Issue 6

Winter ISSUE

School Build 2013 Loy Krathong PYP Sports Day

Week Without Walls Student Council PTA Party

Dear Impact Readers, Happy New Year to all Impact readers. We hope you enjoy this information-packed and photo-filled issue highlighting many of the special events and activities which happen at Concordian – proof that learning and growing also happen outside of the normal classroom studies. These events – both fun AND educational - enrich the quality of education that Concordian students enjoy.

We are always looking for articles, photos, and information about the great things that Concordian students are up to. Please send articles, photos, or other information to K. Bell at bell@concordian.ac.th Thanks as always for your support. Happy reading.

The Impact Team

Dear Concordian, May this New Year of 2013 Bring You and Your Loved Ones Lives Full of Happiness, Prosperity & Good Health.

May we work in unity to bring positive changes to the lives of our students, our community, and ourselves so that our hard work will lead to positive changes in the world.

- From The School Management Team -

สวัสดีปีใหม่ 2556 IMPACT เล่มนี้ เป็นฉบับแรกของปี พ.ศ.2556 ในโอกาสปีใหม่นี้ ขอความดีทุกประการที่ทุกท่านได้สั่งสมมากลาย เป็นมงคลชีวิตที่จะดำ�เนินต่อไป ขอให้ทุกท่านสร้างสมความดีต่อๆ ไป และยิ่งๆ ขึ้นไป ขอให้กำ�ลังใจทุกท่าน ที่กำ�ลังคิด จะเริ่มต้นทำ�อะไรใหม่ๆ แต่ยังหาจังหวะและโอกาสไม่ได้ ให้ถือโอกาสที่เป็นมงคลนี้ เริ่มต้นทำ�ในสิ่งที่คิดและประสบผล สำ�เร็จตามที่ปรารถนา ทั้งนี้ต้องมีความจริงใจและความมุ่งมั่น โดยไม่ต้องรอคอยโชคและวาสนาแต่ให้ใช้สติปัญญา กำ�ลังทรัพย์ กำ�ลังกายและกำ�ลังใจ อย่างเต็มความสามารถ นี่แหละ คือ ความจริงที่จะทำ�ให้ทุกท่านประสบความสำ�เร็จในชีวิต

อ.วิจิตรวงศ์ ชนะรัตน์ อาจารย์ใหญ่

Happy New Year 2013

Sal Tree

ดอกสาละลังกา

Concordian Showcase

Thai story telling /TISAC Dance TISAC Tournaments

Impact the Community, the Nation, and the World

Building Community Through CAS School Build Magic Show Spelling Bee

Celebrations & Festivals Wai Kru Loy Krathong Interween Thanksgiving

Fun & Fancy

Drama Music Art Performance The Illuminati in Drama Libre Library Activities Sports Activities

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8 10 14 15

16 17 18 19

Fun & Fancy

Ploenchit Fair/ Samitivej Christmas Market Fair Visiting Her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s Gallery Week Without Walls 6-8 Week Without Walls 9-10

Special Events & Activities

PYP Accreditation / PYP Student council Concordian Mathematicians Excel MYP Accreditation High School Student Council PTA Party Teacher & Staff Bowling

Feature 20 21 22 23

Listening to Your Child’s Inner Voice

24 25 26 28

30 31 32 33 34 35

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Concordian Showcase

Thai Story

Telling

By Kru Nit

D

uring September 2012, the National Library of Thailand held a story telling competition for PYP students around the country on the topic of Thai story tales to promote Thai language and culture.

We are so proud of our team!

Wandy, Soomi, and Bei Bei from G4 were the only team from an international school that took part in this competition. Many Thai school students have been trained very well, and their story telling was so great.

It was a national event and they For our students, this was a first- have a strong desire to compete time experience at a Thai story telling again next year, no matter how competition. hard it is. That sounds great to us!

TISAC Dance

By Bright, G11

O

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n 2 1 s t N o v e m b e r, w e visited KIS international school for a special event that we hoped would lessen the stress from academics at school.This was our first year competing in the TISAC “So you think y o u c an dance 2012” conte st.

Unfortunately, our group was not one of the top three winners, but it was very entertaining to watch other schools perform. We were accompanied by Ms.Roxanne, and the team consisted of Pat, Kenneth, Bright and Asif. I was excited about dancing with my new team,because I had never been on a dancing team before. It was our first year, and my teammates and I were motivated to do even better next 6 year. Pat got so excited he wanted to start planning for the next round.

