Bill's Blog

Today is Day #1. I will be in the HS for the day.

ISB Web-based Forms Presentation:  Bane is giving a short presentation on the new ISB web-based forms. This is an easier way to do service requests, cash advances, etc and will cut down on the amount of email. The presentation will take place Monday December 8^th in the HS Computer Lab. Simultaneously, there will be the same presentation given by Neša in the LS MPR. All MS and HS teachers are asked to attend one of the two meetings. The presentation will begin at 3:30 PM and will take no longer than 30 minutes.

STUCO Community Drives: The HS students through the Red Cross are helping the children’s oncology ward in Tirsova Street. At the ward there are 57 children, ranging in ages from 1 to 19 years old.  These holiday gifts are new toys and for older children, books in Serbian, magazines/newspapers, classroom material (notebooks, pens, pencils, etc.). These items are to be collected by Thursday, December 11, 2008. The group is aware of the busy schedules of the parents and students, and have decided to accept money for purchasing these gifts.

The final day to donate winter clothing — especially shoes, jeans and jackets (new and old) to the Drinka Pavlovic orphanage is today. Tomorrow the HS Choir will be visiting the Orphanage and putting on a mini-concert for them.

Blue & Gold: The latest edition of the student newspaper, Blue and Gold came out on Friday. Congratulations to the student journalists and Mrs. Jamie Van Drunen.

Final Exam Schedule: The latest version of the final exam schedules and proctoring schedule were placed in the student and teacher boxes Friday. Remember that exams begin next Tuesday, December 16^th. The final exams need to be completed and sent to your department heads this week. They will be photocopied on Friday and Monday and stored securely in my office over the weekend.

ISB Time: Please send ideas for ISB time Wednesday. Liz is wrapping up the semester two schedule and would like to devote 20 minutes to selection of electives for the students.

Education News: (Online Textbooks):

Our own Web 2.0 guru Jenny McKenzie sends along this link to a Washington Post article about the State of Virginia on line textbooks and supplements. This is a timely article considering our purchase order this week. The article has links to several sites with on line modules to help teachers, especially in science.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/29/AR2008112901809.html

“Rather than waiting two years for the Virginia Board of Education to review its science standards, then another year for publishers to print new physics texts, the state secretaries of education and technology asked a dozen teachers to write their own chapters in biophysics, nanotechnology and other emerging fields and post them online.

By February, physics teachers from Vienna to Tappahanock should be able to rip, mash and burn new chapters in real-time physics, said Secretary of Technology Aneesh P. Chopra. The virtual pages, which cost the state and schools nothing except teacher time, will be an optional, free supplement to hardbound books. “

Lower School Winter Shows: These are taking place Wednesday through Friday evening this week in the MPR beginning at 6:30 PM.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.