Contents

Director 1 Midsummer Night’s Dream Photos 2 Primary Arts Week 3 International Day 4-5 Mathematics PD Day 6 Yarat Contemporary Art Space 6 Cinderella Kids 7 PTA 7

Calendar

November 4 P5A & P5J Open House

4 Secondary PAC Meeting

4-8 CEESA HS Boys Soccer

5 P5E & P5S Open House

5 Career and University Overview

5-6 IBDP Theatre Arts

6 P4 Open House

6 Education UK College Exhibition

6 MYP Coffee Morning

9 National Flag Day Holiday

10 PTA Coffee Morning

11 P3 Open House

11-12 M1-DP2 3-Way Conferences

11-16 Iberian MUN Trip

12 Planning Afternoon

12-15 CEESA MS Speech and Debate

13 MYP Coffee Morning - MYP Units

14 SSAT Test

16-27 P1-P8 IEP Review process with students, teachers and parents

16-18 TISASTOCK Rock Concert

17 P1 Open House

17 Space Camp presentation

18 P2 Open House

19-21 SRAA Football and Volleyball

21-28 M4-DP1 Theatre Trip to Vienna

25 Parent Session understanding adolescence

27 P6 Open House

28 TISA Winter Fair

30 Parent Technology Coffee Morning

www.tisa.az

communications@tisa.az

30t h October 2015 2015-2016 I s sue 3

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Co-curricular activities, programs and learning experiences enhance a student’s growth, development and education. Whether it is sport, activity, club or performance, there is a positive correlation between co-curricular involvement and academic performance. Students who commit to these activities further develop collaborative, communication and organization skills in addition to the emotional resilience—or grit—a leading indicator of future success. But imagine my surprise the week before school starts when Alex McTaggart, our Secondary Drama teacher tells me: “We’re doing Shakespeare, but with a rock band—you’re going to love it—and we’re going on tour to Germany and Austria in November.” “Wait, WHAT?” I have to admit, I had my reservations. After seeing our students and faculty collaborate and perform earlier this month at the Reshid

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Behbudov Theater, I can say without reservation. You were right Alex. — I loved it. It was an inspiring example of achievement through: Commitment—Students were given the script last school year; Passion—Anyone in attendance can attest to the energy and emotion the cast and band brought to the stage; Vision—A Midsummer Night’s Dream… a rock band—Bon Jovi, Radiohead… Shakespeare; Teamwork—Performers to props, costumes and make-up. Lighting, technical support, and recording. Ticket sales, venue, booking and refreshments. Directing, choreographing and upcoming travel. Congratulations to everyone who made Midsummer a performance to remember and break a leg on tour!

Chris Andre Director

Shakespeare ROCKS!

TISA Times Page 2 of 7 Photos from MSND

Photos from Midsummer Night’s Dream Performances

TISA Times Page 3 of 7 Primary Arts Week

Primary Arts Week Primary Arts Week took place between 28th September and 2nd October. Celebrating both visual and performing arts the students explored arts from our host culture. They learned how to play the traditional Nagara drums, dance in the Azeri style and visited the Old City in Baku to enjoy the architecture, sculptures and student paintings in the Gallery of Contemporary Art. Students reflected verbally in their mother tongue and in English and by creating works of art. The week culminated with a wonderful assembly that demonstrated what we had seen and learnt during the week. Many thanks to all the Primary Arts Team and local staff who worked so hard to make this an enjoyable and successful week.

Nicola Beale Primary Visual Arts Teacher

Drum rhythm game with Elnur

Azeri dance in our beautiful new TISA 5 dance studio

TISA Times Page 4 of 7 International Day International Day: an opportunity to reflect on our role as global citizens (GCED)

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International Day at TISA this year was, once again, a resounding success and indicative of the highly diverse community we are all a part of. Many of the activities were centered on those elements of culture that excite us - food, sport, games, dance, or art.

Dan Nellor and I ran an activity that was a little different. Over the weeks leading up to International Day the P8 students had examined the central idea: Humans migrate in response to challenges and opportunities. The P8 teachers and students were looking for ways to make this topic as engaging as possible. We chose to use international day as an opportunity to explore, on one hand, our sense of nation and on the other our participation in the international community. The very public and current topic of migration was something, we hoped, the students could connect to. We created a space for students to share their thoughts on migration. We were astounded by the result. Not only did the students have clear thoughts, they were willing to articulate these in written word as a means of presenting their thinking. The ideas and opinions were rich, inventive and many of the students thought carefully about their, ultimately varied, responses.

