Horizons

The IB Diploma Program has arrived!

grlbotics: The new girls-only robotics clubsupported by Google

Promoting differentiation

Brain research and its impact on parents and

educators

Art as a process of trans-formation

How children take action

The language of life and learning: Drama

Issue 2 March 2010

Message from the Director

March 2010

With the successful launch of our first edition of “Horizons” last spring, we were given the challenge of producing a sec-ond issue that best features our school and its continual development in the areas of academics and International Bac-calaureate programs. The core of any school focuses on curriculum and best practice, therefore, with the planned imple-mentation of the Diploma Program in August 2010, we continue to develop our programs to prepare our students for success in tomorrow’s world. Our challenge is to provide continuity between the programs to ensure that we are devel-oping individuals who are lifelong learners and who are able to keep pace in an era of rapid change. The task of creat-ing, maintaining, and improving the conditions for learning is thus the most basic challenge facing us as educators today.

Learning for each individual is, at least to some extent, unique. Take, for example, the article in this edition of “Horizons” on differentiation. At International School Winterthur, we view our students as unique beings and who possess talents on many different levels. We (regularly) communicate student academic performance through the issuance of four progress reports each school year. However, what is communicated to a lesser degree are the wonderful enriching opportunities that play an integral part in the overall education of our students. This edition of our bi-annual magazine features articles covering some of the many tools, techniques, and ideas that provide additional ways to engage students in their learning. What are these extra pedagogical areas that lend themselves to producing lifelong learners who can adapt to our rapidly changing world?

We offer a variety of visual arts experiences in drama, art, and music. Furthermore, classroom curriculum is enhanced through student inquiry providing deeper understandings in many areas. The development of our technology and its uses, personalize and support a range of human talents. For example, the students in grade 2 who, through study-ing Impressionism and French artists, arrived at the idea of creating Monet’s garden in their classroom. Or the Middle Years’ students who have found drama to be an expression of their ideas and feelings. There are the music classes that, spontaneously, go outside the classroom to hear the sounds of nature and its rhythmic patterns. There is art as a means of transformation that lend itself to the development of skills that communicate experiences that cannot be “expressed in any other form.” An example of this is the grade 10 art unit where students create art, photographing the stages of its development, and produce a final video product. Technology is best exemplified by the “grlbotics” program in associa-tion with “Google”, that will culminate this year in a competition amongst teams of girls who have created “sumo” robot wrestlers. This is our attempt to promote a level of interest in these girls to pursue computer science careers in the future.

It may seem cliché to claim that our goal is to prepare students for the world of tomorrow, that we are educating our students in promoting diverse experiences and that we foster a sense of appreciation for life-long learning. At International School Winterthur, we tailor the learning process to each student’s needs and capacities and recognize that every learner has a unique set of innate talents and personal interests. In the following pages, I hope you enjoy the teachers’ passionate ac-counts of the work they do, testimonials that describe our attempt to meet the individual needs and interests of our students.

Rhonda Mott-HillDirector

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How Children Take ActionOr how a Second Grade Classroom became

Claude Monet’s GardenBy: Jenny RosenbergGrade 2 Teacher

Being welcomed by one of the

art gallery guides

It is fascinating to observe young children absorbed in play. They are often unaware of the regard and presence of adults when they enter a world of invention and creativity. Through play children act out imaginary roles and imitate real life scenes to prepare for different situations. Play is crucial for the young child’s intellec-tual, social and emotional development, and it also provides many opportunities to explore adult life and solve problems.

It is therefore the teacher’s task to cre-ate and model rich places to play. The classroom should support many differ-ent learning experiences and a corner for play is important so that children can take initiated action for deeper learn-ing and understanding. The children should feel that they have ownership and freedom to take independent and responsible action for their learning. It is also important that the students have a project in common, in order to develop cooperation skills and critical thinking. The teacher’s role is to enable children to

create an imaginative play environment that will ensure “hands-on“ experiences. The play corner should consist of a mix-ture of child-made and commercially produced props that inspire the creative mind. The teacher has to establish com-mon routines and rules and allow time for the children to play in small groups, or even alone. It is important that it is a balance of adult ideas and supervision and child initiated attempts and action.

In the PYP it is believed that education must extend beyond the intellectual, to include appropriate action. Success-ful inquiry in class will lead students to take responsible action as a result of the learning process. Action is a volun-tary demonstration of a student’s em-powerment and may be considered as a significant summative assessment.

A year ago my second grade class and I had a very interesting and exciting learn-ing experience. We were reading about Impressionism and French artists in the unit of inquiry (Painters’ Perspectives). The unit was one of my favorites and I was very enthusiastic about teaching Art History to seven-year-olds. After read-ing an informative book about a girl’s visit to the French artist Claude Monet’s garden, one of my students exclaimed, “Lets make Monet’s garden in our class-room.” I asked him about his idea and he said that we could put a child’s pool in

the classroom to represent the pond. The other children were thrilled and they all came up with exciting suggestions and ideas. (Obviously it took a whole morn-ing and I had to put my lesson plans aside for that day), but the children and I had flow in our creative minds. The next day the pool was inflated and installed and we started to build the Japanese bridge and the small rowing boat Monet used to sit in while he was painting. The second graders took ownership of the learning and for some of the unit they were busy making waterlilies, goldfish and flow-ers for the pond. At the end of the unit we invited the parents and grade one and Kindergarden to come and visit our art exhibition. We kept our Art Gallery open for two days and many teachers and even MYP students visited our gar-den to learn about impressionist artists.

By letting the children take responsibil-ity for the learning and making it their own, and by giving lots of time for the project, the children were able to take ac-tion and make an unforgettable learning experience. The question was not “ What will the students learn?” but “What can we learn together? ”or even “What can the children teach me?” Impressionism made a lifelong impression on all of us!

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Google InternshipLast year, grade 8 to 10 students from the International School Winterthur won a contest to visit the Zürich Google offices for a day. Both the staff and students who attended this event were incredibly impressed, not only with the Google offices, but also by the hard working and inventive Google engineers or ‘Googlers’.

What makes the Google offices so special? Well, these of-fices are different-really different. If you’ve never seen pic-tures of the Zurich Google office-imagine a teenager’s room, now expand that image to cover an area as large as an office complex. Their office has aquariums, video games, massage rooms, free snacks and drinks, slides linking different floors together and breakfast, lunch and dinner provided to employ-ees free of charge at Switzerland’s best canteen. There aren’t too many workplaces where playing the video game ‘Guitar Hero’ constitutes taking a break from work. It is little wonder that the Middle Years’ Program (MYP) students loved their visit!

Our day out was fantastic, but there was one thing that we found a bit unsettling. As we were touring the offices, it became ap-parent to the ISW staff that the Google engineers were predom-inantly male. The female engineers were few and far between in the entire complex. We further reflected on our experience at the Google offices and realized that the boys were very vo-cal during the sessions, but most of our female students hardly spoke a word. The ISW staff met to brainstorm some possible ways to encourage more female participation in the information technology field. Those internal discussions led to a series of meetings with Google representatives about different ideas to encourage girls to consider careers in information technology.

