ISY Elementary Blog

Elementary Update – April 24th, 2020

Sandy Sheppard, Elementary School Principal

Dear all,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thingyan Break, it is great to be back doing Virtual Learning and supporting our families.

I hope everyone received their child/ren progress reports and that you had the opportunity to meet with your child’s class teacher. This was a wonderful opportunity to remain connected.

I would like to take a moment to thank our teachers for the wonderful job they are doing. They are all working very hard to plan engaging lessons and ensure your child/ren learning continues. We are constantly in communication an I know they all miss the students so much.

Next week I will be hosting a parent coffee morning, look below for more information.

This week we had our first ‘Global Learners, Virtual Wednesdays’ for KG through to Grade 5, we celebrated Earth Day. Participation by students was high and the feedback was that everyone enjoyed the opportunity to have a little fun and do something different. We are very proud of our Earth-Heroes and Eco-Warriors who continue to protect our beautiful planet. See lots of pictures to celebrate this event below.

Next week you will receive slides for learning every day.

Wishing you all the best.

Sandy Sheppard

 

WE CARE

We care about our families and no matter where you are we are here for you..

Parent Coffee Morning

On Thursday, April 30, 2020, at 9:30-10:15 AM Yangon time I will be hosting a Elementary school parent coffee. Please join Mr. Hedger, Ms. Patty, Mr. Simpson, and Myself for a coffee chat. We look forward to seeing you soon. The agenda will include the following:
  • Updates
  • Counselor update
  • Wellness tips
  • Question and Answers

To join the meeting please click on this Zoom Link.

Global Learners, Virtual Wednesdays

Our special Wednesday’s will continue next week. As a reminder we will by providing learning that we hope will meet the following student needs:

  • Ensure we remain connected to the ISY Mission and Vision and our ISY Learner Attributes with a focus on Compassion, Creativity, and Critical Thinking.
  • Allow for interdisciplinary learning, which is a key part of what we do during our normal school days
  • Provide variety for students to ensure we continue to spark interest and engagement in Virtual Learning. 

You will still receive slides on a Tuesday afternoon for Wednesday work, however, the expectations will differ from what normally happens on the other four days of the school week.

We hope the students will find the activities meaningful and fun. We will aim to balance screen time with non-screen time.

Next Wednesday is dedicated to our school Mission and the focus will be on ‘compassion’. There are lots of fun activities planned. We will also be having our first virtual recess time. We hope you can all get involved.

IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM:
Elementary School Welcome Back Slides
We wanted to welcome everyone back to school and let you know how much we missed our community and how ready we were to continue with Virtual Learning. See the slides here.
PE Newsletter
Mr Wyatt and Ms Lisa put together their first PE Newsletter, this newsletter has important information about the PE program and can be found here.
 A Musical Message
Just in case you missed it here is the video made by the faculty at ISY.  Wherever you are in the world, you can count on us!  It’s on both the Facebook page and the YouTube Channel. Enjoy.
Message from the Director
Dr. Hedger’s second message for the whole community can be viewed both on our Facebook page and on our YouTube Channel. In this video Dr.Hedger talks about how we are all feeling right now and gives some ideas about how we can continue with our daily lives in our changed circumstances.

UPCOMING DATES

29th April – Second Global Citizens, Virtual Wednesday

30th April – Elementary Coffee Morning for Parents

1st May – No school

4th June – Report Cards

10th June – Last day of school for the 19-20 school year

EMAIL CONTACTS

Principal – ssheppard@isyedu.org

Counselor – escounselor@isyedu.org

Office – office@isyedu.org

COUNSELOR’S CORNER

Weekly, through a format called Counselor’s Check-In,  I contact students to get a general wellness measure of our students.  This week I asked the students how they felt about the announcement that the school campus would not reopen until next school year.  Throughout the grade levels a theme of grief surfaced.  Typically one connects grief with a loss of life or death but more broadly grief is the loss of expectations. The impact of Covid-19 is multifaceted and has numerous areas in which student’s  expectations may not be met. The sudden but needed campus closure, although necessary for public safety, left farewells unsaid, parties not celebrated, projects undone and milestones acknowledged in different ways.  So how can we help our students process these feelings?  Here are a few thoughts.

  1.   Encourage your child to talk about his or her feelings.  As parents we often want to fix things.  Telling them that things will be okay and to forget their sad or disappointed feelings.  Accept their feelings as valid and understand that these feelings will and can change quickly.
  2. Be creative.  Many students in my survey indicated they were sad they wouldn’t be able to say good-bye to friends or teachers.  Although we aren’t on campus saying good-bye can be a powerful tool for closure.  Get creative and brainstorm together alternative ways to say farewell to important people.
  3. Be in the moment.  When emotions are strong, help your child focus on the present.  Breath deeply, take inventory of the senses (how does this feel, look, smell, taste?) or flex and relax muscles.
  4. Make social connections.  Virtual play dates and attending class meetings are important for students to feel connected with their friends and teachers.  Starting this Wednesday, ISY will offer a weekly virtual recess time for students in each grade to play games, engage in conversation and participate in activities. 

 If you are interested in further exploring this issue, please feel free to contact me, Ms. Patty, at escounselor@isyedu,org or review these helpful articles.  I am available for individual meetings with parents and students throughout the week.

Articles:

That Uncomfortable Feeling you are Having is Grief by Scott Berinato

 

However you are Feeling Right Now is Totally Normal by Abigail Libers

 

Virtual Learning

Please feel free to send in virtual learning photos that I can put in this blog. Below you can see some of the pictures from our Earth Day on Wednesday.

In case you want something to do as a family see the scavenger hunt below. If you take part please take a photo and send it to me at my email above. They will be featured in next weeks blog. If you cannot get outside next week I will feature a scavenger hunt for inside items.

 

Scavenger Hunt fun

I can’t wait to see your pictures

Previous Elementary School Posts

Elementary Update September 27

Elementary Update September 27

The teachers enjoyed the Compassion Conference on Friday. They were able to learn not only new ideas but be inspired by our keynote speaker, Wilma Derksen. I hope that many of you were also able to attend Wilma’s parent talk this week.

Elementary Update September 20

Elementary Update September 20

This week on Wednesday I visited the ISY Nay Pyi Taw campus where there are lots of fabulous things happening.
At ISY we continue enjoying our learning.

Elementary School Blog- Sept 13

Elementary School Blog- Sept 13

It seemed that the rain this week purposely chose to come down at break and dismissal times. The rain never hampers our fun here at ISY though and in between the rain we had lots of creative fun outdoors this week (see pictures below).

Elementary School Blog – Sept 6

Elementary School Blog – Sept 6

Dear Parents, It has been another fantastic week at ISY. We have really settled into the school year and we look forward to sharing with you all the wonderful things that are happening in our classrooms over the coming weeks.

Elementary School Blog – August 30

Elementary School Blog – August 30

Thank you for the great turn out at the Back to School event this week. We appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules to join us. A good home and school connection is so important for student learning.

Elementary School Blog – August 23

Elementary School Blog – August 23

Dear all,
This has been a wonderful first full week at ISY. The students have settled into their classrooms an are enjoying school life. In particular the new playground is proving to be very popular.