AAS Sofia Weekly Newsletter Volume 20, Issue 33 May 9, 2014 Upcoming Events May 12-30: MAP Grades 2-10 From the Director’s Desk Dear Anglo-American School Community / Уважаеми родители и приятели на ААУ, Something to Ponder “If you want happiness for a life time, help the next generation.”– Chinese Proverb Much is happening in the AAS Community…the dance exhibitions, IB exams, bakeries, sports tournaments, research essays, dog shelter support, student councils supporting refugees, visual May 15-18 CEESA Boys literacy, programming, spring fair preparations, classroom walkthroughs and much more. This Tennis (Warsaw), Girls weekend to Wednesday, our incoming Elementary Principal, Dr. Fries and his wife Tricia Quinn are Volleyball (Helsinki), visiting AAS, too. Boys’ Volleyball (Belgrade) When we think of all that happens in the school community we often refer to students, faculty & staff and parents. Another constituency within our AAS community is our Board. For families new to May 26-30 Bulgarian the school and as a reminder to others, a nine-member School Board governs AAS. Four members Culture Week of the AAS Board are appointed by the USA Ambassador, another four are appointed by the UK Ambassador and the ninth voting Board member is the elected President of the PTO. The AAS Board reflects the diversity we have in our school community. The majority of members are Inside the issue: currently parents at the school. Our Board members bring different types of expertise to their role as an AAS Board member (management, policy, finance, diplomatic, marketing, etc.). Our Board members are volunteers, and in addition to serving on the AAS Board, they also serve on the respective Board Committees of Finance, Governance and Marketing. 1.From the Director’s Desk 2. MSHS News 3. 21st Century Learning 4. ES News 5. Arts @AAS 6. News from Upper School Athletics/ Activities 7. PTO News 8. Summer School 9. FAQ 10. Gallery of the Week The aim of this group is to govern, not manage, the school. In other words, the Board develops policies, financial guidelines, and long-term strategic plans. It vests leadership and managementrelated issues to the director who, in turn, works with faculty and staff to implement the best educational program possible within the parameters provided by the Board. Further information about our School Board may be found in the AAS Family Handbook. The AAS School Board is in the process of identifying candidates to serve on the Board. If you or someone you know are inspired to consider taking on this role in service of the School, I would be glad to hear from you. We meet generally eight times a year and want someone who can expect to serve for at least two years. If you are interested in being a candidate to serve on the AAS Board, please kindly contact me by May 12, 2014 (emailing me at jurquhart@aas-sofia.org) - your interest will be forwarded to our Board Chair, Mr. Bryan Dalton. Please kindly include a letter (two pages maximum) indicating  Why you wish to serve on the AAS Board  Skills and experiences you have that may serve the AAS Board and AAS Community  A brief overview of your beliefs related to education, as well as the role of a Board member  Other information you feel might be pertinent to share The Board hopes to select the new Board Members by mid-May, 2014. Wishing everyone yet another sunny weekend in Sofia! In partnership, Jim Jim Urquhart Director - Anglo-American School of Sofia www.aas-sofia.org Anglo-American School of Sofia, P.O. Box 31, Sofia 1784, Bulgaria Phone: (+359 2) 923 8810, 923 8812 Fax: (+359 2) 923 8859 AAS Weekly 21st Century Learning Coffee Series On Thursday, May 15 at 9:00 a.m., AAS Sofia will continue with the 4th coffee in its 21st Century Learning Series. The events are designed to engage our community in an ongoing conversation about the ways in which schools are preparing young people for the future. We will review a definition of 21st Century Learning and focus on digital literacy and the integration of technology into our core classes. Specific discussion will center around the importance of student access to technology as a key ingredient to 21st Century Learning. The conversation will include:  the history behind AAS students bringing in their own devices (BYOD) via the 6th grade pilot program  expanding BYOD to include 7th and 8th grade students for all Middle School (students next year  device specifications MS students will need to bring to school next fall  what AAS is doing throughout the school to expand technology use and support to improve student learning We