SHANGHAI COMMUNITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OCT/NOV. 2018 Our Diverse Community TABLE OF CONTENTS Community Features Campus Highlights P. 20–21 // Teacher Spotlight P. 4 // Director of Schools’ Letter P. 14–15 // Hongqiao Campus Highlight Meet Etienne Bilz Making History: Achieving a Perfect 45 Points P. 5–6 // IB Corner in the IB Diploma P. 22–23 // Family Spotlight The Outdoors is a Bridge for Learning and Meet the Sorensen Family Life-long Exploring P. 16–17 // Hongqiao ECE Campus Highlight Growing our Literacy Practices: A Week with P. 24–27 // Student Spotlight Theory of Knowledge and Intercultural International Literacy Consultant Erin Kent Understanding “Salty Water” Gives Hope and Inspires Others to Change the World P. 18–19 // Pudong Campus Highlight P. 7 // Language Acquisition Kindergarten Reading Parade: Celebrating a What is the Best Way to Teach a Language? P. 28–29 // Alumni Spotlight Love for Reading Inspiring Learners to Discover their Passion P. 8–9 // Community Feature Through Sports. One Community Celebrating Diversity Together for United Nations Day P. 33–35 // PAFA A Celebration of World Cuisine, Culture, and P. 10–11 // Sports Recap Community. Determined Dragons Hit Big at ACAMIS Volleyball Cover Photo Credit: Bebe Jacobs P. 36 // Favorite Spot in The City P. 12–13 // China Host Culture Fuxing Park: An Oasis in the City Exploring Chinese Culture through Professional In-service P. 37–38 // Partner 14 Festive Fall and Winter Meat Delights P. 30–32 // Art Gallery How to Prevent the Progression of Myopia (Short-sightedness) 10 24 4 DIRECTOR OF SCHOOLS’ LETTER Dear SCIS Community, to share their ideas in a diverse SCIS classroom, which boast an average of 6 nationalities. With this Over the past month, SCIS has hosted celebrations diversity, SCIS provides its students with the chance on each of our three campuses highlighting to create global understanding, gain intercultural the diverse national make-up of our learning communication skills, and enhance additional community. The United Nations International language acquisition. This all occurs within a shared Day of Peace and UN Day provide students, context that stresses the importance of respecting parents and faculty the opportunity to wear their one another’s cultural backgrounds, traditions, traditional national attire. Though these are single values and beliefs. day events, they are colourful reminders of one of the most unique strengths behind our outstanding In valuing the strength that our diverse population community of schools… Diversity. brings to our community, SCIS works to ensure our diversity can be maintained. We promote Since 1996, families from nearly every corner of the this through admissions initiatives, inviting mother Earth have enrolled at SCIS. This school year alone, tongue language programs onto campuses, and by SCIS has students from over 60 countries making it working directly with consulates and companies. the most nations ever represented at any one time SCIS is also committed to representing this within our system of schools. When these students diversity within our faculty and staff. Currently return home after school, they could be speaking there are teachers, administrators and support any one of the 40 plus languages and dialects our staff members from nearly twenty nationalities. families communicate in. Outside of the United This further supports the student experience of Nations itself, it would be difficult to find this learning within a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and diverse a community interacting on a daily basis. multi-lingual environment. Both UN Day and the International Day of Peace It is truly an exceptional experience to be a part of make for some wonderful photographs as they such a diverse centre for learning. While UN Day are a colourful reminder of where we all come and the International Day of Peace may only come from. However, what is even more telling, is that around once a year, SCIS celebrates our incredible this diverse population learns, plays, and grows diversity on a daily basis both inside and outside together in a caring and accepting environment on the classroom. So please take the opportunity to a daily basis. Our work within the IB framework share in our celebration throughout the pages of builds off the strength diversity brings to a learning this edition of our Communitas magazine as we community through the concept of International share stories and images that highlight the diversity Mindedness. International Mindedness is an of our incredible learning community at SCIS. understanding, respecting, and valuing of different cultures while recognizing that diversity brings with it a strength in exposure to different perspectives. Sincerely, Our SCIS faculty place International Mindedness at the forefront of our work as they consider the multi-lingual backgrounds and intercultural understanding of our students when planning, Daniel D. Eschtruth teaching and assessing units of work. Students Director of Schools then are better supported to have an opportunity Shanghai Community International School Communitas