crazy possibility. In fact, that drug does exist; it’s called sleep. Research, such as the link to the article below from the Harvard Business Review written by Larry Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University, attests to the importance of sleep and its correlation to our state of general physical and mental health. He also articulates the habits (specifically connected to technology) that can lead to better, more restful sleep.

Relax, Turn Off Your Phones, and Go to Sleep

Some of the tips in the article that Dr. Rosen suggests are as follows (and in the article he explains why these habits are important based on how our brains work):

• During the day, practice not reacting to incoming alerts or notifications like one of Pavlov’s dogs. Don’t check your phone every time it beeps. In fact, turn off notifications and check on a schedule to retrain your brain’s neurotransmitters (particularly cortisol). Start by checking every 15 minutes, and gradually increase that to 30 minutes or more. Tell your family, friends, and colleagues that you may not respond immediately, but you will within a specified amount of time, such as 30 minutes to an hour later.
• Stop using all devices one hour prior to sleep.
• Put all devices away in another room rather than keep them in the bedroom to discourage you from checking them during the night. (If you must keep a phone nearby in case of emergency, set it so that it only rings when certain people are calling, but still place it across the room and away from your bedside.)
• An hour before bedtime, start dimming the room lights slowly to release melatonin.
• During the last hour before bedtime, choose an activity that your brain will find predictable and, thus, not anxiety-provoking. Consider any of the following:
  • Watch a television show that you love, maybe even a repeat.
  • Read a paper book (or use a Kindle which doesn’t emit blue light) by a familiar author.
  • Listen to music that is very familiar like a playlist of your favorite songs. If you need a device to do this, burn CDs and get a CD player. (The key is to use a device that doesn’t have internet access, email, or a phone.) Keep the volume low.
  • If you awaken in the middle of the night, try this trick: have a song lyric in mind (not the whole song) that you plan to sing in your mind over and over to block the anxiety and allow you to fall back to sleep. Another option is to learn one of many meditation techniques and practice and use those skills to calm your mind.

Seeking and maintaining balance

Our IB Learner Profile trait for August is balance. As parents, often we need the wisdom to decide which battles are worth fighting with our kids; if we fight them on everything then we will surely lose the overall campaign. What we ultimately want is the best for them, which includes helping them develop a routine of self-care. It is also loving for us to set boundaries for them, as often they don’t yet have the maturity to know what is best.

Further, when we have conversations with our kids about managing themselves on potentially contentious topics such as appropriate amounts of screen time (or other challenging areas), we also need to be careful that we are first regulating our own emotions; we need to be emotionally steady and calm when we have these conversations. As with most things, we provide a model for this for our children when we do this effectively, or present a negative model if we do the opposite. Sometimes we need to step back if we are too emotionally charged at the moment; we all have things that can push us over the edge and in that state our conversation will likely not be productive. If you find yourself in that state, don’t force the issue but rather set a time (i.e. set a structure) to talk later with your child. And, as with most human interactions, our tone of voice is critical if we want this conversation to be fruitful.

The MYP needs you!

by Jonathan Denton, MYP Coordinator/Assistant Principal-MYP

Hello everyone and welcome to a new academic year!

While starting the year remotely is not our ideal situation, as educators I can promise you we are very much up to the challenge of developing a new blended model for learning, one that is very much in-tune with our increasingly complex world.

On-line learning will never be a replacement for face-to-face learning, however, it is forcing us to develop a new set of skills that are extremely relevant and important.  As educators it is our responsibility to create “safe” learning communities that support social and emotional well-being. We aim to transform classroom learning through tech tools for collaboration, social connection, culture building and differentiation. We will model effective on-line behaviours such as maximising our time together, providing opportunities for students to collaborate, ask questions, clarify confusion and receive feedback. We will offer our students flexibility through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning tasks. We will also need to rethink assessment focusing on formative assessment as learning, providing feedback in a more personalised manner.

It is a brave new world but we are all ready for this challenge, safe in the knowledge that we have a supportive and forward thinking Academic Leadership Team and School Board behind us.

This year is our second year of MYP implementation at CIS, and it promises to be a very busy one indeed. Over the course of the year we have two IB visits scheduled to analyse and evaluate how successful we have been implementing the programme. The first of these visits will be our Consultation Visit, August 27th and 28th. The second will be the Verification Visit in May. Fingers crossed, at the end of this academic year we will be the very first IB continuum school in the Philippines.

How can you help? On Friday, August 28th, from 7:30 to 8:30, our IB consultant would like to hear from you. More specifically, she would like to discuss the impact of programme implementation on the school community. If you would like to join this meeting or know more about it, please let me or Ms Kim know via email.

Keep up to date with all that is happening in the MYP on our website, https://sites.google.com/cis.edu.ph/cis-myp/.

Until next time, may your news be good news.

College Counselor’s Corner

by Ms. Jenny Basa, College Counselor

College Applications in the time of COVID-19

Nagoya University Webinar

Philippines: 18th (Tuesday) 13:00

Register here: https://forms.gle/MdCc7Xv4dFsPtA997

NU offers four-year undergraduate program in: Automotive Engineering (mechanical or electrical), Physics (science), Chemistry (science or engineering), Biology (science or agriculture), Economics, Law and Japanese in Asia Cultural Studies.  Since all the programs are taught in English, no Japanese language proficiency is required at the time of admission. However, Japanese language classes are offered after enrollment.

NU officers up to 100% tuition scholarships to qualified applicants.

A virtual visit will be coming up at the end of the month, the date will be announced once confirmed.

If you need more details, set up an appointment with Ms. Basa at jbasa@cis.edu.ph.

SAT Registrations Update

For students who are planning to study in universities/colleges that require the SAT exam, below is the schedule of the SAT tests. Please take note of the test dates and registration deadlines.

To register for the SAT, you may click on this link. If you need assistance, please feel free to email Ms. Jenny Basa at jbasa@cis.edu.ph.

Note from the Superintendent

It has been wonderful to see students, families and the school come together this week for the start of our new school year. The teachers have done a great job preparing for our new, upgraded Remote Learning program. At CIS, this most certainly does not mean doing traditional school work, either synchronously or asynchronously, over the internet. Rather, it considers all aspects of inquiry-based constructivist learning methodologies, adapted for remote delivery, in order to provide holistic learning in a personalized learning environment (see the diagram below showing the key components of such a program). Furthermore, we use International Baccalaureate (IB) programs that are aligned with the CIS philosophy, and while this cannot replace face-to-face interactions, it does ensure we can provide a good level of continuity of learning during these challenging times.

As we completed our first week of school after our first ever virtual orientation, I have been particularly impressed to see the vast majority of our members resiliently working to overcome issues when they arise, and facing the various challenges in a calm and practical manner. As I touched on in the welcome of our Family Orientation video, this is in line with how CIS intends to face the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. To summarize, CIS intends to:

a) make decisions that are aligned to our guiding statements
b) focus on areas within our “sphere of control” and not worry about areas that are outside of our control (but still be prepared to deal with them)

Diagram credit: Elena Aguilar, Education Week Teacher Blog

c) use and promote the use of a growth mindset, where we believe intelligence can be developed, leading to a desire to learn, embrace challenges, and persist in the face of setbacks.

Over this week, we had a variety of opportunities for parents to interact with the school. 

• If you missed any of the asynchronous videos from Facility Orientation Day, I urge you to take time over the weekend to review them, so as to be aware how we are educating your children (refer to the email sent to your registered address for the links).
• A few parents opted to join the small group meetings offered, and a larger group gathered for our Virtual Parent Operation yesterday. I will be sending home a Q&A with key questions arising these orientation meetings that might be of interest to those who could not join us shortly. We plan to hold these regularly to give you an opportunity to share positive news and challenges together, and to help communicate ways that you can fulfill the challenging role of supporting your child/ren’s learning at home.

Our next parent meeting will be our first Virtual PTA Coffee Morning next Wednesday, August 12th, 10-11am. Please pencil this in, and a meeting invite will be sent out via email with the above mentioned Q&A. In addition to getting to know each other, we will be discussing our PTA Board and Officer selection process for this year, after deferring that from the end of last year. I hope to see as many of you as possible!

Regards,

Dr. Gwyn Underwood
Superintendent

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle & High School Principal

A big welcome back to our new school year and to this year’s edition of The Newsflash. We have missed the CIS community over these two months, and though we cannot be together in person, we are still happy that we can reconnect with students and parents virtually. Thankfully, CIS teachers prior to the lock down were already fluent and capable in their use and implementation of tech (as seen for example, in our effective use of Google Classroom and Seesaw in our respective sections of the school). This crisis has forced schools across the world to get on board with exploring and implementing new technology tools, and for us this means advancing and refining our use of platforms already in place. The fact of the matter is that, in the past teachers could (and sometimes did) resist innovation, but now we are in a position where we must do this if we are to continue being effective practitioners within our profession. I will comment more on how this can be seen as a real “silver lining” in the midst of this crisis as technology holds the potential for opening up doors to learning we could only have imagined in the past.

We have also made a commitment as a school to focus intentionally on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) to help our students maintain their balance and foster their wellbeing. Meeting our students’ SEL needs in the midst of this crisis is a challenge for us both at school and at home, for teachers as well as for parents. I want to assure you that we are committed to living up to our mission statement’s pledge of “creating a collaborative, challenging, and nurturing environment that includes community members” as is reflected in the examples below.  

This week our homerooms had the chance to meet with students both for an hour on Tuesday and then a half-hour on Thursday. These two sessions were very useful in preparing students for the start of school and then to check in on them as how these first two days went and answer any questions they may have had. We are seeking to make our homerooms a place where students can connect with each other and a safe place to share their struggles and triumphs during this challenging season.

Here are examples of what some of our homerooms have been up to over the past few days.

Our initial homeroom time included personal introductions, as we see in the following example from Grade 6: Grade 6 HR

Many homerooms shared helpful information with their students, as seen in the following from Grade 8: Grade 8 Learning links

Grade 11 HR

The 11th grade students started their experience with the IB Diploma Programme with an introductory workshop session and an explanation of the program (including information about course/level changes). The 11th graders asked fantastic questions in their live session on Tuesday August 4, and have entered the Diploma Programme ready to take on the challenge!

Grade 12 HR

The 12th grade students began their second year in the IB Diploma Programme with a Homeroom session designed to get them reacquainted with each other.  Teams were formed, and competitions are on the horizon for the coming year!

