Knowing Our Students

 

AISM teachers started the new school year by using a variety of strategies to get to know their students. Gathering information about the students helps us:

• to be connected with who they are as human beings
• to understand how they like to learn and how they don't like to learn
• to get a sense of the things that motivate them and don't motivate them
• to learn about the things that interest them and don't interest them
• to find out what they see as their learning strengths and things they feel less confident about
• to learn about their goals, principles, beliefs and values

Grade 3 Students Taking Action for Change

 

Dynamic duo, Chica and Zayli, in Grade 3, have been working on their passion project every week on Flex Fridays. Their plan is to raise money for Mozambican schools that need more educational materials or to done to organizations that provide clean drinking water to children - they're still deciding! They are raising the money by selling products made of Capulana material.

Chica and Zayli intend to continue with this project next year, when they are in Grade 4, and so they want the community to know about the project and keep an eye out for it next school year!

Grade 8 Students' Science Research Published Online!

 

Grade 8 Students at AISM explored how scientists use evidence to study the process of evolution. They took part in an academic research process and wrote about what they discovered. This magazine is the result of their efforts. It is 100% researched, written, edited, laid out, and published by students. Take a look and see what they were curious about when exploring evolution. The results will blow you away.

Please click on the image or on this link to see the magazine.

Grade 6 "A Little Bit of Stomp" Performances

 

Grade 6 students have been combining story-telling and the creation of rhythms using everyday objects. It started out as a fairly simple musical project, but the students' imaginations,  creativity and desire to explore and experiment with costumes and props turned it into something bigger and better than the original plan!

Here's the Grade 6 Virtual Theatre showing, for one week only... "A Little Bit of Stomp"!

Amazing Grade 8 Human Rights Essays

For their final summative assignment in Individuals & Societies, the Grade 8 students were asked to produce a formal research essay using criteria adapted from the Grade 12 Extended Essay rubric to explore and evaluate a chosen human rights topics of interest. They were asked to use peer-reviewed academic journals to inform their research as they followed guidelines adapted from AISM's Big 6 Research Planner.

Here are some examples of the work they have produced (click on the images below to go to their work):

The Grade 12 IB Diploma Visual Art Virtual Exhibition is live!

 

This year, five Grade 12 students did Visual Art for their IB Diploma. Fortunately, they were able to invite their parents on to the campus to come and see their exhibition in real life, and most other grade levels in the school also came to see it. However, because of the current restrictions, the whole school community were not able to come. Now, through the virtual gallery, you are4 also able to explore the students' art work and learn more about the Artists, their methods and their artistic intentions.

Enjoy!

www.dpartexhibition2021.aism.co.mz

The Buffalo Trail Podcast - a CAS project

 

Grade 11 students Beamlak, Rylan and Isabelle, have been developing their Creativity, Activity and Service project in the form of a podcast. Through the Buffalo Trail Podcast, they are aiming to inspire curiosity, listen to and share different perspectives and increase the communication between different grade levels in the school.

You can listen to their podcast on Spotify:

 

You can listen to their podcast on iTunes:

 

... and we are also hosting the podcasts on the AISM Radio Soundcloud account!

AISM Radio · Buffalo Trail - Gerson and Jae Young

The MYP Personal Project Virtual Exhibition is Live!

 

Grade 11 students did an amazing job with their Personal Projects, with a very wide variety of topics being explored through this milestone experience.

Please get comfortable and spend a bit of time exploring the Virtual Exhibition so you can get a sense of what the students did, read some of their reports and see some of the products of their projects.

personalproject2021.aism.co.mz

Grade 10 Inquiry into the Sustainable Development Goals

Grade 10 are currently presenting the work they've done during their inquiry into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the outcome of the inquiry being a sustainable, actionable solution to a local issue (which is also a world-wide issue related to SDGs).

The context for the unit of inquiry was to develop an understanding of the impact of the linear economy globally, and to consider how the UN SDGs can overcome global issues, within a local context, with students carrying out personalised inquiries and creating sustainable solutions and action. This inquiry ties in with the transition of Grade 10 to the IB Diploma and High School programme in two ways: to mirror an inquiry into the UN SDGs as per the Environmental Systems and Societies Internal Assessment and to engage students in Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) experiences, building a foundation for continued action in Grade 11 and Grade 12.