Although we didn’t reach our goal to get into the top 3 contenders, we still

felt it was a spectacular experience.

We promise to get in the top Not just the part where we get to three next year, and hopefully add compete and meet new friends, but a trophy to our trophy shelf. also the opportunity to dance together, and become closer to each other through dancing. We would like to thank Mr.George, Ms.Roxanne, and all the other people that supported our performance.

TISAC Tournaments

Concordian Showcase

By Robert Kovach

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your support of our Athletic Program. The challenges in joining a 12 team league with home and away games and seasonal tournaments have been much easier to face with your kindness and understanding.Please stay informed through the Concordian International School website.

Please remind your son or daughter of the importance of comSince joining TISAC in September, municating with the teacher ahead of time for missed classes. In the the Dragons have excelled.

• Boys Table Tennis - Champions MYP/DP if a student is achieving • Girls Table Tennis - Champions less than a “4” in a certain subject, he/she must have that teacher’s • U-13 Boys Basketball - 2nd permission to play in a game or place tournament. The same holds true • Senior Girls Track and Field in PYP for students that are “below” 2nd place level. The student athletes that are • Senior Boys Track and Field chosen to represent Concordian 2nd place International School in sports are well aware that academics come Coming in 2013 first.

• Futsal tournaments 14-17 January will kick off the 7-a-side Football season.

Thank you for your support of • Badminton begins 21 January Dragon Athletics!

• Volleyball will begin 21 January as a trial sport.

• Table tennis tournaments in May. • Swim meets for Primary and Secondary

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Impact the community, the nation, and the world

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Impact the community, the nation, and the world

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Impact the community, the nation, and the world

Each year, Grade 11 Concordian students go on a school building trip to build or renovate schools in rural areas of Thailand. Younger students have a chance to go too, on a voluntary basis. The money used for these projects is normally raised by the students through various activities such as organizing concerts, performances, or other fundraising activities. This year the Class of 2014 raised more than 400,000 baht for this project – enough to cover all expenses needed to complete it.

Even more important than the sum of money raised is what the students learned from the experience and that they gave of themselves to improve the lives of others.

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Here’s what our school builders had to say about their experience . . .

Toya - “The kids there know the true value of happiness, and they were generous enough to teach us too.”

Asif - “It was AWESOME; simply one of the best experience for me.”

Bright - “small changes lead to bigger ones!”

May - “everybody doesn’t have or know everything when we are born. We need to keep working, trying to help ourselves to get the knowledge to get what we need. Nothing in the world is hard, if we have determination to accomplish it.”

Aun - “The people you meet become a part of you. They leave imprints not just on you, but inside you.”

Mook - “Turn their dreams into wishes, wishes into goals, goals into reality and their dreams will come true.”

Nint - “In this life are some things that we don’t have the power to change, However, we, as human beings, have the power to make a change” Fong - “a joyful lasting relationship with children and friends we may never see again” Praew - “The source of these children’s happiness does not come from receiving the things we had to offer, but rather receiving love we had for them” Ong - “simply marvelous.”

Pat - “what you leave behind for others is more important than anything else” Cream - “It is a good feeling to know that you have built something that changes generations and generations of people” Aei - “you’re happiest while you’re making the greatest contribution” Sun - “an ocean started from a drop of water, great deeds started from a helping hand”

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Impact the community, the nation, and the world Andy - “The amazingness of life is to help people, so that they can continue to help other people.”

Joshua - “With teamwork, any huge task is doable. An example would be this school build project” Ami - “No electricity, no tap water, no comfortable shelter, no fine dining cuisine, but the smile, the caring hearts and genuine feelings towards each other. I’m glad to be part of this project; it really was an unforgettable experience”

Pin - “Working together collaboratively to achieve the same goal” Heart - “When an individual does a community service, what he/she gets in return is not important compared to what he/ she did for the society” Si - “Never expect a personal reward from any community service action because it is give, not take” Alex - “It’s great how the little things we do can affect the lives of many” Ker - “It’s not all about success. It is about the process, about trying, learning, falling, holding each other’s hand and standing up along the way.”

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Impact the community, the nation, and the world

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Impact the community, the nation, and the world

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Impact the community, the nation, and the world

Magic SHOW

By Cara and Mhai

Objective : To fundraise to buy medical instruments for a hospital in Kachanaburi Activity : Organizing a Magic Show at the school to raise funds via selling of the tickets An Interview with Cara and Mhai 1.Please tell us about your project and why you chose it The inspiration for this project started during my grade 10 summer internship at the hospital. Before going there I knew that the hospital had a limited budget because they only had 2 doctors stationed there permanently.

