I took this photo on Monday evening at sunset. The sun sets around 4:00 PM here and I was heading to basketball practice on our campus. It shows a crescent moon, venus right below it, and Jupiter to the upper left. Although it looks like they are close, they are all actually millions of miles away from each other. Later on in the evening, the moon blocked venus (called an occultation) which is a rare event. Thanks to my wife for sending this link, which explains more about it. An interest in astronomy is another thing we have in common.

Oliver & Ocean on top of Mount Avala

On Sunday we drove to Mount Avala which is about 8 miles south of Belgrade. The mountain is a state park and it has some walking trails, war monuments, and a hotel that looked closed for the season. Being about 500 meters higher than Belgrade, there was still snow left and we had a good snowball fight. Owen showed his tropical upbringing, and he refused to get out of the car, prefering to stay warm with mom. We are both sick this week and driving in the car gives us a break with watching the kids so the trip to Mount Avala had an alterior motive. Behind Ollie and Ocean is the Unknown Soldier monument dedicated to the Serbian soldiers killed in WWI. I noticed some of the marble blocks were chipped. This was from the 1999 NATO bombing raids that targeted RTS state television transmission towers. They are building a new tower that looked like the CN Tower in Toronto, so perhaps there will be a restaraunt there.

We are loving our new car. We bought a GPS also, and I am a believer in it! It is so much easier than old fashioned maps, although I love maps. The GPS tells us exactly when to turn, etc., and you can zoom in and zoom out on the map. It also has pharmacies, supermarkets, etc. Amazing! Below we are shown filling the car up with gasoline. The neighborhood gas station is very low key, so much different than the big, lighted, American gas stations. The Serbian gas stations on the highways are similar to the US gas stations, but the ones found on side streets are like the one below.

Fill 'er up.

Today is Day #1. I will be at the High School today.

A “Cool” Lunch: Head on down to the Performing Arts Studio today at lunch and listen to some jazz and blues music. Our group is preparing for Thursday’s concert. All students and teachers are welcome.

Library: A reminder that the last day to check out books is December 12. There are to be no book checked out over the holidays so students and teachers are asked to return them before the 19^th of December. Thank you.

Secondary Faculty Meeting Reflections (Monday November 24, 2008)

I am getting around to some things I didn’t have time to finish last week:

·         Teachers said that some students are not completing their homework. They feel there is no immediate consequence for not completing it.  An idea for homework is to set an appointment with students to do the missing assignment. This can be done at break, lunch, or teacher office hours (3:00 PM  - 3:30 PM). Yvonne has found that it works and I will support you with the parents or students. Teachers can require students to come in for “extended learning opportunities” to complete specific homework assignments. When it is done, then the student can leave. Another suggestion was to have a day and time designated for homework help. Teachers would volunteer to assist students. It was mentioned that some students lack a quiet place at home to study. I want to note that students may always work after school in the library or computer lab as someone is usually around until 4:30 PM.

·         Many teachers mentioned that many Grade 11 students were not giving much of an effort in their studies. There seems to be an atmosphere of laughing at academics and students that are serious about their studies. This is confirmed with the second quarter progress reports. 11^th grade had the most reports of any grade (38.9%) and 11 A had (24%). … all had four progress reports and parent meetings will be set up with them this week and next.

·         Academic Probation Students – … was also mentioned as he had three progress reports. All of us agree that the probation should be very clear on the expectations and include attitudes, effort, and behavior as well as academic performance.

·         Tardies – This is a big problem and the group came up with the idea to offer an “extended reflection period” for Friday from 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM. Bill will write letter to parents and hold the first session for those students with 3 tardies this Friday, December 5^th.

·         CEESA & After School Activity Eligibility – Some teachers noted that there are some students involved in activities and they are not getting their work done in class. They asked use eligibility forms that classroom teachers sign. Both Igor and Patty sent forms to me last week and I am meeting with Will to do this.

STUCO Toy and Book Drive:  On behalf of the ISB High School 12th grade CAS students, I would like to inform you of the current project we are organizing with the Red Cross in Belgrade. In order to contribute to the Belgrade society, we contacted Ms. Milka, the volunteer for the Red Cross in Belgrade. She has informed us on the current humanitarian action which involves collecting items for the children in the oncology ward in Tirsova street. Altogether, there are 57 children, ranging from 1 to 19 years old.  It is of importance to us to contribute and raise their spirits for the holiday season. Ms. Milka has given us a list of the needed items:

-new toys for children
-books in Serbian language for the older patients
-magazines/newspapers (older editions are also accepted)
-classroom material ( notebooks, pencils…)

The items are supposed to be collected by Thursday, December 11th ,2008. Furthermore, we are aware of the busy schedules of the parents and students, and have decided to accept money and buy the items in place of them being donated.

