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October 2014

Volume 1, I ssue 1

Albanian International School Newsletter

Greetings, AIS Parents, Guardians and Stakeholders!

Our year is now well underway, and our students are meeting appropriate challenges in both their core and special subjects. We were pleased with the large turnout of families for our European Languages Day September 26. Our special events for October include the Bashkia Fier Apollonia field trip October 16 (SEND IN 1200 LEK PER STUDENT, PLEASE!), and the Halloween Open House October 31.

We are very pleased with the smooth transition accomplished by Ms. Ellen in our kindergarten class, after joining us at the start of our fourth week, September 22. Ms. Ellen is getting to know her students, their parents, and our school; and we find it is a pleasure working with her. We have also welcomed a new Albanian teacher, Ms. Riketa Shyti; a new preschool assistant, Ms. Jonida Basha; and a new physical education teacher, Ms. Migena Hoxha. Mrs. Fate Shehu will also be staying with us, to teach Albanian for grades one through four. We now have a great staff we look forward to working with throughout the year.

Our head teacher, Mr. Dan Hulse; parent volunteer Mrs. Alma Mulaj; school secretary Ms. Marsi Tahiri; school librarian Mrs. Ilira Pitarka and I have all recently spent time with the Albanian Ministry of Education and Sport, working to ensure that our school upholds all of the highest educational standards. To that end, we have established six new governance committees, and we welcome parent participation on these:

Executive Director News

Board of Education Institution Student Government Structures Parent Council Discipline Committee Ethics and Conduct Committee Commission on Health and Safety

Please email our school secretary, Ms. Marsi, if you would like to participate on one of these committees. Thank you to parents Michelle Biring Pani, Juljana Berisha, and Alma Mulaj, who have already stepped forward to assist with the Parent Council. We have so many talented and dedicated parents at our school, and we are grateful for the many kinds of help all of you can and do provide.

Please note that October 16 marks the midpoint of Term One, and that October 17 is a school holiday. November 27 and 28 are also school holidays, and December 19 is the last day of Term One. You can view the complete school calendar on the school website, or posted throughout the school.

Thank you for entrusting your beautiful children to us. Sincerely, Margaret Fitzpatrick, Ph.D.

Contents

Executive Director News 1

Upcoming Events 1

Preschool News 2

Kindergarten News 2

1/2 Grade News 2

3/4 Grade News 3

5/6 Grade News 6

Art 4

French 5

Dr. Margaret F i tzpatr ick -Execut ive Director

Mr. Danie l Hulse -Head Teacher

Upcoming Events

October 16-Term 1 midpoint and Field Trip

October 17, November 27 & 28-School holidays

December 19-last day of

Term 1

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Welcome to the first month of preschool 1 & 2! We are delighted to welcome to our class so many new students. This month has

been one of new friends, new environments, new activities and new experiences! We have been working on:

1) Learning to paint & color

2) Acting out three different stories (“The Three Bears”, “The Gingerbread Man”, and “The Three Pigs”)

3) Learning new English conversations

4) Expanded circle time: learning to take the initiative, learning about self respect and taking responsibility

5) We are learning how to read a calendar, weather chart, the alphabet and numbers 1-20. We are learning about the 7 basic

shapes and 10 basic colors.

6) For EU Language Day we colored posters saying “good morning” in several different languages

7) We are also studying about life on the farm, writing our ABC’S, kitchen and classroom care and motor skill development.

Preschool News, with Ms. Barbara

September is a month of change, the bittersweet goodbye to summer, and the welcomed vibrant coloring of the trees and preparations of winter. It is also an exciting time for students, parents, and teachers.

In the coming weeks we will continue to develop our knowledge of letters and sounds. We will also begin talking about the seven continents, introducing spatial skills by locating specific points on Earth. We will also continue to develop our skills of sorting and graphing.

Our first week together consisted of review, assessment and getting to know each other. Overall I am impressed with their desire to learn, intelligence and kindness amongst each other. While I have been impressed with all kindergarten students, one shining star this month was David, not only were his animal impressions

entertaining at our European Languages Day gathering, he welcomed me and two new students with excitement and encouragement.

Kindergarten News, with Ms. Ellen

1st/2nd Grade News, with Mr. Scott

Page 2 of 4 AIS Newsletter Grade Level News

September has come and gone in a bit of a blur. We have accomplished a lot in a short time though. Nearly all of

our first graders now have a firm grasp on their alphabet knowledge, and are able to confidently pair basic phonetic

sounds with each letter. Reading is the priority for the first grade, so this is an awesome first step.

We have implemented the use of Hooked on Phonics to help our beginning phonetic readers to develop their

skills and confidence. We have also begun using various computer programs to allow the students to do practice drills

and use their new skills.

As we all know, a few of our students are brand new to the English language, and they have made remarkable

progress using Rosetta Stone, and by simple immersion in our English classrooms. I am very proud of the

accomplishments of all of my students who have been trying so hard.

The second graders have been doing a great job as well. We are well into our poetry unit, and are just

beginning to study Aesop’s Fables. Allowing the students to really try and understand the moral of each story teaches

them valuable life lessons.

Up to this point I have really encouraged all of my students to work at their own individual paces, and they have been doing quite well on the work that they have done. Progress reports have gone out to parents attesting to this. However, I think it is necessary now to pick up the pace a bit, and to push to the kids to progress a little bit faster so that we can cover more material and hit all of the Core Knowledge standards. I want to thank the parents for all of their support. You have been wonderful.

