Secondary Newsletter on Friday, 4th Nov 2016
Week 14-The Importance of Feedback
Over the past two weeks our DP coordinator has set up meetings with our year 1 & 2 DP students. They have checked progress, established goals and created action steps towards their future success. An integral part of these meetings has been the delivery of feedback. A Google Form has been created for each DP student that will highlight upcoming external and internal assessments, subject specific due dates and events, as well as overall performance updates; including the Extended Essay. This form also records meetings that occur between the student and the DP Coordinator as well as specific teachers. The end of this week will wrap up these initial meetings and from there the form will be shared with each student and parent, as well as the Secondary Principal, Counselor and every DP teacher. This will allow us to help each DP student stay on top of their deadlines and manage their workload and expectations. It is also a fantastic tool for feedback as the students go through all of the challenging stages of the IB Diploma. Please ask your DP student about these meetings and this document. Below is a clip that focuses on the role of the teacher in the learning process-especially with the idea of assessment and feedback. These are the things that we think about each day as we prepare to help our students grow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Bali MUN
It was wonderful to see our students engaged with real world problems, working collaboratively with students from around the world on topics that will affect us for years to come. In education we generally speak about preparing our students for the future, however the ability to plan or prepare for the unknown is challenging. Instead of making predictions and speak about what ifs, we try in education to develop skills, but sometimes the most important of these skills can get lost in our readings and tests. The skills of communication, relationship building, compromise and problem solving are some of the most important skills that we can instill. This is what MUN provides for our students. We are very fortunate to have this opportunity. I want to thank Madame Sakina for all of her hard work organizing this event and preparing our students. Please check out the Bali MUN website for some of the highlights. http://balimun2016.baliis.
BSSA Finals
This past Wednesday and Thursday we had a number of our secondary students competing and coaching in the BSSA Finals for soccer. I was fortunate enough to travel with a team and it was amazing to watch our students competitive spirit coincide with sportsmanship. Our student coaches do a fantastic job and it is a wonderful way to develop leadership among the student body. It was also nice to see a bunch of trophies come home with our teams! Way to go Dragons!
Thoughtful and Engaged
This past week we have had a few new members to the BIS community within the Secondary School. I initially had a plan to link up these new students with some of our ‘veterans’ here at BIS. Amazingly, I was beaten to the punch. Our students took it upon themselves to welcome, encourage and incorporate these new students right into their classes and groups. These are the social skills and notions of compassion that I am so glad our students get the opportunities to practice and make me proud to be a member of the BIS community.
Growth and Learning
This is a topic that I speak about quite a bit here and to our staff and students. It is what we believe here at BIS and it is the foundation of the way in which we teach-constantly putting our students in positions to grow. Recent brain research shows the importance of this idea of growth and the fact that the more we take on the more connections our brain is able to generate-and this is where learning occurs, through these connections. Our teachers are constantly asking our students to do different tasks and work through different challenges to help these changes occur. Please ask your student about some of the small, low stake challenges that their teachers are presenting them with. I would like to include a TedTalk clip based on that highlights the value of these challenges on learning and the development of the brain. I hope you find it as interesting as we do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Kind Regards,
secondaryschoolprincipal@
Secondary School Principal