However, I did not realize that they lacked equipment. After shadowing the main doctor for about a week and seeing the needs of the hospital, I thought that I could raise funds to purchase some medical equipment.

2.What did you gain from working on this project?

This project helped me to gain insight into working on a larger scale project. It also allowed me to expand and know my potential as a person. Working with many people isn’t always easy. It’s sometimes a challenge when people do not agree with you fully, or when things do not go as planned. However I think this is the beauty of it. Disagreements help develop many essential skills such as patience, the ability to tackle new and unexpected problems, and communication skills.

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3.Te l l u s y o u r i m p r e s s i o n s from working with others such as your friend Mhai, school teachers and staff, Philipp the 14 Magician and Grade 8 students I think it was an interesting mix of people I had to work with. They broader perspective of the whole project especially from a financial

and administrative point of view.

4.If you were to give advice to juniors for their CAS project, what would you tell them to motivate them?

Personally,I think they should choose a project than involves what they enjoy doing Choosing something that you don’t enjoy would be a burden instead of an inspiration. However, enjoying something doesn’t mean that it will be easy, but rather it involves taking a step further and challenging yourself more.

Spelling Bee Impact the community, the nation, and the world

By Mercy and Vinny

On Thursday 15th October, Mercy and Vinny in Grade 12 organized a Spelling Bee for the MYP Students from grade 6 to 10. Everyone was invited to attend and participate, and on that day, 17 students took to the stage in the amphitheatre.

Prior to the event, guidelines for the spelling bee were sent out to the students, and the English teachers were instrumental in encouraging their pupils to participate and in letting them know the rules for the spelling bee.

On the day of the event, the bee was wrought with tension. We started off with a volunteer spelling the word “spelling” just to show the audience how it is done. Afterwards, contestants breezed through words like “rustic”, “instruction” and “adequate”. A few stumbled on “pronunciation” and “crystalline” but the crowd favourite was “booty” for “boutique”! The words got harder and the tough got going and Mr. Ehrhart and Ms. Christensen took turns giving the words to the contestants and making sure everything was pronounced and defined right!

To every single person that had the courage to come up that day and speak into the microphone,“C-O-NG-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S”! Keep on spelling and thank you for making our Spelling Bee a success! To the 5 finalists -- practice more -- because the finals are going to be held in January! See you there.

Special thanks go out to Ms. Lavina and Ms. Ker for going out of their way

to make this day a CAS success. To Mr. Earhart, Ms. Christensen, Khun Yui, the IT staff and our contestants and supporting audience - we’re grateful, and we could not have pulled it off without you!

Spell On C-O-N-C-O-R-D-I-A-N Dragons!

Note : Anyone who would like help with spelling should feel free to talk to Mercy (grade 12). It would be a pleasure to help!

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Wai Kru

Celebrations & Festivals

Concordian International School students honored their teachers at Wai Kru Day ceremonies on Thursday 6th September, 2012. In addition to honoring teachers, the Wai Kru ceremony was a good opportunity for all to learn about gratitude and thankfulness. Students realized the importance of their teachers who encourage knowledge, understanding of life, and being good citizens.

The “Wai” is the gentle way Thai people show respect to each other.

To show respect to their teachers, students should perform the wai.

This is the case regardless of the teacher’s background – in other words, this is for all teachers, not just Thai teachers.

For the Wai Kru ceremony, the students also made beautiful flower trays, another way to demonstrate their respect for their teachers.

Every student came to school with a bunch of flowers for their teachers.

The flowers used in the arrangement are symbolic. Dok Ma Khue (eggplant flower) stands for respect because when the tree is blooming, its branches bend down in the same way a student bends down topay respect to the teacher.

Ya Praek (Bermuda grass) stand for patience or perseverance because,although the grass looks wilted, it is still very much alive.Khao Tok (popped rice) stands for discipline because the rice is placed in a pan and heated to become popped rice. The Dok Kem has the same name as the Thai word for needle.

So it means the students will be sharp-witted and brainy. In addition, students vowed to be grateful to their nation, religion and King, and promised to be honest with themselves and other people.

