Newsflash: March 19, 2021

Elementary News

by Mr. Glenn Davies, Elementary School Principal

Week by week I am inspired by the level of innovation displayed by our Elementary Teaching Team. One aspect that makes our PYP Programme so strong is the constant collaboration we have between our teachers. As teachers plan lessons that promote the transdisciplinary nature of the PYP, we see specialist teachers and homeroom teachers helping students master the same skills, knowledge and concepts within the different context of the curriculum. We often see mathematics skills and knowledge being addressed in Art, Literacy skills in the Media Center lessons, and Social Studies skills within Art classes. This week as you read through the learning examples you will see how the Media Center has been working to support the learning within the homeroom classes within the context of science and literacy. In this time of extended remote learning, it is so encouraging to see how much our teaching are using these collaborative relationships to enhance the learning of all students.

Library/Media Center Class

Library / Media Center Classes collaborated with homeroom teachers on the unit of inquiry.  Students continued to have virtual read alouds during our synchronous calls. Here are some of our learning engagements from our classes. 

For our Early Years students, we read books about our 5 senses. We also shared about how we should take good care of them during our calls. 

For our KG1 students, we read books about matter and its properties. Students started off understanding what the world is made of and looked into properties of materials. We began looking at the things that we have at home and identify its properties.

We started off looking for objects that are in different states of matter : solid, liquid and gas.
We looked into properties of materials of hard and soft things at home
We also explored other properties of materials such as heavy and light

For our Grades 2 and 3 students, we looked into Ecosystems and what these consist of. Students checked out the different types of ecosystems and chose one that they want to explore or that interests them. They are now starting off with their research about their chosen ecosystem. Throughout their research, they will learn about different sources of information. In addition, they will also see the importance of citing their sources and how they should do it in this research journey.

They are now finalizing their research questions about their ecosystem.

For Grades 4 and 5 students, we are still reading the book Number the Stars. We made use of Literature Circles in understanding the novel. Students are assigned to a role every chapter such as Summarizer, Word Wizard and Artful Artists.  They share their work during our Synchronous Calls.

This is one of the illustrations from our Artists in Grade 5. This was based on Chapter 2 – The Man who Rides Past from the book – Number the Stars

Grade 3

In our Grade 3 Maths, we have been learning about different measurements. The students have explored their homes for distances, capacities and masses.

We have also been learning more about our unit, Sharing the Planet. The students shared their thoughts about ecosystems, and how different living things and nonliving things are connected to each other.

Middle and High School News

by Mr. Dale Wood, Middle and High School Principal

As we prepare to embark on the final quarter of this most extraordinary year, I continue to be heartened and encouraged by the diligence and resilience of the members of our learning community. Teachers continue to plan creatively and challenge students to become stronger thinkers, collaborators, writers, researchers, and communicators. This week we return to a focus on a glimpse into the learning that is taking place in our classrooms with a specific focus on our grade 11 and 12 IBDP classes and also our PHE classes. When we consider the challenges of remote learning, these have been made even more intense by the demands of the rigorous DP curriculum. Both our teachers and students have managed to stay the course over the past eight months, mastering a curriculum that is challenging even under optimal circumstances.

Grade 12 DP Business Management

by Ms. Emily Cornet, Grade 12 Bus Mgt Teacher

In the DP Business Management course, there are a number of components that students work towards; students spend about eight months spanning grade 11, the summer, and grade 12 working on their internal assessment, an in depth look at a real issue facing a business.  There are also two external components to their final grade- Paper 1 and Paper 2.  Paper 1 is based on a single pre-seen case study that students begin studying in depth about three months before the final IB exam.

The grade 12 students have spent a significant amount of time during the past two months exploring the Paper 1 case study- first for their Mock Exams, and then for the end-of-year exam.  Through this in-depth exploration, students have made recommendations, created new proposals, and answered questions that a real-life business would have to examine to remain viable.

Dana’s proposal for the reorganization of MM:

Jhon’s IA outlined evaluation of possible funding sources for MM:

Grade 12 DP History

by Ms. Joy Pierra, DP History Teacher

For the past three quarters, the Grade 12 History class has been very busy completing all their requirements for the IB Diploma. Last week, after they had successfully completed these requirements, Ms. Pierra asked them to inspire the community by sharing their thoughts and feelings about their journey as History students. The activity was done through a sentence relay so everyone could participate and contribute in the article. 