MHS Classes

One of the things we always do with our students at the start of the year is establish common agreements with them in our classes. Engaging and involving students in creating shared agreements for the smooth operation of class is a powerful way for them to feel invested in the decision making and have “buy in” for the operational policies of the class. Many of our essential agreements this year included an increased focus on the responsible use of technology, such as:

• Cameras must be on during class. If there is a technical problem, inform the teacher on hangouts.
• Mute your mics when not speaking.
• Communication is key- if you have a problem speak up either in class or outside of class.
• Contact is best facilitated between 7am and 4pm.
• Be patient. 
• Keep a smile nearby at all times.

Students were also connecting with each in class this week other through creative experiences engineered by their teachers, as seen in the following activity in our Grade 7 Individuals and Societies class: Grade 7 L&L activity

Mr. Denton created a very comprehensive website for his Grade 8 Individuals and Societies course which will also contain opportunities for parents to actively partner with the teacher as the year progresses. Grade 8 I&S website

Our Grade 11 DP Spanish ab initio (i.e. absolute beginners) class has met once and they are already using introductory phrases in Spanish. The teacher is using a tool called flipgrid where students record themselves and post to a shared “board” which the teacher and other students can see and comment on. After direct instruction and watching videos posted by the teacher, students today were doing the following using the flipgrid tool.

Introducing themselves and using several greetings. Sharing their names, how old they are, and where they are from. Sharing that they are studying the IB DP programme. They also learned how to ask each other questions to elicit these responses. Spanish ab initio is off to a great start!

Thank you, as always, for your support as we begin this new school year together!

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary School Principal

Dear Elementary Community,

Our First Week Back

This has been a wonderful beginning to the school year. In today’s CIS Newsflash our elementary team would like to share with you several examples of learning from this past week. Every student has been involved in daily video conferences with their peers and their teachers and it has been simply wonderful to hear the excitement and enthusiasm of our young learners.

After many weeks of uncertainty and preparation, we are now together again as a school community again. Over the summer period, many of our teachers have been actively learning how to become more effective as remote educators. I am very proud of everything our teachers have achieved.

While planning to open this year, as a teaching team we incorporated our professional learning, along with the feedback we reviewed from students and families. We value your feedback as it enables us to finetune our practices and better meet the educational, and social and emotional needs of your children. When designing CIS remote learning, some Key Elements driving our lesson design are:

• Creating several daily opportunities for synchronous interaction via Google Meets
• Incorporation of regular mini-lessons where students receive direct instruction from teachers
• Decreasing the need for parent involvement in remote lessons
• increasing our focus on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

There is no doubt this has been, and it continues to be, a very challenging process for our CIS teachers. I am excited to see what we will continue to achieve as a community in these coming weeks together.

This Week’s Learning

Early Years 2 & 3
Each morning this week the EY teachers have been connecting with their classes with an asynchronous video. In response to the video, each student has been responding on Seesaw with a voice recording.  Later in the morning, the EY teachers have held a synchronous video call with all the students together.

(Please click here to view this video)

Grade 2
Grade 2 started the year with a blast! This week, we spent quality time connecting with each other and building our class community. We also explored new digital learning tools and what it means to be good digital citizens. Every day, we collaborated with each other synchronously on Google Meet and asynchronously using Seesaw Blog and Google Hangouts. We then ended the week on high spirits as Coach Jay led us through some fun physical challenges. We’re so glad to be back at school!

Data Protection Advisory

by Mr. William Belda, Data Protection Officer

In its constant commitment to the vision and mission of the school and to uphold and maintain the values and principles imbibed and practiced for the benefit of the entire community, CIS has initiated the modification and alignment of all privacy policies and security measures currently implemented and practiced in all its processes, beginning this school year, 2020-2021.

This assures the improvement and upgrade in the protection of all information, which are requested and collected for the specific processing of official school requirements and necessary compliances relative to all academic programs and in accordance to local laws.

The modification improvement of our current Privacy Policy include the following principles:

• CONSENT – As a constant practice, CIS respectfully requests the consent and approval of usage in the collection of all information necessary prior to its processing.

• PURPOSE – CIS responsibly provides full disclosure of the nature, scope and extent  of the information necessary for official school usage.

• LIMITATIONS – CIS prepares appropriate materials, media and/or multi-media tools, based on the processed information, having full approval and consent for the intended usage.

Further updates and details will be periodically released to provide reminders and guidelines to specific school processes and functions relevant to privacy and information security procedures.

For inquiries, you may contact Mr. William Belda, CIS Data Protection Officer:
Telephone (CIS landline): +63 32 261 0247
Email: DataProtection@cis.edu.ph

SAT Registrations Update:

If you are registered for the SAT on August 29, please monitor your email regularly. The SAT will announce two weeks prior to the test date if the test will proceed or be cancelled due to quarantine restrictions.

For students who are planning to study in universities/colleges that require the SAT exam, below is the schedule of the SAT tests. Please take note of the test dates and registration deadlines.

To register for the SAT, you may click on this link. If you need assistance, please feel free to email Ms. Jenny Basa at jbasa@cis.edu.ph.

Admin News

Dear CIS Community,

We did it! Congratulations on successfully completing our 2019/2020 School Year. We were confident we would get through it, but it is a relief to finally get to this point. No one expected we would end up completing the year virtually, but circumstances dictated we needed to do so, and I am proud of being part of a community who all pulled together to make the best of the situation. As things start to open up over our summer break, I hope you and your family get time to refresh and renew yourselves and are ready to approach our 2020/2021 School Year with an open mind ready to face the challenges of a new year!

I thought I would share the following ACCEPT advice to deal with crisis fatigue, as I found it helpful to reflect on the various feelings I am sure we all experienced over the past 12 weeks. It is a good reminder of how it helps to be aware of the potentially negative impact of not processing our emotions to a state of accepting situations that are out of our control and focus on what we can change.

I hope you enjoyed our moving up ceremonies and End of Year Assembly this morning. If you were not able to see it, the advantage of them being virtual events is they are available for you to watch at your convenience at a later time! The links were emailed to your registered email address.

As we break for summer, I want to reiterate what I mentioned in my End of Year Assembly closing address. I encourage you to consider ways of developing a “growth mindset”. Make it a habit to use, and it will stand you in good stead in the coming years. Students, take a break from individual pursuits on your electronic devices (i.e. too many videos and games), and spend some time with your friends and families. Most of all read as much as possible, then think critically about what you read! It is also helpful to write or sketch about your thoughts to help you process your thinking. This will help develop both language and critical thinking skills for next year!

For families who are leaving CIS, we wish you farewell and all the best in your continuing journey. Students who are leaving, and friends of students who are leaving, please re-read Mr. Woods’ Newsflash articles from the last two weeks covering “leaving well”. This is especially important this year considering you have been unable to see each other for the last couple of months. An easy mnemonic I like from David Pollock and Ruth Van Reken, was to be sure to build your RAFT as you leave (this whole book is recommended reading for all parents and students living in a culture outside of their own culture!):

• Reconciliation • Leave in peace by resolving any conflict you have (as much as is possible).
• Affirmation • Be sure you let those you love know that you will miss them, and thank those who have helped you on your way.
• Farewell • Say goodbyes and do not just disappear on your friends – closure is critically important!
• Think Destination • As you leave one place in peace, think positively about your next destination to prepare you for your transition.

Finally, a few reminders:

If you have not had the chance to read my last Info Brief from the Superintendent, please do so. It is quite long, but it contains critical information about next year. I will be in touch over the vacation to confirm our opening dates (also note any change will be reflected in our official calendar on our website), and to give you details of what procedures and conditions we will be opening with in order to keep our community safe from the ongoing Covid-19 threat.

Please submit your re-registration form and arrange for enrollment payments for next year as soon as you can, as this helps us with our planning (links were sent in previous Info Briefs). If you are unsure of your circumstances for next year due to the Covid-19 situation, please update us so we are aware of your situation. We are also happy to talk to you about your options or situation, just email your divisional secretary and they can forward it to the most appropriate administrator. If you have a whole-school or finance concern, please feel free to contact me via my secretary Ms. Azela Diapana <adiapana@cis.edu.ph>.

Please take the time to fill the End of Year Parent Feedback Survey, as this info is very helpful for us as we plan for the coming year (one/family – the link was in the last Info Brief).

Have a wonderful summer vacation, and we will see you hopefully in August!

Regards,

Dr Gwyn Underwood
Superintendent

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle and High School Principal

The Year in Review in the Middle and High School

In light of the fact that Covid-19 has dominated our focus for the past three months, it is easy to forget all of the amazing things that have happened at CIS this year. In taking a few moments to review retrospectively, we can see that it has been a wonderful year, both in terms of learning, but also in developing our students’ holistic growth.

Academic Milestones:
At the start of the year we engaged all of our grade 11 and 12 students and their parents in two separate IB Commitment meetings, where we reviewed the nature and parameters of the program as a whole, as well as conducting smaller meetings with the respective subject teachers, and then culminating with our students and teachers signing a pledge to do their best in fulfilling the requirements of the programme. We also held our annual EE Cafe to celebrate our students’ finishing of this major milestone and then sharing their work with the community. With our implementation of the MYP program, our Grade 10 students completed and shared our first ever MYP Personal Projects.

We also experienced events this year related to academics such as Book week, where our entire school celebrates the gift of reading. We also enjoyed Chinese New Year celebrations, featuring an intentional and fun focus on Chinese culture both for our students who are studying Mandarin and activities and events for the entire student body. 

In addition, we effectively implemented our first design classes as a cornerstone course in the MYP programme. Our IB Visual Arts students were also able to present and publicly display their creations to the public in our IB Art Exhibition at Ayala Mall in IT Park.

G12 IBDP Visual Arts Virtual Exhibition: https://bit.ly/2QH33OS

Over the past weeks our students have been reflecting on the year and on Tuesday afternoon we held our virtual Celebration of Learning. Students worked with a partner or small group to create a presentation highlighting learning experiences that stood out to them from the entire school year, ranging from Band to Chemistry Labs to The School Production to ISAC soccer, which they presented virtually to their classmates, teachers, and parents. What a wonderful opportunity for our students to reflect and evaluate their own learning from the year.

Please find a link to this year’s Celebration of Learning
Celebration of Learning student presentations

Clubs and Co-curricular Activities
This year we were able to run over 35 clubs each semester in the MHS, giving our students a wide range of options to help them keep physically fit, explore new interests, and develop their skills. These ranged from Dragon’s Print, Cooking Club, Yearbook, dance, and athletic clubs. Even though BEIMUN had to be cancelled, we had a group of seventeen students attend the MUN event in Manila back in September. We were also able to compete in two ISAC tournaments where our students represented CIS admirably with quality performances and strong sportsmanship.

