Technology and Science Pages updated

The Technology page has been updated by Rakia Segev on the work they are doing in designing and creating C02 Dragsters.
The science page has been updated with some pictures and video of the Water Systems Presentations.

Visiting Author...

Today we were so privileged to have author Nic Bishop visit with us for the day.
Mr Bishop has lived such an interesting life, beginning as a TCK like so many of our students at TCIS, travelling around the world with his parents as they worked in different countries.
During his time in Papua New Guinea as a teen, Mr Bishop develop a love of and skills in photography. His first book was panorama pictures of his photographs taking while trekking and hiking in different parts of the world.
His true passion however lies with photographing and capturing animals. Originally he wanted to be an adult non-fiction author. His first books were aimed at this audience. However he soon found children were far mosre interested in his pictures and adventures and so developed into a children's author.
Mr Bishop has photographed the rarest and most dangerous animals all over the planet. His stories were intriguing, interesting and amusing.
I hope he inspired some writers and photographers today through his adventures.

His next ventures will focus on Big Cats and also Penguins. It will take him about a year to travel and photograph the subjects of his next book.

Volleyball Jamboree at SFS

On Saturday students and teachers were up bright and very early to travel to SFS to play Volleyball and Table Tennis.

Students enjoyed playing different teams for SFS, KIS, YISS in Volleyball. We won some sets and we lost some sets.
Here is a link to some pictures I took with my iPhone while coaching
https://plus.google.com/photos/111213436158254329273/albums/5851105498314357185?authkey=CK7n7YK4j6LqqQE

Science Olympiad

Update from Ms Susan Kim.

"Our trip to and back from GSIS was safe and sound, and the students had fun.
 5 schools, including TCIS, competed in this year's Science Olympics. 
There were 4 different activities.
One activity was called "super paper". The aim was to support textbooks using structures made by 3 A4 papers only.
TCIS came in second place. 
We were able to stack 58 thick science textbooks; we were running the first place until YISS stacked 72 books in the afternoon!
 We also won a medal for the egg-drop device activity, scoring 93 out of 100- highest of all 20 teams. "

Please check The Arts, PE and Science pages for updates...

Miss Loo has updated The Arts page with some pictures relating to the Radio Play students are working on for the Creative Arts Showcase.
Click on The Arts tab for more information.
Mrs Pearse has updated the PE page with the latest from her Health unit. Check out the embedded wall wisher on her page.
Miss Kim has also updated the Science page, so click on the Science tab for some more pictures and information on what they have been doing in class.

Bullying education in Grade 8 Homerooms

Mrs Gunther, our counsellor,  has graciously been working with Grade 8 homerooms on Bullying issues.
Here are some notes I took during the first session.

What is your bullying IQ? 

What do you know about it?

Physical, verbal, humiliation, group, individuals, bystanders, gossip, talking behind back, back stabbing. (student responses) 

Who's responsibility is it to stop it?
You have a personal responsibility to let the person know you didn't like it. You need to speak up for yourself and to take action.

What about when something starts funny and is a joke but then it changes and you don't like it?
It's ok to say stop. You don't have to feel guilty about changing your mind and letting people know they hurt your feelings.

You need to find a way to let people know if they have crossed your line of comfort.

Who's responsibility is it to recognize that the fooling around has crossed the line?
The individual, group? 
Everyone has a responsibility if they recognise the line has been crossed. 

Why do people go along with bullying? 

What happens to the bullying behavior? 

If you don't set your personal limit for how you want people to treat you, it will always be a problem.

Here is the link to the Google slide Powerpoint that Mrs Gunther used and has shared with us.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NZWLFcWA5zfwNZnJJ_swWSkRg5FY9wakrlAeChDXz5o/edit?usp=sharing

Student of the Month for December/January

On Monday we honored another outstanding Grade 8 student- Mary Kim for Student of the Month.

She has taken on additional responsibilities by blogging for the Grade 8 blog. Despite being busy, she always has time for others.

In addition to her selfless attitude towards others and asking great questions, she is a warm, friendly person with a ready smile. She's as thoughtful in her relationships as she is in setting personal goals and doing excellent work.

She is incredibly focused and diligent in her work. She takes responsibility for her learning by asking questions in class and participating in classroom discussion. She is a good example to her peers of how to be principled, caring and a risk taker all at the same time.

She is a great example to all of us of how to persevere on challenging tasks with good humor.

CONGRATULATIONS MARY!