This week was our Home Languages event and we were delighted to welcome over some students from our secondary school to help us celebrate!  Students from Spain, Saudi Arabia, Angola and Kazakhstan came in some of our classes and shared books in their language with our primary students. Parents also came in to school to share songs and stories.

‘Students made many connections between words for different foods in Greek and Arabic’ Andy Year 2 teacher

‘My brother read a story to us. It was very good to have my brother in my class’ Pablo Y1

‘I enjoyed teaching them words in Arabic. They were really good!’ Bashayer secondary student

‘I was like a giant to them!’ Ignacio – secondary student

Year five also interviewed parents and  secondary school students about their experiences of migrating to UK. This formed part of some authentic inquiry into their Unit about internal and international migration. 

 ‘Mario did really well. We learned that Angola is a country in Africa’ Obeye Y5

‘Interviewing the secondary school students helped very much’ Jessica Y5

Parents came into Nursery and Reception class to help their children make models of their houses in their home country. This linked in with their Unit on homes around the world.  The children loved having their parents in class with them and it was a great opportunity for parents to share in their children’s learning experiences. 

‘We were building all different houses. We even played a game!’ Sara N/R

Many students brought in food to help celebrate the event. Many thanks to everyone who shared some delicious cakes and snacks.

‘I liked the Arabic cakes’ Bjargey Y2

‘The children were delighted to bring in snacks form their home country’ Mandy Y3 teacher 

Many thanks to everyone who helped make this another memorable day for our students!

To see more photos of the celebrations, please visit ICS on Flickr.

Katherine Tyler, Language Co-ordinator

The NAACE Conference and ICT Impact Awards Event this weekend was inspiring and allowed me to promote ICS and some of our innovative use of technology. I passed on our information regarding the Flipped Classroom Approach to one colleague who attended the conference via Twitter.

This was picked up by NAACE who re-tweeted the link to our "Flipped Classroom" blog post to their 3393 followers (educators and educational policy makers at all levels)!

By Dr Katya Toneva, Director of ICT

The International Community School is pleased to announce that Dr Katya Toneva has been shortlisted for a Naace ICT Impact Award 2012.  The honour in question is the Award for Advisor or Consultant or Support Service for developing valuable case studies in the area of mobile learning in her role as Director of ICT at ICS and she has been selected alongside others, such as Microsoft and national advisor, Derek Robertson.

We are delighted to see that Dr Toneva’s team work has been recognised by this national ICT association of esteemed educators, technologists and policy makers. We wish her all the best for the finals of this prestigious national award, to be announced at the Naace Conference 2012 tomorrow.

On Monday 5th March, ICS in corporation with the TRAID Charity organised a Fairtrade afternoon. Students had the opportunity to learn more about Fairtrade, and theoretical trade organisations working towards a more equal world. 

Through different workshops we examined various questions such as:

Why trade should be fair? 

How individuals can be part of a fair trade chain? 

Which products come via Fairtrade and why should we buy them? 

During the Practical Upcycling workshop run by TRAID we explored creative solutions to reduce waste of clothing through sewing, making and mending. The students enjoyed redesigning and remaking their old clothes so that they can still be worn.

There was also a Fair Trade Screen Saver Designer Competition for students interested in ICT and the winning entry, by Arthus Vielvoye (MYP4), will be used onschool PCs. 

The most popular workshop was the Fairtrade Lunch Option - Making Fairtrade Food. Students in this workshop discovered healthy and Fairtrade food options and also baked a cake made of mostly Fairtrade ingredients - it was very nice!

Another important workshop was the Banana Split Role Play Game, where participants discussed how products travel from their original country to the shops of London. The aim of this game was to understand and act out the roles of  a farmer, a plantation owner, a shipper, a ripener and supermarket in the trade chain.

Students and teachers spent a great few hours together enjoying the activities and learning about Fairtrade. We all look forward to the next Fairtrade event at ICS!

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54176775@N07/5074456299/

We are a pilot group of teachers who would like to share our understanding about how this approach could enhance teaching and student learning.

We would like to involve other colleagues from the International Community School (ICS), London to consider and try out this approach and post relevant observations and comments on this blog.

We welcome views from external educators and educational advisers as well.

Please click on the links below and watch the video clips - these materials highlight the key ideas we are keen to develop:

A brief introduction to the concept of "Flipped classroom".

Teacher's feedback about the benefits of using "Flipped classroom" approach in Maths.

Ean Orlando Alleyne (IB MYP Coordinator/ Head of Mathematics, ICS) explains  the "Flipped Classroom" concept and shares ideas for a pilot development of "flipping lessons" facilitated by ICT.

You may create your own resources. For example, Genevieve Hiltebrand (a Maths teacher in ICS) shared an excellent resource she created to "flip" her classroom and reflected on her approach: "As part of their homework, the students were required to watch this video and to make notes about points they could not understand. During a lesson (exam preparation review) the students were encouraged to discuss similar examples they had been working on at home and to ask questions if anything was unclear."

In this way, the teacher used the lesson time more effectively increasing the interaction with students and focusing on student "active learning".

You may find suitable resources shared by other teachers via KHAN ACADEMY: http://www.khanacademy.org/about

By Dr Katya Toneva, Director of ICT and teams 

Today, March 1^st, marks World Book Day! And this week at ICS we have been celebrating World Book Week with a variety of activities, including:

1. Storytelling workshops:

We had a professional Storyteller visit yesterday and run workshops with a large number of our pupils. Students learnt about the nature of oral storytelling, listened to some stories and participated in a variety of activities.

2. Raising money for Readathon

We are also participating in a Readathon to raise money for unwell children. As part of this students are being sponsored to read every day this week.  The results of our fundraising should be out in a week or so, so watch this space.

3. DEAR (Drop Everything and Read):

DEAR is a brilliant scheme and one which really helps to recognise and promote the benefits of reading.  Therefore, in order to celebrate this, every day this week the whole school has ground to a halt for ten minutes of dedicated reading.

How have you been celebrating World Book Week?