Major School-wide Events
Up through February we were able to hold important school-wide events which serve to build community and highlight the strengths of its members, such as International Day where we are able to embrace and celebrate the global diversity of our student and parent body. Other events facilitating this were the PTA Christmas Bazaar, our school-wide Holiday Assembly, and Sinulog Day. Our School Production of The Music Man involved, in a variety of ways (backstage, sound and lighting, concessions, acting, and live orchestra), about 35 percent of our MHS student body and included students from ES as well. Our HAD days, run primarily by the student leadership of Student Council, provided the opportunity to build school spirit and enjoy the camaraderie within each of our 4 houses.

Service Learning Focus
We have again been able to emphasize service learning as a central component of who we are as a school. Our Week Without Walls, which thankfully we were able to hold just prior to the community quarantine, allowed our students to engage intentionally in a variety of service projects. Even with some hurdles and needing to adjust some of our courses, we were still able to run all of our courses and engage in learning through service. We also had many ongoing service efforts involving our students over the weekends and after school, and with the MYP we were able to introduce elements of Principled Action within our curriculum units.

There are so many things that make a school year memorable. Even though Covid radically changed the ending of our school year, I hope we will be able to look back on the past three months as a unique time which tested us, but from which emerged stronger than ever. We can certainly be proud of our students, who have weathered this storm and once again proven themselves to be responsible, respectful, and prepared.

Business 10 closes out the semester with Social Marketing

Business 10 is a semester-long course which aims to introduce students to the different topics of Business. To end the second semester, students focused on Social Marketing — advertising that is designed to create a change in audience perception or behavior.  During the unit, students decided on an issue, identified their goal as persuasive or informational, and created an advertising campaign targeting these pieces.  Each group had to create multiple pieces for their campaign.  Groups created videos, podcasts, posters, soundbites, a social media hashtag, and even a newspaper!  The final step of the project involved presenting their marketing to the class, either through pre-recorded videos or live presentations in a virtual room.

Here is one example from each group’s advertising campaign:

Group A — Minwoo and Johan (Coronavirus R0 informational video)

Group B — Kate, Duane, and Dom (Climate Change persuasive video)

Group C — Jodi, Luna, and Sofia (Working/Studying from Home During Coronavirus informational poster)

Group D — SooA, Kyoungmin, and Sakura (How to stay health during Coronavirus video)

Student Reflections:

I would say that this campaign really shows my understanding of advertising in marketing. This is because I am essentially taking the concepts in this unit and translating them from selling a product, to selling an idea, from persuading a customer to buy something, to persuading someone to do something. One example in which our campaign shows this is in our goal which is to inform and persuade the audience. Our methods also match the methods that can be used in business advertising which are things such as leaflets or flyers (posters) and word of mouth (video and podcast). We also needed to keep in mind the packaging or the design of the posters in order to catch the audience’s attention. – Sofia

The target that our group has focused on is to allow people to gain more knowledge from looking at our campaigns. By looking at our campaign, we wanted the audience to learn more about the Corona Virus and we wanted to help the people. This is an important topic to focus on because by allowing the audience to learn new information about this virus, it could help decrease the number of people being affected by this virus. – Sakura

We concluded and felt that misinformation and fake news was a prevalent and extremely dangerous aspect and behaviour during COVID-19. It is important that people have reliable, factual, and easy-to-access information during these times, and is a necessity to allow people to stay safe and cautious. We subsequently decided to create our products based on this singular goal. – Johan

We wanted to focus on things that can be done by normal citizens. We chose to do this as not all people have money to donate or time to volunteer in large events. With our campaign goal we chose to be both persuasive and informative, changing in products that would exemplify those qualities better.  – Dominic

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary Principal/PYP Coordinator

This past week has been a time of celebrations, memories, and farewells as we have concluded our school year. It has felt a little unusual for each of us to be ending the school year in such a different way. I sit here writing at the desk in my office at school, and Ms. Lory is in the main office outside preparing the report cards ready to be sent home tomorrow, but otherwise, the school is almost empty. Mr. Wood and Dr. Underwood are also in their offices, like me I’m sure, coming to terms with the unusual nature of this situation. Our security team is here, and a few members of the Maintenance team, but the buzz and excitement of the last day of school is completely missing. I began my teaching career in 1998, and this is the first time in 22 years I have seen a school year-end in such a way.

Despite this, we are still connected. This morning I spent time with our Grade 5 class as we took part in the Remote Grade 5 Moving up ceremony that premiered at 8.00 am. I was then able to visit several class parties and also be part of the farewell celebration for our Educational Assistant, Ms. Eva. Later in the morning, I was able to enjoy the End of Year Assembly with the entire CIS community, and in the early afternoon, I was able to visit the grade 2 end of years virtual party, which was held later in the day to enable students who have left Cebu to take part. So, despite the physical distance between us, through the wonder of technology, we are able to remain connected in ways that are still very special and meaningful.

Celebrating Grade 5 Student Completion:

Today we have said farewell to our Grade 5 students. As an international school, many students have come and gone over the years as work and family commitments have brought people to Cebu, and taken them away again. Three of our Grade 5 students have been at Cebu international School for their entire elementary education, while the other 18 students have joined CIS along the way. We are so proud of who our Grade 5 students have become. Recently we celebrated our PYP Exhibition, the culminating event for the Grade 5 PYP students as they complete the IB Primary Years Programme.  Following this event, one of our Grade 5 Students, Niño, who had made it a personal goal throughout the year to develop his drawing skills, decided to ask each member of the Grade 5 class which superhero they would be. He sent each classmate a quiz, then decided to draw each of his classmates as their superhero. The result was both special and impressive.

You can follow this link to see each of the images individually.

Celebrating Grade 2 Learning on FlipGrid

Despite the physical distance caused by remote learning, the innovation and excitement around learning is still very much alive, and simply wonderful. I keep returning to the first two Core Values of CIS:

1. Learning is an joyful, creative, and open-ended exploration.
2. Each child’s curiosity needs to be identified and nurtured (morally, socially, physically, and academically) to reach his/her potential.

As a school, it is our commitment to these core values that make us stand out from other schools. Other schools can provide students with workbooks and worksheets that develop academic repetition and memorization,  but not very many schools make a firm commitment to developing every aspect of a child’s potential. CIS has done this, and will continue to do this through any Remote Learning or Blended Learning programs we are required to provide. This is our Core Value.

Our grade 2 students have been actively engaged in joyful, creative, open-ended explorations throughout their remote learning time, and recently they took action on their learning by sharing their projects with each other using an ICT platform called FlipGrid. Janna learned how to use Minecraft and built a simulation to present a problem that may have come up between the early explorers and the Native Americans. She then showed how she could use her ATL Skills to see multiple perspectives and help them find a solution.

Dammy created a slideshow presentation and recorded a screencast to discuss the importance of protecting our Earth, and the different perspectives people may have regarding the use of natural resources, as well as to persuade people to take better care of the Earth.

I am incredibly proud of what our Grade 2 students have achieved over these past months. I am also proud and inspired by how our teachers have adapted to these challenging remote learning conditions while remaining faithful to our CIS Core Values.

Celebrating KG/G1 Learning: Book Making

A key aspect of early literacy is reading and writing for meaning. It can be relatively easy to teach a child how to decode words, or how to write a string of words together to form a simple sentence. It is easy for teachers, students, and parents to grade students on their ability to do this, and this is how we would have traditionally measured success. In a rapidly changing world, however, it is essential that students learn to:

1. Develop a passion and a love for literacy (reading and writing)
2. View themselves as an author and a reader
3. Create their own literacy content that is personally meaningful to them, and which they can share with others.

Congratulations Class of 2020

College Acceptances

Congratulations to our Class of 2020 on their graduation, as well as their College Acceptances! Merit-based and need-based scholarships/tuition grant schemes were earned by seniors based on merit and financial need ranging from full-ride, full-tuition to partial support.

Click on the image to enlarge the photo.

CIS Class of 2020 Virtual Graduation Ceremony

The CIS Graduation for our Class 2020 was held earlier this evening, at 5 PM. If you did not get a chance to watch it, we have linked the video in for you to do so when you get the chance below.

This event was the first of its kind in our 95 year history! Our congratulations go out to all of our graduating students, and we wish them all the best as they head into the “real world”! I would also like to thank our graduates parents, family members, friends and all teachers who taught them since they started going to school. Your support enabled our students to be successful, enabling them to get to where they are now. A special thanks for the support given over the last few months since the pandemic crisis hit us as well!

Regards,

Dr. Gwyn Underwood
CIS Superintendent

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle and High School Principal

The Importance of Healthy, Well-rounded Goodbyes

Last week I shared some thoughts on the importance of finishing the academic year strong, and hopefully this resonated positively with you. This week we continue with the other aspect of ending the year in a positive way: saying goodbye well.

In a recent article published in Motivation Science, psychology researchers explored the following question: How does the way people end their previous life phase impact emotional well-being and the transition into the new beginning? In this article, Schwörer, Krott, and Oettingen (2020) explained the concept of a well-rounded ending, which can be defined as one that is marked by effective closure. The authors found that a well-rounded ending is associated with high positive affect, low regret, and an easy transition into the subsequent phase. For example, when exchange students ended a visit abroad, a well-rounded ending correlated to stronger positive feelings afterwards, less feelings of regret regarding having missed out on opportunities, and to the ease they experienced settling back into their home when they returned. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mot0000126

A quote used last week from goal-setting guru Gary Ryan Blair asserts that, “Every task, goal, race, and year comes to an end; therefore, make it a habit to always finish strong.” This quote is relevant here as it reminds us that leaving a place is not the only ending we may experience, as moving into a new grade is also an important shift from one phase to the next and involves saying goodbye to teachers and spaces which have come to feel like “home” while at school. As we know, transitions are particularly poignant within international schools as they experience greater instances of coming and going both for students and teachers, and as such, it becomes more important that we shepherd our students toward well-rounded transitions.

Many times it is just as hard for those of us who are staying, sometimes harder, and it is also important for us to say goodbye well to those who are moving on.

To be honest, in my own transitions I have done a pretty good job of finishing strong, but the other area, saying goodbye well, is an area where I have not been as successful at times. Leaving can be hard for all of us, and leaving in such a manner that important matters remain unresolved only makes it harder and can result in lingering feelings of sadness, anger, or regret. It can also make transitioning to that next phase in life’s journey more challenging as we may bring unresolved “baggage” into that new experience.

This year is especially challenging since it can be more difficult saying goodbye well when we can’t be physically present with those to whom we say our farewells. We may feel that circumstances have cheated us out of saying goodbye well. Regardless of the situation, Cherilyn Veland, a Social Worker from Chicago, explains that:

Saying goodbye is important. Saying goodbye allows us time to honor the importance that we have in each other’s lives. It gives us the opportunity to form words for feelings that we might be recognizing for the very first time. A good goodbye honors our past, codifies the choices we made, recognizes life experiences with others and the world around us, and provides closure, as we move on to our next chapter.

