MYP Monitor n. 1 - International School of Como

ISC Middle School Monitor
Volume 2 Issue 1
September 2015
Dates for your diary:
 29 Sept Library
Workshop
 6 Oct Home Room
Parent Rep meeting
 8 Oct MYP trip to Expo
 9 Oct Planning
afternoon for
teachers. School
finishes at 13.00
 13 Oct Open classes
 16 Oct MYP Social
Evening
 20 Oct individual
parent-teacherstudent conferences
 23 Oct UN Day
Inside this issue:
Housekeeping ........2
Timetable ...............2
Chinese ..................2
Introductory
Assembly ...............2
English MYP3 .........3
Science MYP1 ........3
Music .....................3
German ..................3
Spanish ..................3
Italian .....................4
Dear Parents,
Welcome back, after what was, I hope, a
serene and restful summer, where you
were able to recharge your batteries!
School has started well, with a buzz of
energy from the students, happily meeting
up with old friends, and welcoming new
ones. The MYP 1 students are beginning to
find their feet, no longer wandering the
corridors with a faintly terrified expression
on their faces.
Ms Dunckley reports, “The beginning of
the term has a seen a bright start for the
MYP2 class. Each member has a
responsibility role to play in the class and
thus far are doing a grand job. With three
new pupils a welcome addition to ISC the
academic year 2015-2016 is looking to be
an exciting one.
They are now well on their way to getting into the swing of all their subjects and
beginning to sort out their community service tasks as well. Our aim in MYP is to
become such a great class team that we will be the envy of all!”
MYP 3 are enjoying being the seasoned students who know what everyone else
should be doing! Sometimes, though, they need reminding about what they
themselves should be doing!! They have warmly welcomed two new students to
the class, who have quickly settled in and seem as if they have always been with us.
Middle School has grown to 50 students, this year, from 38 last year, and we look
forward to a year of hard to a year of hard work, mixed with plenty of learning, and
plenty of fun!
With best wishes for a wonderful year,
ISC Middle School Staff
Maths MYP1 ..........4
History and
Geography .............5
PE ...........................6
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ISC Middle School Monitor
Housekeeping
Just a few reminders:
 Every Friday is a Free Dress Day. However, there is
still a Dress Code in place: No sleeveless vest-type
shirts, no bared midriffs, no torn clothes or clothes
with holes in them.
 School uniform is required the other days. Students
are reminded to wear Navy or dark blue trousers
with school tops.
 Please encourage your child to have a healthy snack
at break time. We would like to remind you, too,
that ISC is a nut free zone, as there are some
children with severe allergies.
 Homework time is optional, and
students are requested to use it appropriately,
taking advantage of the possibility of asking their
peers or the teachers for help if they need it.
Failure to use this time appropriately will result in
the withdrawal of this opportunity, and the
obligation to leave school at 3.25.
 On PE days, Ms Sheward asks that students not
wear jewellery, have their hair tied up, and wear
suitable trainers, or have a pair to change in to. This
is for safety or hygiene resons. Students also need
to be able to change their shirt at the end of the
lesson, if they are staying for homework time or
after-school clubs.
Timetable
Monday
MYP
1
8.40
9.30
Tuesday
2
3
Italian
English
English
Italian
9.30
10.20
Maths
Italian
Italian
10.20
11.10
English
Maths
Maths
Wednesday
2
3
Maths
English
English
Italian
English
English
Maths
English
English
Spanish
English
Italian
Italian
Maths
Design
Spanish
Italian
English
Geog in
Italian
Maths
History
Dis
Tecnico
Maths
in Ital
Italian
History
Eng/It
Maths
in Ital
Spanish
/Germ
Dis
Tecnico
Geog
Spanish
/Germ
Maths
in Ital
Eng/It
Geog
It/Eng
Science
Music
English
Spanish
Music
Italian
Italian
English
Spanish
Maths
Italian
Geog/
History
Maths
Science
in Ital
Dis
Tecnico
Maths
Music
Maths
in Ital
Science
It/Eng
English
Art
Design
Science
It/Eng
Maths
in Ital
Hist/
Geog
Art
Maths
in Ital
Science
PE
Drama
Science
Art
PE
Design
Science
English
Science
PE
14.35
15.25
Drama
PE
Design
PE
Homework Optional
History
Eng/It
Exam
Prep It
Design
15.25
16.00
Geog
It/Eng
Exam
Prep It
Maths
in Ital
Drama
Hist/
Maths
PE
Geog
Homework or Chinese
Optional
13.05
13.45
13.45
14.35
3
1
2
3
1
Friday
Maths
12.15
13.05
2
Thursday
Hist/
Geog
Italian/
English
Maths
in It
11.10
11.25
11.25
12.15
1
2
3
1
BREAK
Hist/
Geog It
LUNCH AND BREAK
Maths
in Ital
Homework or Chinese
Optional
Hwk
Opt’l
Hwk
Opt’l
Homeroom
Hist/
Geog
Design
Science
Chinese
We are happy to welcome back Miss Aurora who will teach Mandarin again this year. As in previous years, the
course is open to students who have studied Chinese before, and who wish to continue. She is currently
assessing students so as to create groups that are homogenous in level.