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By Kanlayanan Singchantuek

CONCORDIAN

Celebrations & Festivals

By Kanlayanan Singchantuek

One of the most popular Thai festivals occurs in early

November – the Loy Krathong Festival. It takes place at a time when the weather is fine, as the rainy season is over and the water level is high throughout the country. “Loy” means “to float” and a “Krathong” is a lotus-shaped vessel made of banana leaves. The Krathong usually contains a candle, three joss-sticks, some flowers and coins.

The festival is of Brahmin origin. People offer thanks to the Goddess of the water. Thus, by moonlight, people light the candles and joss-sticks and make wishes for the coming New Year. Indeed, it is a time to be joyful and happy, as sufferings are symbolically floated away.

To promote Thai culture and tradition, Concordian International School celebrated the Loy Krathong festival on Wednesday, 28 November. On this day, students dressed up in Thai costumes and made their own Krathongs. EYP students, parents and teachers participated in floating the Kratongs in the swimming pool, as well as traditional dancing. At the PYP assembly, the culture of Thailand was presented in 4 parts with some wonderful traditional dancing performances: Northern style “Fon Ngiew”, Northeast style “Sheung Kratib”, Southern style “Tali gipat” and Central style “Thai traditional dance (Rum Wong)”.

Teachers and staff members also supported the celebration by dressing in traditional Thai costumes. There were many beautiful photos taken and memories made.

Thank you to all the participants for a very Happy Loy Krathong Day.

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Interween

Celebrations & Festivals

Back in October, around the time of Halloween, DP organized an “Interween Night” for all of MYP. The purpose of this Interween night was to raise money for the Grade 11 School build project in November.

Activities were scheduled throughout the course of the night, and it all concluded with our thrilling haunted house. We’re proud to say that it was a very successful night. DP is very satisfied with how this night turned out, and it’s all thanks to all the MYP students who decided to participate. We hope that you had as much fun as we had organizing it.

Thank you for all of your contributions and cooperation with this whole project. Both are greatly appreciated.

Concordian students also c e le b ra t e d Ha llo we e n D a y o n October 31st, themed “Interween” this year. The term is derived from international Halloween. It was a joyful day for all students, faculty members and staff members, most of whom were dressed up to enjoy the spirit of the festival.

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Thanksgiving

Celebrations & Festivals

By Ms. Milichu

service hours or having something to put in your college application.

It’s about b rin g in g h a p p in e s s and joy to others”: Shruti - First Graduating Class, 2010. “ Community Service - it’s a wonderful experience that will last for a lifetime”: Auy – First Graduating Class, 2010.

Thank you.

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On Friday, November 30th we held out third annual Thanksgiving Dinner here at Concordian. For this occasion our cafeteria was transformed into a luscious place. This allowed us to show our distinguished guests, the institutions we work with, how deeply they are felt in our hearts. Without them, our program of Community Service could not take place.

Our 11th and 12th Graders kept them company by sitting with them at their tables. They socialized and took care of them throughout the whole evening, making sure they were the center of attention. Most of the food was prepared by our teachers.

Sodexo offered the catering service, as well as two turkeys. Any additional needs were taken care of by the Administration.

The entertainment program was in the hands of our guests, students, and teachers. Altogether, it was an unforgettable evening of love.

Here is what some of our community students have said: “Community Service isn’t about

Drama Music Art Performance Fun & Fancy

W

hat a wonderful combination from the students of the Arts, the Music, and the Drama classes. It was a good start of the year for the three creative departments.

We can be sure that there will be many more exciting events coming from them this year.

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The Illuminati in Fun & Fancy

Drama Libre On September 25-27 in the Drama Studio, Concordian IB Theatre students performed a short piece called The Illuminati in Drama Libre to packed-house audiences.

Illuminati in Drama Librewas purposefully chosen by director Mr. Clynt Whitaker to challenge the actors and expose them to a live audience. Consisting mainly of oneword lines, three people enter the space, focused on themselves and their unusual world which is in a state of constant flux -- a world where absurdist text holds potential meaning and colors alter the entire dynamic.

“A man...a woman...he...she... the story...who needs so many words? A truth...a lie...what is reality?

How many times do words end a relationship?”

This challenging undertaking was the first of the season for the IB Theatre students. This was followed by a Bunraku puppet play The Lesson Of Gio in November. In the New Year IB Theatre students – Pin, Pat, Ken and Alex will be studying the origins and development of Comedy culminating in a performance of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in the new theatre auditorium.