However, when life comes at us such that we do not get a chance to say goodbye, or we are not ready to say goodbye, we can be left wondering forever what was, what happened, and what could have been. Sudden separation from whatever it is, be it person, place or thing, can leave a hole filled with heavy difficult feelings, such as regret, guilt, anger, confusion, and fear. https://blogs.psychcentral.com/psychology-women/2016/10/loss-the-importance-of-goodbye/

The challenge of our current situation is that we may not be able to say goodbye in the way we would choose or in a way that gives us a sense of sufficient closure. Especially in light of our circumstances, we should feel satisfied and emotionally at peace that our ending fits the definition of well-rounded and has a sense of closure if the following are true:

• If we feel that we have done everything we could have done within our sphere of control. We cannot control the actions or attitudes of other people, but can only control our own. If you feel that you have reached out and tried to do everything you could have done to say goodbye appropriately, show yourself some grace, especially given our difficult circumstances.
• If we feel that we have completed something to the fullest. This goes back to the idea of finishing strong. Knowing that you have fulfilled all of your responsibilities, both with regard to tasks and to people, should provide you with peace.
• And third, If we have a feeling that all of our “loose ends” have been sufficiently tied up. Again we can only hold ourselves responsible to the extent that this falls within our sphere of control. If there is an emotional loose end that is harder to resolve or where there are hard feelings, we can make the choice to forgive others (sometimes we need to forgive ourselves as well). The irony of not doing this is that harboring hard feelings against someone often troubles us when we hold onto them; we don’t hurt the other person by not forgiving, but rather, we hurt ourselves. Sometimes writing a letter, although it is not a face-to-face communication, allows us to get these feelings out. It can help resolve emotions even if the letter is never sent.

Finally, an important part of ending well is also found through the rituals which mark important transitions, such as ceremonies, banquets, farewell gathering, and the like; this is true whether we are moving on in life, or moving up a grade. Our students and teachers have been busy and active these past few weeks in the final stretch of the school year. One of the things we have been working hard on is preserving those rituals as best we can in light of the obstacles that keep us from being together face to face.

As we approach the end of a challenging and unsettling year, I invite you to attend the following end of year events, so that we may celebrate all the good that has occured.

• Today we held the CIS Graduation of 2020 at 5:00 PM. This virtual event was the first of its kind in our nearly 100 year history.

• Our Celebration of Learning will take place next Tuesday afternoon, June 2nd. The purpose of the Celebration of Learning is to provide an opportunity for our students to share their highlights from the school year, not only with their parents, but with the entire school community. We will be creating Celebration of Learning “pages” containing links to all of our students’ presentations so that you may visit your own child’s presentation and others that interest you.
• We will be holding Moving Up Ceremonies this year on the final Friday of school, as is our tradition for students transitioning between important stages in their educational journey, for Grade 5 and 8. This year we are also adding a Grade 10 Moving Up ceremony in light of the fact that we are soon to be an IB continuum school and these students are moving from MYP to either the IBDP or CIS Diploma programmes.
• To celebrate this year’s achievements and gain positive closure to the year, we are also holding our End of Year Assembly at 11:00 AM on June 5th. This will help us to go on holiday with a sense of closure and hope for the future (when for some there may still be a lot of uncertainty). As usual this assembly will feature student speakers, performers, and awards.

I hope that you will be able to attend these events via the links that we will share, and take the opportunity and find the wisdom to say goodbye well in these challenging circumstances. We will certainly miss all in our community who will be transitioning to other places and other chapters in their lives, but as Ghandi stated:

“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are you will always be in our heart.”

Our MHS Band classes have been working over the past weeks to put together music for our Graduation and Moving Up ceremonies. If you think trying to make a zoom meeting effective, imagine trying to orchestrate an ensemble when the performers are not in the same room. Our End of Year Assembly will also feature “spoken word poetry”, which is an interdisciplinary project involving our Grade 6 Language and Literature and Drama classes. The Assembly will also feature dance performances which have been an aspect of our Physical and Health Education courses.

Last week we explained that our Grade 11 DP students, in the midst of remote learning, have begun working on their Internal Assessments (IA’s) in most of their classes. The internal assessment (IA) in IB Psychology challenges students to conduct a replication of an well-known psychology experiment; by following in the steps of a well-known experiment, they learn to think and act like practitioners of psychology. The experiment must be carried out in a group of no more than four students.

The first step is for students to choose an experiment to replicate. To do this they must understand what is meant by a simple experiment. The psychology course defines a simple experimental study as requiring the manipulation of one independent variable and measurement of one dependent variable, while other variables are kept constant. Consequently, correlational studies, quasi-experiments, and natural experiments (that is, any research undertaken without control over the independent variable and without a controlled sampling procedure) would not be acceptable for the parameters of a simple experimental study.

At this point students have completed their proposals, have had their plans approved by the teacher, and have now written the introduction and exploration portions of the IA.

Please find below some examples of our students’ proposals:

Here are some student reflections on their Psych Internal Assessment:

The Psych IA was initially a very daunting task. I worried mainly about writing the best Introduction and Exploration I could, and ironically that really bolstered my fears and caused me to fret over a blank paper for a good few days. It was when I passed my initial draft that I realized worrying the way I did was pointless. Constructive criticism will always sting. It will also always help you write better. With the criticism I was given, I was able to approach what was once a daunting task with a clearer goal in mind and a sounder method in place. I learned a lot about the attitude I must have to utilize my teacher’s feedback to my advantage, and it’s a useful kind of attitude to have, especially in areas of the IB where feedback is needed the most. – Venise

In order to complete the psychology internal assessment, it was important to not only understand the concepts but also be able to explain the ideas as clearly and thoroughly as possible. Since this was my first time writing an IA, I had to rely on the concrete guideline, which has been the grading criteria. Also, group discussions were necessary to maintain consistency and to brainstorm the experiment that we are replicating. It is very important to choose the study wisely in terms of ethics and feasibility, and sometimes it might be necessary to have adjustments in the methods. Last but not least, it has been very helpful to have a feedback session with the teacher, which has made my writing much easier and concise. Overall, I think the most important thing was to write the IA while checking the requirements of the criteria.  – Woochul (James) 

The psychology IA is something I find exciting because it is an opportunity for me to experience conducting first hand research. Although what my group chose to investigate is not a lesson we directly learned from class, I enjoyed reading and learning about it. Writing the introduction and exploration of my IA was first very overwhelming. However, with the feedback I received, I was able to work on areas that needed improvement. I realized the importance of making strong linkbacks as well as the importance of organization. All these make the flow of concepts in the essay clear and effective. – Kimberly 

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary Principal/ PYP Coordinator

Dear Elementary Community,

Despite planning, teaching, conferencing, providing feedback, holding conferences, and writing reports remotely, I can acknowledge with sincerity and pride that our CIS teachers have embodied the CIS Core Beliefs. Not only this, but our teachers have also successfully guided your children, and to some extent, yourselves, in applying and living these core beliefs at home over these past weeks.  The end of the school year is always an emotional time as we say goodbye to students, teachers, and families, and show gratefulness for all that has been achieved over the year. This year I feel especially grateful that we have such a professional, committed, and caring team of teachers in the elementary school.

College/Careers Counselor Corner

SAT Registrations Update

Priority Registration for Fall SAT Dates is Now Open

Until June 3 at 8 p.m. ET, August, September, and October registration will be open to: Students in the class of 2020 or 2021 who don’t have an SAT score, and students who registered for the June SAT or Subject Tests and didn’t cancel.

Registration Details
Beginning on May 28, the following students will get a week of early registration access to sign up for August, September, and October tests:

• Students already registered for the June SAT or Subject Tests who didn’t cancel their registrations
• Students in the high school class of 2020 who don’t have SAT scores
• Students in the high school class of 2021 and don’t have SAT scores

All students can register for the November and December tests starting on May 28. Registration for August, September, and October tests will open for all students on June 3.  The new SAT test dates for Fall 2020 are: 

August 29       September 26        October 3        November 7          December 5

College/University Visits (online)

Students & Parents are welcome to join!

IDP Virtual Fairs Coming up

May 30, 2020 at 2:00pm – 7:00pm (Canada, UK & Ireland)
To register, please click on this link :

CANADA

• Camosun College
• Columbia College
• Douglas College
• Fanshawe College
• Excelsia College
• Fleming College
• Humber Institute
• Langara College
• NorQuest College
• Northern Lights College
• Royal Roads University
• Sault College
• Saint Lawrence College
• University Canada West
• University of Fraser Valley
• University of New Brunswick

UNITED KINGDOM

• Anglia Ruskin University
• Birmingham City University
• Edinburgh Napier University
• Goldsmiths, University of London
• Nottingham Trent University
• On Campus
• Plymouth University
• University of Portsmouth

IRELAND

• Trinity College Dublin

Admin Update

Dear CIS Community,

As we near the end of our school year, we have entered what we call our “red zone”, where everyone tends to get so busy some can get a little stressed at times! It is helpful to keep this in mind, and to be extra sensitive when dealing with others over this time – particularly as we have to interact remotely at this time!

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle and High School Principal

A Strong Finish

My career as an educator is now approaching thirty years and has brought me to nine different schools in six countries; as such I have transitioned between jobs on eight different occasions. Through these experiences of transition I have developed the conviction that the following two interrelated principles are very important: finishing strong and leaving well. Over the next two weeks I want to share some thoughts on each of these areas as we move closer to the end of our unprecedented year at CIS. I hope these ideas will be particularly relevant to our graduating seniors.

Finishing strong is a principle that applies to us whether or not we are transitioning from one chapter of our lives to another. In reality, to quote goal-setting guru Gary Ryan Blair, “Every task, goal, race, and year comes to an end; therefore, make it a habit to always finish strong.” Our entire community has done a fantastic job, throughout these past three months, of managing through this crisis and adapting to remote learning; however, we sense that last week’s announcement of the further extension of the ECQ may have made motivation difficult for some of our students. It may have taken the wind out of our sails as we were hoping to return to campus for our end of year events and opportunities to say farewell.

It is not enough simply to say that we should finish this year well; as Simon Sinek advises us, it is important to start with “why” in order to unpack and understand the reasons for a particular stance, decision, or course of action. So I pose the question: Why is it important to finish well, to finish strong?

For me this has always been a matter of integrity, and especially so when you are moving on. How you finish says a lot about you and reveals the truth about your character. The way you finish is what people will remember about you. It also validates all of the accomplishments that have come before, as it reveals that your motivation, in the case of our students, for example, was truly about learning, not just pleasing their teachers or seeking grades.