Sandra Krstovic 12A  

ISB Time: Ana Divac will be giving a presentation to the students about Humanitarian Organization Divac (HOD) and how they can help. This will take place in the Bubble beginning at 10:50 AM. Grades 9-11 will be required to attend. HOD is a non-profit organization founded by Ana and Vlade to assist Serbian refugees from the war. Many Serbs lost their homes in Bosnia and Croatia during the breakup of Yugoslavia. As of October 2008, HOD has provided 44 families with homes. Some of their other projects are a renovation of a shelter for homeless children, building of schools in Serb enclaves in Kosovo, basketball clinics in poor countries, etc.

Nadia is pictured the second from the right. The school did not take off the Thanksgiving holiday, but we did have a party at the Austrian Ambassador’s home. It was an enjoyable evening, with live music and delicious food. The Ambassador has three daughters at our school and his wife tutors Spanish with one of our students. Nadia is pictured above with many of the elementary teachers.

Ocean with a bad hair night.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3215/3064799493_42a7f51b42.jpg?v=0

Perfect Fundamentals

We had a babysitter for the kids and Ocean fell asleep in the arms of Sophie. She sweats a lot and is shown below with the crazy hair. Her hair is growing slowly and she has beautiful curls in back. Much of my time at work has been with basketball. I am shown below in a faculty versus student game.

HS Daily Bulletin: Thursday November 27, 2008

Today is Day #2. I will be at the HS all day today.

CAS: Vladamir will be meeting with the orphange “Drinka Pavlovic” this afternoon and will be out of school after 1:30 PM. They are planning for our HS Choir to go sing over there and they are also planning the food & clothing drive.

SPACES Logo Voting: You can only vote for one logo design only. Please write your name on the ballot otherwise your vote will not be counted.  

ISB Visitor: A friend of Kay Strenio’s from the International School of Vienna will be visiting Ethan’s Humanities classes tomorrow. Ethan’s reputation as an incredible teacher is quite well known in CEESA.

Homework: Both Olga and Yvonne are making students stay after school when they do not have their homework done. I fully support this strategy. We have to force students to live up to reasonable expectations.

Snowball Policy: I watched the students have fun in the snow yesterday. I don’t mind a few snow fights as long as they are doing it in a reasonable manner. If snowballs are thrown at windows or maliciously at another student, then I have a problem with it and I ask teachers to intervene with the offending students. It was quite nice to see teenagers of all nationalities enjoying the snow and interacting in a positive manner.

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!

Last night’s Parents Coffee Hour (Will’s take)

Parents are excited about the idea of Moodlic. Those who have used similar systems at other peer schools spoke very highly as a tool as being beneficial for both students and parents. Maja gave a presentation about counseling services at ISB and about future school personal development seminars for MS students to be held over three days in April.

Bill’s Take on the Coffee – They liked the idea of using the book, “7 Habits for a Highly Effective Teenager” with the students. I gave a presentation on Robert Evan’s book, “Family Matters.” Evan’s advice for parents is don’t worry about techniques, just spend a lot of time with your children, know 1) where they are 2) what they spend their money on and 3) who their friends are, and most times it is better just to listen to your teen instead of trying to solve their problems.

There are two items to put on your teacher calendar:

Salary & Benefit Presentation: Wednesday December 3 at the Lower School Multi-Purpose Room.

Web-based Forms: Bane and Zhana will be showing us how to use the web-based forms on Monday December 8 at 3:30 PM in the HS Computer Lab for all MS and HS teachers.

Both presentations will take approximately 30 minutes. 

Yesterday Owen awoke and asked me, “Do we have any carrots, Dad?”
The boys were so excited as it snowed heavily overnight. They awoke to a white yard and they were out pretty early. I showed them how to pack a snowball and make a snowman. We had a mini-snowball fight before school.

We don’t have Thanksgiving off here at the school. We do have a holiday dinner party at the Austrian Ambassador’s residence tonight. It was a busy day at school with a community service fair, admin team meeting, SLC meeting, and a Principal - Parent Coffee.

Yesterday I did an unannounced visit to the Middle School classes in the afternoon. I took a photo in each of the class rooms I visited.

Above, two seventh grade students are learning the papier mache technique. They are creating a Galapagos Tortoise to enter in the Children’s October Exhibit of the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade. The theme of the exhibit is the 200th Anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday. Other classes are also entering projects.