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Page 3 of 4 AIS Newsletter Grade Level News

The Grade Four boys were a big hit at our European Languages Day observation September 26, when they presented an overview of the purpose of the day, introductory to presentations by the other classes. Each boy learned his lines very well and enunciated beautifully.

Grade Four Math is coming along well, beginning with a thorough review of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, finding missing numbers, and writing numbers in expanded form. In History and Geography, the class learned about Canada at the start of the year, and has been studying major world rivers more recently. For language arts, we are reading Matilda, by Roald Dahl; learning about the writing process; and attending closely to conventions of language such as capitalization and correct spelling. In Science, we have learned about the human body, and now the boys are eager to dive into our brand new, colorful Science Fusion 4 work texts.

We were really pleased when Clive joined our class in mid-September, and all the boys have welcomed him into their boisterous days. The inaugural meeting of the Spiderman Fan Club was a big success September 23. This club was Arthur’s idea, and Dr. Fitzpatrick is the club sponsor. The boys agreed that henceforth the meetings will be held for one hour after school on Wednesdays, so that Helios can also join them when he is not at World Cup Soccer practice. Other AIS boys and girls are also welcome to join this club. Students who want to propose other clubs must first find a faculty or parent sponsor and then petition the executive director for permission.

3rd/4th Grade News, with Dr. Fitzpatrick

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Art Class, with Ms. Ida: It was the first month of school and since we had some new student this year. The first two weeks was little fun for them to express themselves. So they had some free classes! In the late weeks with the Pre- K we started with the craft letters. For the Letter A we did an Alligator and an apple. Kindergarten class started with some introduction with the art supplies at the end of their lesson they did “The Palette " the most important tool for an artist and we had our fun time by pretending to be like famous artist with their brushes and palettes . 1/2 Grade started by Elements of art : Lines , colors , shapes , texture , Some little color theory and we did some wonderful " Aquarelle " painting mixing those art elements all together in a white paper . 3/4 grade was a repetition of what we learned last year. We covered color theory, primary, secondary and complementary colors. We had to admit the watercolors paintings that they did wasn't that nice but at the end important it's to participate and to express our self. Hope we will do better with the shadows and light ;) 5/6 grade. I have to be proud of them! They did learn the art history last year and they did remember some of the things they've learned :) We learned about Ancient Rome and Greek art, historical architecture, status and frescos :) The last week of September they all worked for our "European Language Day” The stage that all you have seen in our show was made by them. It was a good beginning so I hope we'll have an excellent year! I want to thank them all for all they hard work! P.S: Bring an old T-shirt if you didn't yet. and if you have like recycled materials at home please bring Them to the art class so we can create our masterpiece ( plastic bottles , Toilet paper tube or kitchen paper tube , plastic cups and plates , jars and everything you think you can transform it in an art piece

French Class, with Mr. Beaugeard:

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Bonjour! Bienvenue at the AIS French classes! We started this year with a marvelous team of enthusiastic students and teachers.

The curriculum for French in the first months covers basic language learning for beginners and substantial revision for the others. This means learning the correct pronunciation for the alphabet and the use of a progressive syllabic of teaching reading for the first levels, and the vocabulary corresponding with each lesson. Meanwhile question and answer activities in French help the students to use the language and gain confidence.

The Pre-K French Immersion does not include any spelling or writing. A great emphasis is made about the difference between French and English. Learning French will later enhance their vocabulary for a better understanding of the best English literature.

We alternated these solid foundation lessons with funny practice activities such as acting and puppet shows for the youngsters, using the knowledge learned. We put these fun activities into practical use with greetings, being polite and soon family presentation and personal tastes.

The grammar tense for the moment is present. Educational videos, in which students have to recognize and repeat some words, learn facts, cultural concepts and research projects for the higher levels are also used to offer lesson variety.

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5th/6th Grade News STUDENT OF THE MONTH: Sibora “Bora Bora” Berisha!

` September has been a wonderful month here in the land of 5th and 6th graders. AIS has 6 wonderful

students in the combined class; all with unique personalities and strengths.

In Language Arts we are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and learning lots of new vocabulary

words from the book. We are learning how to recognize context clues and enhancing reading comprehension.

Every week we have a reading comprehension and vocabulary quiz associated with the 2 chapters we have

read. We are working hard on grammar as well, tackling subjects such as types of sentences, complete

sentences and subject/predicate. They are also responsible for learning grade appropriate vocabulary words

and learning their definitions and grade appropriate spelling words.

In History and Geography we just finished our unit on world lakes; learning about lakes in Africa, South

America, North America and Eurasia. We learned about the importance of lakes and their role in the

environment and in society. Currently we are studying deserts.. We are looking about the difference between

kingdoms and how to scientifically classify animals. Right now we are learning about the difference between

invertebrates and vertebrates. The class did so well for their unit assessment that they earned a pizza party

for achieving a certain class average on all chapter tests.

In Math we first tackled place value and number value. The class performed at a very high level, and we

breezed through that unit. GREAT JOB! Currently we are studying and working on how to add and subtract

negative and positive numbers, as well as how to solve the equations using a number line.

This has been a wonderful month! Lots of hard work and positive attitudes! Keep up the amazing work 5th

and 6th graders.

- Mr. Daniel Hulse-Head Teacher and 5th/6th Grade Teacher