Finishing strong not only reveals a person’s character, but it also provides an opportunity to continue building that character. At CIS we are committed to the holistic development of our students as seen through our emphasis of the IB Learner Profile traits. Interestingly, only half of the LP traits are directly academic in nature. Five of them, namely principled, risk-taking, open-minded, balanced, and caring are character traits which impact every aspect of our lives, including learning.

The following are just a few personal characteristics which can be developed when we commit to finishing strong. The first of these is an ability to persevere in the face of adversity. Difficulties and challenges in life are inevitable; the question is not whether we will encounter them, but rather, how we will deal with them when they arise. If we can choose to persevere in spite of our emotions and circumstances, this will make us stronger and create the inner fortitude to overcome the future obstacles which we will inevitably face.

Finishing strong can also cultivate our ability to sustain focus. It is natural for us to lose focus, and at times we actually embrace distractions when we give in to temptations like procrastination. In every course at CIS, our students set goals for themselves at the start of the year which we inentionally revisit to help them “keep their eyes on the prize.” I encourage our students to go back and gain a vision for following through on the goals they have set for themselves. Take a moment to reflect on why you set these goals in the first place. When we lose sight of our goals, it can be easy to become sidetracked or detoured along trails that lead us to an undesired destination. Emotions like doubt, fear, and worry, can also weigh us down or cause us to drift from the path. On the other hand, developing the ability to remain focused in spite of obstacles and distractions is a life skill that will serve you well in the future.

Finally, finishing strong can develop a personal commitment to excellence. It demonstrates that you are not willing to accept mediocrity or the status quo (which often are the same thing), but that you are dedicated to doing your very best, regardless of the circumstances or who is watching. The pursuit of excellence is a habit which then becomes an aspect of your character. When someone is dedicated to doing their very best by consistently giving their “all,” he or she also forges a reputation of being a reliable and trustworthy person, which are traits employers and even friends greatly value. Moreover, a dedication to excellence can be critical in developing a healthy family life in the future, being committed to your spouse and children through thick and thin.

Ultimately, finishing strong comes down to personal choice. We can’t control our circumstances, nor can we control other people’s words, reactions, or attitudes. The only thing we can control is our attitude and our response to the situations in which we find ourselves. Our students now find themselves in the midst of our end-of-year assessment “window,” and this is not the time to falter. Now is the time to dig deep and find that extra reserve of fortitude. I have been thoroughly impressed with our students’ resolve, resilience, and dedication to their own learning during our season of remote learning. They should be proud that they have managed to successfully navigate this new learning territory; now it is time to bring the ship safely into port. Now is the time to finish strong.

Be the hero of your own story. Show the world the quality of your character, the strength of your resolve, and the size of your heart by finishing strong. – Gary Ryan Blair

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary Principal/PYP Coordinator

Dear Elementary Community,

In last week’s Newsflash, I discussed the elementary school reporting process and the Three-Way Conferences (3WC).  Thank you to all the parents who contributed to the ATL Report Survey as your responses have helped teachers to create meaningful report cards that accurately represent your child’s learning during this semester. As a school, we place great value on the learning connections between home and school.

Tony Wagner is a leading educationalist, researcher, and advocate for the 7 survival skills students need to be successful in the 21st Century workforce.

Three-Way Conferences (3WC)

As elementary school parents, you have received a 3WC sign-up form. 3WC’s are being held in 15 minutes intervals from Tuesday, 26th May to Friday, 29th May. During the conference, your child’s teacher will share a draft copy of your child’s ATL report with you. They have written this report using the data you gave them through the ATL Report Survey. The 3WC will provide the opportunity for you, your child, and the teacher to discuss the ATL progress your child has made, to clarify any points of difference that may exist, and to establish goals for next year.  Your child has also been asked to complete a brief reflection about their learning during this semester. Your child will share this reflection during the conference.

Following the conference, the teacher will complete your child’s report before it goes through our final checking and proofreading process. Reports will be emailed in PDF format on Friday, 5th June.

Please sign-up for your child’s three Way Conference now!

The PYP Exhibition

If you are a grade 5 parent, you will know the Grade 5 students have been engaged in their PYP Exhibition inquiry since late January. This is the culminating or consolidating experience of the IB PYP Program.  Under normal circumstances, the PYP Exhibition would be held at school and we would invite the CIS community to attend. This year the PYP Exhibition will be a remote experience hosted on the CIS PYP Exhibition Website. The launch for the PYP Exhibition will be Thursday, 28th May and the CIS community will receive an invite to view the exhibition.

Important Dates in Elementary

Please find a summary of the important dates connected to elementary:

• Friday 19th – Monday 25th May – Three Way Conferences (3WC) sign up.
• Friday 22nd May – Student non-contact day (curriculum working day for teachers, student work catch-up day
• Monday 26th to Friday 29th May – Three Way Conferences (3WC) held remotely.
• Thursday 28th May: Launch of the PYP Exhibition
• Friday 29th May: Final (remote) Elementary Assembly
• Friday 5th June: Grade 5 Moving-Up Ceremony /Report Cards emailed to parens/Final day of school for students

CIS Student Learning in Mandarin

Recently the Mandarin students have reviewed their food topic, and to do this they made a healthy delicious Sandwich. The students learned all of the ingredients in Mandarin first, then they made their Sandwich for breakfast or Lunch. Yum!

College/Careers Counselor Corner

College/University Visits Online

The IDP Virtual Fair is scheduled on May 23 and 30 with institutions from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland.

Please find below the list of participating institutions and registration details:

May 23, 2020 at 1:00 pm – 6:00pm (Australia & New Zealand). To register, please click on this link.

AUSTRALIA

• Australia Catholic University
• Blue Mountains Hotel Management School
• Central Queensland University
• Curtin University
• Excelsia College
• Federation University Australia
• Flinders University
• Griffith University
• James Cook University
• La Trobe University
• Le Cordon Bleu
• Macquarie University
• Melbourne Polytechnic
• Queensland University of Technology
• RMIT University
• Tafe International Western Australia
• University of Sydney
• University of Western Australia
• Torrens University
• University of Adelaide
• University of Adelaide College
• University of New South Wales Sydney
• University of South Australia
• University of Technology Sydney
• UTS Insearch
• Victoria University
• Western Sydney University

NEW ZEALAND

• Lincoln University
• Massey University
• Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT)
• Southern Institute of Technology
• University of Otago
• Victoria University

May 30, 2020 at 2:00pm – 7:00pm (Canada, UK & Ireland). To register, please click on this link.

CANADA

• Camosun College
• Columbia College
• Douglas College
• Fanshawe College
• Excelsia College
• Fleming College
• Humber Institute
• Langara College
• NorQuest College
• Northern Lights College
• Royal Roads University
• Sault College
• Saint Lawrence College
• University Canada West
• University of Fraser Valley
• University of New Brunswick

UNITED KINGDOM

• Anglia Ruskin University
• Birmingham City University
• Edinburgh Napier University
• Goldsmiths, University of London
• Nottingham Trent University
• OnCampus
• Plymouth University
• University of Portsmouth

IRELAND

• Trinity College Dublin

Admin News

Thank you one and all for your endurance! It is hard to believe we have now completed week eight of RL. It is also amazing to think we now only have 3 more weeks until the end of the school year! We can do it—and what an amazing accomplishment it will be!

I will be sending an Infobrief shortly to the CIS Community with some details about staffing for next year that we usually send out at this time of the year. For now, we have a few announcements about current developments.

1. CIS moves to a Modified ECQ from May 15-May 31 – CIS Remote Learning confirmed to continue through to the end of the school year

[Stop Press: Since publishing, the IATF has returned Cebu City to ECQ level]

As you may have heard in the news, Cebu City has now been placed on a Modified ECQ from May 15 through to May 31. The conditions of the MECQ are similar to the ECQ with regard to our operations, so as we expected, we will continue with RL. (A detailed report of details of the MECQ, ECQ, and GCQ is available in a news report here). After initially being classed under a General Community Quarantine (GCQ), Mandaue and Lapulapu Cities have also been recommended for the MECQ by the IATF – a report is available here)

Even if we are moved to a GCQ level after May 31, we only have one more week, and our students (under 20-year-olds) will still be required to continue their quarantine under that level. This announcement serves as official confirmation that due to these continued restrictions, CIS will need to finish out the 2019/20 school year virtually.

2. End of Year Events

We will continue to hold as many of our regular events as possible if we can adapt them to be held virtually. The event organizers for the various end of year events are in the process of planning for these adaptations, and details will be communicated to you shortly.

3. 2020/21SY Opening Planning

We are in the process of researching options for what conditions we need to implement at school to ensure the safety of our students and teachers when we open our campus physically for our 2020/21SY (hopefully in August as planned, but that depends on the restrictions at the time). We are fortunate to have time and other schools’ experiences of doing this now to draw upon to help us plan. Over the next few weeks, we will be inviting input from a variety of stakeholders into the various options we are considering, so if you have an interest in this area, please do let me know! I will be giving more details and possible dates in our next Infobrief.

Our Remote Learning program (and many parent’s work) was interrupted for a number of families over Wednesday and Thursday this week, reportedly due to an unfortunate loss of connection from PLDT Fibre lines being damaged by two separate accidents! Our teachers scrambled to adapt their lessons to cater to students who were unable to join online, and alternative arrangements were given so the students had the opportunity to make up any work missed over that time. Thank you both students and teachers for working through that problem. This is the first major issue with our connection in 8 weeks, so at least we can be thankful for that. Also, it was interesting to note that some found it harder to cope with loss of internet over two days than being on lockdown for eight weeks!

Have a restful weekend, and we hope the learning is smoother next week, as many of our students look at summative assessments and preparing for our upcoming celebration of learning events!

Regards,
Dr. Gwyn Underwood
Superintendent

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle and High School Principal

Our students, now having completed week 8 of remote learning, are keeping calm and creating on within their respective classes. Our teachers continue to create learning engagements for their students to keep them moving forward in the curriculum while striving to make it relevant to them. They are modeling the kind of creativity we want to instill and inspire in our students.

As we are gearing up for our end-of year assessments, I want to highlight some of the learning experiences, as evidenced through our students’ products, which have been taking place in MHS this week. We have now entered our end-of-year assessment window, and our students are also beginning or are already in the process of producing culminating projects for their courses to demonstrate their mastery of course content and skills.

Our Grade 6 Individuals & Society (I&S) class designed and created Covid 19 Propaganda Posters.

