Download the KIS September 2009 Newsletter: (PDF, 585 KB)

Kazakhstan International School Newsletter

More than Academics…

September, 2009

Content:

• UPCOMING FOR OCTOBER:
• THE PRINCIPAL'S CORNER:
• IB PYP WORD OF THE MONTH: INQUIRER
• EDELWEISS MONTESSORI CAMPUS:
• BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT:
• KIS PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION:

Kids Say the Darndest Things… “I want to do it the way I want to do it!”
^{—An anonymous preschooler.}

UPCOMING FOR OCTOBER:

• KIS Advisory Board meeting—Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 10:00 a.m.
• Kazakhstan’s Republic Day holiday, NO school Monday, October 26, 2009.
• In-house IB workshop for all KIS teachers—October 30 and 31, 2009. NO school Friday, October 30.
• KIS PTA meeting— Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at KIS in the library. We will discuss ideas and planning for Fall Fun Day, which will be on Saturday,November 7, 2009 at KIS.

THE PRINCIPAL'S CORNER:

Dear KIS Parents,

WE ARE SO HAPPY TO HAVE YOUR CHILDREN back at school with us. After summer months of cleaning, painting and lots of general preparations, it’s great to have classrooms and hallways filled with our bright and energetic KIS students.

This year, KIS welcomes many new teachers, who have traveled from their home countries to teach at and be a part of our school community. We are very proud of our teaching and administrative team and hope you will take advantage of getting to know these people well this coming year.

We would like to announce a KIS contest. We are planning to introduce a bi-monthly newsletter, which will include important school information, highlight key things for all of us to know about the IB PYP accreditation, and feature the creative work of our own KIS students. But, we need a creative name that reflects our school community. We need your help for this! Please submit your best idea for a newsletter name, along with your contact information, to this email, wmoore@kisnet.org. Your idea may be the one chosen to be printed at the top of these bi-monthly publications. The winner of the contest also becomes the proud owner of a KIS t-shirt. Have a happy autumn—we look forward to what this 2009-10 school year holds for each of us!

Mrs. Kay

IB PYP WORD OF THE MONTH: INQUIRER

AT KIS OUR IB PYP TEACHERS ARE COMMITTED to providing a balance between acquiring important knowledge and skills while looking for meaning and understanding. The IB PYP emphasizes structured inquiries. Simply put, these inquiries are processes of natural, genuine curiosity—taking current knowledge to a new and deeper level of understanding. This can be initiated by the student or the teacher. The result is a student who has been nurtured and stimulated, has acquired the skills necessary to do some constructive, purposeful research, and who has actively enjoyed learning. As educators, it is our goal that KIS students develop a love for lifelong learning.

HOW CAN YOU, AS A PARENT, HELP DEVELOP STUDENTS WHO ARE INQUIRERS?

• Actively participate in something they want to learn more about by going to a library or museum together.
• Help your son/daughter develop an understanding of the Internet— help them understand that some Internet sites are not reputable, but the Internet in general can be a good tool for finding answers to many questions.
• Model being an Inquirer—when you don’t know the answer to a question, ask your son/daughter to help you find the answer.
• Catch your son/daughter being an Inquirer—compliment him/her on a job well done. Positive reinforcement is a powerful encouragement.

EDELWEISS MONTESSORI CAMPUS:

OUR NEW EDELWEISS MONTESSORI CAMPUS is located in the Edelweiss Ashel Residence Housing Compound, a gated community just off of Al-Farabi, within the heart of Almaty’s business district. Expanding to meet the needs of our school community, we are proud to announce the opening of this new campus, offering a world-class, English-based education for 2 1/2 to 6-year-olds. We understand the importance of these years, as research has proven children who attend preschool improve their future success later in life. With the Montessori Method's child-centered approach to learning, our students achieve more personal development—exploring areas of interest, building self-confidence, and developing a love of learning through hand-on competency.

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT:

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT was a wonderful success! Our parents enjoyed an opportunity to sit in their child’s classroom and learn from the teacher what a typical day at KIS includes—from class rules to class schedules to what is actually studied in the classroom. Our involvement as parents is an important key to our child’s academic success and we were glad to see our KIS parents taking this opportunity to connect personally with teachers and share in the KIS experience. The new school year has only started and this is just the beginning of what we hope will be an exciting and memorable school year.

KIS PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION :

WE HIGHLY VALUE our Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Our goal this year is partnership—that the PTA will have a fun time coming alongside and supporting the KIS faculty, who organize and implement the fun ideas our PTA helps develop. The PTA is just one more way that we, as parents, can participate in our children’s education, by giving voice to opinions and raising questions that directly affect our children’s academic experience. The PTA also provides a fun way to not only connect with teachers, but also interact with other parents, while working together to build-up and enrich our KIS community. We hope you will consider how you may be involved—if you are interested in serving on a PTA committee or as the PTA representative for your child’s class, please contact your child’s homeroom teacher. We look forward to seeing what we can do together as a PTA to make KIS the best experience for each one of us—from students to teachers, from faculty to parents.