Our IB History Journey in CIS

We started History IB with many expectations in the beginning. As we progressed through the two years, there were many highs and lows that we experienced. – Yoji

Many emotions and hardships were felt since the start of our IB experience. – Romana

From learning in a physical classroom to learning in an online classroom, many adaptations had to be made. – Stuart

Since there were many factors that we were not sure of, we had to stay close and constantly communicate with our classmates and teacher. As a result, we had attained numerous skills through this course.  – Jooshin

During our journey in IB history we were able to expand our analytical skills; however we sometimes struggled with finding reliable sources in order to complete our arguments. – Emily

Finding reliable sources was a skill that we had to develop as well as it could lead to more substantial discussions and analysis about a topic.  – Joeven

History isn’t an easy subject by any means due to how there is no guarantee about everything being revealed. Some things still may be lost to history for one reason or another but we make the best of what we have. 🙂

IB history has been an interesting ride to which we have all come to accept others’ individuals opinions despite not particularly agreeing with what has been said :))) – Romana

IB History has also introduced us to the importance of understanding multiple perspectives and being able to accurately analyse the past.  – Stuart

We were able to grow from our disagreements and learn from our differences.   – Jhon

One can argue that IB History has allowed us to grow as students and individuals. 🙂 ✨  – Romana

Grade 11 DP Psychology

by Michael Stewart, DP Psychology Teacher

IB Psychology students have been learning about some of the central methods used in psychological research, and in particular how to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of these methods when writing exam questions. This requires a general explanation of the method, careful consideration of its strengths and limitations, and being able to identify how and why a given method would be appropriate and valuable with respect to a specific study. Students recently worked in pairs to create short videos on this important topic in the course.

Here is an example produced by Jodi and Luna.

Gr. 12 Visual Arts

The Grade 12 DP Visual Arts students opened their Exhibition entitled ‘Expression’ this week.  The exhibit is a culmination of their 2 years of study in the subject of IB Visual Arts. Working in diverse mediums and styles, these students delved into a variety of themes and concepts, each one drawing on their personal inspiration and experiences to produce an impressive and significant body of work. 

Featured Students:

Denise H.

Curatorial Rationale:

Aristotle defines the distinction between humans and other animals as our ability to think rationally. On the contrary, I define “human” as an incredibly misunderstood creature. The choices we make are not solely based on reason, but also emotion, beliefs, and imagination. We experience indecisiveness, doubt, anxiety, and we yearn for solutions to problems that don’t even exist. Hence, I portrayed the theme of irrationality throughout all my chosen pieces. I utilized a variety of media, including 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional, and screen-based forms. I always ensured that I included some aspect of contrast in all my pieces—whether it be between color, shade, or composition—as well as the utilization of a human subject. My pieces were rendered in realism, surrealism, sequential art, contemporary/new-media art, Naïve art, and conceptual installation. Since irrationality contradicts reason and linear thinking, my approach was equally diverse, and inclusive of multiple art styles, disregarding rigid art boundaries. My most common medium was oil paint, since I admire it’s fluidity and susceptibility to changes and mistakes. To me, the nature of oil paint is similar to the malleability of the human mind; although we may be born with predetermined careers, we also have the ability to make detours and recreate plans. In addition, I utilized a great deal of digital art, especially to illustrate non-conventional color schemes and dream-like compositions.

Works:

‘Wreck’, Colored pencils
‘my silence is a promise i’m not willing to keep’, Charcoal and Oil paint on canvas
‘debile’, Oil paint and found objects on canvas
‘seventeen’, Oil paint & Readymade objects on wood

Jieun (Dorothy) J.

Curatorial Rationale:

In this exhibition, I aim to illustrate the theme of a teenager’s reflection of innocence by exploring the line between emotions and memories which results in yearning. I chose to explore this because I have experienced many things and realized that most of the time I want to go back to my childhood. My childhood days represent the pureness inside myself. Once I grew up and became a teenager, I was judged and criticized by others for my appearance and personality due to jealousy. Therefore, my choice of works reflects the growth of life, emotions, innocence, adolescence, and myself. My intention is to let the audience think and recall their most alluring memories in their lifetime. I have illustrated this through expressing innocence because I think that my childhood days were the most memorable and alluring moments in my life.