Below are some photos of some of what I observed. You can see the flickr.com account for some more photos. It was nice to see literally 100% of the students engaged when I first stepped into each room. One downpoint was only 33% of one class had completed their homework assignment. This has been a topic in recent teacher meetings on how to get students to do their homework.

The 6B class is learning how to write a book report. Gal is doing a book report on the "Spiderwick Chronicles"

6A student Conor draws the steps of cell division (mitosis) in science class

"Use the word ACKNOWLEDGEMENT in a sentence."

Daily Bulletin: Wednesday November 26, 2008

Today is Day #1. I will be at the HS all day today. I will have my usual Wednesday afternoon Admin Team meeting at the LS.

ISB Time: We will be on the assembly schedule today. During ISB Time (10:50 – 11:50 AM) today, we will be holding our annual NGO Community Service Fair. The fair will take place in the bubble. All grades will have forms to fill out during the fair as they attend the presentations by each organization. I expect that all teachers will be also attending to monitor student behavior. If things are going smoothly, then you will be dismissed. All students need to be at the fair for the full hour. The STUCO President and Director of the Anglo American School of Belgrade will be special guests at the fair.  

Discipline Update: This section is confidential and will not be published on the internet. It is for internal communication among the teachers only.

School Leadership Council Meeting: Today after school in Room #17.

Parent-Principal Coffee: Tonight at 7:00 PM in the HS Computer Lab. Maja Kelly and I will be making short presentations and handling parent questions and concerns.

ISB Hooded Sweatshirt Sales: These will be on sale this afternoon at the MS, tonight at the Coffee, and Friday afternoon in the reception of the high school. The PTA sold many during yesterday’s LS Parent-Teacher Conferences.

The SPACES Media Expo Committee would like to ask you a question: What will you be eating for lunch next Monday? A soggy sandwich you found in your locker or a large, hot, cheesy slice of pizza? The lucky designer of the winning SPACES logo will find him or herself and friends dining on pizza next Monday. Voting for the logo will take place on Thursday, Nov. 27 and Friday, Nov. 28. Entries will be displayed on the screen in the lobby. Anyone can vote; cast your ballot with Bojana in the HS office.

 HS Math Competition: Organizational meeting at lunch on Friday in Ms. Marija’s room. Everyone is invited to attend.

Purchase Order 2009-2010: A reminder to all that the PO for next year is due by the end of this week. You will want to prioritize into category 1-2-3. We will meet next week to negotiate the final amounts. Once again we will have approximately $XXX,XXX to work with for all departments.

Today is a Day #4 and I will be in the MS the entire day today. Branka  and Bojana will be handling any discipline issues.

Lunch in the Library: Due to repeated occasions of food debris and litter in the library, there will be no lunches allowed to be eaten in the library. There has also been too much disruptive behavior in the library. The following notice is posted by the librarian:
The Library is a space for reading, writing, and quiet conversation.
No one should suffer from another’s noise, mess, or disruptive behaviour.
·         No food or drinks
·         No music, videos, or gaming
·         No mobiles or online telephony (skype, gtalk, etc.)
·         No behaviour that disrupts other’s ability to learn.

High School Knowledge Bowl Competition: Students interested in joining the team are asked to meet today at lunch in Mr. Slough’s room.

Hooded Sweatshirt Sales: Our PTA has asked me to let you know that today during LS conferences, they will be taking pre-orders for new ISB sweatshirts that they are selling.  There are 3 different styles of sweatshirts available.  Samples of the shirts, and pre-order forms will be in the LS library for interested parents and/or staff members during the day on Tuesday.
HS Receptionist Update: The receptionist will begin training on Monday December 8. A new desk is being designed and built for her and will be ready by December 15th. We are currently in contract negotiations.
High School Math Competition: Mrs. Vuckovich will be holding an informational meeting at lunch on Friday. The competition takes place in Bucharest on February 13-14.

Why Asian Children Are Better at Mathematics: An interesting idea from Malcolm Gladwell, the author of “Blink” in his new book “Outliers”. He reckons that it is the Chinese language and organizational system for numbers that makes mathematics easier for them. The  Guardian has an excerpt at this link.

Ljiljana Blagojević in her blog, “Art-E-Fact” has a nice post on the history of New Belgrade.