For our unit on Propaganda students were asked to design a poster on paper (A4 size or larger) using one of the propaganda techniques they have been studying. The poster was meant to take a message from what they know about Covid-19 and exaggerate it a bit to really convince people that the message is true, even though the facts may be skewed or paint an incomplete picture. This message could either be positive or negative in nature. They were also asked to include a drawing or drawings in connection with the celebration of art week which needed to be colorful and draw in the audience’s attention. 

Our Grade 8 Science class, for their summative task for the Rocks and Minerals unit, were tasked with the goal of incorporating their knowledge of rocks and minerals to design a substantial test for rock/mineral identification. Students served as rock lab experts for a client who has sent them a rock sample for detailed analysis, seeking to know if the rock would be suitable for any specific task or function. The students role was to provide the client with a detailed analysis (in the form of a formal report) of the specimen.

This project combined several important subject skills, requiring students to demonstrate their knowledge within this unit and apply this knowledge in a novel situation. They also had to meet course standards in Criterion B, which focuses on inquiry and design. Students were expected to formulate a detailed analysis to identify the rock’s estimated/observed age, physical (density/hardness/luster/streak)/chemical properties, mineral content, possible location to obtain or mine this, and current market value of the rock per kilogram. Finally students needed to formulate a conclusion about its appropriateness for the purpose. The formal report also needed to include the problem that you’re investigating, a hypothesis related to your problem, evaluate any variables you need to look into your investigation and how you plan to gather your data, articulate materials and procedures, and present a detailed analysis and results.

To add an element of creativity, students were given the flexibility to choose their own format for the report for as long as it looked professionally done by a rock lab expert as well as contain all the expectations above. The statement of inquiry focused on how scientists discern patterns in ecological systems and use them to identify ways to develop and manage natural resources around the world. 

Please find one student sample of this finished product below:

Sample Product – Zhandy J.

Grade 11 Internal Assessments

Our final highlight for the week focuses on how our Grade 11 DP students, in the midst of remote learning, have begun working on their Internal Assessments (IA’s) in most of their classes. One of the things that sets IB apart from other rigorous “college prep” curricula is that its assessment of students is not purely test-based. In sharp contrast, IB builds in the ability for students to explore, under the guidance of their teachers, aspects of their respective subjects that are relevant and/or intriguing to them. Our IA’s range from conceiving, designing, conducting, and evaluating their own science experiments to delivering Individual Oral commentaries in World Language and Language and Literature to crafting independent study and analysis of real-world businesses.

The IA’s present a wonderful opportunity for our students to demonstrate their skills and knowledge and, if they are motivated and diligent, often serve to raise their grades in their IB subjects. It is wonderful to see our DP teachers adjusting to this IB requirement and leading students through these assessments while all are at home (for example, guiding students to begin their science IA’s while they don’t yet have access to the labs).

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary Principal/PYP Coordinator

Dear Elementary Community,

As we draw near the end of the academic school year, all teachers are engaged in writing report cards for their students. Report card writing is always a stressful time for teachers as they are adding many additional hours to their regular teaching and learning workload. Teachers take the responsibility of report card writing very seriously, and each report card that is written represents many hours of thought, assessment, and cross-checking various pieces of qualitative and quantitative data to ensure the report accurately represents each student.

The Reporting Process – seeking parent input

A significant portion of this semester’s learning has taken place at home. Teachers have done incredible work, planning, delivering, and providing feedback to ensure high-quality student learning is maintained and our CIS curriculum outcomes are achieved. In the report card, the teachers will be reporting on this curriculum outcomes.

The report also highlights the IB Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills and attitudes. These are the skills and attributes students use and develop while learning. As parents, you have also done incredible work, many of you taking the role of teacher-facilitator.  As a lot of learning has happened in the home context and we value your perspective on how your child has demonstrated the ATL skills and attitudes. You will all have received a survey that enables you to efficiently give us some data about the ATLs at home. There is also a place for parents to write an example of where they have seen this ATL skill. Some parents may not feel confident writing an example in this section, so if you do not feel confident to list an example, please leave this section blank.

Three-Way Conferences
During the week of May 25th to May 29th, 2020, CIS Elementary will hold remote Three Way Conferences (3WC). The focus of this conference will be to discuss the ATL section of the report that you have contributed to. During this conference, you will have the opportunity to give verbal examples of the ATL strength and goal areas. This will enable parents to give their ATL examples in person.

The 3WC will replace the Celebration of Learning Student-Led Conference usually held at this time of year.

Important Dates in Elementary
Please find a summary of the important dates connected to elementary.

• Thursday 14th May – ATL Report Survey emailed to all elementary parents.
• Monday 18th May – Reminder sent to families who have not had the opportunity to complete the ATL Report Survey.
• Wednesday 20th May – ATL Report Survey closes at 3.00pm.
• Tuesday 19th May – Three Way Conferences (3WC) sign up schedule sent to parents.
• Friday 22nd May – Student non-contact day (curriculum working day for teachers, student work catch-up day)
• Monday 25th to Friday 29th May – Three Way Conferences (3WC) held remotely.
• Friday 5th June – Grade 5 Moving-Up Ceremony / Report Cards emailed to parens / Final day of school for students.

Spanish Activities

by Ms. Gloria Rodriguez, Spanish Teacher

Mandarin Class

by Jinhua Zou, Mandarin Teacher

This week Mandarin reviews the food topic with activity making healthy delicious sandwich, the student learns the ingredients in Mandarin. They were making sandwich for breakfast and even lunch.

College/Careers Counselor Corner

The IDP Virtual Fair is scheduled on May 23 and 30 with institutions from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland.

Please find below the list of participating institutions and registration details:

May 23, 2020 at 1:00 pm – 6:00pm (Australia & New Zealand). To register, please click on this link.

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary Principal/PYP Coordinator

Dear Elementary Community,

This morning I was incredibly proud to watch the third Elementary Remote Learning Assembly. This assembly is a wonderful showcase of the extensive teaching and learning that has been taking place across the elementary school over these past weeks. It is clear to all those who see this assembly, that teaching and learning is very much alive across our school community.

There are a number of acknowledgments to given, as to produce an assembly like this takes an amazing amount of organization, time, and hard work. Coordinating this event and building the video has been our Elementary Student Council teacher coordinators – Ms. Vangie Belono-ac, Ms. Tara Bersabal, and Ms. Aimee Sesbreño. Next, we need to acknowledge the elementary teachers who have spent hours each day creating and preparing lessons, providing feedback on learning, and engaging in numerous video calls with whole classes and with individual students. Teachers begin their workday around 7.30am and I see many are still active in the evening, working at times when the internet may be more stable. In most cases we see teachers putting in longer school hours than they would be in normal circumstances. Each day teachers are reviewing the learning that has taken place, then designing new learning experiences to build upon previous learning. It can be difficult to appreciate how these fit together when working alone at home, and this assembly really helps bring everything together.

Next, our students need to be acknowledged. The independence and motivation the students have continued to display over this remote learning period is a testament to the skills, attitudes, and competencies they have as young people, who are preparing to become successful in a rapidly changing world. Despite being isolated from one another, their learning has continued.

Finally, and very importantly, we must acknowledge our parent community. This period of remote learning has been particularly challenging for you, our parents. You have been with your child 24/7 for a number of weeks now, and many of you have also been the homeschool teacher. This is very intensive. CIS has always placed a high level of value upon the home school partnership, and remote learning has further heightened the importance of this connection. We are grateful for your support.

For your reference, remote Learning Assembly 1 and 2 can be located here, along with our CIS Remote Learning Website.

• Remote Learning Assembly #1
• Remote Learning Assembly #2
• Remote Learning Website

Celebration of learning  – Three Way Conferences and Reports 

At this time of year, CIS would normally hold Student-Led Conferences as a celebration of learning. This year the process will look a little different. Teachers have begun writing the end of year reports, and next week you will receive a short survey where you will be asked to provide some feedback on your child’s Approach to Learning (ATL) skills and attitudes during the remote learning period. Your observations will become part of the end of the year report card. During the week of May 25th to 29th a remote Three-Way Conference (3WC) will be scheduled where you, your child, and the teacher can discuss this ATL progress together.

• • 14th – 19th May: ATL survey sent home
  • 25th – 29th May: Schedule 3WC
  • 5th June: Report cards emailed home

Parent and Family Support
At CIS we are very aware of the challenges families face as they deal with the effects of long term lockdown. This Family Support Facebook Community page may be one way you can find support from others who are dealing with the same challenges.  https://web.facebook.com/groups/childsafeaustralia

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle and High School Principal

We have presented perspectives about and approaches to assessments in past editions of the Newsflash, and we want to revisit the topic again this week since our final assessments are on the horizon and also since this is the first time we are experiencing these end-of-year assessments (which are often perceived as “high stakes”) in the context of remote learning. I think it’s important to share these thoughts as final assessments can be a scary thing and may be even scarier in light of our situation. 

The three essential components which intersect and interact with each other in our educational structure are standards, curriculum, and assessment. Standards are the skills and content we are leading our students to master within their respective courses and, when possible, between them. Curriculum (which comes from the Latin word meaning “a race,” or better- “a running”) is the “course” or path we follow to achieve these standards. Assessment is the way we measure the level of student mastery of those standards. All three pieces are critical, but assessment is the one focused on measuring student learning; as student learning is the central focus of our core beliefs, it could be argued that it is the most important of the three. For example, we might think we have done a great job of teaching a concept or that our students have met certain course standards, but we won’t know whether or not this is true unless our students can demonstrate their skills and knowledge, and this is done through assessment.

As we are moving toward our MYP authorization, I have asked Jonathan Denton, our MYP Coordinator and Assistant Principal, to share about the approach to assessment in the MYP, which is creating a positive shift already in the way we approach measuring our students’ achievement. It is really helpful to understand this, as due to MYP we are moving away from some of our traditional assessment measures like final exams to more authentic and full-orbed methods which allow our students to demonstrate a wider array of skills and do so with greater critical and creative thinking.

In the MYP Assessment should focus on student Mastery; it should never be a Mystery

Imagine an assessment where you are given the answer scheme ahead of time; where you know how you have done before the teacher even looks at your work; where you are able to discuss your achievement level with your teacher, and, if you do not agree with it, can request moderation from another teacher. No need to imagine. This is the reality of assessment in the MYP.

Before getting into the nitty gritty I would like to lead you all away from using the term “grades” to assess student growth and embrace the term “achievement levels”. While this may strike you as being unnecessary, it is fundamental to understanding the MYP’s philosophy and approach to assessment. 

A “grade” is loosely defined as a particular level of rank, quality, proficiency, intensity, or value. “Grades” represent different things in different countries, states and schools. They can even mean different things to different teachers in the same school! They are awarded by teachers to evaluate the quality of a student’s work. 