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Fun & Fancy

Integrity.International

mindedness. Inquiry : The Library is a hub for Concordians

Integrity : This year, PYP students took on a challenge from the “Shelf Elf” to see which class could care for the library the best. Students were asked to pick up books and straighten the shelves, even if they didn’t make the mess. All the classes happily took a step up to think about how their actions affect their community, and the library is a better place for it. We are replacing torn and broken items with new ones, and students know that it is everyone’s responsibility to handle the items with care.

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International mindedness : A visit from “Travelling Photographer” Richard Sobol exemplified how a person turned his own inquisitive nature into a successful career in the arts and humanities.

Mr. Sobol, an author of non-fiction books for children, shared keen insights to support MYP and DP studies in history (Angkor Wat), science (engineering and endangered animals) as well as Thai culture and economics (the production of rice and silk). His fascinating story of a small village in Uganda demonstrated how members of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths are transcending differences and coming together to improve their community through hard work and cooperation.

Inspiring! The library was proud to sponsor this event which also supported UOI’s in grade 2 and grade 4. Mr. Sobol’s books are available for checkout in the library. This makes us excited to host our next international visiting author during Love of Reading Week this spring!

Inquiry:S t u d e n t s k n o w a great place to start any inquiry project: the CIS website. The link to library resources is under the “Academics” tab.There, you will find teacher-

approved search engines and special pages to support the G5 Exhibition, G10 Personal Projects, and G12 Extended Essays. Thanks to the success of the November book fair, our library gained 264 new titles in Thai, Chinese and English.

Thank you for supporting this event – there is no better gift for your child than the gift of reading, which inspires our inquiring learners.

We care what you think : Librarians a re re s p o n d in g t o t h e r e q u e s t s w e receive from Parent Surveys and our new Suggestion Box in the library. Stop in anytime, or contact us through email : library@concordian.ac.th or FB: Concordian international school library.

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Sports Activities

Fun & Fancy

PYP Sports Day H

ealthy activities, fun sports, good weather, and a big crowd made for a great day for the entire PYP community on PYP Sports Day, held in November 2012. We hope you enjoy these pictures of our active, sporty PYP kids!

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Ploenchit Fair Fun & Fancy

“When Art Meets Science” was the concept behind Concordian’s booth this year at this year’s Ploenchit Fair -- appropriate as we celebrate the opening of our new Science, Art, and Technology Center. For this year’s efforts, the PR team would like to thank G11 students Cream, Bright, Aei, Sun, May, Mook, and Pin who volunteered to help out.

They came up with many amazing games and activities. The school also brought paintings created by many of our own MYP and DP art students to be displayed at the fair.

All in all, it was a great event and great showcase for Concordian talent and creativity.

Samitivej Christmas MarketFair

CON GRA TULA TIONS!!

Thank you Soomi, Wandy, and Andra from G4 for volunteering to represent the school at the Samitivej Christmas Market Fair 2012. The audience really enjoyed your joyful performance.

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A N S W E R

Guess Who Answer 1. P. Neng Library 2. P. Cin School Shop 3. P. Pia Reception

Guess Who Winners 1. Anna G6H 2. Li G6G 3. Lothang G8B Winners are to pick up your 1,000-baht Bacco Italian Bar & Pizza gift vouchers from P. Bell at the Director’s office (above the Amphitheater)

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Fun & Fancy

Visiting Her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s Gallery On the 12th of October 2012, the G7 students visited an exhibition of hand embroidery from the SUPPORT Foundation Under the Royal Patronage of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit. There, students viewed the Queen’s embroidery project which was set up as a support foundation for housewives in rural areas in order to provide them with skills they can use to earn a living. The students also got a chance to learn to do embroidery. Through this, the students could appreciate what the Queen has done for the people, as well as learn more about Thai embroidery “The benefit of this facility (ศูนย์ ศิลปาชีพ) is to share knowledge of Thai culture and agriculture with the visitors.” said Netika Wangskata.

“We are really thankful for the set up of this exhibition so that we can let the local people come and learn about the skill of embroidery and to pass on the tradition from generation to generation.” said Beckers.

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Fun & Fancy

Week Without Walls

Grade 6-8 T

his year the Grade 6-8 Week Without Walls trip was to Kanchanaburi.

It was a mix of history, team bonding activities, and Thai culture. The history part of the trip was as startling as bathing in the resort’s cold water first thing in the morning.

It was a shock to see horrors of war.

The leaders in the world at that time made terrible decisions and caused tragic human suffering.

