News
Director’s Message
The first six weeks of school have passed and one wonders where the time has gone. September was full of many activities, from Open House to the Charity Road Run. The Middle School and High School students elected a new Student Council and we congratulate Joaquín Ramírez,President; Xavier Suárez, Vice President; Luis Ovares, Treasurer; Karina Barles, Secretary and José Rui Prudencio, Activities Coordinator.
We have planted the seeds for the start of the Community Service Program thanks to the leadership of Ms. Barbara Cruz, Ms. Mildred Hipolito and NHS President Michelle Marchiano. Please assist us in our initial food and clothing drive as our own night guard, José Luis Sotelo, lost his house in the recent floods. Thank God his family was able to flee the tragedy; nevertheless, they lost all of their personal belongings.
The boys and girls volleyball teams have started their season and have had a few games to date. The enthusiasm of the students and parents is nice to see as they faithfully support our teams. We thank the Coaches, Mr. Cornejo, Mr. Nuñez and Mr. Diermissen for their hard work in preparing our students for the competition.
The Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) and the whole staff had their first two day meeting with Sara Exposito, our TLC consultant. The initial focus of “Bringing Writing to Life” and the ILT efforts has already produced positive results with our students in the writing area. Please see the summary of the ILT for more in-depth information on the writing process.
The Yearbook staff and sponsor Ms. Marjorie Villegas are working diligently on the preliminary steps of getting this year’s book started. An important part of yearbook staffs duties is to arrange the student pictures. Ms. Villegas has thoroughly organized every aspect with the photographer and teachers and we look forward to having superb pictures for everyone.
Finally, we look forward to another vigorous month of activities in October. The first quarter ends, we have Teacher/Parent Conferences, AASCA Volleyball Tournament, Festival de Jóvenes de la Iglesia Vida Abundante, Halloween Dance and much more. Please check the calendar for the dates and times and come and support the students and the school.
October News from the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT)
Two amazing months of school have gone by and all AIS teachers, students, and the administration continue to be committed to “Bringing Writing to Life” at AIS.
The slogan, “Bringing Writing to Life” was adopted last year by AIS, to reflect the school’s commitment to improve the practice of teaching and learning writing at all grade levels and in all subject areas.
This year’s commitment is to empower students through writing, giving them more tools and the experience to use these tools to become high-achieving writers.
All students will continue using the writing process and they will focus on their writing using six traits, or qualities, to become better writers. Students will be able to evaluate the quality of a certain trait through rubrics. A rubric is a chart that lists the traits or characteristics for a specific form of writing.
Students will also be exposed to the diverse genres, or types of writing. Each genre will be introduced according to grade level. We will continue focusing on Narrative writing, as well as Expository, Persuasive and Research writing.
We encourage all parents to play an active role in this on-going commitment!
The Writing Process: Working on your writing, one-step at a time!
1. Prewrite: Choose a topic, gather details about it, and make a plan to organize the details.
2. Write: Creating the first draft is the exciting step of getting all the ideas down on paper.
3. Revise: Review the first draft, add new details, delete what does not belong, and change parts that are not clear.
4. Edit: Look over the revised writing for mistakes in capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.
5. Publish: Share the final copy.
The Six Plus One Traits: A trait in writing is a quality, or characteristic, that a writing piece shares.
1. Ideas: The heart of the message, the main theme.
2. Organization: The structure, the threat of central meaning, and the flow of supporting details.
3. Voice: The writer’s heart, soul, and feelings coming out through words.
4. Word Choice: The use of rich, enlightening language.
5. Sentence Fluency: The rhythm and flow of the language.
6. Conventions: The mechanical correctness of a piece, the grammar.
Plus One: Presentation: Should look neat and follow guidelines and design.
"Lessening Our Ecological Footprint"
With the help of cafeteria staff, students and teachers, AIS is now diverting over 7 kg of organic waste per day from garbage dumps. Don Pablo, Rafa and Mr. Herbert have constructed a worm farm and compost pile just off campus to recycle organic waste from the cafeteria into topsoil. Mr. Herbert is working on an algorithm to calculate the amount of greenhouse gases that AIS is preventing from contributing to global warming.
Ms. Adriana the nurse, AIS National Honor Society and Mr. Herbert are collaborating with the reforestation project "A Que Siembras un Arbol" (www.aquesembrasunarbol.com). During the first week of October, over 50 trees will be planted on campus and taken home by students to plant in their communities.
Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)
I have scheduled an initial meeting for the PTO and the Director for Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 1:45 pm.
The purpose of the meeting is to set-up the organization of the PTO, initiate discussion for the election of PTO officers, explain the purpose and function of the PTO from the Director’s perspective, and begin to list the annual activities that are traditional PTO events.
I look forward to meeting with all the interested Parents that want to start a new vision for the PTO. The focus will be to look ahead on the positive things we can do and leave the past behind. Thank you for your enthusiasm and understanding.
Sincerely,
Austin Briggs Jr.
Healthy Children Ready to Learn
Healthy, active, and well-nourished children and youths are more likely to attend school and are more prepared and motivated to learn. Habits that have a proportional impact on school performance are: nutrition, sleep and physical activity.
• Make certain your child has plenty of sleep. An acceptable nights rest is key to proper functioning during the day. Researchers found teachers rated students who got eight hours or less of sleep as having the most trouble remembering older material, learning new lessons, and completing high-quality work.
• Give your child a nutritious breakfast before school and snack after school. Eating healthy not only gives your child’s body the strength it needs to move, but the fuel to think, as well. Poor eating habits can cause problems with concentration, mood, energy, and focus, and can directly impact a child’s ability to learn, not to mention that fats and sugars can cause childhood obesity.
• Physical activity was consistently related to improvements in self-esteem, self-concept, depressive symptoms, and anxiety/stress. Research has shown that students engaged in regular physical activity, obtained higher scores in Math and language courses.
Equally important to teaching your child about eating right and exercising is showing him. Adopting a healthy lifestyle yourself will influence his habits forever.
“BRINGING WRITING TO LIFE”
Since writing is our area of focus, the third graders have been working on two writing genres, narrative and expository writing. This is a sample of an outstanding expository writing from a third grader.
Living in Costa Rica
I like Costa Rica, discover why!
The Flag
I like the colors of the flag because it has various colors which are my favorites. I like them because the blue represents the sky, white represents the peace, and red represents the blood shed by the ones that fought for this country.
The Animals
I like the animals, especially the jaguar because it's cool and ferocious. I also like the white-tailed deer which is a national Costa Rican emblem.
The Flora
I like Costa Rica's flora because it is really nice. My favorite flower is the “Guaria Morada” because it is the national flower.
The Mountains
I like the mountains because they look green, fresh, and peaceful. I visit the mountains often because I have a little house there.
Peace
Costa Rica is a very peaceful place because there are no wars.
The People
In Costa Rica there are more than four million people. There are white, black, and brown people, but no matter what we look like, we are all kind.
Natural Resources
I like Costa Rica's natural resources. My favorite is the rain. I like rain because it gives us the chance to grow and live, but guess what? I hate when there are thunders.
Volcanoes
I like volcanoes because they look beautiful. My favorite one is the Arenal because it is active.
And for all these reasons I love Costa Rica.
By Ariana Valdelomar