hope you can join us for a lively discussion. We will also share examples of 21st Century Teaching and Learning happening here on our campus. If you are able to join our coffee, please use this link to register. Please note, there will be limited space for classroom walk-throughs. Additionally, we enjoyed our conversation with parents this past Thursday. For those who could not attend our Visual Literacy 21st Century Coffee you can find links to the presentation here. We look forward to seeing you on May 15th! Sincerely, Shary Lyssy Marshall, Director of Teaching & Learning (smarshall@aas-sofia.org) Angela Marquis, ICT Manager (amarquis@aas-sofia.org) 2 MSHS News AAS Weekly Upcoming in the Secondary School Thank you all for communicating and meeting the Cultural Trips Week deadlines recently. Next week the final plans and itineraries will be set and distributed to all students. The all important packing list will be attached; please make plans to collect all the necessary items to make for successful trip experiences. Once again 11th grade CAS/Science Week begins May 19, the 9th and 10 grade excursions leave the same day (May 19). All Middle school trips will depart May 20. For those not traveling on the overnight excursions the Sofia local trips will begin on May 19 (for 9 and 10) and May 20 (for 6, 7 and 8). We in the secondary school are anticipating some excellent experiences in and around our region. Looking at next week, we want to support the PTO meeting on Monday, May 12 where part of the meeting will be dedicated to “Transitions” led by our AAS counselors. This is an opportunity to share the different supports in place for all of the various transitions that members of the AAS community experience. It is also an opportunity to answer any questions and to have a conversation about this important aspect to life. We hope you are able to attend. Not to be forgotten, our grade 12 students are currently sitting their IB exams over the next couple of weeks. A celebration of their achievements follows late in the month of May as their commencement exercises (also known as graduation) take place on Friday, May 30 at 4:30 right here at AAS. We are currently hosting a CEESA MS boys volleyball tournament and later in the month our HS teams will participate in their CEESA tournaments outside Bulgaria. Additionally we will be hosting the HS girls’ tennis tournament for CEESA a gesture we took on to help out the original hosts, Kiev, who were unable to host due to recent events in their country. Whew... a lot going on and upcoming in the secondary school not to mention good teaching and a whole ‘bunch’ of great learning continues each and every day! Have a great weekend everyone and looking forward to seeing AAS community members in and around campus in the coming days and weeks! Know you are always welcome! Sincerely, Jeff Marquis Secondary Principal 3 AAS Weekly ES News The Global Citizenship Program at AAS The Global Citizenship Program naturally connects with the Anglo-American’s school mission to educate socially aware, empathetic and academically strong students. The four GCP values accepting all people, helping all people, protecting the environment and working for peace, are fully integrated in our ES curriculum which makes authentic connections via lessons, activities, discussions, projects and other experiences. Costa Rica Tour, April 2014 As a part of the Global Citizenship Program, a group of AAS teachers embarked on a trip to Costa Rica to learn about the country's biodiversity and the local schools' implementation of the GCP. Along with exploring the local flora, fauna, geology, climate and the various ways for conservation, AAS staff had the opportunity to meet with local international and Costa Rican schools to share experiences and learn about the GCP. The team also visited The United Nations University of Peace which offers Master Programs in Peace and Conflict Studies for students around the world. The trip was organized by Natural Solutions, a local company that incorporates eco-tourism with environmental education. The company was created and is run by teachers and is dedicated to finding sustainable solutions to the problems caused by human development and affecting natural landscapes. Please visit http://gcpaas.weebly.com/ to view part of our beautiful memories from this trip. In addition here is Ms. Becky’s blog (Gr.1 B class teacher): http://msbeckytravels.wordpress.com/, offering glimpses from our tour. Congratulations Preschool bakers! We would like to congratulate our Preschool Bakers for an extremely