is about community Communitas is published and we rely on contributions from six times per year for the SCIS community. the SCIS community, our friends, OCT/NOV 2018 and the larger Should you have any commentary, Shanghai community. Editor: Mikael Masson Editor: Lili Shi observations, wish to submit articles, Art Director: Mun Yee Choo or inquire as to ways to collaborate, We are social! Feel free Designer:Designer: AllesAlles ZhengZheng feel free to send all to visit us on the web at inquiries or correspondence to www.scis-china.org and follow us! Do you have a story to tell, a project the Communitas editor to share, or art to be displayed? Let via email at Communitas be a platform for your voice. [email protected]. IB CORNER 5 The Outdoors is a Bridge for Learning and Life-long Exploringo opportunities • Tools for digging, planting and caring Strong to inspire any child. for plants partnerships So, open up your doors, • Nets, magnifiers, binoculars that encourage family get outside and take a few interesting involvement are an essential part of any tools with you. Some ideas for open- Materials that can be adapted to meet high-quality early childhood education ended resources are: the children’s needs will be most effective. program. When teachers and families • Different sized and shaped logs, poles, Many resources can be found in the work together children’s development and sticks, wood shapes natural world and others obtained fairly learning is fully supported. Our children • Natural items – sand, water, leaves, cheaply. Enjoy the adventure. are growing and learning 24 hours a day/7 stones, bark chips, rocks, shells, seeds days a week. So, when the lines of learning • Ropes and string of different sizes blend between school and home our and lengths children are richer in their experiences and • Different colored, textured and sizes better understand their world. of fabric or cloth By MELANIE MCCLURE, • Mallets, pegs, clothes pegs Early Childhood A key area to cultivate together and to • Baskets, bags, buckets, watering cans, Education Principal at “blend” those learning lines is Outdoor containers SCIS Hongqiao Play. Outdoor Play, as a natural and • Chalk, charcoal, brushes or rollers with compelling activity, offers the necessary buckets of water, large paper conditions for children to thrive and learn. Outdoor play also lends itself to “open- ended” play. It is a great environment in which the child can decide what to do, with whom and how. It promotes positive self-esteem, autonomy, confidence, and strengthens cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being. Open-ended play resources that are non-prescriptive can be used in an imaginative way, with the children using them to fit the activity that they are working through at the time, rather than the materials dictating the play. An environment filled with natural light, order, and beauty, provides unending 6 IB CORNER Theory of Knowledge and INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING redicting competencies needed by than written history? How can we and/or support findings and interpret Plearners in the coming decades is understand both perspectives? knowledge across various areas of study. perhaps more challenging than ever • Why is it important to understand In this case, we may ask, for instance, how previously known, yet educators suggest how different cultures see and think "cultural intelligence” is measured and that cultural intelligence is an important about the world when trying to resolve in what ways results might be open to quality to develop for future success in international disputes? - Questions interpretation, misused, or perpetuated by our global context. As students at SCIS adapted from Lagemaat, 20161 multiple motivating factors. grapple with challenging concepts in the Theory of Knowledge (ToK) course, we In relating the course to Cultural While the enduring questions concerning may specifically ask how the curriculum Intelligence (CQ), ToK learners gain an necessary 21st-century skills may still helps learners develop necessary skills of appreciation of observations articulated seem as open-ended as ToK inquiry cultural intelligence. by recent studies concerning the ways in itself, we can be assured that the Core of which various cultures may tend to have the IB program aims to nurture cultural ToK Inquiry Connections to individualist versus collective perceptions, competency and intelligence. Ultimately, Cultural Intelligence concrete versus abstract thinking patterns, such skills make our learners better There is an overt connection between analytic vs holistic thinking, and extensive communicators and listeners across the content and approach of the ToK versus intensive knowledge across written disciplines and cultures beyond the curriculum and cultural intelligence (CQ) and oral communities. ToK leaners have classroom setting. as articulated by leading researchers an opportunity to analyze the impact of Soong Ang & Van Dyne. While learners language, perception, and reason on our 1Lagemaat and Livermore and Van Dyne in ToK observe cross-cultural and understanding of cultural context.