Our generation has a responsibility to ensure that things like that never happen again. We can make a difference, and ensure that peace prevails.

The stand out feature from the Thai Culture strand of WWW had to be our experience at the Erawan Falls. People from many other countries were there, but did not abide by the National Park rule of RESPECTING THAI CULTURE. Many people were hiking in skimpy swimsuits. It made many of us angry at first, but then we thought about how to fix the problem. We decided that we will offer Sarongs at a donation price at the entrance of the trail. Visitors will have to cover up better and the park can use the small income generated to fund their rescue and safety program.

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Fun & Fancy

We walked through a unique museum in Kanchanaburi near the Bridge over the River Kwai. It made us feel like we were going back in time about 70 years. And, later that night we got to build our own miniature forts to keep Thailand free. Surprisingly, most survived the onslaught of the Burmese army gong battering.May our archers protect us.

A big Thank You goes out to our parents for letting us go on this outreach program, and to our teachers, staff, and Khun Varnnee for taking care of us the whole time.

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Fun & Fancy

Week

Without W a l l sG 9 - 1 0

Friendship Has No Boundaries

“ W e used to walk past G9 students without even saying ‘hi’ to them in the hallway, but now, I feel as if they are my younger siblings” says a G10 student after having spent a week in Yunnan, China, with the G9 students for this year’s Week tie-dying, and express themselves Without Walls trip. to each other and learn more about Week Without Walls is a one- each other. As the days passed, the week trip designed by Concordian students really bonded and built to encourage more interactions stronger friendships among thembetween different grade levels of selves through the various activities t h e M Y P, w hile cultivating the organized by the school. They also value of leadership. Grade 9-10 took the opportunity to showcase students travel overseas for a week their talent during the special Talent to learn more about another culture, Show session. Even the shy ones stepped up and expressed themas well as about each other.

This year, Grade 9-G10 went to selves and allowed their friends Yunnan where they had a chance to to learn more about them. hike, learn to make local cheese, do Without a doubt, Week Without Walls is a memorable trip for all the students who attended. Now they better understand the meaning of “friendship”.

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Fun & Fancy

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Special Events & Activities

PYP Accreditation

By Ms. Inese Zvirgzdins

The PYP and EYP teachers and

assistants will be extra busy over the next few months and through the end of this school year, preparing information in preparation for our evaluation visit by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO).

For Concordian, the visiting team will consist of two people from the IBO who will be at the school for three days in November 2013.

They will come to the school and make observations about how we follow the PYP. They will also be checking on our documentation of our reflections about how well we feel we are doing.The information they will be looking at is called a ‘PYP self-Study’. This is a regular visit by the IBO that happens every 5

years to every school working with any of the three IB programs-PYP, MYP and DP. Before the visiting team arrives, every teacher, assistant, administration team, and some parents and students will be working together to complete the Self-Study documentation. This involves asking many questions, making observations and drawing conclusions about what we feel we are doing well with in P Y P a n d wh e re we f e e l we need to improve within the program.

Some of the self-study groups will be asking for parents to complete surveys/questionnaires. We will try to keep these to a minimum, but your understanding of the PYP and

information you can share will be much appreciated, and is necessary to gain a complete view of the PYP at Concordian.

As the time gets closer, we will send you additional information about how you can help the PYP faculty at Concordian complete the survey in preparation for the evaluation visit.

As always, your support is greatly appreciated.

PYP Student Council I

n September of 2012 the whole PYP (grades 1-5) voted for the representatives they wanted to be on the Student Council. There were 2 candidates (a grade 4 student and a grade 5 student) for each position -Media Officer, Treasurer, Secretary and Vice-President and 2 candidates (one from each grade 5 class) for the position of President.

After carefully counting all of the votes these students were elected to the positions.

Media Officer-Korn ( grade 4) Treasurer-Robin ( grade 4) Secretary-Andra ( grade 4) Vice-President-Ploy (grade 4) President-Kin (grade 5)

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Each class also has a class representative who is part of the student council and shares information from meetings with their class.

GR 1 R: Ping Ping, Thomas Gr 1 A: Man, Poon Gr 2 M: Khim Gr 3 Y: A Bond Gr 4 T: Sophie Gr 5 D: Shin Gr 1 T: Grace, Stephen Gr 2 C: Jasmine Gr 2 A: William Gr 3 S: Zander Gr 4 J: Keekwang Gr 5 B: Tata Currently the primary Student Council is investigating ways that the PYP students can have more vegetables for lunch by having the chance to choose salad for part of their lunch. Kids wanting vegetables ….what a novel idea!

