Marist MailWinter, 2013

Mar

ist B

rothers International School

Marist Mail

Marist Brothers International School

Mar

ist B

rothers International School

© This newsletter and its content are copyright of Marist Brothers International

School. All rights reserved.

Welcome to the Winter edition of the Marist Mail. So much

has been happening over the past few weeks that we’ve had to spread recent content over two issues (the next will follow shortly in the new year).

Firstly, at the beginning of November, Mr. Lipp, Mrs. Jones and myself attended the annual EARCOS Administrators Conference which was held in Bangkok, Thailand. We were privileged to hear from amazing keynote speakers who were very inspiring and motivating. We also attended break-out sessions where we were able to discuss with other administrators, our success and our challenges at school. It was a very rewarding conference and we came away with many, many wonderful ideas. At school we recently were proud to host a two-day professional development conference by Google guru Rushton Hurley – teachers from Marist and other regional international schools came away from the experience with lots of cutting-edge tech info and strategies.

On November 9th, the school community celebrated their annual Food Fair and Bazaar. It was a spectacular day and fun was had by all. A special thank you to the hard working PTA who spent months organizing for this event.

Thank you also to all of the parents, alumni, teachers and friends who helped make and sell the delicious food. The day was made even more special by the performers who sang and danced on the stage. Thank you to everyone involved and for supporting our school.

You may have noticed recently that students and teachers are wearing “MARIST GOES GREEN” wristbands. These wristbands are to promote our current fundraising plan which is to artificially turf the field. Please stay posted for more green events such as our trivia night in January and our Fundraising Dinner in March. Your support and donations are truly appreciated and I look forward to having a green field in the near future.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for making the first half of the school year such an enjoyable success. I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you for your ongoing support of MBIS.

Marijana MunroHead of Schoolmunrom@marist.ac.jp

The Pumpkin FestivalThis year’s festival was marked by an explosion of color – students and parents outdid themselves once again with some amazingly imaginative and intricate costumes! Thank you for putting in so much effort and we hope you enjoyed a bountiful, sweet reward for all the hard work.

The Pumpkin Festival

The Pumpkin Festival

The Pumpkin Festival

ELEMENTARY STUDENT LEARNING EXPECTATIONS AWARDS

FOOD FAIR

In October, elementary students were focusing on demonstrating honesty and integrity in all relationships. In November, the SLE awards were given to students who were willingly performing service to improve the lives of others. Both of these months proved to be hard for teachers to make only two choices. It's great to know that we have so many students in elementary working hard to meet these expectations. Congratulations to all of our October and November SLE winners.

October WinnersLisa TempestaSean NguyenKaio TamayamaNina IshiiYuto TauchiAlex MurataTai InuiAffan Razik Sora OnoYuna MatsushitaZen IwataKaren Ishii

November WinnersHanan NagaseAyato EguchiMia LippKie GotoNaoya KitamuraTeruhide AmeyamaAdam PowellRyu NocentShion SetoHaruki KitamuraKiichi NagamineMarin Tasaki

Marist was once again blessed with a wonderful November day, which, despite always threatening rain, allowed us to celebrate our premier community event in grand style. And, once again, the community was extremely supportive, helping us raise over two million yen. A generous amount of additional money was also raised for our new fundraising drive – ‘Marist Goes Green’. You may have noticed an abundance of all things green on the day – symbolizing our dream to finally cover our dusty playground in beautiful green synthetic turf. Well done to all soloists and bands who entertained us on the day – it was one of the best line-ups in recent memory. Particular mention goes to the Elementary school, who joined together in chorus to sing “Flowers Will Bloom”, a tribute to the victims of the Tohoku disaster, and their families. The performance was filmed for NHK. Thanks also to all community members – from the School Board, to parents, teachers, students, friends, and family, who all came together to make this year’s Food Fair another success.

FOOD FAIR

FOOD FAIR

MBIS FUTSAL TOURNAMENTOn, Friday, November 29th, MBIS hosted its fifth Annual Invitational Futsal Tournament. The tournament was attended by St. Michael’s, Osaka YMCA, Hiroshima, Kyoto and Marist Brothers international schools. With approximately 160 competitors, it kept our four courts busy for most of the day. The focus of the event was to have fun playing with students from other schools, which many of our visiting schools almost never have the chance to do. Fun was the main idea, and fun was what we had. A special thank-you to the PTA and a local group named Peace and Nature for running the barbecue and sweets shop, and to the Upper School students who coached nine of our teams (and also refereed most of the games). I was especially pleased with comments and letters received from Upper School students who mentioned that they were very grateful for the opportunity to work with the students from the Lower School. They were very impressed with how they conducted themselves on and off the courts. They stated that not only did they compete very hard, but they also showed excellent sportsmanship. One student coach wrote to me, complimenting her team. She wrote that even though her players were in tears after a tough loss in the finals, they were able to applaud and sincerely congratulate the opposition for a job well done. Our students did an excellent job competing in the games. Despite having far more girls on all of our teams than any of the other teams, our teams fared very well. We had four Marist teams place in the top three in their respective divisions. The Grade 4 Dalmatians made it all the way to the finals. But most impressive was how our students conducted themselves on and off the field, at all times they were good ambassadors for our school. I congratulate them on their efforts.Our visitors also reported being very pleased with how the event ran, agreeing overwhelmingly that we achieved our goal of having Fun! - Mr. Stang.

