Service Learning in action at CIS
by Mr. Ace Pierra, Service Learning Coordinator & Grade 11 Students
“Learning includes contributing to the world through service learning and sustainable environmental stewardship.” – CIS Core Belief #5
As outlined in last week’s Newsflash (Feb 4, 2022), the CIS Service Learning Program is designed to provide our students and the wider community opportunities to learn from each other through service actions. CIS believes that our students should make the most of the opportunities they are presented to learn from their experiences and the experiences of others as they face adversity and the many challenging issues that are present in our society today.
Here are some highlights of this year’s service learning projects.
Homes of Hope Fundraiser
by Sabi, G11 Student
Homes of Hope aims to help rebuild the homes of typhoon Odette victims. Donations are used to buy walling and roofing materials as well as the corresponding nails and screws needed. Each preselected beneficiary receives ₱10,000 worth of materials. As of Feb 5, we had distributed 20 homes to Barangay Busay and 20 homes in Barangay Ibo Mactan. On Feb 12, we will be distributing 30 homes to Punta Engaño Mactan and shortly after, we will be distributing 40 homes to Baranga Inawayan’s garbage dumpsite. This brings us to a total of 110 Homes.
Interact Philippines Typhoon Odette Relief Operations
by Ms. Chynna, G11 Student
After devoting time to community service in the past two years through 
Interact, I was able to activate teams across the country to work towards immediate relief operations for typhoon Odette as soon as it was possible. Coordination was difficult due to intermittent signal and personally having no power or water in my own household for almost a month, but work had to be done. Fundraising efforts started the day after the typhoon, and help was received at our first location at the Umapad Dumpsite Community in Mandaue a few days later. Since then, relief drives in multiple areas have followed simultaneously every week in Barangay Balisong in Argao, Municipality of Dapa in Siargao, Caohagan, Pangan-an, Pandanon, and Bagonbanwa islands. Relief goods include canned or instant food, containers of drinkable water, powdered milk for kids, trapal, basic medicines, and hygiene kits depending on the community’s needs. A few feeding drives were also organized in Jubang, Siargao through our local partner teams.
Advocacy in Action Relief Distribution
by Anya, Sabi, and Reesha, G11 Students
On December 31, 2021, Advocacy in Action carried out a relief operation in a small community within barangay Lahug that was devastated by typhoon Odette. The aim of this relief operation was to provide water, rice and bundles of other goods to 101 families in the area. Moreover, they hoped that it would bring these families some relief and necessities since they didn’t have access to running water and electricity. The club leaders, Selly and Anya, planned the logistics ahead of the mission. This included creating donation channels, designing posts, allocating the funds, purchasing the goods, and looking for volunteers. Among the volunteers were CIS students Sabi and Reesha, and others. On the day of the relief operation, the volunteers met up in the Beverly Glen clubhouse to create the relief packages. The packages carried instant noodles, canned goods, sanitary pads, and biscuits. Moreover, rice and drinking water were distributed to the community. All in all, the 101 families were able to receive these packages ahead of the new year thanks to the kind donations received and the efforts of the volunteers. With the remaining donations, Advocacy in Action plans to organize another relief operation in Carcar City within this month.
Sewpports
The Sewpports are a team of students that aim to help the community at Brgy. Umapad by giving them a livelihood through sewing. This community has been affected by both the pandemic and typhoon Odette, but the community leaders are very motivated to help themselves and work, and the Sewpports want to support that! We aim to help them source raise funds and source fabric and sewing materials, so that they can create their rags and face masks to sell.
Drop Your Share
Drop Your Share is a school-based service project that takes care of the CIS Week Without Walls yearly beneficiaries and communities affected by the lockdown, barangay fires, and typhoon Odette. There are 5 boxes currently placed in the CIS campus lobby, with each box contain a specific category for the donations (box 1: hygiene-related items; box 2: educational materials; box 3: recreational toys; box 4: food and consumables; box 5: pre-loved clothes). The project calls for collective support within the Cebu International School community to extend a helping hand by donating new or spare items specified, in support of the multiple communities that have long been the beneficiaries of CIS.
If you want to be part of our cause, please don’t hesitate to contact us and Drop Your Share! Reach us through this email: dys21cis@gmail.com, or our social media pages in Facebook and Instagram @dropyourshare.