Concordian Mathematicians Excel Special Events & Activities

By Mr. Ravi

Concordian International School would like to congratulate the students listed below for their achievement in the Senior Mathematical Challenge (SMC) organized by United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT). Special congratulations to Grade 10 students who took part in the Senior Mathematical Challenge. Please note that the Senior Mathematical Challenge questions are designed for an older age group - Gr.11-12 IB students. As our school had high scorers in the Senior Mathematical Challenge, our students have been invited to take up the Senior Kangaroo Challenge.

Our students achieved 1 Gold, 6 Silvers, and 8 Bronzes in this year’s UKMT Senior Maths Challenge.

The UK Mathematics Trust is a registered charity whose aim is to advance the education of children and young people in mathematics.

It organizes national mathematics competitions and other mathematical enrichment activities for UK secondary school students. Further information about the Trust and its activities is available at www.ukmt. org.uk. There were 98,580 entries for this year’s UK Senior Math Challenge from 2,038 centers with the top 10% receiving a gold certificate, the next 20% silver and the next 30% bronze. Approximately 4,000 of the top students are invited to sit one of the following competitions, the BMO1 (British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1) or the Senior Kangaroo Challenge.

1. Suebsubanant, Natchapol (Byte): Best in School, Best in Year and Gold Certificate 2. Warinporn, Phantratanamongkol (Minky) : Silver Certificate 3. Chantima, Wiramon (Oh): Silver Certificate 4. Thitivut, Ekphaisansup (Vinny): Silver Certificate 5. An-adirekkun, Jidapas (My): Silver Certificate 6. Rittirongwattana, Somrit (Thai): Silver Certificate 7. Chen, Shiuan (Jasper) : Bronze Certificate 8. Runganantchai, Twanrat (Ping): Bronze Certificate 9. Prasertsaengcharoen, Thanisorn (Ham P): Bronze Certificate 10. Thanasorn, Pataraporn (Pat): Bronze Certificate GRADE 10 EXTENDED MATHEMATICS STUDENTS 1. Pupornchai, Prima (Prim): Silver Certificate 2. Rattanarungruengchai, Pat (Pat): Bronze Certificate 3. Chongyangyuenvong, Thanaphum (Pond): Bronze Certificate 4. Reinnoldt, Charlotte (Charlotte): Bronze Certificate 5. Yang, Ju Seong (Ju Seong) : Bronze Certificate

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We are really proud that our school has high scorers and has been invited to take up the Senior Kangaroo Challenge. The students will be awarded their certificates at an assembly. Well done!

GRADE 12 STUDENTS (HL/SL)

Special Events & Activities

Middle S c h o ol Student Council By: Prim Beckers Kasemsant (G.7J)

This year the members of the

Middle School Student Council (Council of Dragons) are determined to make the school year as fun as possible.

They have already succeeded in hosting a bake sale, which was shortly followed by a Concordian Spirit Day. The bake sale was met with much enthusiasm from the students, as they presented their home made brownies, jelly, and lemonade.

On November 16th, the council organized an annual Concordian spirit Day. They organized students to come to school wearing blue, and most students also lined up to get a few dabs of face paint, provided courtesy of the council. The council has also arranged for each grade 6-8 homeroom to make an “I Love Concordian� poster. All posters were nicely done, and have been put up on display for everyone to admire.

All together, it was quite a successful undertaking.

For the remainder of the year, the council has planned more activities for the students, including a scavenger hunt on the 11th of January. Looking forward, the council members are determined to make it as fun as possible for the students.

They are planning activities, and trying to keep expectations high so that the upcoming years can be as successful as the current one.

All suggestions are welcome, and can be given to any of the class representatives.

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Special Events & Activities

S

High

chool tudent Council

By Sun Varunpajit, Class of 2014

we have faced problems with students not being thoroughly informed about what’s happening around the school.

To address this problem, we created a Facebook system where we can get in touch with the whole high s c h o o l b o d y. S u r p r i s i n g l y, i t encourages more students to join different activities since they now know what events are going on.

At the school, we also have a high school student council bulletin board where we can post announcements that students see as they pass by.

The effectiveness of communicating through Facebook is also linked to another big accomplishment which is establishing the house system. Students council recently started the house system in which students are separated into four different houses (fire, water, earth, and wind dragons) for competitive activities. The main initiative that launched this new system was the school spirit week on November 5-9, in which students showed their school spirit by wearing clothes for a given theme each day of the week (twin day, fashion disaster day, etc.).