One of the ideas that we discussed with Google was creat-ing an internship for girls. The goal of the internship was to provide female students in our MYP with the experience of working for a company in the information technology field. Four girls were selected for our pilot year and they attended Google for a full day of exercises and seminars. The girls ar-rived bright and early at 8am and they didn’t finish until 6pm that evening. They had some great discussions with a range of members of the Google team and they learned about the different types of jobs and roles within Google.

ISW Supported by GoogleBy: Jonathan Bradley MYP Teacher

The four girls who attended this year’s Google Internship. They had a great experience at the Google Office in Zurich, learning what it takes to work in the field of computer science.

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These are some comments from the MYP girls who attended the day:

“Going to Google was one of the best experiences we have encountered since we joined ISW. It helped us understand how much work that is actually behind the global search engine. We now understand all the different jobs and quali-fications you need to become a ‘Googler’. One of the abilities Google values the most is being able to socialize, commu-nicate and collaborate with others. We realized that there is more to being a ‘Googler’ than just sitting in front of a com-puter screen. ‘Googlers’ have to be dynamic people; they have to be available to handle problems 24/7. We also learned that it is important for a ‘Googler’ to be in a good work-ing atmosphere and surrounded by optimistic colleagues.

This experience inspired us to pursue IT for our studies and we were quite surprised to discover that there are only 10 female engineers working at Google. Overall we had a great time which was highly educational and inspiring.” -Isabella Klempel (Grade 8) & Katharina Müller (Grade 10)

grlbotics During the spring semester, the MYP program will be-gin a new afterschool program. Over the last six months the MYP staff have been hard at work de-veloping a program, under the code name Google Girls Club, which has been recently renamed grlbotics.

grlbotics is a collaboration between International School Winterthur and the Zurich Google Office. The short-term goal of grlbotics is to generate interest in and awareness of IT for girls in the greater Zurich area in in-formation technology, and the long-term goal is to encourage girls to pursue computer science degrees in uni-versity and ultimately build careers in information technology.

ISW teacher Colin Chapman has been working for months now developing a challenging curricu-lum that he can introduce to the grlbotics students.Each week, the girls will work on coding tasks to build their knowledge and skills. The club is focused on teach-ing coding skills to the girls to create their sumo robots.

Sumo robots is the project for the grlbotics club and thanks to popular Hollywood films and the portrayal by the ac-tor and current governor of California, Arnold “I’ll be back” Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies, we imagine ro-bots dragging humankind into a bleak apocalyptic future. Let me dispel that notion right now; Mr. Chapman’s robots have a more gentle, simplistic nature. They only do what they are programmed to do and in this case their job is to push the opposing robot out of a sumo circle. No lasers, guns or plans to eliminate mankind. Mr. Chapman will be working

with students to help them understand the programming re-quired to get these robots to operate correctly (and hopefully beat the opposing robot). Next years program will focus on the sumo robots, but students will also work on developing ‘smart clothing’. Smart clothing is a garment that incorporates com-puting fibers and materials into otherwise normal clothes and universities and companies all over the world are working on different smart clothing projects. This year, Mr. Chapman chal-lenged his grade 8 students to create a hat for one of their proj-ects. The hats were stuffed with LED lights and wiring and it was all designed to give students a sneak preview of a future that is fast approaching. The students in next year’s grlbotics Club will have the opportunity to understand the coding involved in this type of project and the reasons behind the devices.

After working for weeks on sumo robots the girls from the vari-ous teams will need a place to show off their hard work. At the end of the club, all of the teams will compete in a sumobot com-petition at Google. The teams will be attempting to push the opposing team’s robot out of the sumo circle, to be declared the grlbotics champion. The winning team will then challenge a group of Google engineers for the overall championship.

Just to keep things fair, the Google engineers will be handi-capped in the competition. They won’t get to work on pro-gramming their robot until the competition begins. In my humble opinion, given this disadvantage, it’s doubtful that the Googlers will have a chance against the girls, but I’m sure that this resourceful group of engineers will put up a good fight.

After the event, the girls of grlbotics will head to the Google cam-pus for a quick debriefing of the event. The winners will brag and the losers will discuss ways to avenge their loss when the grlbotics clubs resume their programming tasks the following school year.

ISW teacher, Colin Chapman, enjoying a cup of coffee before the days events at Google.

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cation and the influence of music on children. Neurologists are constantly re-searching the effects that music has on the human brain and the question of whether music makes children more intelligent has made its way into the media. Publications about experiments such as the Mozart ef-fect, where children’s IQ scores increased after listening to sonatas by Mozart, have spawned both criticism and support for music’s ability to alter intelligence.

Even if science is still groping in the dark and it is difficult to make conclusive state-ments, there are approved results about the stimulation and linking of brain re-gions that function as key areas when en-gaging oneself in music. This works even with elderly people because of the plas-ticity of the brain and there is no doubt that musical education has a positive im-pact on the development of a human be-ing in many ways. Nevertheless, I can still observe an attitude that doesn’t take mu-sical education seriously enough. Our so-ciety asks instead for so called ‘hard skills’ with immediately visible results rather than for soft skills that operate on long-term sustainability. In this sense music is not a must-have but a nice-to-have appli-cation in the curriculum of many schools.

Music is a holistic education because it asks for rational and emotional under-

standing and combines those often separated aspects of the human percep-tion. This is maybe the biggest differ-ence between sports and arts; it is not only about the control of the body but also about an intellectual awareness. Any artistic expression fosters creativity and the ability to listen, not only to the outer but at the same time to the in-ner environment. This sensibility is the requirement for the development of a personality that observes the world in a critical and independent manner and be-comes a responsible human being who is conscious of life and its coherencies.

All this may sound very abstract and the daily practice and musical experience at school looks, of course much more pragmatic. Music lessons include – as do other subjects – theory. But in compari-son with, for example, mathematics we have to use the theoretical knowledge as guidelines for an individual expres-sion. Music consists of so many different elements, first of all it is a physical phe-nomenon, building on mathematical structures, but behind every composi-tion there is a complex human being with his/her personal background (his-tory, psychology, philosophy, etc) and its vision. Music lessons teach the children the appropriate tools and techniques to explore, understand, feel, interpret and write music. At the end of the day, the preoccupation with music leads to the inquiry and discovery of one’s own personality and the more we know our-selves, the more we can be empathetic about our environment. That is why mu-sic as a subject at school is one of several possible ways of fostering a caring and loving attitude towards life in all its forms.

By: Christina MayerPYP Music Teacher

Why Music?

Some weeks ago, I went with Grade 2 on a spontaneous mini field trip, 200 meters away from ISW. On my way to school, I had seen thousands of birds gathering on a tree, before they flew southwards to spend the winter in a warm climate. The air was filled with a deafening chit-ter chatter that reminded me rather of a bee-hive. I had never seen anything like this before and was so impressed and moved by this natural spectacle, that I wanted to show the children.