Paknaan Hospital and Daycare
At the Paknaan community, there is a Hospital and Daycare there called CIM-CMSS. CIS has been supporting this community for a couple of years already every Week Without Walls. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this hasn’t been possible for the previous 2 years. It’s been very difficult to contact the doctors there, with the typhoon exacerbating the struggle. We still hope to provide help to the frontline workers and kids there, and we don’t want to give up on not doing something for them on this year’s WWWs, so we have planned to create videos that could possibly provide a sense of security during these trying times. We want to create an educational video for the kids about health and safety, especially including information about taking precautions for a typhoon. We also want to make a thank you video for the hospital workers there to show our support.
As for the donations, we will be collaborating with the Drop your Share team for some COVID essentials (masks, etc.) to be directed to the Paknaan community. Our team will also bring in our own donations. We hope to keep providing them with more donations once we are able to contact them and further note what they are in need of.
World Vision
World Vision is an advocacy and relief organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by addressing the causes of societal issues. Founded in 1957, World Vision in the Philippines is a nationally recognized organization that has a proven track record of child-focused, community development programs. For the past few months, World Vision has been planning to commit as a collaborator with CIS in its event, Week Without Walls. The CIS team (Athena, Camille, Chae, and Chesca) have been constantly communicating with the World Vision heads in order to create a project that would align with World Vision’s current projects and one that can be co-branded by CIS. Due to typhoon Odette, the team has decided to focus on areas in the North of Cebu affected by the typhoon. Along with this, they have also drafted plans on how to involve students in Service Learning for the WWW. The team has been able to work flexibly and manage to collaborate with World Vision in creating sustainable projects that align themselves with the core values of the organization and CAS itself.
Islands Relief Effort
Google Earth: Link
Pandanon Island
Caohagan Island
Pangan-an Island
Cabul-an Island
Cuaming Island
Mocaboc Island
Bagonbanwa Island
Set Forth Philippines Typhoon Odette Relief Operations
by Renoa, G11
Set Forth Philippines is an educational initiative that aims to provide the rural poor children with materials and activities that will augment their learning. When Typhoon Odette (Rai) hit, we realized that there was a greater emergency at hand that needed more attention. That being said, we focused our resources on relief operations for those affected by the typhoon. We recognize that there is no way for us to provide these children with proper education if we do not address their most basic needs first. With the help of generous donations, we were able to raise Php 1,113, 232. We were able to distribute 1,600 relief packs, 76 housing materials to fully rebuild damaged homes, and 500 slippers to the children who lost most of their belongings.
Manila Student Film Festival
by Mr. Andrew Powell, EY-G12 Principal & Stefanny Hermias, MYP Drama Teacher
The Manila Student Film Festival is held annually and celebrates the creativity of young filmmakers in the Philippines and this year we had two students reach the finals of the event.
The Manila Student Film Festival is held annually and celebrates the creativity of young filmmakers in the Philippines and this year we had two students reach the finals of the event. Marianne (G10) submitted Chapter 1, an incredibly well crafted animation in which viewers are encouraged to focus on their own life stories and not get caught up in comparing themselves to others. Marianne’s incredible artistic talent certainly shines through.
The 12 – 14 age category was won by M (G7) who submitted Nightmare, in which a person has a nightmare about a creature pursuing them. M’s film was recognised by the judges for the strength of its narrative, development of suspense and unpredictable ending. M took the risk of filming at night and was commended for the way in which this added to the mood and contributed to a cinematic experience.
Congratulations to M and Marianne for their impressive efforts, as well as our Drama and Visual Arts teachers who have served to inspire all of our aspiring filmmakers.
Elementary Art
by Ms. Thea Raagas, Elementary Art Teacher
Early Years
In the Early Years, we began our unit on Basic Drawing. Our first learning engagement was to try and draw a human figure by drawing a stickman.
We started off by drawing a circle for the head, a horizontal line for the torso, and a vertical line too, then we added diagonal lines for the arms, and lines for the legs and feet!
It was great during our last Art Class to see everyone holding their own pencil, and very focused on their drawings during our class. It was also great to see how supported the students were by their nannies as well as by their mothers during our class, with their nannies bringing them the materials when they were needed, and assisting them in the actual drawing process as well.
I am excited to see how our class develops in the coming week as we explore how to draw Animals, Landscapes and Seascapes in the days to come!
