SHANGHAI COMMUNITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OCTOBER 2016 OUR COMMUNITY TABLE OF CONTENTS P. 4 // Director of School’s Letter Features P. 5-9 // Theme Feature Our SCIS Community Working Towards our Missions with the Learner Profile Building Community through the PYP and International Mindedness P. 16-17 // Community Feature Celebrating Sportsmanship P. 10-13 // Curriculum Building Bridges and Making Connections 24-25 // China Host Culture through Language and Culture Dragon Culture in China Building a Sense of Community P. 34-36 // Art Gallery in the Early Years Dowload our App! Hongqiao & Pudong Campus SHOP ANYWHERE, ANYTIME Welcome Change & Learning Together Your Online Expat Supermarket - www.epermarket.com P. 18-19 // PUDONG Campus Highlight United Nation’s Campus International Day of Peace Highlights P. 20-21 // Hongqiao Campus Highlight The Class of 2017 Goes to Hainan P. 22-23 // Hongqiao ECE Campus Highlight Celebrating Peace at the ECE Campus P. 14-15 // Favorite Spot in The City Family Friendly and Good Food Community P. 26-27 // Teacher Spotlight Discovering a Passion for International Teaching P. 32-33 // Alumni Spotlight Coming Full Circle Sport Recap P. 28-29 // Partner Dragons Volleyball P. 37-39 // LanguageOne P. 30-31 // Family Spotlight 5 Healthy Habits for Kids to Prevent The Vlas Family Cold and Flu in the Coming Winter The Reach for Better Health 4 DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL’S LETTER THEME FEATURE 5 Shanghai Community International School (SCIS) first opened its doors in 1996. Twenty years on and our success continues to be built upon the strong, quality relationships formed within our dynamic international OCTOBER 2016 school community of teachers, students, and parents. With the focus of this month’s Communitas Magazine being, “Our Community” you will learn more about how SCIS Editor has consistently maintained our focus on developing this Mikael Masson Perez vital element of our school culture. One key structure that has remained at the heart of our community has been the Art Director effort to maintain supportive relationships. They enable our students from diverse Mun Yee Choo backgrounds to bring their personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences into the classroom. Supportive relationships help parents, especially those who would otherwise Designer feel uncomfortable, to take active roles in the school and in their children’s education. Alles Zheng As a result, our supportive culture has allowed diversity to become one of our great strengths as school becomes the fabric that weaves our dynamic community together. The Communitas Magazine is published eight times per year This diverse community means students have classmates and friends from over 60 catered primarily for the SCIS different nationalities, and share a learning environment where everyone is valued as community and our friends, but equal while still cherished as an individual. Our international curriculum (IB) and also the larger Shanghai depth of program provides students with the opportunities to develop, excel and community in general. exceed, with the support of a dedicated faculty, experienced administrators and involved parents. Everyone involved in the making of the Communitas magazine We have consistently had families reflect on how our holistic approach to providing work diligently opportunities for academic achievement is positively matched by our effort to build in to bring enlightening and our students the qualities essential to good character and citizenship. Students learn interesting content to our read- the skills of collaboration, develop wider and richer relationships, and experience the ers, however we are always many satisfactions of contributing to the welfare of others. This ultimately builds toward open to opinions and suggestions our students living the SCIS Mission by contributing positively to their community. as we are constantly looking for ways in which we can improve. At the core of our success there has always been a strong belief that it is simply better Moreover, we greatly to involve the entire school community in the development of our students. Even the welcome submissions to name of this magazine ‘Communitas’ highlights the spirit of working together with our our magazine and we will students, teachers, administration, parents and external partners. Our schools exude willingly include contributions to Our SCIS Community this caring and familial vibe. Yet creating and maintaining a community school requires future issues. tremendous effort and commitment from all, so I would like to take this opportunity to Your Neighborhood?” as the host on TV introduced thank all of you who have volunteered time, dedicated above and beyond, and helped Should you have any the mailman and the librarian and doctor. These nurture such wonderful environments for our learning community. commentary, observations, Katherine Brewer and her family joined SCIS were the people who made up the community. And wish to submit articles or in 2014. She is originally from Nashville, as a child, I had absolutely no say over where I lived. Ultimately, it is our hope that your child’s time at SCIS will be the best educational inquire as to ways to Tennessee, USA, where she began her career The people who were in my life were there because experience they will have in their lifetime, and that your family’s time in our school collaborate, feel free to send in education 16 years ago. She has spent the of my parents’ decisions. When I became a parent community will be a memorable one. We look forward to your active involvement in all inquiries/correspondence last ten years working in international schools I wanted to be intentional about the type of life I your child’s education. Now enjoy the following pages and join in the celebration of to the Communitas editor in the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, and China. would create for my children and the community in our continued commitment to community here at SCIS. via email at which they would grow up. [email protected]. This summer we went home to visit my parents, the Sincerely, We are social! Feel free believe in being intentional. I love strategic planning boys’ grandparents. My father asked me one night to visit us on the web at I and watching a vision become a reality. The concept why I chose not to live in the United States. Over the www.scis-china.org and follow us of community is often thought of as something we past ten years, my family and I had moved from the inherit, or something we fall into, or end up in based Caribbean to Africa to Asia. He asked why I thought on where we were born. When I was a child, I other countries were so much better than my home. Daniel D. Eschtruth thought of my community as the place I grew up and Director of Schools the people who surrounded me. I grew up watching I explained to him that I did not think that any Shanghai Community International School Sesame Street and singing “Who are the People in country was inherently better or worse than my 6 THEME FEATURE THEME FEATURE 7 home, but the decision to raise my children in an And we are also a community that cares deeply international community was an intentional one. I for others. All of us have felt like outsiders at some wanted to expose my children to different mindsets, point in our lives. We have all dealt with transition. beliefs, languages, values, and customs. By expanding We have all been at a loss before in finding ways to their concept of community, I hoped to make the communicate with people who do not speak our world a more accessible place for them. language. And because of that, we know how to reach out and make sure that others feel connected, involved, All of us at SCIS have chosen to be here. We have and appreciated. We take care of one another. chosen to surround ourselves by the other members of this school, and while we all have different reasons I was sitting at a hiring fair in London last year and for making this decision, there are a few things I was eavesdropping on the conversation that was that permeate our community so deeply that it is taking place next to me. A head of school who had impossible to not recognize them. had a long international career around the world was cautioning a young teaching couple who seemed We are a community that is diverse in our determined to take a placement in Europe. He told backgrounds. We come from countries all over the them that because European schools were not as world, we speak a myriad of different languages, and transitory in nature (for students, their families, or we have different ideas about education, life, food, teachers) it could sometimes be difficult to find a and religion. But we all chose SCIS in part because ‘home away from home’ there for new people. It was of this diversity. We like the idea of being exposed sometimes difficult for them to feel like they fit in. I to different ideas, different people with different laughed a little inside as I thought back to when my customs and different ways of doing things. This family arrived at SCIS and we instantly felt welcomed can sometimes be intimidating, and sometimes it and that we had found our spot in the universe. reinforces our own values and beliefs, but we like There is something special about that – about finding understanding our differences in a personal way. people who you will forever be friends with no matter where life takes you in the future. We are also a community that is hopeful for the personal and academic excellence, and our international future. We believe that we can leave this world a This year at SCIS we revised our mission statement.