My target as a music teacher is to make young people aware of life’s expression in this world. This is not a new approach to teaching students, there is the story about the 17th century Jesuit, Athana-sius Kircher, being compared to Leon-ardo da Vinci, for his enormous range of interests and therefore called “Master of a Hundred Arts,” who went with his pu-pils to the open meadow. With their eyes closed, only trusting their ears listening to the sound of the wind, the students had to guess whether the grass on the field was cut or not. Of course this com-plexity is not visible to children and that is why there was a student asking me, “Miss Mayer, what does the noise of the birds have to do with music?”

In the past years, there has been a growth of scientific interest about musical edu-

Faces of ISW

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There are many ways you can support your child’s math learning at home. Children go through broad, overlapping stages in their numeracy learning. If you would like to learn more, please ask your child’s teach-er to talk with you about those stages.

You are your child’s first and most impor-tant teacher. By showing a positive atti-tude towards mathematics, you will help to foster your child’s interest in the subject.

Counting is the beginning of numeracy learning. Numbers are all around us. Show your child how you use them, ev-erywhere and any time. Here are some activities to try with your child at home:

•Count real things and use counting to solve real problems.

•On pieces of cardboard, draw large num-bers. Have the children glue O-shaped cereal inside it, the same amount as the number value. After it’s dry, they can run their fingers along the shape of this number and begin counting skills, along with your help. Start with numbers one to five and increase nu-merals according to age and skill level.

•Write the numerals 1-12 inside the sec-tions of an egg carton with a black marker. Give each child a cup of cereal and have him/her place pieces of cereal to corre-spond with the number in each section. Count the pieces together in each egg-cup. As children play this game, they are learning to recognize symbols for each number. Another way to teach number recognition is to look for number symbols

every time you sit together to read a book or look at magazines. Point to numer-als and say the number name out loud.

•Count in groups of two, five or ten.

•Play cards, board games and dominoes.

•Use a calendar and ask what date it will be in 1, 5 or 10 days time.

•Recognize and write numerals in ev-eryday environments such as numbers on mailboxes, road signs, price tags and sizes on clothes and shoes.

•Share special food objects among friends or family members so that each person has a fair share.

•Sorting

Ask your child to sort their toys or oth-er items from the house or garden into groups according to the attributes of size, color or number. Sort items using two of these attributes to establish group membership.

•Comparing

Have your child and their friends stand back to back. Ask them to decide who is the shortest and who is the tallest. Have them find a way to check their ideas. Compare the number of buttons on your coats. Who has the most, and who has the fewest? Help your child make and display a chart to show these comparisons. Give them ideas on oth-er math investigations they could try.

•Patterning

Together, find and look at patterns, such as those on wallpaper or curtains. Your child could copy a pattern, re-peat and extend a pattern, and make their own from anything that’s handy, such as leaves, flowers, pens or shells.

•Shape and Space

Find shapes around the house and environment. Talk about why ob-jects are called different shapes. Find shapes on three-dimensional figures. Do jigsaw puzzles together. Con-struct models using boxes and cartons.

Children will, as time passes, begin to use their memory and to work things out in their heads. Children will be explor-ing many ways to work out problems. Talking about how they work out their own problems and listening to others’ strategies helps their understandings.

Showing an interest, being encourag-ing, and having high expectations that children will succeed in mathemat-ics are powerful motivators for chil-dren’s achievements in mathematics.

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Supporting Young Children withMath at Home

By: Susan KienerGrade 1 Teacher

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Grade 1 working on their Math

activities and games.

The IB Diploma Programme Has Arrived at ISW!

ISW is proud to announce that we have been fully authorized by the International Baccalaureate (IB) to offer the prestigious Diploma Programme starting August 2010. We, as a whole school community, are making final preparations for the implementa-tion of this rigorous pre-university course and are looking forward to welcoming our very first Grade 11 cohort.

Following are some comments that will emphasize the recognition that the Diploma receives.

“IB DP is well known to us for excellent preparations to post secondary education. Success in an IB programme correlates well with success at Harvard. We are always pleased to see the credentials of the IB Diploma Programme on the transcript.” (Marilyn McGrath, Lewis, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Harvard University)

“One of the advantages of an IB curriculum is its structure and quality. It is a well-established, well-known and well-respected programme. We know the quality of IB courses and we think the IB curriculum is terrific.” (Christopher Guttentag, Director of Under-graduate Admission, Duke University)

“IB DP is the ‘best’ high school prep curriculum a school can offer.” (Marilee Jones, Former Director of Undergraduate Admission, MIT)

“The IB is a first-rate program, one we are familiar with. It prepares students well for a university like ours.” (Fred Hargadon, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Princeton University)

By: Marie France LabelleMYP Teacher/DP Coordinator

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Art as a Process of Transformation

Art is about seeing, hearing, feeling and thinking. Art excludes nothing, yet it nar-rows everything down to a personal view, and it is the awareness of the personal view, which again opens up the universe.

Art is a life long process, which transforms the inner and outer vision of the person. It is about discovering what you are about, and finding a way through which to communicate experiences, which cannot be expressed in any other form.

And why communicate such an expe-rience in the first place? Why not just let it be? I think that when an experi-ence is so unique or moving, one can’t help but want to grasp it, return to it again and again and even share it.

In many ways art serves as a finger pointing towards something (the expe-rience). Sometimes very directly. Often it can be shocking and confronting to both the artist and the viewer, because it can address issues and values which one hold, so dear. Good artists have al-ways faced their personal situations and crossed their personal borders: taking risks is essential for artistic development.

Teaching Art is not the same as only giving free range to expressions, because then the students do not need the teacher and they might as well do

it by themselves at home. Neither is it merely about providing materials and offering a place to do it. Learning tech-niques and methods plays a major role in art making. It is about learning how to use the skills to communicate ideas and experiences, and to bring artistic skills and content together, swapping and changing into a fusion called art.

Teaching art also moves beyond the skills development and any assess-ment categories (necessary within most

school systems). The process of creativity is what fundamentally bridges all areas, levels and ages. It is essentially about the unexplainable (creativity) from where new and original art springs forth. This

process and discovery allows children and teenagers space in which they have the chance to express themselves. And within the art class it is essential to offer a space which is non-competitive, non chaotic and safe. Children who have diffi-culty in expressing things through words, will often find it easier expressing them-selves through visual means. Art gives the joys and fears a chance to show them-selves and be faced, enjoyed and shared.

Essential strategies in teaching art are firstly being self-motivated, which passes onto the student like the break of day. Without self-interest it is a difficult, if not an impossible con. Secondly, there is the interest in discovery of both outside and inner worlds. What I look for is the ‘you’, the individual, in the work. It is really about honesty, not to me the teacher, but to oneself, the student. This means that I am interested in the students’ involve-ment in what they are doing. It is a natural response that involvement reflects some-thing of the individual. Something of their effort is communicated through the way they draw, their use of line, form or shape. It is not and has never been about the perfect end-result, but about conveying something, which comes from personal exploration and effort. This is no old-school philosophy, but rather something very alive and present. No effort equals poor results and leads to an acceptance of “I cannot and do not want to”. It is also not about having talent (which is a bonus of course); one can have a lot of talent, but without ongoing effort and testing it will stagnate at the point where it was noticed.