We would like to remind you that it is an optional course, at the end of the day (during homework time) so
students need to show commitment. Students who do not show the necessary commitment, or who are
struggling in areas of the curriculum, such as language or maths, may be advised to reconsider their options.
Introductory Assembly:
The Task: students were asked to take a little toilet paper with no
explanation for its purpose. The consequence – for each piece taken
you were to say one thing about yourself. Some students took so
many sheets, they had to talk for AGES! Well done, everyone!
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ISC Middle School Monitor
English in MYP 3 – Mrs H Turner
MYP3 started off the year with our usual entry assessment, to see where they are, and how much they’ve forgotten.
This assessment is not graded: it is a way of establishing where we should start the year’s work from.
We have now started with our unit of World Literature, based around short stories. This is an inter-disciplinary unit
with drama – we will read a variety of stories, and in Drama with Ms Merali, students will dramatise one. Ms Merali
and will then assess the performance to see if the students were able to communicate the essential message of the
story through their acting. – Helen Turner
Science in MYP 1 – Prof L Cesareo
At the start of this year, the students of MYP1 have made friends
with a great scientist of the past: Galileo Galilei. They found that
he is the father of modern science as he invented a foolproof
method of acquiring certain and objective knowledge about the
reality around us.
Students are eager to put their hands in the laboratory and to
test this method: hey guys are you ready? With Mr. Warrington
you will make exciting discoveries in the science lab. Have fun!
Music in MYP – Mr E Smith
We have started this year by inquiring into different genres of music, looking at what instruments you would expect
to find and analysing the effectiveness of different pieces of music, making connections to the wider world. We also
began to look at how to create an effective structure to a song, using a range percussion sounds to build up to a
climax, focusing on tempo and dynamics. Finally we have been looking at how to notate compositions; using
technical musical terminology as well as visually representing sounds.
MYP 1 German – Ms C. Zepper
At the moment there are 7 motivated
students in the MYP1 German course. We
have started our Unit 1: "That is me and that is
you" and we already had little conversations
in German. We get in touch with the German
language through communication situations,
vocabulary and grammar games/ exercises.
We are starting to discover the phonetic
elements of the German language.
Spanish- Ms M-S Rosales
Hopes and dreams at the beginning of the year…
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ISC Middle School Monitor
Italian – Prof C Duvia
MYP 1
i nostri studenti hanno iniziato a prendere confidenza con la nuova realtà della prima media, sono partiti con
entusiasmo e brillantezza; l’augurio è che continuino su questi binari!
Affrontano ora i primi rudimenti della teoria della comunicazione, familiarizzando con concetti quali “emittente”,
“ricevente”, “messaggio”, ecc...
In Antologia leggono brani che parlano di identità e relazioni, con la presentazione di se stessi, l’approccio al
mondo della scuola e le sue dinamiche.
Dopo alcuni accenni introduttivi sulla differenza tra poesia e prosa, sulla figura di Omero e sull’Iliade cominciano
ora lo studio dell’Epica.
MYP 2
Purtroppo per i nostri eroi le vacanze sono finite ed è giunto il momento di rimettersi al lavoro. Un lavoro a volte
abbastanza intenso e in effetti non sempre piacevolissimo (vedi analisi grammaticale) però produttivo e
necessario.
In Antologia si affronta la scrittura riguardante esperienze personali, con particolare attenzione alla differenza tra
il genere del diario e quello dell’autobiografia.
Comincia quest’anno uno studio più propriamente storico-letterario, abbiamo esordito con accenni alla
letteratura delle origini: situazione linguistica dell’Italia del Duecento con Latino Vs. Volgare e Cantico delle
Creature di Francesco D’Assisi come prima attestazione poetica.
Forza e buon anno a tutti!
MYP 1 Mathematics - Mr N Warrington
Maths everywhere…
It may seem obvious but mathematics is everywhere and is one of those
universal languages. To get this point over, students are asked to find as many
examples of maths in the real world and
here are a few of their responses –
I’m certainly going
to cook my chicken
properly from now
on.