The unit of inquiry began with guest speakers from within the AISM community. Niall Tierney spoke about the history of the UN SDGs and his own involvement in developing them and implementing them. Florentine Bourdeaux spoke about the application of a circular economic model of industrial production in Maputo at the Beluluane Industrial Park, working on transforming the park into an eco-industrial park. Colleen Fletcher and Jasmine Howell spoke about the importance of sustainable action (economic, social, environmental), based on indigenous knowledge bearers, the Compass Model and spheres of influence.

Here are a few examples of the presentations the students have put together.

Ashutosh and Arvind's work focuses on sustainable, affordable water filtration systems for the local community in order to promote Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG6) and to counter the use of single-use plastic and climate change:

Sanjana, Saira, Maria Clara and Georgia's work focuses on making organic hand sanitizer to support the Health and Well-Being (SDG 3) and Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) of a local school in order, ultimately, to influence Quality Education (SDG 4): 

             

Margret's work focused on Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) and ensuring sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, with a focus on Mozambique:

Madeleine's work focused on seeing if solar paint is a plausible innovation to develop Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7):

Content from the Association Meeting

 As Sam promised, here are the things that he referred to during the recent Association Meeting.

Here are the new IB Standards & Practices. They describe all of the the elements of a successful IB school. We use them to develop strategy, identify priorities and reflect on our practice. A team from the IB comes to the school every five years in order to do an evaluation visit and measure how the school is doing according to these standards and practices. It is normal for schools to be at different stages of development and evolution in the various aspects of the IB Standards & Practices.

Here is a video showing all of the attributes of the IB Learner Profile. Being and becoming these attributes is the higher purpose of an IB education and so it is important that all adults in the community of an IB school are aware of, know, understand and have high expectations for themselves and each other to demonstrate these attributes at all times.

This video is a great overview of the Ruler approach to emotional intelligence that we will be implementing throughout the school in the next couple of years, starting next academic year.

Here are the links to the Grade 5 PYP Exhibition, Grade 10 MYP Personal Project Exhibition and Grade 12 DP Extended Essay Exhibition... three major milestones in an IB education!

How the Zebra got its stripes!

 

Grade 6 and Grade 10 collaborated to put together this brilliant performance of a traditional African tale and showed that performances can still be done in the middle of a pandemic - the production was staged completely outside, masked and socially distanced!

Even more impressive is the fact that the students were able to entertain physical audiences on campus, online audiences through a Facebook live stream and countless other audiences through this video of the whole thing. All sorts of collaboration was necessary in order to make it all happen, showing how powerful drama is as a way of bringing community together.

AISM Earth Day Buffalo Talks

On the 31st of March, we continued our series of Buffalo Talks. These talks are aimed at connecting people in our community with people in Maputo and beyond who are taking action and doing work that reflects our school's mission.

The 31st of March was Earth Day, so the focus was on environmental issues. An inspiring line-up was created and the programme was put together and hosted by our amazing Grade 11 Environmental Committee - Lara and Jana.

Larissa Sousa spoke about the Girls' Education Programme in Gorongoza National Park. Her talk starts here.

Olivier Hamerlynck spoke about the incredible Macaneta wetlands, just a short drive from AISM. His talk starts here.

Dorkhanay Paykhar spoke about the Circular Economy and the work she is doing with the African Circular Economy Network. Her talk starts here.

The AISM MAP Help Center

 

The AISM MAP Help Center has been created as a "one-stop-shop" for all information regarding:

• the big picture of MAP Growth testing
• the implementation of MAP testing at AISM
• the disruptions to MAP testing during the pandemic
• the variables involved for students doing the test this year
• the importance of avoiding emotional reactions to MAP scores
• how to access MAP reports on Managebac
• how to look at an understand the MAP reports

Please make the most of the information on the AISM MAP Help Center as we believe the vast majority of your questions or concerns will be addressed in the content.

If you would like to talk about your child's MAP scores and do some interpretation and analysis together, please feel free to contact Sam Sherratt - sam.sherratt@aism-moz.com

The IB Learner Profile in the AISM Community

 

This is a video that shows the postcards we have designed in order to make the language of the IB learner profile more visible in our community. It features some beautiful photographs by some of our talented parents and teachers!

The IB learner profile is the most crucial element in the identity of an IB school like ours. The collective mission of IB schools is to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. This is the work of our whole community and can only be achieved when we are all doing our best to model the attributes of the IB learner profile to the young people we are educating and parenting. As the African proverb says, it takes a village to raise a child.