Young children, generally up to the age of 11/12, are still very much awake in their imagination and express their ex-periences quite naturally through art. As they develop into the teenage years, their imagination is confronted with the complexity of identity development, the who am I complex. Focusing on some-thing is not easy during these times, yet, art offers the space where these dif-

By: Morné SwanepoelPYP/MYP Arts Teacher

“When first visiting ISW, we thought: What an ambience of open-minded international people - that is the place, where our kids should go to school.

When now entering the school everyday and observing our boys in their devel-opment, we think: they live on a daily basis to become international minded people, accompanied by teachers, who are great individuals from all around the world, committed to the children from all kind of nationalities.

When - unfortunately - now leaving ISW, we know: they were greatly helped to become citizens of the world: tolerant, able to share different thinking and ea-ger to learn many new thinks! Thanks!”

Kristina Stiefel Former Early Years 2 and

Kindergarten Parent

To us ISW is the difference. One of our children used to be very shy. Now after 2.5 years she stands up in front of audi-ences large or small to sing or give a presentation - and she judges herself to be good! She will carry that with her all her life, wherever she goes.

ISW has a unique group of teachers. They are committed, fun, enjoyable for kids and parents, they teach well and they enjoy their workplace together.

After visiting all major international schools in the greater Zurich area, we chose ISW - and then found a home close to the school in Winterthur. We have never regreted this decision.

Boers Brita Westelius Grade 1, Grade 3 and Grade 7 Parent

The teachers at ISW do not teach to a standardized test. There is true learning happening at this school, beginning with a unit of inquiry. There is a sincere collaborative effort among the teachers in each area of study so that learning is holistic. Students are expected to participate at a higher level, and in do-ing so, they take an active, responsible role in their learning. And finally, there is an open door policy which makes accessibility to the teachers and staff immediate.

Roz BirkeloGrade 5 and Grade 8 Parent

PYP students learning to sculpt wire models from drawings.

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ficult issues can be explored. The big-gest problem which I have noticed is that many teenagers think that they are not good enough at art. There is an ac-cepted norm (wherever that came from) that art should look a certain way and normally this so-called certain way looks something very realistically correct.

It takes referencing and exploration into the variety of artistic expressions in the art world to see the vast strains of artistic experiences, in order to open up these restricted viewpoints. It also takes a lot of motivation of the personal artistic abili-ties in order to keep or regain the self-

confidence in the individual expression.

The world is so full of beautiful details, which we overlook in our rush or forget, because we have seen them so often. Yet when we look at nature, it is never the same, everyday is different: this is also the teaching in art, to look again at the ordinary and discover something more, different or other.

MYP students creating animations dur-ing the creative process of their charcoal

drawings.

Quotes from parents

But what does forgiveness encom-pass? People tend to believe that rec-onciliation (i.e. making up) and neglect (i.e. ignoring the transgression) are es-sential elements of forgiveness, where-as researchers clearly dismiss these concepts. Psychological research usu-ally understands forgiveness to be an unconditional act, not dependant on reconciliation or the reestablishment of a healthy relationship with the trans-gressor; still confessions and apologies may promote forgiveness but are not a

requirement for the process. To forgive, one must admit to being unjustly treat-ed and hurt, and must make a conscious decision to commit to the forgiveness process. Forgiveness definitely is not just forgetting, charitableness, accep-tance, approval, pardon, denial or justi-fication; rather it is a deliberate choice made in full understanding of the facts.

Many studies have demonstrated the relevance of forgiveness. An individual’s stress level is lowered by forgiveness to such a degree that positive effects can be measured for the immune and car-diovascular system, thereby largely im-proving physical health. Furthermore forgiving individuals report less pain, anger and psychological distress than persons less inclined to forgive. It has also been confirmed that persons with a forgiving disposition report having fewer anxiety disorders, depression and anger. Considering all these findings that point to forgiveness as an extremely ef-fective mechanism to enhance health and well-being, it seems obvious that we need to try to foster and promote it.

Another positive effect of enhanced forgiveness includes the lessening of violence, which in this day and age of es-calating youth violence seem to be a cru-cial point to address. An important ele-ment in these violent situations seems to be the inability to resolve conflict, which might deescalate if forgiveness were involved. Many adolescents involved in violence report that they were moti-vated by anger and a desire for revenge.

If children are learning to forgive, where are they learning this vital quality? Pa-rental socialization is the best bet, laying the foundation for empathy, lessened anger and shame, appropriate guilt and other aspects of forgiveness. Family ties are very important due to the fact that

family relationships are long term and very intimate. In addition, in a family set-ting, there is a high occurrence of trans-gressions, making forgiveness in a fam-ily an important coping mechanism that should be encouraged and enhanced. Our surroundings teach us how to in-terpret and assess our feelings, as well as provide us with strategies for manag-ing our emotions. Children internalize how people typically behave based on family experiences. Therefore a family that fosters forgiveness as a strategy to cope with distress and emotional pain, broadens the child’s emotional and so-cial competences, while helping him/her internalize this behavior pattern. One was also able to prove that mothers have the greatest hand in forming the forgive-ness traits of their daughters, whereas fathers contribute most in the shaping of their sons’ forgiveness. The fact that sons look to their fathers for behavior modeling, while daughters model their mother’s behavior makes eminent sense. Not only are parents the initial models for adult behavior, they also are the pri-mary models for gender related behavior.

Our porcupine cannot help but prick the other. But it seems that the environment has a large influence on how this hurt is dealt with. To know that it is possible to cultivate and enhance such a strong pre-dictor for health and well-being is sensa-tional. With this knowledge, we should now focus on creating an environment in our homes and here at school that nur-tures forgiveness as a healthy response. It is important that we all try to be the best role models we can for our children. Our behavior as parents (and teachers) not only affects our children’s lives but forms their future behavior patterns as well.

A metaphor of two porcupines hud-dling together to give each other warmth, but pricking each other at the same time, is a perfect image of why forgiveness is so important in our everyday lives. We are social beings in need of warmth and closeness from our fellow humans but at the same time, by doing so, we put ourselves in a vulner-able position, making it easy for oth-ers to hurt us. Experiencing such hurt in a relationship typically elicits anger, fear, avoidance, revenge and aggres-sion, which need to be dealt with, so as not to harm the self or the relation-ship. All these facts have led recent psychological research to focus on for-giveness as a mechanism to enhance wellbeing and health, making forgive-ness the key to dealing with hurtful cir-cumstances in a healthy, positive way.

Effects of a Forgiving Environment on our

Children

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By: Katie MottSchool Counsellor/Psychologist

to education by JoAnn Deak, Ph. D., an educator and psychologist – a truly ac-complished woman! She wrote numer-ous articles and two books: Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters, Hyperion. 2002 and How Girls Thrive, published by the National Association of Independent Schools, 1998. She illustrates exciting new ways in which we can help empower girls to learn and strive as they struggle through stress and the pressures of the teenage years because it is a fact that female brains differ to male brains in various ways. Thus, as educators, we should pay attention differently to the needs of girls and boys, for example, if a girl `be-lieves` that a teacher truly cares about them, they will `think`. This is when they

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Brain Research and itsImpact on Parents

and Educators

For the past 5 years, there have been significant discoveries about the ways in which the human brain functions and as-similates information. Thanks to Magnet-ic Resonance Imaging (MRI), thousands of brains have been scanned and so, re-searchers are able to, more than ever be-fore, make informed and appropriate rec-ommendations for educators who, every day, need to instill knowledge in children or adolescents who sit in their classes.

