Welcome to the Middle School Blog at the International School of Bogor!
The 2013-14 school year has begun, and it is wonderful to see new and familiar faces in our middle school class. Each of us brings a unique perspective into the classroom, which creates a rich learning environment for everyone.
On this and forthcoming blogs you'll find information on what's happening in our middle school at ISB .
Our Weekly Schedule
Students will need to ...
- wear their ISB batik uniforms while at school, unless there is a special event that allows for different attire
- wear their PE uniforms to PE class
- bring a drink bottle with them to school each day. Water is provided in class
- wear shoes while at school. No sandals, except for swimming class.
- have access to a computer at home. Laptops are suggested for all students to have. However, it is not a requirement that all students must bring a laptop with them to class.
- keep an updated planner, which is provided by the school. All assignments must be recorded in the planner.
Our Essential Agreements
We agree to ...
- Treat others fairly and respect their properly;
- Use wise and kind speech;
- Study and practice to the best of our abilities.
What is the International Middle Years Curriculum (IMYC)?
The IMYC is a comprehensive curriculum that helps students learn the subject knowledge, skills and understandings they need to become aware of the world around them. Students develop the ability to think and behave independently and interdependently. The curriculum provides opportunities for students to work in differently sized groups, to develop their own understandings and to reflect on their understandings and the understanding of others. Rigorous skills lie at the heart of student learning. This means that day-to-day learning through the IMYC is active rather than passive. Themes are built around ‘Big Ideas’ that respond to the drive of 11-14 year-olds, allowing them to develop a sense of meaning in their lives.
Each unit has a Theme and a Big Idea. The Themes and Big Ideas respond to the brain development of students aged 11-14 years which creates and stimulates a search for identity and meaning. For the first time, opportunities for the deepening of understanding begin to be real as do, therefore, opportunities for teachers to spend time focusing on these complex conceptual ideas. Each Big Idea begins from and is related to a Theme and both are related to the age levels of the students learning from the IMYC. The Big Ideas provide your students with a growing set of principles that impact on their academic, social and personal development. The Theme and the Big Idea are the essential coordinating devices of the unit. They coordinate the work of teachers and provide a coherent thread for students as they experience learning in different subjects. They also provide the opportunity for your students to see how subjects work both independently and interdependently. The Themes provide opportunities for all subject teachers to collaborate around a common concept while students move from subject to subject.
Everything in the IMYC is based on clearly defined Learning Goals and standards, which outline the knowledge, skills and understanding across all of the subjects and international-mindedness, as well as the personal dispositions students need to develop through their middle/secondary years’ experience.
Our First Unit of Inquiry: Relationship
The Big Idea: Every individual thing affects and is affected by other things.
Literacy
In this unit, students will explore the Big Idea using the novel Holes by Louis Sachar as a stimulus. They will look at the novel’s characters and the relationships they have with each other, examining specifically how a single person’s actions can affect another person or group of people. They also will explore the themes of the novel, particularly ideas bout fate, the past, its effect on the present and the future, and the consequences of actions, in terms of how each individual action affects other actions, situations and circumstances in turn.
History
Students will study the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the chain of events that led to his death, and the chain of events that followed. Students will analyse reasons
for the relationships between the different countries in order to determine why one man’s death was the impetus for an unprecedented conflict on a global scale. They will consider the extent to which the First World War was inevitable given the nature of European diplomatic relationships in 1914, exploring whether another apparently ‘local’ tragedy could have triggered the same cataclysmic fighting. They will also examine the impact that World War One had on many different areas of life, drawing their own conclusions about the relationship between the changes that they study and the outbreak of the war.
Geography
In this unit, students will explore the way in which the Earth’s tectonic plates are moved according to natural processes. They will look at how the movements of the plates affect the formation of the landscape, but also how these movements can be the cause of natural disasters. Students will analyse the impact of one natural disaster, the 2004 Indian Ocean
Tsunami, exploring the way in which the movement of tectonic plates and the subsequent underwater earthquake had such a catastrophic effect on so many people and places surrounding the Indian Ocean and beyond. They will then investigate the changes brought about by the experience of the 2004 tsunami; how the countries that were directly hit have been affected in the longer term, and how this has led to the creation of a coastal environment which is safer for those that depend upon the sea for their livelihood.
Science
Students in grade 6 will explore Earth Science this term, learning about Earth's resources, the rock cycle, weathering an erosion and plate tectonics. Students in grade 7 will explore Life Science this term, learning about cells, heredity, genes and the evolution of living things. Students in grade 8 will explore Physical Science this term, learning about motion and forces, work, machines and energy.
ICT
This unit uses data handling software to examine how every individual thing affects and is affected by other things. Students will look at ways in which different functions of data handling software allow users to input data so that it can remain independent, as well as allowing them to input data so that it can become interdependent on other data.
Physical Education
In this unit, students will use basketball, or another ‘invasion game’ team activity, to explore the ways in which every individual thing affects and is affected by other things. As they learn and use different plays, students will explore the ways in which an individual’s and a team’s performance is affected by everything that happens on the court, and will research the ways in which their individual and team actions also affect
History the team that they are playing against.
Mathematics
Multi-level, collaborative groups work on mathematical projects that employ a range of skills and encompass a variety of mathematical concepts. Projects will span all the strands of mathematics that we cover at ISB-- Statistics and Probability, Geometry, Algebra and Number. In addition, students receive individualized skill instruction at their specific mathematical learning levels. All homework assignments in this subject area will be based on individual learning need.
Art
Students investigate the relationship between line, shape, space and pattern, and colour in 20th Century abstract paintings. They consider the ideas, methods and approaches of the artists who created these paintings. They observe and record shapes, patterns, and colours in their own environment. Then they use these starting points to create an abstract or semi-abstract painting inspired by the local landscape.
Dispositions
This unit has been designed to help students be better aware of the independence and interdependence of everything around them. Students will have the opportunity to see, from a variety of perspectives, how every choice, action, and decision impacts and affects other things. They will learn about the connectedness of all things, places and people and practice looking at the relationships and the influences that affect them.
In a few short weeks middle-school students will head out to the beautiful mountains of Sukabumi on their annual Middle School Camp. Parents should already have received permission letters for the camp, and I hope that all the students will be able to attend this year. 
We are tentatively scheduled to leave ISB on Tuesday, September 24 at 8:00 AM and will arrive back at ISB on Thursday, September 26 at 3:00 PM. 
