We had a great time Saturday at the annual ISB Easter Picnic. Ocean is shown above with the Easter Bunny and his helper. It was a beautiful day and the volunteers from the PTSA and US Steel did a wonderful job in making it a fantastic and fun event. Despite the economic recession, US Steel still does have a significant presence at the school and it was nice for them to run this event for the kids.
This weekend the ISB basketball team finished third out of six teams in Sofia, Bulgaria. We were short-handed as you can see with only 7 players making the trip. We also had 4 freshman on the tourney squad. The kids really played well and we lost to the eventual tourney champion in overtime. They played five games in two days. They used the same format as in CEESA events with a running clock, only stopping for free throws and dead balls in the last minute.
We all had a great time. It also gave me a chance to see an old friend from my village in Michigan who lives in Sofia. Overall a fantastic weekend.
This is a video of Ollie’s performance Saturday in the ISB Music recital. Our school does not have a formal music program but many of the students have private music lessons. Oliver showed an interest in the violin after seeing his friend Matija (in the video) perform. He has been taking lessons once a week this year. (Click on the arrow in the lower left hand corner to watch the video)
Oliver was the youngest student on the program. He performed “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” as part of a trio with his friends Matija and Eve. The performance took place at the Canadian Ambassador’s residence. It was an elegant setting for a recital. They did a superb rendition of the song. Congratulations Ollie!!!!
Our facilitator today is John Mikton. I’ll be blogging my notes from the conference. He is from Geneva, Switzerland and the Technology Director at the International School Prague. He is an experienced educator who has worked in China, Switzerland, Japan, and Tanzania. Before teaching, he worked in advertising. He is an inspirational speaker and I am looking forward to spending the next two days with him. Here is a link to his website.
“Change is not merely necessary to life- it is life.” Alvin Toffler
Did You Know? We watched the video, “Did You Know” which is the latest version of “Shift Happens.” Some of the interesting facts presented were as follows:
Twitter: I helped Nadia and Janna to learn a bit about Twitter and to get accounts. It is interesting that adults use twitter much more than teenagers. I downloaded “TweetDeck” so I can have twitter on my desktop without being logged into the twitter page.
Creators and Interactive: Good point made by John, that adults are the “gatekeepers” for the teenagers creating content on line. When his school did the 1-to-1 lap top program they gave the computers to the PARENT, not directly to the students. The message was, the school is lending a computer to the parent who will let the child use it. Young people at times need this before that put stuff up online.
Strategies With Teachers Working On Laptops: Little strategies to assist teachers when students have laptops in class.
Thinking
Daniel Pink Author of the “A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future?” ( and we are moving to a conceptual age. There are six minds and 6 essential senses of the future:
1) Design – Moving beyond
2) Story
3) Symphony
4) Empathy
5) Play – Bringing humor to businesses and products
6) Meaning
This is similar to Howard Gardner’s latest book.
I lost a bit of my notes from losing the connection. We watched a couple of segments from “Growing Up Online” a documentary about teens and the internet. One pertinent idea, that the divide between generations is the biggest since the invention of television. The issue of privacy is huge in international schools. It is important to view privacy also in the lenses of different cultures. For example, US parents would want the school to act upon students outside of school spraying grafitti on a wall in the city. European parents might feel not to have the school involved.
How do I safeguard my privacy?
Facebook – The default settings for facebook are open publicly. You need to be 13 years old to have a facebook page. John’s advice for facebook is below:
Facebook Safety Tips
The following safety tips are important to keep in mind, whether you are using Facebook or one of the other social networking sites:
10 Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
the video
Next topic is Cyber Bullying. This has been around for a long time. The tool they use is different. John showed us two public service announcements from
There is no good blocking software, the best method is to educate yourself and to engage your children in learning about the dangers.
Many of the themes of Digital Citizenship are very important.
1) Digital Health and Wellness – Are we providing the right kind of chairs, should age 4 students have microwaves from cell phones in their ears.
2) Digital Law – Hacking and sending nude photos are two things teens may do that they are not aware of the consequences.
Other topics – Do not blame it on the computer, the problem is social and cultural.
Case Studies –
1) Student steals password and username from another student and harasses a teacher on Moodlic.
Expel from the school because teacher involved and clearly against our Acceptable Use Policy.
2) Group of students posts videos on youtube of them drinking, insulting passengers on train and all students are underage.
School did nothing, parent contacted police, and they were punished by local authorities.
3) Student has different identities online, which are diff gender, traits, etc.
Conversation, but no official punishment from the school.
My overriding principle is to inform the parents because I would like to know if it were my son or daughter involved in one of the above. It is another question of school punishment or not.
This weekend we are hosting the American International School of Zagreb, Croatia for a couple of friendly basketball matches. We are both preparing for the CEESA Tourney in Helsinki is two weeks.
Tonight’s game was a close knit affair throughout. In the end, the difference was AISZ star Bret Atkins, who scored 22 of the Huskies’ 30 points. The final score was 28-30. For ISB, Pan and Lajos combined for 17 points and six different players scored points. The second game in the series begins tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM.
Shown above is Misa shooting some free throws in the final minutes. Below is a photo for my Dad. He is a long-time public address announcer for West Iron County High School sports. I had the duties this evening to do the starting line ups for the game.
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