The brain is the most complex biologi-cal organ known and its development is only starting to be understood. Ac-cording to research, the human brain has reached 95% of its full size by the age of six. Does this mean that a child`s capabilities to learn and his/her person-ality is fixed at this age? Not really, but the capacity to be skilled in many dif-ferent areas is building up only during childhood. Due to the brain`s exuberant growth during the pre-puberty years, exposure to a variety of learning oppor-tunities becomes crucial for several rea-sons. First, children need to build long robust neurons (brain cells) with thick myelin sheaths (like insulation around a wire) as this is important for impulses (messages) to be received and transmit-ted. All that needs to be done to acquire

these perfect building blocks is: drink lots of water, sleep and eat a balanced diet – yes, it is that simple! Second, millions of connections between brain cells (made with dendrites – like little arms) need to be formed. This is where parents and educators have significant roles in brain development because we need to help the children make these connections. We have a tough job because it is known that approximately 100 billion neurons form an individual’s brain and each has, on average, 7,000 connections to other neurons. It has been estimated that the brain of a three-year-old child has about 1 quadrillion connections for example. Un-fortunately, this number declines signifi-cantly with age, stabilizing by adulthood. Can we not learn anything else as adults?

Dr. Giedd from the American National Institute of Mental Health found, through his research on the adolescent brain, that the grey matter in the brain (which is used for thinking) thickens as more and more connections are made. On the other hand, he found surprisingly that this grey matter peaks around the time of puberty and starts to thin as the brain gets rid of any excess connections, simply because it becomes selective. Hence, the connections that are regularly used de-velop further and become stronger. This means that whatever the adolescent is spending his/her time doing will affect how their brain develops. Dr Giedd states, “If a teen is doing arts, sports or academ-ics, those are the cells and connections that will be hard-wired. If they are lying on the couch or playing video games... those are the cells and connections that will survive.” We, as parents and educa-tors, have to believe fully in the “use it or lose it” principle and encourage all chil-dren/teenagers to engage in all kinds of activities, even those that are more chal-lenging and require more out of them.

More importantly, we need to help them develop that inner drive or ambition to gain more knowledge and skills. A Stan-ford psychology professor Carl Dweck, asks parents and educators to praise the children`s “effort, strategy and progress rather than emphasizing their ‘smartness’ or praising high performance alone.” Fur-thermore, it has been demonstrated that there is a strong link between the brain`s major center for processing emotional events (the amygdala) and the cerebral cortex (where information is stored). Therefore, it is important to create situ-ations where positive high emotions are felt (i.e. giving tests, surprises, exposure to uncomfortable situations, etc...) so that the brain can remember longer.

During an IBO conference in Morocco last year, I had the chance to attend a pre-sentation on brain research and its links

By: Marie France LabelleMYP Teacher/DP Coordinator

become passionate about a subject or about what they are engaged in. We should also create tasks that develop the right and the left side of the brain.

There are thousands of resources now-adays on ways of improving `brain pow-er`. These range from taking medication to exercising the brain with `brain gym` but, in the end, the brain feeds on stimu-lation, water and a good diet to develop. So, our job as educators and parents is to expose children to opportunities to learn and strive (so that they make trillions of connections) and to educate teenagers on how to take care of themselves (so that they can keep those connections).

ISW WorldFestSeptember 2009

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At International School Winterthur the sports program offers a variety of individual and team sports. The curric-ulum offers sport to all ages ranging from three to sixteen years old. There is also the opportunity for after school sports for our Middle Years’ students.

Throughout the Early Years’ and Primary Years’ Program the students learn a range of skills and games meant to develop their fitness, coor-dination and cognitive abilities. The units within our sports curriculum are designed to match and enhance the inquiry units of the homeroom class. This means that while learning about civil rights in class, students are also learning how civil rights per-tain to sports during a unit on games.

The physical education PYP units are broken down into five areas. Each area is designed to focus on a specific skill. The six areas are music and motion, body control and spatial awareness, gymnastics, adventure challenge, health related activities, and games.

Music and motion is a dance related unit where the students develop skills related to rhythm and beat while do-ing sports. During this unit all PYP students learn a variety of dances and games centred on music. At ISW the students learn the basic steps of the

salsa, the waltz and the two-step. You can usually tell when the music and motion unit is taking place because teachers and parents are often seen gathering outside the gymnasium door to watch, in par-ticular, the Early Years students moving their feet to a salsa beat. The units focus around body control and spatial aware-ness and are designed to improve the students’ fine motor skills, including their hand/eye coordination and stop-and-go reactions. Gymnastics is a unit where students learn the basics of gymnas-tic movements developing a variety of jumps and tumbles. Adventure challenge is always the most fun unit of the year, as this is the where the students must learn to think outside of the box. It is great for kinaesthetic learners as they must use a mixture of mental and physical prow-ess as well as quite a bit of teamwork to solve puzzles. Health related activities are tied into every unit and is specific to the older PYP students. This unit is designed to give these older students a more in-depth look at biology, nutrition and health while still doing their fitness activities. The games unit is a chance for students to learn different games and sports as well as develop teamwork skills.

For the Middle Years’ students the pro-gram is focused much more extensively around fitness. The main goal of physi-cal education in the Middle Years is to

teach the students how to lead healthy and active lifestyles long after they graduate. A second goal of the physi-cal education in the Middle Years is to show students how they can transfer what they learned to help individuals in their own community. In the Middle Years’ Program the students learn a mixture of practical and theoretical skills pertaining to fitness and health, as well as learning the skills needed to coach and referee teams. In physi-cal education the students learn about different exercise programs and the benefits and weaknesses of each one.

On top of having physical education twice a week the Middle Years’ Pro-gramme students are also given the option to participate in several sports clubs and represent their school (in after school sports). After school, ISW offers Latin dance club, rock climbing, basketball and martial arts. If the stu-dents wish to compete against other in-ternational schools they can represent ISW on either the boys or girls football team or in track and field. As a growing school there is always the possibility of adding new sports to our program. As long as the students are interest-ed in sports we are willing to offer it.

Physical Education and Why it Applies tothe Lives of our Students

By: Shane PeterAthletic Director

The Language of Life and Learning:Drama

I think you learn a lot about a country from its art. To me, it’s part of the drama of life. It teaches you that there are places, moments and incidents in other cultures that genuinely have a life of their own. –Michael Palin, comedian, actor, writer.

Since people were very young children, they have learned to dis-tinguish between the conversations of play and those of everyday life and exploring the boundaries between the two can be a great source of delight. It is from children’s innate capacity for play, and upon understandings they gain from participating in play, that dra-matic activity can be constructed, (Wintson & Tandy,2001: vii-viii).