Our provocation or prompt for the activity was: Do humans have the right to migrate? With the collected contributions, we found

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we had an abundance of data to use. P8 have now taken the data and have begun to examine it and synthesize into their own reports on migration that detail their own personal migratory journey (in terms of their travel) and develop a deeper inquiry into how and why people move. We hope that the TISA community will help us by responding to our upcoming blog posts detailing our development as report writers, findings, personal thoughts and imaginings for the future. The upcoming posts can be found here: http://blogs.tisa.az/

During the last weekend of October 2015 I will represent TISA at the regional IB conference in the Netherlands. I will be presenting the ways that we at TISA have developed global citizenship education (GCED) through the PYP exhibition. Having the students, especially from different sectors of the school, contribute to this discussion is a powerful reflection of our ability as an IB continuum school to reflect on issues that are increasingly affecting us all. For further information on our global citizenship projects please do not hesitate to contact Simon Norton (chair of the GCED review committee) or myself. The following link is an interview I conducted with the IB regarding my studies and the applications of GCED at TISA:

http://blogs.ibo.org/blog/2015/10/21/nick-palmer/

Nick Palmer P8 Teacher

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TISA Times

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International Day

Photos from International Day 2015

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Mathematics Professional Development in the Primary School

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From Monday 19 October to Wednesday 21 October Michael Ymer, a visiting Mathematics Consultant, led the Primary School in Professional Development. Michael explored ways of developing number sense in our children and how to create rich learning engagements that challenge and extend all of the students in a class. Michael led a very well attended Parent

Yarat Contemporary Art Space

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After a very successful “Arts Week” at the end of last term, the primary arts team (your children’s visual and performing arts teachers!) visited the new Yarat Art Gallery down on the Boulevard, just near to the new swimming and sports complex. We would strongly urge parents to take advantage of this facility, it is absolutely wonderful. This is what it is all about: YARAT CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE

YARAT is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan and to creating a platform for Azerbaijani art, both nationally and internationally. Based in Baku, YARAT (meaning CREATE in Azerbaijani) was founded by Aida Mahmudova in 2011.

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YARAT realises its mission through an on-going program of exhibitions, education events and festivals. YARAT facilitates exchange between local and international artistic networks including foundations, galleries and museums. A series of reciprocal residencies further fosters opportunities for global cultural dialogue and partnership. Educational initiatives include lectures, seminars, master classes, and the Young Artist Project ARTIM (meaning PROGRESS in Azerbaijani).

Here is the link to their website: http://www.yarat.az/en/about/overview We are planning for TISA students to also make use of this facility in our visual arts programme.

Primary Arts Team

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TISA Times

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Math PD & Yarat Art Space

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Workshop that engaged parents in a thought provoking session. He also led a session with the Primary Teaching Assistants. There is a definite Mathematical buzz around the Primary classrooms and it is clear that this time of professional learning will have a positive impact on student learning.

Dom Thompson PYP Coordinator

TISA Times TISA Times

Page 12 of 13 Bingo Night Photos

Board Report

Winter Fair is on its way

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With the school year well under way and everyone now settled into their roles at TISA, PTA focus is firmly fixed on delivering a wonderful Winter Fair. This major PTA event will be held on Saturday 28th November 2015 and will be a lively and sociable event for the whole community. Watch out for the Snowman around TISA! Our distinctive branding will highlight more information over the coming weeks. At the time of going to press, popular activities such as Santa's Grotto and Santa's secret shop are already confirmed, and like last year we expect the same great range of vendors in the Old Gym. Raffle prizes will include the latest 'must have' electronic devices. We will offer an improved games section for younger children, and we are excited to present a new cafe section for hot drinks and sweet treats, in addition

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to a mouthwatering range of international food at the main 'Snowflake Cafe'. The whole event will add up to great day for TISA families to shop, eat and be entertained in a lovely holiday spirit. At the heart of the event is a commitment to fundraising. This is the most significant opportunity the PTA has to secure monies which we split evenly between a range of local charities and school enrichment projects. Please look for the Snowman, for further information about the sort of donations and volunteers we will need to make the Winter Fair a success. We are grateful for your support and look forward to welcoming you and your family to a wonderful event!

Louise Scarr

PTA President

TISA Times Page 17 of 18 Board Meeting Report

From the PTA…continued

TISA Times Page 7 of 7 Cinderella Kids & PTA

CINDERELLA KIDS COMING YOUR WAY SOON! Our 2016 Primary Production is Cinderella KIDS! The official auditions are the week of November 23-27th The audition process is 6 children at a time: sign-up spot is right outside Miss Charlotte’s door. I really look forward to seeing lots of children audition for this wonderful show! Let’s get lots of boys out too!

Charlotte Harvey Liz O’Neill

Primary Performing Arts