successful bakery day! After the expenses of their ingredients, the preschool bakery made a profit of 400 leva and many tummies were filled with the love of our delicious, homemade bread! All profits will be donated to our community partners, The Sofia Deaf School. The money will be used to purchase high quality food for the children who live at the school 4 ES News, continued AAS Weekly Modern Art Collaboration In addition to the Bread & Bakeries project, preschool children have been involved in a collaborative art project with our AAS kindergarten students and children from Wonder World Kindergarten. They have been learning about and exploring the techniques and work of three Modern Artists - Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. We are happy to announce that on the evening of Thursday, May 15th there will be an exhibition opening at Gallery 1809 in downtown Sofia. The gallery will showcase the work of the children made at both AAS and Wonder World and will feature documentation of this unique project’s process. We invite all families to attend this exciting event! Modern Art through the Eyes of Children Matisse, Picasso & Pollock Exhibition Opening – May 15th , 6pm 1, Angel Kanchev Str. Contemporary Gallery “1809” All artwork will be for sale with profits donated to The Angelia Foundation which supports the children’s cancer ward. Profits will be used to bring an artist in residence and “pop –up” art studio to the children in the cancer ward. 5 AAS Weekly Arts @AAS Save the date for our Annual Music Recital Thursday, May 29th, 6 pm, Café stage, AAS Dear Families, We have a lot of musically talented students who take extra instrumental/vocal classes after school hours and devote a lot of free time to extend their musicianship. This is an evening concert “Recital” for such students: to share their talent and mastery of performance. It is open for all students at AAS. Please discuss with your child the repertoire they would like to perform and contact your music teacher. Every musician will perform for a maximum of three minutes, so choose the piece and send us your details no later than May 21st:  Students Name/Grade  Piece/s performing  Parents signature/name More details for stage rehearsals to follow. Regards, Mrs. Maggie Vassileva – MS/HS mvassileva@aas-sofia.org Ms. Mariana Theofilova - ES mtheofilova@aas-sofia.org; 6 Arts @ AAS continued AAS Weekly 7 AAS Weekly News From Secondary Athletics/Activities Game Schedule MS Boys Volleyball CEESA Tournament May 9-10, 2014       Anglo-American School of Sofia (AAS) American International School of Bucharest (AISB) International School of Belgrade (ISB) International School of Helsinki (ISH) NOVA International School of Skopje (NOVA) Pechersk School International (PSI) MS girls off to CEESA V-ball Tourney in Macedonia 8 PTO News AAS Weekly 9 AAS Weekly 10 PTO News, continued PTO News, continued AAS Weekly 11 AAS Weekly Frequently Asked Questions Important contact information: Reception: Ivanka Papazova (Miss Vanya) Tel: (+359 2) 923.8810; mobile: 0889 428 324 Fax: (+359 2) 923.8859 ipapazova@aas-sofia.org Director: Jim Urquhart jurquhart@aas-sofia.org Director’s Secretary: Elise Staevska Tel: (+359 2) 923.8812 estaevska@aas-sofia.org Director of Teaching and Learning: Shary Marshall smarshall@aas-sofia.org ES Principal: Edgar Miranda emiranda@aas-sofia.org MS/HS Principal: Jeff Marquis jmarquis@aas-sofia.org Nurse: Diana Docheva ddocheva@aas-sofia.org Communicaitons: Svetla Stoyanova sstoyanova@aas-sofia.org IB Coordinator: Kaylene Connell kconnell@aas-sofia.org 7th -12th Counselor & College Advising: David Stephenson dstephenson@aas-sofia.org K-6 Counselor: Laura Giosh-Markov lgiosh-markov@aas-sofia.org Athletics and Co-Curricular: Andie Urquhart AUrquhart@aas-sofia.org Facilities / Operations: Todor Todorov 0889 749 309 ttodorov@aas-sofia.org Registrar: Dola Kay dkay@aas-sofia.org Admissions / Alumni: Maria Mihailova mmihailova@aas-sofia.org Security: Tzvetan Bashev 0885 146 863 tbashev@aas-sofia.org Transportation Coordinator: Zhivko Vichkov ZVichkov@aas-sofia.org 0889—901 916 Note: To contact a member of staff by telephone, please call the reception number. Staff emails are available from our website: www.aas-sofia.org/contact. Please visit our website on www.aas-sofia.org to find the latest information about our school. Become a fan of the Anglo-American School of Sofia on Facebook or follow @AAS_Sofia on Twitter. 12 Summer School 2014 AAS Weekly 13 AAS Weekly Gallery of the Week Global Citizenship Program at AAS, Costa Rica Visit K-2 Dance Program What fun! 14