The Annual Kobe City Mayor’s Cup Bilingual Speech Contest was held on November 18th at the Kobe Club. This year, Charlotte Chalkley from Grade 10 was selected to be one of the contestants. A total of 10 finalists gave 10 minute speeches each on “How to Nurture a Global Leader”, both in English and Japanese. Charlotte made a speech on her experience attending the Children’s World Summit, where she was fascinated to see other children from the world debating passionately and making clear opinions about the world environment. She appealed to the audience about the importance of not only speaking the same language, but understanding and respecting different cultures, backgrounds, and opinions, to be a true global leader. Charlotte, the youngest and only high school student who was selected to be a finalist, received the Silver Prize. After the contest was over, she commented with a smile, “I’m very happy to receive the prize although it was a scary experience to speak up in front of so many people!” Special thanks to Mrs. Munro and Mr. Lipp for coming and supporting Charlotte.

KOBE BILINGUAL SPEECH CONTEST

KOBE ENGLISH FESTIVALThe Annual Kobe English Festival 2013, organized by the Kobe City Board of Education, was held on November 16th at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies. Eleven Japanese junior high schools and three international schools from Kobe participated in this presentation contest, with the goal of building community between Japanese and foreigners using English. Each school team gave an eight minute presentation on the theme “Kobe, MY TOWN”.The Marist presentation team included students from Grade 7 to Grade 9 : Kainoa Gnos(leader), Konomi Honda(co-leader), Kaiya Weatherby, Luke Esterly, Nanami Oshima, Ryo Fujimoto, Sanghyun Park, Thayalan Kundralan, Kaito Takagaki, Gaurav Chhablani, Saxon Jennings, Yukie Ohno, Natsuki Nakajima, J-Jaascha Alapatte, Kasumi Kobo, Kurumi Oshima, and Saaya Fujimoto. The title of their presentation was “The Mountain We Love”. They explained the beauty of Mount Rokko as a treasure of Kobe, and also addressed the audience about the importance of conserving the precious nature of the mountains. Although the Marist team did not bring home the trophy, these students did a fantastic presentation in front of a large audience. Also, to put together the presentation, the whole team got together during Fall Break, lunch breaks, after school, and weekends to practice - and actually went up Mount Rokko to clean the trails. A huge thanks to these students for a job well done and representing our school so well in the Kobe community! A special thanks also goes to Mrs. Grant, Mr. Kobo, Mr. Munro, and Mr. Bagaipo for helping the students improve their presentation. For this year’s presentation contest, Mrs. Munro became one of the contest judges and presented “Marist Brothers International School Award” to Takasho Junior High School. Thanks to Mrs. Munro for presenting the award, and thanks also to Mrs. Grant and Ms. Tran for coming to the festival and supporting us all.

On November 23rd, four Upper School students won the Annual Hyogo Prefecture Haiku Contest. This year’s given seasonal word was Semi (cicada). Rena Tatsumi (Grade 9) received the Hyogo International Association Award. Julie Barrow (Grade 12), Yuiko Nomi (Grade 10), and Thayalan Kundralan (Grade 9) received certificates and prizes for their excellent work.

親友と　歩く道には　蝉の歌 (Rena Tatsumi)

蝉の音　森が生きてる　季節かな (Julie Barrow)

蝉達は　今日も楽しく　大合唱 (Yuiko Nomi)

やまのうえ　わたしがあるく　せみをきく (Thayalan Kundralan)

HYOGO HAIKU FESTIVAL

On November 30th, the Annual Kobe Junior High School Human Rights Essay Contest winner was announced. Konomi Honda from Grade 9 won one of the highest awards. She attended the award ceremony, which was held at Kobe City Kinrou Kaikan and received a certificate and prize for her excellent work. The contest has been sponsored and held by Kobe District Legal Affairs Bureau 33 times. This year, 6,820 junior high school students from 40 schools entered their essays and Konomi received second place. Konomi wrote about her experience living in Manila, and how poverty stricken children’s lives are different from hers. She explained the importance of being thankful and helping other people in need. Konomi’s award-winning essay will soon be published in a booklet by the Legal Affairs Bureau.