MYP achievement levels are defined by a set of descriptors that paint a clear and transparent picture of a student’s current level of understanding within that subject. Achievement levels are earnt by students when they demonstrate the qualities that are defined by the descriptors. Furthermore, these levels are standardised in a manner that a student receiving an achievement level of “four” at CIS would receive the same level of achievement from every teacher in any MYP school throughout the world.

What is criterion-based assessment

When a food guide is given the task of reviewing restaurants to include it in a “Best Restaurants in Cebu” magazine, instead of giving one overall grade they will often give scores for different criteria to ensure that the process is fair and transparent. Criteria may include such aspects as: the quality of the food, creativity of the chief, atmosphere, service, and value for money; a restaurant may rate as follows on those established criteria:

Quality of food: ✵✵✵ Creativity of chef: ✵✵✵✵ Service: ✵ 

Atmosphere: ✵✵✵ Value for money: ✵✵

Overall Rating: ✵✵✵

The review above shows that the restaurant has scored better in some areas than others. We can also clearly see here that, if it wants to improve, it needs to both focus on developing better service and recalibrate its prices.

Assessment in the MYP is similarly criterion-based, just like the example above. Instead of only being given one overall grade for a subject, each subject is assessed according to four subject specific criteria. Each criterion is divided into 8 levels of achievement ranging from 1, where the student is beginning to develop the fundamental skills, to 8, where the student is consistently demonstrating higher order thinking skills. This helps us clearly identify student’s strengths and weaknesses. Here is a simplified version of the achievement levels:

Furthermore, the IB framework is standardised in a manner that a student receiving an achievement level of “four” at CIS would receive the same level of achievement from another teacher in any other MYP school throughout the world.

The Assessment Process at CIS

At CIS we have a clear and transpartent process of assessment in place, broken down into 5 clear stages. Key characteristics of the process are: 

• Students are presented with the learning criteria for every assessment ahead of time
• students need to self-assess their work before submitting it for assessment, justifying the levels they have awarded themselves against the learning criteria 
• if a student disagrees with the level they have been awarded by the teacher they may set up a meeting with that teacher or even ask for it to be moderated by another teacher (within a 2 week period)

How achievement levels are determined

A student in Science is asked to discuss and evaluate the various implications of using Science and its applications to explain the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. They will be marked against the following criteria:

To determine the students achievement level we start with level 1-2 and work our way up to level 7-8. Please note how outlining, where a student gives a brief account of the implications, differs considerably from discussing, where a student is expected to offer a balanced perspective based on a range of arguments and opinions. This skill of being able to discuss rather than outline is transferable to all subjects. If they know how to discuss in Science, they will know how to discuss in Maths, in Physical and Health Education, in Design and in Art. This constructionist approach will enable students to be successful in all their subjects. 

The bottom line

To determine the final overall achievement level on a report card, teachers must gather sufficient evidence from a range of assessment tasks to enable them to make a professional and informed judgment. Particular attention is paid to patterns in the data (such as an increasing level of performance), consistency and mitigating circumstances.

It is important to note, the following assessment practices are inappropriate and are counter to MYP assessment principles:

• Determining an achievement level using a proportion of scores for classwork, homework and tests
• Determining an achievement level  by averaging summative performance scores over the year
• Using single pieces of work to determine the final achievement level 

So the bottom line to understanding your child’s MYP achievement levels and their competency in the subject, you need to read the descriptor.

Celebration of Learning Update

Our MHS Celebration of Learning is one of our highlights for the end of the school year, as it provides an opportunity for our students to share their highlights from the school year, not only with their parents, but with the entire school community. We had planned on holding this event on May 27, but with our remote learning context extended as it has been, we will have to reschedule and adapt this event, likely to be conducted within a virtual format. We will be able to share more details in the near future.

Arts Week

Click on the image below to head on to our Arts Week microsite! There is also an interactive game for elementary in the art quizzes tab. Have fun and enjoy Arts Week!

College & Careers Counselor Corner

Virtual Education USA Fair

The Virtual Education USA Fair was held yesterday afternoon (Thursday, May 7) with more than 15 colleges and universities in

attendance. There were sessions on college essay writing and individual lectures on the admission process and requirements for each college.

Below was the list of universities/colleges in attendance with the contact details of the university representatives. If you want to learn more about these institutions, please feel free to email Ms. Basa at jbasa@cis.edu.ph.

Council of International Schools University Webinars

Students and parents have concerns around how the current Coronavirus pandemic will impact the admission process in universities. The school is participating in a series of country-specific webinars which features a panel of university representatives. They discuss how admissions procedures and university policies are adjusting given the circumstances we are faced with.

“Monitoring a Changing Landscape” a series of webinars with titles below:

1. 

   Will students get to university this year?

2. A conversation with universities in Canada
3. A conversation with universities in the UK
4. A conversation with universities in the Netherlands
5. A conversation with universities in Italy
6. A conversation with US universities
7. A conversation with Irish universities
8. A conversation with universities in Spain
9. A conversation with universities in Australia
10. A conversation with universities in Germany

The first three webinars have passed while the others are coming up weekly. If you are interested in joining the webinar or learning more about a specific country or university’s policy, please email Ms. Jenny Basa at jbasa@cis.edu.ph. Aside from the above sessions offered by Council of International Schools, individual institutions are in constant contact with our school to update us on any developments or changes to their admission process.

Info Session with GPSA

Some students in Grade 10 and 11 took part in an info session by the Global Public Service Academy (GPSA). The speakers were Dr. Bob Malkin of Duke University who is also the founder of the organization and Vanessa Brombosz who works with the Operations department. The program they offer is a Global Pandemic eservice curriculum which contains live sessions with Duke and GPSA staff, pre-recorded sessions, videos and textbook material. The start and end time of the program will be determined after consultation with students who will decide to register for the program. Students will earn a certificate upon completion of the e-course. For more information, please check this link: https://gpsa.org/

Upcoming SAT Test Dates

The College Board will come up with new testing dates soon. Please check on this link for updates: https://pages.collegeboard.org/sat-covid-19-updates

Admin Notes

It has been another busy week of remote learning, with all community stakeholders continuing to persevere in these challenging times. Thank you all for your continuing efforts. After six weeks, it seems we are getting more used to the new style of teaching and learning, and yet I know some are still struggling in areas. This is understandable, and for those of you who are – whether you be student, teacher, or parent – please do not just lapse into an assumption that you are alone. Reach out, and someone in our community will be there, willing to help. Due to the lack of physical contact, it is just more difficult for them to know you need it.

Many of you will have seen the latest IATF recommendations that President Duterte has approved, and may have questions on how that will impact us. For now, we continue to be in ECQ conditions until the end of May. I will send an Infobrief out to your registered email shortly, providing a summary of the implications of the new recommendations (which are plans for moving from the current ECQ to a GCQ). I am just seeking a few more details on aspects of the conditions, as it is not clear how some of the recommendations will play out in our local context. Regardless of the outcome, I encourage you all to keep focused on what you can do within your sphere of influence and remember, this challenge does have an end, we just need to do our best to get through the tough times, until we emerge.

Finally, I enjoyed meeting with our graduands virtually today, joining their lunch meeting to chat, and consider how this year’s graduation might look. Obviously we will need to adapt to some form of virtual ceremony, but we are still looking at exactly how it might look. Our other end of year assemblies and ceremonies will also need to be adapted to the environment, and more details will be provided closer to the time.

Have a restful holiday tomorrow (Labor Day)!

Regards,

Dr Gwyn Underwood
Superintendent

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary Principal/PYP Coordinator

Dear Elementary Community,

CIS is a member of several international educational groups that help us remain connected and ensure we continually strive to meet the highest educational standards. One of these groups is called The East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS). There are currently 163 schools in association with EARCOS, representing approximately 150,000 Pre-K to Grade 12 students.  The CIS association with EARCOS provides an amazing amount of support by enabling us to connect, share, and learn from other member schools. Each year CIS hosts an EARCOS-sponsored professional development weekend workshop to train our teachers. We also invite teachers from other EARCOS member schools to attend these workshops.

This week I joined an EARCOS hosted Webinar, enabling me to connect with 35 other school leaders across the region. During the break out room sessions, I had the opportunity to connect with several international school principals and school heads. The principal of a school in south China said their school began remote learning on February 4th, while the school in Daegu, South Korea, started remote learning in mid-February. Myanmar also began at a similar time to CIS, and like CIS, each of these schools has had to travel their own remote learning journey.

I again express my gratitude to you as a community for your support of CIS and the way in which you have been so dedicated to your children’s ongoing learning. I know this has been incredibly difficult.

Boredom Breakers
As tomorrow is Labor Day holiday, I have again included our Boredom Breakers document compiled for us by Mr. Eerik Sirkkola, our Grade 3 teacher, which is full of activities your children could engage in tomorrow and over the weekend.

If you have not had the opportunity, I would like to encourage you to watch the remote assemblies we have held over the past two weeks with your children. I have been very motivated by these events and believe these are strong community builders for us all.

• CIS Remote Learning Assembly 1 – Friday 17th April
• CIS Remote Learning Assembly 2 – Friday  24th April

PHE Remote Learning Dance Off

Our students participated in a dance off organized by Coach Jay where they were challenged to dance to the steps of Fight Song. This song is dedicated to all our Covid-19 frontliners!

Ask the College Counselor

I would like to discuss college plans with the college counselor, how can I set up a meeting?

Please email Ms. Basa at jbasa@cis.edu.ph. A virtual meeting will be scheduled and you can invite your parents to the meeting if they wish to join.

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle and High School Principal

As we conclude our sixth week of remote learning, which we had until recently hoped would be our last, I am convinced that one of the most important factors in getting through this situation positively is perspective. One of my favorite books is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, a text I discovered just after finishing university, which was a difficult time in my own life. Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who was imprisoned in four concentration camps (including Auschwitz) during The Holocaust, the suffering of which our situation pales by comparison. The inmates in the camps were overworked to the point of exhaustion, were physically and  emotionally abused, were confined in inhumanely cramped barracks, and were intentionally underfed in order to hasten their demise. Frankl noticed something astonishing while in these horrific camps, that the inmates who shared their meager rations with those who were sick or needed them more inexplicably and counter-intuitively fared better health-wise compared to those who selfishly hoarded their rations or stole food from others. He found that what set apart those individuals who were more altruistic was a determined focus on seeing beyond their suffering and finding purpose in it. A transformative psychological perspective allowed them to transcend their suffering and even defy the scientific facts of what their bodies needed to survive.