“New Belgrade is a modern city, built in the second half of the twentieth century, on the marshy plain bordered by the rivers Sava and Danube, stretching between the historical cities of Zemun and Belgrade.[1] The terrain of this modern development, most dramatically beheld from the position of the ancient Belgrade fortress, served for centuries as a no-man’s-land between the borders of the two empires, the Ottoman and the Austrian/Austro-Hungarian.[2] Devoid of any urban structure, it fulfilled the function of a cordon sanitaire, observed and controlled as no-connection-zone between the Orient, where Belgrade, as it were, marked its end point, and the Occident, of which Zemun was the, first, even if modest and marginal, port of call. In the short period between the World Wars, with the unification of the Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes/Yugoslavia, when the river Sava ceased being a state border, various planning strategies for the urbanization of this terrain were elaborated. Common denominator of all of these, otherwise widely divergent strategies was that they primarily envisaged the new development on this site as an expansion of, already uncontrollably sprawling, city of Belgrade. When the actual construction began in 1948, albeit in the changed socio-political conditions after the Second World War, the new city was conceived upon totally different premises. Most significantly, New Belgrade carried a potent symbolic function of being conceived as a new capital city of the new Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia.”

Above is a photo of a typical New Belgrade apartment building I took in September of 2008.

I am posting my Daily Bulletin this week in anticipation of my Principal - Parent Coffee evening on Wednesday. The Bulletin will be posted on our school’s web site beginning in January 2009.

Today is Day #3. I will be in the High School.

Illness: Milica is not going to be in school today as she is under the weather.

HS Health Screening: Dr. Lily will be screening students today so expect students to be pulled out of classes sometime this morning. This is the annual hearing, vision, etc. testing.

Second Quarter Progress Reports: A full report will be distributed to teachers later today in anticipation of today’s faculty meeting. Thanks to Bojana for compiling these and the teachers for getting them in on time.

HS Faculty Meeting: We will be meeting in the HS Computer Lab. If everyone can make it, we’ll begin at 3:15 PM and be out of here by 4:00 PM. Topics include the following:
•    analysis of second quarter progress reports (10 minutes)
•    compile list of students to be put on academic probation for second semester (10 minutes)
•    discussion of tardies / use of Serbian in classroom (10 minutes)
•    arranging of after school “extended learning opportunities” (students that need to make up a missed homework assignment) (10 minutes)
•    teacher professional development / evaluation – goal setting (5 minutes)
•    divide grade 10 students into two even groups for next semester’s non-math classes (5 minutes) – grade 10 teachers only
Please let me know if there are any other agenda items for possible inclusion. Thanks.

HS Boys’ Basketball Practices: The boys will have the following practice tmes this week:
•    Monday Nov 24  4:30 – 6:00 PM
•    Tuesday Nov 25 3:00 – 4:30 PM (Tuesdays are with the marines)
•    Friday November 28 4:30 – 6:00 PM (Faculty vs. Team)

Knowledge Bowl: Mr. Slough will be hosting an organizational meeting after school today for all interested students. Everyone is invited to attend.

ISB Time This Week: Our CAS Coordinator Vladamir has organized our NGO Community Service Fair. This will take place during the ISB time 10:50 – 11:50 AM. The grades 9-11 will attend the fair as well as guests from the Anglo-American School of Belgrade.

Discipline Update:
A student will be serving a lunch time detention today for using facebook in DT class and being argumentative with a teacher.

The top 20 tardy students served a lunchtime detention with me on Friday. I feel stronger measures need to be taken and parent meetings with me will be arranged for this week.

Performing Arts Update: Students are getting ready to perform at the ISB Holiday Dinner on Thursday evening. Both MS and HS students are also holding extra rehearsals for next Thursday’s Winter Music Concert.
Sign up sheets for ONE ACTS auditions are posted on the Performing Arts Bulletin Board. The auditions will be Tuesday December 9 and Wednesday December 10. One Acts are SHORT plays (5-15 minutes in duration) that rehearse once or twice a week after school. These sign ups are open to ALL HS students! Students who have other after-school commitments can also participate in One-Acts, provided they have some free time after school. Some of the one acts are student-directed, some teacher-directed. If any teachers want to act or direct, please let Mrs. Sands know.
One Acts performances are March 20 and 21.  Rehearsals will begin in January.The One Acts are sponsored by the ISB Thespian Society Chapter 7335.
MS/HS WINTER CONCERT: Thursday December 4, 2008
HS PERFORMING ARTS STUDIO
7:00-7:30 MS CONCERT
(6A and 7A General Music Classes AND MS CHOIR)
7:45-8:30 HS CONCERT
(HS JAZZ/BLUES COMBO, HS String Duet, HS CHOIR)
We ask that MS Parents attend the MS portion of the concert, and HS Parents attend the HS portion.  We do not have enough space in the Performing Arts studio to accommodate all parents from both levels at the same time. Please plan to attend and support the MS and/or HS musicians as you will hear a variety of musical selections from music classes and performance ensembles at ISB.