HUMAN RIGHTS ESSAY CONTEST

From November 1st to 5th, the Global Issues Network (GIN) group undertook a trip to Tohoku to volunteer for relief work. In total, eight members of GIN made the overnight bus trip to Ishinomaki. Upon arriving, members were given a half-day tour of Ishinomaki to witness first hand the devastation wrought by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The reminder of the time was spent in small work parties with students engaged in different activities, including agricultural work, working on boats to help local fisherman with the seaweed harvest and providing comfort to residents, hearing their tragic stories of the disaster. On the final day, all eight members of the party helped out at a local festival by making onigiri, setting up chairs and distributing goods. Several students commented that they were surprised by the lack of visible signs of the disaster and how quickly the residents of Ishinomaki were able to get back on their feet. On the way back, students were exhausted and most slept soundly, despite the cramped conditions on the bus. The Tohoku trip was a wonderful opportunity for Marist students to lend a helping hand while learning valuable lessons from an unique hands on experience.

STUDENTS VOLUNTEERS IN TOHOKU

On Wednesday, October 16th, the Grade 6 Advanced Japanese students went outside and experienced hand washing using washing boards. The students were learning about Japanese history during the first quarter. The main focus of the lesson is how various tools change their forms and functions in different times. They learned about washing boards - one of the oldest tools to wash our clothes before the hand-rolling laundry machine was built and sold in the 1950s in Japan. Each student was provided with a white hand-towel. They put their towels in a mud puddle to make them dirty (which they enjoyed so much). Then, they put the dirty towels in the tub and tried to wash them using washboards and soap bars until they were white again. It was 18 degrees and windy in the morning. As they were busily moving their hands, they shouted comments such as, “My hands are too cold!”, “It’s not turning white!”, and “I like washing, but I like my clothes to be washed in the laundry soap and machine.” In the end, they all appreciated their parents’ daily laundry work and gained an insight into the even harder work of earlier generations.

LEARNING HISTORY THE HANDS-ON (AND HARD!) WAY

On October 17th, our class went to the Piccolo Theater in Amagasaki to watch a play called “The Comedy of Errors”. It was originally written by William Shakespeare, but the play we watched was rewritten by two Japanese directors. The setting was in Japan, during the Edo period (1603-1867). The two directors, in fact, came up to the stage after the performance, and gave us a brief explanation of a few of the tools they used and the jobs of staff members. As we took our seats at the theater and looked around us, several other student groups from Japanese middle schools in Hyogo were looking back at us. The play started with a BOOM of music. All of us held on to each other as the theater went dark; we were excited and nervous. When the lights turned back on, a man in old-fashion Japanese clothes appeared and started speaking in old-fashion Japanese. It was difficult for me to understand what he was saying at first, but gradually we were able to figure out what the story was about, and even the non-native students were able to interpret what was going on. I think this was a great experience for us, and we were able to learn about Japanese culture. Overall, I think it was a very educational and fun trip. - Nami Rose Weatherby

十月十七日に、七年生の日本語のクラスは尼崎にあるピッコロシアターに「間違いの喜劇」という劇を見に行きました。公演時間は一時間半ほどで首が痛くなりましたが、とてもおもしろかったので、幸い劇の途中で眠ってしまうことはなかったです。劇が始まり、幕が開くと、ロープで縛られたおじいさんと武士が立っていました。そして大きな声でしゃべり始めました。最初は難しいことを言っていたのであまり内容がつかめませんでしたが、劇が進んでいくうちに、自然と劇の設定を理解することができました。

役者の演技や舞台の設定を細かいところまで見たり聞いたりしてみると、ときどき舌がもつれる役者さんがいたことがわかりました。さらに、役者の衣装を見てみると、着物にハイヒールの靴を履いていることに気がつきました。最後に夕日のシーンがあったのですが、そのシーンではたくさんの照明をつかって美しい色を作っていることに気がつきました。劇を楽しくするにはいろいろな人の協力と団結が必要だったということも分かりました。この劇を通して、人と団結するとすばらしいものができるということを学びました。 中宗　華

A COMEDY OF ERRORS

On October 10th and 11th, Grade 5 students visited Hirose Elementary School in Shiga Prefecture for the 15th annual exchange visit between our two schools. This year’s group had an excellent opportunity to really immerse themselves in the daily lives of their Japanese hosts. The trip featured attending regular classes, experiencing their lunch system, preparing their curry dinner from all natural ingredients, enjoying an evening with their host parents, sleeping with their new friends at their school, a walk around their village and of course some free time just playing together. Another reason this exchange has had such an emotional and memorable impact on the students from both schools, is that we are both quite small communities. They are just as proud of their family type atmosphere as we are. Despite language and cultural differences, our students naturally bond very quickly. Many of our graduates and current students still mention the Hirose exchange as one of the most memorable events of their Marist lives. Hirose paid us a return visit on Friday, November 22nd. The students quickly re-established their friendships and were very busy sharing a variety of activities. The feature activity was, “Bridge Building”, both literally and metaphorically. Despite language barriers, the students were able to work together to design and build a bridge which was strong enough to hold a 200 gram toy car over a 1 meter gap. The only material they received were 25 sheets of A-4 recycled paper and 2 glue sticks. Each one of the six groups successfully completed the task. - Mr. Stang

Hirose Exchange