ISY Elementary School Blog

ISY Elementary Blog

An Important Last Quarter

Mike Simpson, Elementary School Principal

April 2, 2021

Given all that is going on at the moment, we should be careful not to forget that we still have a quarter of the school year left to run! This week, our teachers have been busy writing Quarter 3 reports and planning Quarter 4 units.

The final quarter of any school year is very important. It is an opportunity to review and consolidate the key skills that students have covered earlier in the year and add to them in preparation for the next year. This is often the quarter that students make the deepest connections and the most progress in their learning.

It has been a long year and this will be a challenging quarter but our teachers are working hard to engage and inspire your children to keep working hard right up until the end of the year.

If you are planning on leaving Yangon for this last quarter, please email me at msimpson@isyedu.org and our admissions department at admissions@isyedu.org so we can plan accordingly for your child(ren).

COUNSELOR’S CORNER with Ms. Patty:

Change Again!

Change is a natural part of life but this past year change has and continues to dominate our lives. Many have thought, surely this change will be the last – only to be surprised with another rapid change in which we are needing to react. It can be exhausting. So how can we better ensure a successful change? A few things to think about:

Acknowledge the change. Better to address the discomfort of the unknown than to ignore those feelings. Denial will only put off uncomfortable feelings not dismiss them entirely. All feelings are okay. Sadness, hurt, anger and frustration are just as needed and valid as more desired feelings such as, happy, content and joyful. So don’t be afraid to experience the less desired emotions, they bring value to the experience as well.

Frame the stress. Stress accompanies all change. Although most people assume all stress is bad, when framed in a specific way, stress can spur us on, motivate and allow us to persevere.

Find support. Change requires help. It’s important to use the resources around us.

Remember the basics. Staying healthy during a life change requires healthy choices. Proper nutrition, regular physical exercise and consistent sleep habits are all important.

Good luck and best wishes as you approach your next challenging change. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to Ms. Patty at escounselor@isyedu.org

Yearbook Photos

Everyday next week we will have open times when anyone who hasn’t already had a yearbook photo can come in and have one. These will be between 7:45 – 8:45 am and between 1:30 – 3:30 pm. Simply come to the B Building which is the small administration building next to the soccer field. You don’t have to make an appointment but please make sure you are wearing a mask, that you wash your hands and that while waiting you socially distance yourself from each other.

If you can’t make one of these days for any reason you can send in a photo for us to edit and add to the yearbook. Mr. Ailes has been joining classes virtually to help with this but you can also send in your own photo. Below is a video with the kind of photo we are ideally looking for. In the video Mr. Ailes suggests a stool but standing against a blank wall is also fine. Also, try to make sure your child is smiling and please make sure you tell us who the photo is of. Finally, don’t worry about cropping the photo as Mr. Ailes will do that for you.

Instructions for taking a Yearbook photo

Where we are missing photos by the end of the year we will simply use last year’s photo or for new students a photo we have on record but it’s always nice to have a fresh photo. Photos can simply be sent to communications@isyedu.org

QUARTER 3 PROGRESS REPORTS

Your child(ren)’s Quarter 3 Progress Reports will be available on Powerschool next Friday, April 9.

STUDENTS IN YANGON OVER THINGYAN

Please fill in this Students in Yangon Over Thingyan form to join a list of families staying in Yangon over the Thingyan break.

The purpose of the list is to let families know who is still in Yangon so ISY children can connect over the break if families wish.

We will share the list with those people who have responded to this form next Wednesday, April 7 so they can contact each other.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PREFERENTIAL PLAY TIMES

With students no longer being able to attend Transitional Day classes on campus, we have decided to set aside weekly times between 2:30pm and 3:30pm for each grade level to have preferential access to the facilities and playground. These times will provide opportunities for students in the same classes and grades to connect and play in person

Schedule:

Monday: Pre-Kindergarten & Grade 1
Tuesday: Kindergarten & Grade 2
Wednesday: Pre-Kindergarten & Grade 3
Thursday: Kindergarten & Grade 4
Friday: Grade 5

You can use this ES Preferential Play Times Sign Up Form to book a time for you and your children to come on campus as per the schedule above. The same rules for facility use apply:

We can only have up to 30 community members on campus at any one time (including adults and children)
Every child must be actively supervised by a responsible adult at all times. There will be no ISY staff or faculty supervision.Students cannot be dropped off at school without adult supervision.
Masks must be worn at all times by both adults and children. This is particularly important for us to be able to safely keep our campus open for our community.
Siblings may come on campus with their brother or sister during their brother or sister’s play time (e.g. a Grade 1 student may come on to campus with their grade 2 sibling during the Grade 2 play time)

INTERNET PROBLEMS & OFFLINE LEARNING

We have done some planning for the unlikely event that there is a country wide permanent loss of access to Google tools. In that event everyone should log in to PowerSchool and look for the menu item on the left side of the screen called ‘Office 365 Credentials’. Here you will see a single user name and password for both email and for documents. The email has already been set up such that all school email from now on is being forwarded to the alternative email platform. The documents platform is the place where teachers would upload documents for students. There is no need to log in to Office 365 before losing access to Google. It is advisable, however, to login to PowerSchool just to make sure you know your login and password. If anyone needs help with logging in you can review this simple guide to resetting your password and if that doesn’t help you can contact the PowerSchool Help team at powerschool@isyedu.org.

Although we have yet to lose complete access to the internet during the school day, we do have a plan for this happening. In that event, students not involved in a transition day, will work from home on pre-arranged work that they have downloaded already. Elementary School teachers have sent a download to parents today and Secondary School parents and students will be getting their downloads on Monday. Secondary students and Upper Elementary students will go through the download process with their teachers in class. It is important that this work is downloaded as soon as it is received so no use of the internet will be required to access the instructions. These downloads will be updated from time to time in line with the progress of students through their various studies.

Offline Learning Activities in the Elementary School:

The grade level emails you receive every Friday have a PDF document attached. This document is a selection of Offline Learning Activities. Students are to do these activities only if we lose internet access and classes cannot proceed online. These activities are connected to what we are doing in class but they are only to be done on days that we cannot meet as a class. When classes resume, students will share and reflect on their work. Please download the PDF Offline Learning Activities Document when you receive the email on Friday. In this way these Offline Learning Activities will be immediately available to students if we lose internet access in the following week.

Below is a video that outlines how to download a PDF document:

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