In grade 5 the students have the opportunity every week to develop their imagination and use their creativity by ap-plying it to an array of drama situations. The idea is that the students use drama to make connections between the unit of inquiry and language. This assists them in becoming more aware how the concepts are interrelated and their impact on their overall learning. In other words, the main objective is that the students attain an emotional and conceptual un-derstanding of their work and be able to make an instant connection between imaginative and real-life situations.

An example of this has been the grade 5 introduction to the origins of Greek theatre and traditions during the Unit of In-quiry, entitled: Legacies: An Examination of Past Civilizations. The students were introduced to Thespis, who is considered one of, if not the first, Greek actors as well as the origins of trag-edy and comedy. The types of costumes the Greeks used con-sisted mainly of their masks. Both myself and the art teacher Mr. Swanepoel collaborated on a Greek theatre mask making project. This has allowed the students to create a cast mask similar to the ones the early Greeks used. The students are cur-rently designing their masks according to their character and the character description they were responsible for writing.

Grade 5 was also exposed to information about some of the earli-est Greek theatre buildings (theatron) and how they functioned. The students were then able to hold a lively discussion compar-ing what they had learned about early theatre with what they already knew about theatre today. This was linked to language arts by discussing how the genres of comedy and tragedy are de-picted in books and films of today. Following this, the students were introduced to Aesop and the impact his fables have had throughout history. The students rehearsed a series of fables by Aesop, memorized their lines, wrote character analysis and started to understand the importance of stage blocking. These fables were performed at the December 2009 Winter Event. This will give the students a chance to incorporate their creative ex-pression along with some technical skills they have acquired and actually use these skills to perform in front of a varied audience.

It is important to add that the students have begun to grasp the importance of warming up their face, body and voice be-fore every drama session, with extra emphasis being placed on voice projection. There are some noticeable improve-ments in how the students address the class when they raise their hand during discussions and want to address the class as a whole. This is a direct result of how drama and perform-ing helps to build confidence in the students. According to drama expert Mark Almond, acting helps build confidence because apart from the aspect of performance and applause, it is totally collaborative and mutually supportive. The stu-dents rely on each other to succeed in producing something of value and quality. As the class becomes more involved in the different aspects of drama they will be asked to also use their story writing skills to develop scripts from different sto-ries they have heard. The students will be guided to adapt these stories to be used for drama, and will then take respon-sibility for their scripts, creating their own stage production.

It is through the development of their drama skills that grade 5 is also honing their confidence, learning to deal with group dynamics by working together in small to whole class drama-tizations. The students are getting to take part in activities that enable them to channel various learning styles such as visual, kinaesthetic or auditory. Naturally they will rely on the one that suits them best during this learning process. Through drama, language becomes more personal and the meanings of language can be played with through variation in the way the words are spoken, leading to different interpretations. Drama is also a wonderful way for students to find out the meaning of unknown language in a context which often makes sense to them. Lastly, drama in grade 5 is used to combine all sub-jects helping the students to make connections between the questions asked and the main ideas that support the inquiry.

Bibliography:Almond, Mark. Teaching English with Drama. London:Modern English Publishing Ltd., 2005.Winston J and Tandy, M. Beginning Drama 4-11.

David Fulton Publishers, 2001.

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By: Tania ErzingerLanguage Arts/ Grade 5

As educators, all of the teachers at International School Winterthur are student-oriented. Our students come first, whether it be in the classroom, on the athletic fields, during the overnight camping trips, or in the afterschool clubs. We tailor our ideas, plans and curricula around one question: what is best for our students? Obviously, this can be quite a dilemma with so many students from so many different backgrounds (and na-tionalities), each with different skills and learning levels. The answer lies in the teaching philosophy of Differentiation.

What is Differentiation? At its core, ISW teachers understand that all stu-dents are unique, are individuals, and are, well...different. Thus, the emphasis of our curriculum is to address all these diverse areas on an individual basis, and on a class-wide basis. All students need to be motivated in a dynamic way that emphasizes their personal strengths. For instance, some students are aural learners and some are visual learners. Some students enjoy working in groups while others prefer to work alone. Some

students are adept at computer technol-ogy, while others would rather spend a quiet hour reading. Some students are gifted musically, some are gifted artistically, and others technologically.

So how do ISW teachers deal with this di-lemma? In short, we allow, in our curricu-la and assessments, for students to maxi-mize their individual potentials. At the basis of our ideology are the EAL (English as an Additional Language) and Learning Resources/Special Needs Programs. These programs allow all students to be active in regular, mainstream classes with their peers, despite only having a few years of training in the English language, or hav-ing other learning-based deficiencies. At ISW, we understand these issues and are professionally adept at dealing with them. ISW employs a full-time EAL instructor who aids students in improving overall proficiency in the English language. Our Special Needs Department focuses on other educational issues, not necessarily related to the English language. Of impor-tance is our commitment to keeping stu-dents together, and not separating them due to differences in language or learn-ing ability. We feel they learn better when they are with their friends and allowed to work to their strengths – instead of ex-cluding them because of their differences.

On a classroom basis, teachers at ISW focus on each individual student and

modify their curricula and assessments accordingly. For instance, MYP projects allow for students to choose their own area of inquiry (in which to study). Proj-ects allow students to choose an ap-propriate study which aligns with their own personal strengths, whether it be writing a poem or short story, painting a portrait, writing a song, presenting a power point/technology project, mak-ing a video, working with computer graphics, mathematical formulas, act-ing out scenes from a play, or even par-ticipating in debates. There really is no limit to what we allow students to do. In fact, we encourage them to think analytically question the textbooks, and inquire further into any area of learning or study that interests them. The staff makes maximum use of the computer lab, art room, music room; and library as ancillary resources for our classes.

As far as clubs go, ISW offers every-thing from Latin dancing to robotics to basketball to silk painting, to Harry Pot-ter to science. We have taken advantage of our multi-cultural, multi-talented staff and have created a vibrant lunch-time and afterschool environment. Our emphasis, as always, is to provide nu-merous and engaging activities that meet the needs of all of our students.

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Promoting DifferentiationBy: Ron SietzMYP Teacher

Do you know...

International School Winterthur has moved in and around the Hegifeld-strasse three times since it opened in 2002.

The school began at Hegifeldstrasse 10, in the old Sulzer building, then moved to 4a, the TMZ building, and now to 30, which has been renamed Zum Park 5.

In 2002, the school opened with only 12 students, and we have now grown to over 145!

One of our 1st students who joined us in August 2002 in 6th grade, has now graduated and earned the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma!

In international education, language learning plays a major role, where the language of instruction may not be the students’ first language. Language, and not necessarily only one language, is fundamental to learning, thinking and communicating. The development of mother tongues and language learn-ing strategies is crucial for cognitive development and maintaining cultural identity. The support of mother tongues also increases intercultural awareness and facilitates personal growth. We have to know who we are and where we come from in order to know where we are going and who we are becoming.

This school year (2009-2010) ISW offers Swedish lessons for native speakers in the PYP. Every Tuesday afternoon Swedish students from ISW and a group from Swiss schools in the neighborhood come to learn Swedish. The purpose of the course is to maintain and develop the language and to learn about traditions, geography and history. The Swedish lessons are im-portant for both students who intend to go back to national schools in Sweden and for those who are planning to stay overseas. The Swedish state is support-ing the teaching and Swiss students from national schools in Canton Zürich even receive grades from the Swedish course.