ISC Middle School Monitor
Candlestick Charts – Prisca
I did my assignment on the exchange of Euros and dollars because after the
Exhibition that I did last year economics interest me a lot. The graph I chose is called “ a Japanese candle stick chart.”
The JAPANESE CANDLE STICK CART shows the value of euros changing each day and each hour. The red candle it
means that the value of the euro has decreased and the green candle means that the value of the euro is getting
higher. There are even long candles or short candles, the short ones show that the value has increased or decreased
not much but if it is long it means that the value increased or decreased a lot. If you look carefully you can see a line
that shows that the cost went up but did not stay there, like the candles it can be long or short if it went a lot of not.
History and Geography – Prof Monetti
Gentili genitori,
in questa Newsletter di settembre, mi è gradita l’occasione per salutarvi all’inizio di un nuovo anno scolastico e per
aggiornarvi su quello che sta succedendo nelle varie classi della scuola media per quanto riguarda l’apprendimento
della storia e della geografia in lingua italiana.
MYP 1: Che cos’è la storia? Che cos’è la geografia?
Nel corso di questa unità introduttiva, i ragazzi esploreranno gli strumenti della storia e della geografia. Costruiremo
linee del tempo e carte geografiche, condivideremo con la classe alcuni “documenti storici” sulla nostra storia
personale, disegneremo una mappa della classe in scala e giocheremo a battaglia navale con i meridiani e i parallleli.
E, naturalmente, impareremo e consolideremo i fondamenti principali del metodo di studio. Buon lavoro, MYP 1!
MYP 2: Umanesimo e Rinascimento – Europa, unita nella diversità
I ragazzi di seconda media stanno prendendo in esame i grandi processi storici che hanno portato alla fine del
Medioevo e all’inizio dell’età moderna. Studieremo poi i capolavori di Raffaello, Leonardo da Vinci e Michelangelo,
costruiremo la nostra personale galleria d’arte rinascimentale e, al termine dell’unità, potremo persino ammirare dal
vero i capolavori custoditi nella pinacoteca di Brera. Per quanto riguarda geografia, ci stiamo invece interrogando
sulle istituzioni europee, prendendo in esame anche l’attualità e la crisi dei rifugiati: mai come in questi giorni siamo
chiamati a rendere conto del motto dell’Unione Europea – unita nella diversità. I ragazzi di MYP 2 sapranno trovare
soluzioni ragionevoli a questa crisi senza precedenti? Lo scopriremo al termine dell’unità grazie ad un gioco di ruolo,
in cui impersoneranno i grandi leader europei.
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ISC Middle School Monitor
MYP 3 Rivoluzione industriale – Come respira il pianeta?
I ragazzi di terza media, studiando la Rivoluzione industriale, saranno chiamati a riflettere sulla tematica del
lavoro minorile, scoprendo così che questo fenomeno non è purtroppo confinato soltanto a secoli passati o a
Paesi lontani dal nostro. Svolgeremo infatti una ricerca che ci porterà ad investigare il lavoro minorile in
Lombardia nell’Ottocento, ma anche ad intervistare i nonni e a leggere il più recente rapporto sul lavoro
minorile in Italia, pubblicato da Save the children nel 2013. We are also looking at the factors that contribute
towards social change, and, while looking at Britain during the Industrial Revolution, we are also considering the
path taken nowadays by less developed countries in their efforts to become more developed. In geografia,
stiamo invece prendendo in esame i diversi climi ed ambienti del pianeta, cercando di capire come le varie parti
del sistema-Terra interagiscano tra loro e quali siano le conseguenze dell’azione umana su questi fragili
ecosistemi. We have looked at the factors that affect climate, and climate change, and are starting to look at
tropical rainforests, their role in the health of the planet, and how countries can manage their forests while still
enjoying a healthy economy.
PE – Ms P Sheward
In Physical Education so far the MYP students have discussed goals and
agreements in their approach to Sport this year. In the first week we
focused on team building games such as capture the flag, pass the hoop,
cross the river and dodgeball.


MYP 1 are now preparing to start hockey and basketball.
MYP 2 have started some fitness circuits and have recapped on hockey
rules and skills. E.g. dribbling one sided,
 MYP 3 are preparing to start hockey and badminton. And last week
the students did some fitness workouts, such as sit ups, step ups, agility run, chest pass and burpees.
On Thursday 24th September all the MYP students took part
in Sports Bonding Day where they helped younger students
complete obstacle courses.
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