One of our current goals, as a school, is to rapidly bring the language of the IB learner profile to the surface in our community, to make it a priority to strive towards living it and to have high expectations for how we all behave and interact with each other. Keep an eye out for some of the initiatives that we hope will help us achieve those goals.

Feel free to contact Sam, our Director of Learning, if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions about how we can make this happen.

Grade 7 are Spoken Poets and Activists!

The current unit in 7th grade Integrated Arts is "Activism in the Arts". We're looking at some of the visual art, music and performance art that has come out of activist movements around the world. All students created a spoken word poem about a cause of their choosing. Spoken Word Poetry has become a popular performance art among young people especially as they share their voices to help change the world and show their own power for good.

Here are some examples of the spoken word poems that Grade 7 students have been producing.

Zara:

Ver no Vocaroo >>

Kate:

 

Francesca:

Raisa:

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

Powerful Poetry by Grade 9 Students

 

Grade 9 students have written, performed and produced videos for a variety of powerful, and personal, poems. These poems have been curated on the AISM Grade 9 Poetry Slam website. 

Click on the titles across the top of the webpage in order to access the pages for each individual poem, and don't forget to click "More" and scroll down the right-hand side of the webpage... there's more amazing poems there too!

4L Have Strong Opinions About Our Planet

How do you address your audience in a persuasive way? 

Grade 4L spent the last 8 weeks diving into deep issues around the world in our Sharing the Planet unit:

Central Idea: Interactions within environments have consequences

Lines of Inquiry:

• The cause and effect relationships within the environment
• How interactions impact environmental balance and sustainability
• How advancement in technology changes and affects the world around us.

Changing people's thinking about how we treat the planet was 4L's purpose behind learning how to write a strong and persuasive opinion text. 

We learned how to persuade readers by using a strong and bold thesis, reasons to support that thesis, and finally, examples to help us elaborate about our reasons. 

Please take a few minutes to read our published pieces and learn how you can share our planet responsibly.

We Need to Stop Poaching by Maelle

Stop Water Pollution by Mufaro

We Need to Stop Poaching by Elliana

Is Air Pollution a Problem? by Monica

We Need to Use Less Plastic by Hannah (coming soon!)

Deforestation Needs to Stop by Maia

We Need to Stop Deforestation Now!! by Makai

Climate Change by Tomas

Feel free to leave a comment on this post and share your opinions about sharing the planet too.

Photo by Richard Gatley on Unsplash

My Happy Place - A Poem by Joy Winter

 

Photo by Joy Winter

Our Virtual Library - Getting Real Books in the Hands of Students!

We are pretty proud of our AISM Virtual Library!

Getting real books into the hands of our students was a real priority at the start of this year, and the Library Team came up with a plan that would allow families to:

• go to the Virtual Library through our Virtual AISM site
• check the Library Catalogue
• complete a form in order to check books out
• request that they be left at the front gate of the school for collection
• come and collect the books
• read them!
• bring them back to the front gate
• have them checked back in to the system
• do it all again!

When books are returned, they are quarantined before becoming available for check-out again.

So far, there's been over 120 individual requests and roughly 350 books checked-out, read at home and then returned. The families whose names appear the most in the check-out forms are the Quelhas, Wei, Abraham, Ayala and Campos families - well done!

Please continue to make the most of this service in the next few months - it gives our Library Team great satisfaction to see books going out of, and coming back into, our Library.

"Dear World" by Mariana in Grade 3S

 

Dear World,

Everyone needs to “STOP RACISM” because you can't judge people by their color. Just because a person is a particular color, does not mean they are not nice or as special as anyone else. In fact we are all humans with: family members, eyes, nose, ears, bodies, lives, and friends. Maybe not all of us have shelter but we all learn and we need to support others and accept them the way they are.

My opinion is that it is very rude to be racist. Like what happened to Jorge Floyd, American police killed him just because of his skin color, and that's not right. He was: a dad, a brother, a son and most of all a young man and he was a human. It's unfair you are making people lose their self confidence and people will feel sad, anxious, a loser and uncomfortable with who they are.

Everyone has the right to be loved, have a family, have friends that love you. Everyone has the right to have freedom to be themselves, and live with freedom with no one judging them. People need to feel free in this world and feel confident with themselves.

“DON'T BE RACIST”

From: Your Mariana in 3S
To: Our amazing world!

Image from: https://www.gcftf.org/statement-against-racism-and-inequity/