As a teacher in an international school system, the Swedish teaching gives me time to reflect on my own cultural identity and national background. The teaching keeps me updated on what is happen-ing in my own home country and how the Swedish language is developing. It is also interesting to become ‘teacher Jenny’ to the children instead of Mrs. Rosenberg as we call teachers by their first names in Sweden. The Swedish les-sons also offer a good opportunity for the students to reflect on their backgrounds and to share thoughts about the coun-

Mother Tongue Development,a First Step to Internationalism

try they live in compared with Sweden.

In grade 2 we have 8 different mother tongues this year and I have developed more mother tongue activities to sup-port the children in their learning. The teaching and learning should always be engaging, relevant and significant for the students and an interest in their national backgrounds and different language backgrounds, the teaching becomes all of it. Every week a student from grade 2 prepares a language mini-lesson in his or her mother tongue. The other stu-dents learn how alphabets are different and how some languages are similar. We have Mother Tongue Reading Bud-dies every week together with Early Years’ students. The children are paired up with another student who has the same mother tongue and they read and communicate with each other in the lan-guage they speak at home. This weekly time gives the students opportunities to develop their mother tongues together and increase their confidence and cul-tural awareness. The grade 2 children also write and express themselves in a Mother Tongue Journal for homework. It helps them to keep contact with their home country, family and friends. By sup-porting and encouraging the mother tongues as one part of the school work we do in class, I can see that the chil-dren have gained more confidence and more interest in learning from each other.

Teaching internationalism starts by encouraging students to express them-selves in their own languages. By lis-tening to each other and being open-minded we can learn different ways of thinking and can communicate better. I want the students to be proud of their cultural backgrounds and feel motivat-ed to share their language and culture. Both teaching and learning is mutual and we can all learn from each other.

By: Jenny RosenbergGrade 2 Teacher

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German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside Eng-lish and Dutch. It is one of the world’s major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the Euro-pean Union. Around the world, Ger-man is spoken by approximately 95 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Overall it is the third most learned lan-guage worldwide, and the third most taught language in the English speak-ing world after French and Spanish.

German is spoken primarily in Ger-many (95% of population), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (65%). The majority of the small population in Lichtenstein also speaks German.

Other European German-speaking communities are found in Nothern Italy, in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the French Alsace region and in some border villages in Denmark.

One of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside the Eu-ropean Union can be found in the United States (1,4 million). An indica-tion of German presence can be found in the names of such places as Bis-marck, Munich, Karlsruhe, and Stras-burg in North Dakota, New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas, and Kiel, Ber-lin and Germantown in Wisconsin.

At ISW, MYP German is divided into two separate programs; the native speaker program (German language A), and the program for those who have to learn German as an addi-tional language (German language B).

In the native speaker program Stan-dard German is taught. Standard Ger-man differs slightly between German-speaking countries in vocabulary and in some instances pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. Stan-dard German is officially used in North-ern Germany, Swiss Standard German in Switzerland, and Austrian Standard Ger-man in the Austrian education system.

To grant a smooth conversion for stu-dents being taught in the official Swiss

system who like to join our school, we teach the official Swiss Standard Ger-man. Therefore, students will find a familiar environment in the German classes, as well as the official German school books, which are widely used in the secondary schools in Kanton Zürich.

In addition we strive to combine the German units with the other subjects taught in our school, encourage the students to use and compare both lan-guages, and finally to acquire a deep understanding and interest in the lan-guage, its grammar and literature.

As another change to last year, lan-guage groups are not only divided con-sistently into language A and B (Native and Non-Native) courses, but are also separated completely according to the grade level. This allows us to introduce an overall criterion-based curriculum for language B that is oriented towards the Common European Framework for Lan-guages (CEF). As a guideline to describ-ing achievements of learners in foreign languages across Europe, its aim is to pro-

vide a method of assessing and teach-ing which applies to all languages in Eu-rope, the use of which offers a system of learning, teaching and assessment ap-propriate to all six reference levels (A1-C2), which are becoming widely accept-ed as the European standard for grading an individual’s language proficiency. This includes a constant progression of the passive and active skills as well as the vocabulary and has developed a broad variety of learning material close-ly related to each part of the learning process conceived on the background of learner centered teaching methods.

As the CEF highlights, the significance of language as a tool for everyday life and communication – particularly on the levels A1-B1 on which we are fo-cused – we usually work with a method known as Task-based Language Learn-ing (TBLL). This is a method that focuses on the use of authentic language, and to students doing meaningful tasks using the target language; for example visit-ing the doctor, conducting an interview, or calling the customer care for help. As-sessment is primarily based on task out-come rather than simply on accuracy of language forms. This makes TBLL espe-cially popular for developing target lan-guage fluency and student confidence.

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By: Susan Lüthi and Carlos DombrowskiMYP German Teachers

German in the MYP

At ISW we have four German teachers; German is a mandatory language from Kindergarten upwards (though Early years also has classes).

At ISW we also offer Mandarin, French, and English as an Additional Language.

We’re an International School, Why do WE Need Philanthropic Support?

By: Candice OlgunMarketing/ Fundraising Coordinator

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Often there is the misconception that because we are an international school, we are a “private school”, and that tu-ition fees equate to a large profit margin, however, this is not the case for our school. International School Winterthur was created by a foundation and is a non-profit school, which means school fees only cover the cost of staffing, facilities and running the program. For anything over and above this, the school needs to find other means of raising funds.

Over the years we have received a lot of support from parents and the Parents’ Association with regard to our fundraising ef-forts. To date, with help, our school has been able to buy 3 interactive whiteboards, build a new playground and a new computer lab as well as the computers that are needed for it.

This year we hope our fundraising efforts will be successful enough to build a new Chemistry Lab that is a much-needed addition to the school in order to support our newly autho-rized IB Diploma Program.

If you are interested in supporting the school with any contributions big or small, please contact

Candice Olgun on 052 269 59 00 or email: candice.olgun@iswinterthur.ch

How the schools funds are distributed

ISW renovation projects2010 / 2011

4th floor chemistry lab, 2nd computer lab/media center

5th floor classrooms for MYP and DP, drama room, robotics/animation room

Building/rental of gym facility

What has fundraising helped us achieve?

In 2008, ISW fundraising helped fund the building of a playground at our new location in Zum Park 5

Only 0.3% of the school’s finances come from money raised through fundraising

In 2009, ISW fundraising raised money to help fund the new computer lab which is being built for the new

school year 2010 / 2011

Middle Years’ ProgramInformation Technology at ISW

By : Colin ChapmanMYP Teacher

The MYP is guided by three fundamental concepts: Holistic learningrepresenting the notion that all knowledge is interrelated and that the curriculum should cater for the development of the whole person, attributes of which are described by the IB learner profile. Particular emphasis is placed on:

• The understanding of concepts• The mastery of skills• The development of attitudes that can lead to considered and appropriate action

Intercultural awarenessthe encouragement and promotion of international-mindedness as reflected in the attributes of the IB learner profile.