Kinder/Grade 1
We started UNIT 4 two weeks ago, by looking at, cutting and collecting Shapes. Today we looked at the Art of Henri Matisse and we listened to a read-aloud called, “Henri’s Scissors by Jeannette Winter”. This story showed us how Matisse journeyed from being a painter to a collage artist, and it is connected to our goal of creating a Paper Collage in the coming weeks to connect to the Homeroom Unit about Homes. The KG1s have already cut shapes, and need to continue cutting their shapes. In the weeks to come, we are planning to create a composition using cut-out shapes of our Favorite Room.
Grade 2 / Grade 3
In Grade 2 and Grade 3, we are collaborating with the PLC unit in which the students looked at, drew and discussed the different Landforms. In Art, two weeks ago, we tried sketching a Landform, which was a mountain scene, while trying to draw objects that are in the background, middle ground and foreground. We asked ourselves, “If the object is nearer, do we draw it bigger or smaller?” and in this way, we practiced Scaling and Proportion. Today, the task was to try drawing a Waterform. We are learning about Scale and Proportion, and preparing to connect to the Homeroom unit about the Solar System. We hope to be able to create a 3-d Model of the Solar System using home-made clay, and applying those skills that we learned about Scale and Proportion in the weeks to come! We plan to show the different sizes and distances of the planets in the Solar System. In order to prepare ourselves for this, next week we will be sketching our Solar Systems that show proper Scale and Proportion.
Grade 4 / Grade 5
Grade 4 and 5 artists have been looking at Pointillism, a technique of neo-impressionist painting that uses tiny dots with pure color, which become blended in the viewer’s eye. It was developed by Georges Seurat with the aim of producing a greater degree of luminosity and brilliance of color.
We’ve started with black and white, not doing color just yet, with a simple Tonal Values Scale, and Ball exercise, which they have shaded with the stippling technique (shading with dots), instead of the regular shading style.
Here are some photos of their recent artwork, by Grade 4 and Grade 5.
Grade 6: Individuals & Societies
by Ms. Joy Pierra, Individuals & Societies Teacher
The Individuals and Societies 6 class has been exploring the unit, “The Light Bulb Goes Off.” This unit focuses on the use of sustainable resources to produce energy like solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and biomass. The class also looked into the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of these resources. By the end of the unit, students are expected to submit a proposal of their sustainable approaches to energy usage in their local communities.
Here are some of the activities that the class completed during our Adverse Circumstances Learning (ACL).
The Boon and Bane of building Hydropower Plant
(The building of Itaipu Dam, at the border of Brazil and Paraguay)
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The Boon and Bane of using Solar Power
(Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)
The Boon and Bane of using Wind Power
Here are some of the students’ responses when asked, “why do you think people still resort to non-renewable resources to produce energy?”
Arianna
Kuto
Frances
Sinead
College/Careers Counselor Corner
by Ms. Jenny Basa, College/Careers Counselor
Update of the Week!
If you are into sport, fitness or wellness, our next episode for the Alumni Chat on Careers may be of interest to you. Watch this space, the schedule will be confirmed soon.
Upcoming Virtual Events and Fairs: (students & parents are welcome)
EVENT
National University of Singapore College (NUSC) : a partnership between the University Scholars Programme (USP) and Yale-NUS College. Learn about NUSC through this information session.
DATE
February 11, 23 and March 9
February 22
Tuesday
9:00PM PHT
Link to register
American University of Health Sciences (USA)
If you are interested in a health science program, check out this webinar.
February 22
Tuesday
11:00PM PHT
Link to register
NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (Italy)
Live Webinar: DESIGN YOUR FUTURE: 10 Tips for a Good Portfolio –Giorgio Laboratore will share the best tips to make a good portfolio, teaching students how to properly introduce themselves and underline the best of them to outstand the crowd.
February 24
Thursday
9:00pm PHT
Link to join
Info Session on the EU Business School: On the Way to Geneva! – learn about the Swiss education & lifestyle from a CIS alumnus who is studying in Switzerland.
SAT Update
If you are planning to take the SATs in March, this is a gentle reminder that the deadline for registration is coming up.
| 2021-2022 TEST DATES* | Registration Deadline |
| March 12, 2022 | February 11, 2022 |
| May 7, 2022 | May 5, 2022 |
| *The Optional SAT Essay and Subject Tests have been discontinued. | |
To register for the SAT, you may click on this link. If you need assistance or have any questions, please feel free to email Ms. Jenny Basa at jbasa@cis.edu.ph.
SEL Tip