From his experiences, Frankl developed a new school of psychology which became known as Logotherapy (literally healing through meaning). According to this approach, the search for meaning in life is understood to be the most fundamental motivational force in human beings, and logotherapy assists individuals in finding and pursuing this meaning. Another central tenet of this framework is a belief in free-will, that as humans we are free to adopt a stance toward both the internal and external conditions in which we find ourselves. In other words, we have free will regarding how we respond to our adverse situations.

This approach relates to our situation as we may be struggling to find value and meaning in our circumstances; we are told that we need to arrive at acceptance and express gratitude within this crisis, but this is often easier said than done. One of the primary ways Frankl identified for realizing meaning in life was by making a difference in the world through our actions, our work, or our creations; Frankl referred to these as developing “Creative Values.“

Next week has been calendared to be our school-wide Arts Week. To lead in, I would like to highlight the creativity of our students in the midst of our current situation. Not only is creative activity a way for our students to make a difference in the world, but it also helps them develop a sense of perception and find meaning beyond the current crisis. As a welcomed by-product, in many cases artistic creating also gets our students off their screens for a while.

Grade 10 Art

Just after the Covid-19 situation was gaining intensity and we began doing remote learning, our Grade 10 Art Class started a project creating illustrations relating to the crisis which would provide a positive impact on their viewers. Students were free to explore any concept, art style, process, or technique and they had the option to choose the medium, whether digital or traditional. The goal was for our students to offer a counterpoint to the media which tends to report on this crisis with negativity and stoking our fears. Several weeks later, the students have completed their pieces and we want to share them as a source of inspiration in the midst of these unsettling times. – Sofia

Our purpose for this piece was to try and inspire people during our time of coronavirus. I drew inspiration from the fact that even in quarantine, many people sing together despite being confined in their own buildings and rooms. I illustrated that in my artwork by having a cityscape stripped of colour. Having a bustling city depicted devoid of life expressed the apocalyptic feel of this situation. However, in the midst of all the muted colours and somber mood, there is a bright musical song that brings hope to the people. – Luna

Since Corona has become a worldwide problem, I set the background theme as space. The tree represents the blood in the lungs because the main symptoms of Corona are related to the lungs. The reason for the color white is because white symbolically is clean, clear, nice, and it shows and represents healthiness. The flowers on the bottom are called Spider Lilies. The red spider lily represents passion, independence, and reunion. The blue spider lily means “until the day we meet again”. I chose to draw this flower because it is beautiful and the meaning of each flower shows the feeling of all people in a positive way. – Jodi

In this artwork, I wanted to convey the messages of social distancing and of sharing love in these harsh times. The green representing COVID-19 while the light pink representing one’s love and personal space; in times like these we each need to make sure that we still abide by social distancing through having personal space and that we give to support those working at the front lines. Even though we may not see it as we’re stuck inside our homes but everyday front liners are risking their health to help those in need, so I wanted this artwork to also serve as a reminder for people to give them support as they tackle this disease head-on every day. – Sofia

Grade 9B Design Technology Class

by Ms. Gerri Ancajas Jumao-as, IB Art / Design Technology Teacher

Our Grade 9 Design class has been investigating different food preparation methods, skills, and dishes for their unit on Food Preparation. Students have been exploring different cooking methods and different types of dishes. They also had to grasp the techniques in food preparation through formative exercises in hands-on cooking. With the Enhanced Community Quarantine, students were challenged to plan and prepare a dish with the available ingredients they have at home. They cook this dish and serve it to their family at home. Here are some time lapse videos of the students as they prepared their dishes.

Grade 8B Visual Arts Class

The Grade 8B class has been investigating different skills and techniques for their unit on Drawing. Students have been exploring various techniques on how to approach drawing, specifically in creating portraits. They also researched different portrait artists to get some ideas on how to render their own. They had to grasp the techniques in drawing through formative exercises with hands-on drawing practice. They applied their skills and included some influences from specific artists in creating their own self portraits.  Here are some of our students’ works with their personal reflections.

I think that I am improving in drawing. I have drawn realistic art for about 2 months. Every time I am starting to do the tonal value I feel more comfortable and feel more easy about doing it. Of course I still need a lot of improvement, but I think that I am improving. Comparing this work with my facial portrait the first time, I think that now it is completely better than before. I think that each part of my face is getting more detailed.

I think I have really improved in terms of my drawing skills. I am able to create more accurate drawing proportions and details now that I have practiced more. There is a big improvement on my face because it looks more realistic than when I first drew my draft. I learned not to be scared of making a portion too dark and erasing some parts to make lighter tones. My final work is way more neat and clean than my draft.

The background consists of various plants and leaves, along with a hanging lamp. I arranged the leaves in such a way that you can almost see the entire leaf, and it is big enough to cover a lot of space. I put the lamp right above the book, and the flowers also cover a corner. This adds a bit more variety, rather than just green. With these elements, the portrait looks very fun and unique.

I definitely think that my art skills have improved because my attitude towards art has changed and I have started feeling more open to it. It is not as frustrating to draw as it was before and, when looking back at my old work, I notice a great improvement. Before, I barely knew anything about art but now, after all the lessons and drawing exercises, I am able to draw more accurately and learn skills in a faster way. Although my drawing skills are not as good as I would like, I have become better at skills I deem very difficult such as creating tonal value, drawing facial features, and making the piece look more realistic. I do see a change in my previous study compared to my final one as I have become more detail-oriented and I know my weaknesses. 

I improved my drawing skills because I got used to drawing with a grid. It is easier to draw with a grid because I did it before with the drafts and now I know what to do. I think the proportions are the same as the drafts but I struggled less on the final portrait because I already know what to do. My shading also got better as now I know where to shade. I also now use a tissue now which helps a lot with blending the tonal values.

I realized that my drawing is more similar to my actual face due to accurate measurements of figures on the face. There were some hardships that I encountered during the practice sessions. But this time I was able to resolve those errors or difficulties such as creating the tonal values and drawing eyes. I have developed more confidence in terms of the coloring of a portrait fitting in with some dark themes by choosing dark blues and light blues as basic colors and other opposite colors for the arrows and so on. Furthermore, when it comes to tonal value, it looks more natural than any other drawings that I have created in the past. 

Grade 6 & 7 Music Class

by Natasha Arnsby, Music Teacher

Our Grade 6/7 Music Class has been experimenting with a timely piece of music entitled High Hopes. Students have been tasked in their unit to learn about triads as a type of musical chord and to construct and perform different triads along with a bass line. Students have previously created arrangements of different pop songs with an awareness of the harmonic structure founded on the bass line and chord progression, as well as learning how to analyze the overall structure of a song including the different sections (e.g. verse, chorus, bridge, etc.).

Students this week worked on an assignment building on their knowledge of music theory and applying it in a creative way. They were tasked with notating the melody of High Hopes, adding chords and a bass line to enhance and personalize their own version of the song. Students were also asked to experiment with three different bass lines and percussion elements to create multiple versions and evaluate which one worked best.

Admin Notes

Dear CIS Community,

As we end our 5th week of remote learning, it is heartening to see the range of learning our students are producing via our Remote Learning (RL) program. Please do take some time to look over the Elementary and Middle/High School sections below for a range of examples. It is also great to see last week’s RL adjustments receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback, as we continue to adapt to our new learning environment. Kudos to students, teachers, and faculty for their continuing efforts to do this. Those who are still struggling, we encourage you to persevere, and rest assured our teachers will continue to help you progress.

As noted in my update to you all yesterday (sent via your school-registered email address), be advised that following Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella’s announcement that Cebu City is extending the Enhanced Community Quarantine (EQC) conditions through to May 15, CIS will continue to suspend on-campus activity and continue with our Remote Learning (RL) program until May 15.

Unless this directive changes, we currently plan to resume classes on Monday, May 18, 2020. We will send details of campus conditions we will need to implement to ensure the safety of our students and faculty when we open.

And finally, due to the continuing concerns post ECQ restrictions, we will need to cancel or adapt any of our end of school year events that involve multiple people to congregate in person. A few major events of note to be affected include:

• Our Seniors Farewell Assembly, which is usually held on their last day of classes before they head off to exams (this was last Wednesday!). Please see our Senior’s Corner below for a virtual recognition of their last day.
• The annual Prom will be need to be canceled. It is unlikely we will be able to postpone this event.
• We are currently considering what form our Graduation will take, with Mr. Wood consulting graduating families over the coming days on our options.
  Our end of year assemblies will also be adapted, and options are currently being considered.

We are very sorry these events are being affected by the pandemic. We just need to do our best to adapt under the circumstances, while we ensure the safety of our students and community as we recommence our in-person activities.

Have a safe and restful weekend!

Regards,

Dr Gwyn Underwood
Superintendent

Seniors Corner

College Acceptances

Click on the image to enlarge the photo.

Seniors Farewell Messages

In place of our Seniors Farewell Assembly that was supposed to take place last Wednesday, we had a few of our teachers share their good luck messages to our seniors. We will surely miss our Class of 2020!

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary Principal/PYP Coordinator

Dear Elementary Community,

This week we received the news many of us were hoping would not be given, but were expecting, that our lockdown would be extended. Although we remain separated, CIS continues to find ways to remain connected. This past week Coach Jay’s Dance-Off has been a wonderful connection point. I am grateful for all the work that Coach Jay and Ms. Stefanny have put into this family-friendly competition. During the coming week, students are being asked to watch the four finalist dance groups in each section, and vote for a winner. Based on these votes the winner will be announced next week. The dances and voting forms can be accessed on your child’s Seesaw account.

Next week a new competition has been launched by Ms. Thea, our art teacher.  This competition is to act out a painting. The details for the competition can also be found on your child’s Seesaw account.

Staying Connected through our Assemblies and Remote Learning Website

Additionally, if you were not able to view last week’s Remote Learning Assembly, it can be found here (Remote Learning Assembly #1)

As mentioned in previous communications, another way CIS is helping the community remain connected is through the Remote Learning Website. Each week teachers are adding examples of new student learning to this site so families can see what is happening across the school.

As we continue on our remote learning journey, we encourage you to help your children remain connected to their class peers, as well as friends and family outside of the school community. We are blessed to live in an age where technology allows us to communicate across physical divides. Childrens.com/covid19 is a website dedicated to helping parents maintain their children’s physical and emotional health during this time of challenge. The graphic below from their website provides guidance on how these challenges can be turned into opportunities to develop skills and attributes that may not have the opportunity to be developed so authentically in other contexts. I know many of our classroom teachers have begun to include mindfulness routines in their daily schedules to assist with managing potential stress and anxiety students may be feeling. As you are able, you may wish to join in these routines with your child.