When curating the exhibition, I chose to include 8 works out of 10 produced in order to match the theme. The mediums that I have used were acrylic, digital, color pencil, pen, and 3D art. I mostly apply and explore tonal values, impasto, and gradient in my works. Among the 8 art pieces, the most significant pieces are Reality, Contrast, and Truth behind the Mask, and Innocence which represents the story outline of my life during my adolescence. 

Works:

Innocence’, Acrylic Paint on Canvas
‘Answer’, Digital Art
‘Contrast’, Pen and Colored pencils
‘Reality’, Acrylic Paint on Canvas

Alessandro J.

Curatorial Rationale:

I portray the theme of “Reality and Fantasy” throughout all my chosen pieces. I utilized a 2-dimensional style as well as 3-dimensional works and photography. Almost all my paintings contain elements of both reality and fantasy concepts. ‘My time in quarantine’ being the only exception to this as it features pictures directly from reality alone. Through the use of unrealistic colors in my works, I am able to render the idea of fantasy as it’s the application of my imagination. I incorporate elements of reality by utilizing designs and things used in life such as trees and people. I experimented with designs and patterns to apply my ideas and concepts in creating my artworks. The common media I utilized is acrylic paint because of its convenience and ease of application. I especially like how easy the paint spreads and fast it dries.

Works:

A Hollow Desire’, Acrylic paint on canvas
‘Historic Armies’, Acrylic Paint on Canvas
‘A Fresh Canvas’, Acrylic paint on canvas
‘Quarantine unlike anything I have seen before ’, Digital Photos

Sun-woo (Lea) L.

Curatorial Rationale:

Since childhood, I have loved to imagine. In my own imaginative world, there was no pain or sorrow, and it was a space where everything I wished was actually realized just like magic. However, the imagination in my head could not be taken or stored like a photograph, and memories may be forgotten someday. The moments of my imagination were also not clearly memorised as time passed by. In order to overcome the limit of imagination, I started drawing scenes of my imagination one by one. The result of my imaginations are my artworks in this exhibition. Each of the artworks capture moments of my imagination.

 I have  chosen 9 artworks for this exhibition. The main theme and the determined purpose of my exhibition was to deliver my recorded emotion and tell the stories about me that makes viewers  empathize with my experiences. To express various feelings, I used different kinds of materials for each artwork. I used watercolor, color pencil, gouache paint, acrylic paint, charcoal, digital media, etc. Each material has its own characteristic, and to exaggerate the texture of material, I had to apply different techniques. 

Works:

‘Shape of Ocean’, Digital Art
‘Being a Monster’, Gouache paint & Digital
‘Memory of Moments’, Watercolor & Colored Pencils
‘Prejudice and Oppression’, Charcoal

Kevin S.

Curatorial Rationale:

The concepts of my exhibition revolve around the idea of the presence of time and emotion. The feeling and the complexity of the emotions that a person would feel as they continue to experience life. Be it the future, present, or past, there is a certain strong emotion that a person would feel and I wanted to create what I felt like showing a sense of that emotion with my paintings. For this to work I needed to create artworks that I can sympathize with so that I feel like it’s a working and complete artwork. In the majority of my artworks I tend to use techniques which reflect me and how I view my memories. For the materials I used oil painting, acrylic, and charcoal. While using oil paint I use the impasto technique which makes use of thick paints as well as a palette knife to create textures that a paintbrush wouldn’t be able to replicate. As for the charcoal painting I used a charcoal stick and a charcoal pencil while making use of the kneaded eraser for the highlights and a spreader to blend the charcoal and create more texture and more complex light and shadows. As for acrylic I used basic techniques of water and brush without the paints overlapping for the most part.

Works:

‘Eternal Sunset’, Oil Paint on canvas
‘Fantasia’, Watercolor
‘Exhale’, Charcoal

PHE Classes in Remote Learning

by Mr. Ron de Villa, PE Teacher

Keeping students active is crucial for their mental and physical health – especially now, in this time, when everyone is in front of their digital gadgets most of the time. Since CIS physically closed last March, we have been finding creative ways to keep students physically active — with no gymnasiums, sports fields or playgrounds — at a time when we think the students’ physical and mental health is paramount.

PHE has been one of the most challenging subjects to teach online but the irony is, students need PHE now more than ever, not just for physical health but also for their mental health – and we value this very much.

