Welcome to our Team Blog!
It's hard to believe that at ISKL, Middle School students have been back in classes for nearly a month. Honestly, this years Grade 6'ers have made a smooth transition to the classrooms and hallways on our campus. On orientation day we were greeted with over 113 nervous, excited, apprehensive 6th graders, ready to receive their schedule and lockers. The next day ( the official first day of school) the corridors near the lockers were filled with a cacophany of excited squeals, chatter and shouts.Fast forward three and a half weeks later, you would think that the students have always been at the Ampang Campus.
During the past three years, teaming structures have been enhanced and "morphed" to our current model ; 3 core teams, 6A, 6B and 6C . Each team has a dedicated Humanities and Math /Science teacher. The major benefit of this model is the ability to support a smaller group of students whilst getting to know them on a more personal level.
To start the year, we wanted to provide you with Core Teacher and Curricular Information. We promise subsequent blogposts will be much shorter.
Core Team Information - Getting to know us
Bron Narsiman - Humanities / Information Tech. (I.T.),6A Team Leader,
To begin, I am originally from Sydney, Australia and for the past 15 years I have been blessed to be working as a Middle School educator at The International School of Kuala Lumpur. I teach Humanities and Information Technology. I love my job, the students and the lifestyle.
I am an Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE), an Apple Advisory Board Member for Asia and in my spare time working on my dissertation for an Education Doctorate focusing on Cyberbullying. In the classroom, I am constantly seeking ways to enhance the learning experience and meet the needs of "digital natives" in the classroom. I have taught in grades 3 through to 8, but 6th grade is my absolute favorite.
Before becoming a teacher, I worked in Money Market computing for just over 15 years, so at ISKL I can combine two of my passions; kids and technology. I have two daughters ~ Pria who graduated from ISKL in May, 2011 and attends Columbia University in New York City and Abhi who is moving into grade 10 at ISKL.
As educators, each year we reflect upon the previous year and create goals, one of mine for this academic year is to blog at least once a month ( or more) . I hope to use the blog as a "window" to the classroom, for parents, students and a global audience.
Larisa Masson - Science / Math Teacher. Middle School, Science Curricular Leader
I am originally from Portland, Oregon. This will be my third year at ISKL. Prior to that, my husband and I taught at an international school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We have two sons that were born there, Jack and Harrison.
This is my seventeenth year of teaching middle school. I love the energy and enthusiasm that middle school students have! I have taught sixth, seventh and eighth grade math, science and health. I am especially interested in environmental education. I love being in the outdoors, being active and spending time with my family.
Curriculum Information
From the Humanities Classroom - Bron Narsiman
During the past two years, the Grade 6 Humanities curriculum was totally revamped, as such we study five different units, related to our year long theme "What is my place in the world". As a transition from Grade 5, we have commenced the year, with a focus on Creating Community. Our essential questions for the unit are "How do we build community? How do we contribute to community? Who is a good citizen and what does a good citizen do?
We started the year with transition activities, word study, journal responses, examining characterisation using a short story and a review of expository writing skills. You will notice that over the next few weeks, the amount of reading and writing that the students will need to complete will slowly increase. We publish daily homework messages on Moodle, complete with class presentations and document resources. To continue to foster a love of reading we would like students to spend some time reading for pleasure at home.
From the Science / Math Classroom - Larisa Masson
In science we are starting our first unit, The Scientific Process of Inquiry. Our first essential question is, "How do our investigation skills affect our ability to learn about the unknown?" We are learning about science investigation skills such as prediction, observation, inference, and hypothesis and are conducting labs to practice these skills. Students recently completed an assessment on prediction, observation and inference as well as measurement skills.
We are well into our first unit of mathematics. Hopefully you have seen some homework, but not an extensive amount, as we aim for about 15 to 20 minutes per day. We are not using use a text book in the traditional sense as most texts available today don't follow the Common Core Standards which ISKL has adopted. We will, however, use a variety of texts and web sites as resources. These include EngageNY and Math In Focus (our two adopted texts) among others. You can download pdf versions of the Engage series (although not highly user-friendly to the general public) and your child will soon be provided a username and password for the on-line version of Math in Focus, which provides a more familiar interface for parents wishing to help from home. Some of the work will be distributed online (as the students are provided laptops) via Moodle, in the form of IXL practice, and worksheets drawn from the resources linked above. If you are interested in seeing what your child will encounter this year, I would encourage you to explore the Grade 6 section of the Common Core, which can be found here, as well as the eight Student Standards for Mathematical Practice, which are the guiding principles behind the methods used in class to develop mathematical understanding.
As always if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email either Bron Narsiman or Larisa Masson.
bnarsiman@iskl.edu.my lmasson@iskl.edu.my
you did it!
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