Communicationthe development and encouragement of open and effective communication which are important skills that contribute to international understanding, as exemplified by the attributes of the IB learner profile.

A core challenge for learners is how to incorporate information in a productive, judicious, effective and efficacious search for understanding. The three fundamental concepts of the MYP seek to provide a checklist of processes that help learners judge whether their use of technology is appropriate to their learning objectives.

Projects in the MYP are designed to encourage learners to make choices about how they learn, their evaluation of their learn-ing and how they communicate their learning to others. How learners choose, use and assess technology to augment their learning is a key concern of the International School Winterthur program.

To these ends the International School Winterthur prioritizes the student and their learning when we engage with information technology. Information technology is more than a tool, it should be a focus of our critical, evaluative and creative endeavours if it is to be a truly effective means to learn.

International School Winterthur seeks to encourage learners to:Develop their understanding of concepts by using technology as a research tool, experimental platform, communications hub and reflective space.Gain mastery of skills through the use of technology to provide opportunities for participation in simulations, the use of review tools, the provision of assessment of abilities and forum discussions and peer review.Form attitudes that can lead to considered and appropriate action by using information technology for local and interna-tional collaborative work, discussion, social networking and sharing of information and ideas.

Drama in the Middle Years’ Program

During the first weeks of this school year, a brand new grade 6 drama stu-dent asked me “Ms. Benzing, what is the point of drama? Why do we do it?” I love it when they just get to the bottom of something all on their own. It was an excellent question and one I wish more students would ask. The group discussed it for quite awhile and then we agreed that the main purpose of drama is that it is another way to communicate our ideas, feelings and beliefs, and that it can reach people in a much more creative and in-teresting way.... as it has for centuries all over the world.

I am a devout believer in arts education, and am saddened by its loss via budget cuts in so many other schools. The arts, and drama in particular, have numerous benefits for young people. Drama may seem like “an extra” in any program, but the skills learned will be used through-out life: communication, collaboration, concentration, self-confidence, voice and speech, physicality, as well as fully embracing the design cycle. At ISW I have also seen the benefits for emerging English speakers, frequently drama be-

By: Michelle BenzingMYP Teacher

ing the one place where new students can express themselves and their lack of English does not hold them back. It’s an incredible confidence booster for these students. I am also pleased by the over-whelmingly positive response to drama from our students, especially our current 10th graders who have asked to be able to continue drama at Diploma level.

How I came to teach DramaI have been involved in theatre and drama since I was a young, and though hard to imagine, shy child. After my fam-ily had relocated at the beginning of one summer vacation, my mother was trying to figure out what to do with me for three long months. She saw an an-nouncement for auditions at a local uni-versity theatre, and asked me if I would be interested. I was a little unsure, but once I arrived at the audition I decided I could do it, and landed my first part. For the next fifteen years acting was my passion and I was involved with numer-ous productions and theatre companies in the U.S. My shyness slowly dissipated and my self-confidence grew. Not being

the best student ever, drama helped me to stay focused on my studies and was the primary reason I attended university. After auditioning and being accepted for a number of university drama programs, I decided on the North Carolina School of the Arts, one of the top ten drama schools in the U.S. and known as the “Jul-liard of the South.” For two years I studied everything from dance, voice, movement and acting, to stage combat, and basic stagecraft, with teachers from all over the world. It was a grueling schedule, but one I value beyond words. However, I came to the conclusion that as much as I loved the work of acting, I wasn’t particu-larly fond of actors, and that by nature I am not the most competitive of people.... two things one must have a limitless sup-ply of to be a professional actor. (Also, the prospect of waiting tables for the rest of my life did not thrill me either.) I chose to take a year off, worked in a few produc-tions in Chicago, before deciding to finish my undergraduate degree in the liberal arts instead. Since then I have worked with small acting ensembles on a variety of projects.

MYP Arts Exhibition- before 2009, MYP students would participate in the Win-ter Event as a venue to share the work from their arts classes. As the school has grown, it was decided that a more age-appropriate way to showcase the MYP arts is through an Art Exhibition. In Janu-ary last year, semester one MYP students hosted an evening of their work including sharing their visual art, animation, music and drama. It was an excellent evening. This year we intend to do the same, but would like to add a spring exhibition for second semester students as well.

School-wide DramaThis year, ISW teacher Tania Erzinger has been teaching drama in the PYP, and is preparing to lead the DP drama program next year. We are excited to have this op-portunity to expand drama on a school-wide level, and to collaborate across pro-grammes! One of our goals for the next school year is to stage a full-school pro-duction.

Parental SupportPlease let us know if you have any spe-cial talents that would lend themselves to our drama program; painting, sewing, costume or make-up design, stage man-aging, lighting, sound, musical talents, etc. Any and all of these would be an ex-cellent addition!

The MYP Drama CurriculumI have been teaching drama (along with English/language arts) for the past 11 years in a variety of settings and to all ages of children. It takes great energy as a teacher, but is a wonderful comple-ment to my other classes. While in Chi-cago I was lucky to foster a working re-lationship with Karen Eriksson who is an actor and arts educator. She helped me to transform my own drama train-ing and experience into valuable expe-riences for my students. We’re still in touch and I utilize many of her books and ideas in my classroom daily. Last year I wrote ISW’s MYP drama curriculum. It is a four level program: the first year stu-dents learn about the tools of the actor and explore creative drama; the second year emphasizes creating characters and monologues and two-person scene study work; the third year is devoted to studying and creating Greek dramas, and the final year focuses on Shakespeare in the first unit, and writing and performing one-act plays in the second. I think this a well-rounded program which will expose students to a wide variety of techniques and experiences. In addition, I am now offering two field trips a year for students to see professional theater here in Swit-zerland. Please let me know of any op-portunities you are aware of as well!

Student Drama OpportunitiesCommunity and Service through per-formance- For the past two years I have

offered students an after-lunch club to earn community and service hours through performance. We have collabo-rated with PYP to create public service announcement plays about bullying and hygiene. We also have created a play about jobs for an Early Years unit of work. This year we are currently working on drama lessons for MYP students to teach to each PYP class. There is still room in the club if your child would like to par-ticipate

Intensives- Intensives are weeklong courses that allow MYP students the op-portunity to study one subject area in-depth. (Last year students had a choice of rugby, biking, yoga or drama). Each year for the drama intensive we put on a full production in one week. In 2007-08 I only had 7 students who put on a stellar performance of The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas. Students created all aspects of the performance: costumes, make-up, sets, as well as rehearsing and creating characters. In 2008/9 we had 17 students who signed up and staged a much larger production of Frumpled Fairy Tales by Bill Springer. In addition to staging the play from the ground up, students were given the opportunity to do a backstage tour of the Zurich Opera House. Parents played a large role in this bigger produc-tion helping with everything from cos-tumes, make-up and sets to loading and unloading the props. Again, it was amaz-ing what we achieved in only 5 days!

International School Winterthur, Zum Park 5, CH-8404 Winterthur

Tel: +41(0) 52 269 59 00 Fax: +41 (0) 52 269 59 02

Email: administration@iswinterthur.ch Web: www.iswinterthur.ch

Design and Layout by: Candice Olgun