For starters, we have designed workouts that can be done safely indoors, using common household objects that can be fashioned into exercise equipment. Where possible, we also urge students to pause for sports drills, take walks, and follow exercise workouts and log these in a journal.

Our recent unit on Happy Hormones aims to consider the effects of physical exercise on the students’ mood. This is a unit which progresses through MYP 1, 3 and 5 levels or across Grades 6-10. Part of the students’ tasks is to set a up a calendar where they will record how they feel everyday and log the workout they did outside of our PHE sessions.

In our synchronous sessions, our Grade 6 students were asked to create an instructional video for a beginner athlete wherein they will have to teach their clients unique skills of a specific sport which should contain proper terminologies and the proper way to perform the skills.

Our Grade 7 students took on the role of a specialized coach and were tasked to create a video that shows beginners how to execute and apply skills in different game situations while the Grade 8 students developed a circuit based on an analysis of their client’s performance in a specific sport by identifying what skill-related fitness components they would need to work on and how this will improve their performance.

As for Grade 9, the student’s role was to be a self-motivated learner wherein they were tasked to document the development of a set of skills over a defined period of time. They needed to clearly evaluate the improvements they have made, providing evidence. And lastly, the Grade 10’s acted as coaches and have been asked to evaluate the performance of a person who wants to improve on his skills which focuses on skill-related fitness components and how he might use these in developing his skill proficiency.

With the same Criteria to be assessed across all grade levels but in varying strands and levels, the students were asked to create products as detailed the below:

Samples from Grade 6

Samples from Grade 10

Samples from Grade 8

Our final academic glimpse is into the grade 9 PHE class: Fitness and Wellness with Coach Pio Solon

Mr.  Pio Solon is the Program Director of Epic Performance and Fitness. He graduated with a Bachelor of Sports Science degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman. He is also pursuing his post-graduate degree in International Health. Coach Pio is passionate about: 1) using fitness and wellness as a means to keeping our people healthy and disease free, knowing that a healthy populace is a productive populace, 2) using sports to develop and cultivate character in children, and 3) uplift the education of sports coaches in the country. Coach Pio is a member of the Australian Strength and Conditioning Association and currently also serves as the Athletic Director of Soutwhwestern University PHINMA. He also sits as a member of the Technical Panel for Sports and Exercise Science and Physical Education with the Commission on Higher Education as well as a member of its Regional Quality Assurance Team.

Coach Pio Solon came to our class and spoke about well being and getting better habits to support our goals on wellness. We did a little quiz as well where he showed 5 questions for different categories like with food or diet, family, religion, and many other aspects of our life that are connected to our personal well-being. We had to answer the quiz questions with a number from 1-5 with 1 being very unsatisfied with that aspect in our life and 5 being very satisfied while 3 would be neutral. After each category we would find the average from our answers and in the very end we added all those averages together to find where we are on this scale as a class and how healthy we are. It was fun and I liked doing the activity and was surprised to find my placing on the scale. Then after that we did some exercise together with him and found out a special routine to use. We now call it the Coach Pio exercise. It was tiring, but very fun. – J. Rivera G9

Dragon’s Print

Every year, on the 8th of March, we celebrate International Women’s Day to recognize  women’s achievements in various fields. Learn more about women, the challenges they have to face, and the systematic cause of these challenges on https://dragonsprint.cis.edu.ph/

College/Careers Counselor Corner

by Ms. Jenny Basa, College/Careers Counselor

Tip of the Week

Email addresses: Every time you create an application account for a university, an email address is required.  Please use your personal email and use your formal name. 

Sample: John_Abella2019@gmail.com.  Refrain using comic book characters or any fictitious name so your email address is appropriate and professional.   

Alumni Chat Series

Episode 5 – The Europe Edition is scheduled on Saturday March 27th at 8:00 PM.

Upcoming Virtual Events and Fairs

(Students & parents are welcome)

DATE

March 27
Saturday – 8:00PM

April 10 & 13-17,
for webinars
April27-30,one-on-one consultations.

SAT Update

Dates below are open for registration.  If the test will be canceled, an update will be posted here and on the school website a month to 3 weeks before the test date.

Students are advised to check the university websites for Test-optional announcements.

2020-2021 Test DatesTestRegistration Deadline
May 8, 2021SAT & SAT Subject TestsApril 8, 2021
June 5, 2021SAT & SAT Subject TestsMay 6, 2021

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.

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