There were also activities organized during lunch breaks such as tug of war, frozen T-shirt, and chanting for the houses to c o m p e t e a g a i n s t e a c h o t h e r.

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“What does it takes to work for ‘Student Council’?” many people may wonder. Of course, perseverance, talent, passion, teamwork, sacrifice, and a number of positive terms can be used to describe this role.However, all of these terms are combined into what we, student council members, honor in a single word – “leadership”.

It might be as simple as updating your classmates on weekly events,or connecting the office with students, but we all value leadership as something we contribute to the Concordian community. The high school student council is not just a body of students who work only for the high school; we also want to benefit the staff, teachers, or even middle school students.

The 2012 High School Student Council takes pride in the fact that our philosophy is to solely work for the school, without asking for something in return. Our satisfaction comes from exercising compassion to do something beyond ourselves to make a better educational atmosphere not only for us, but also for other members of the community.

Our mindset is to think about ‘”giving”, “contributing”, and “sacrificing”.

A major accomplishment of the high school student council so far this year is establishing an efficient way of communicating throughout our community. In previous years,

Although the spirit week ended successfully, we are still going to continue this house system throughout the year with more planned games and events.

Student Council members are comprised of two to three representatives from each grade level.

The members are: Calvin (grade 9), Xuan Xuan (grade 9), Lee (grade10), Naam (grade 10), Sun (grade 11), Cream (grade 11), Ong (grade 11), Betty (grade 12), and Mercy (grade 12). And we cannot forget to mention that our student council is supervised by two enthusiastic teachers -- Mr.Rich and Ms. Lavina. Above all, we have to thank Khun Varnnee and all the high school students for giving us such tremendous support that allowed us to have such a successful semester.

We promise that we will continue to work diligently to improve our school into an ideal place where young people want to study. Sometimes we will encounter challenges, success, obstacles,and opportunities, but we will do our best to serve students with joy. Whatever you need, what ever you lack, whatever you think, student council will ensure that your voices will always be heard. Brian Tracy said that “Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.”

The student council truly values the word “sharing” and our only wish is that we can share to the utmost of o u r a b i l i t y, f o r t h e w e l f a r e o f Concordian young Dragons.

Special Events & Activities

PTA 2012

P A R T Y

By K Pat

M

any thanks to the Concordian PTA for kicking off the start of the school year and for organizing such wonderful evening for the community. We all enjoyed the shows, the food, and the music and we know that a great deal of work went into such a well-organized event. We would also like to thank you for all your hard work throughout the school year, and for helping us build a friendly and cheerful community for Concordian.

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Special Events & Activities

Teacher & Staff Bowling

The First Concordian Teacher & S t a f f

Bowling was held last October at BluO, Mega Bangna. What a fun night for all of us and we hope to see you again next year.

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WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND LEARNING :

WHY EQ IS CRITICAL IN LEARNING Presented by William Powell and Ochan Kusuma-Powell

Did you know that Parents and teachers with high EQ are more effective in supporting student learning than those with low EQ and EQ can be developed over time?

Attend this workshop to learn more To confirm your seat, please email : gigi@concordian.ac.th.

Thursday, February 7, 2013 8.30 - 12.00 Amphitheater, Concordian

SELF - KNOWLEDGE SELF - REGULATION MOTIVATION SOCIAL AWARENESS RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT - Examine the process through which we develop emotional self-knowledge - Focus on how parents and teachers develop their expectations of students and how these expectations influence student learning - Focus on how attribution theory can play out at home and at school - Explore how parents can develop "Fixed" and "Growth" mindsets and examine how these mindsets affect learning.

Feature

Listening to Your Child’s Inner Voice

By Dave Paltin, PhD

You walk softly past your child’s

room at night, lower the light in the hallway, and then you hear it; a quiet song, a joke from TV, or maybe a soft voice repeating something heard at school that day. Listen to the tone, and most of the time you’ll hear a soothing timbre or quiet reasoning, like the tone of a good friend or supporter.

Your child’s personal narrative, his or her self talk, serves several crucial purposes in maintaining his or her emotional and psychological health. Let me repeat that, because it is so important – a healthy internal tone is the basis for psychological and emotional wholeness and well-being. Self talk is the voice

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of social problem solving, helping to work through an emotional exchange or relationship conflict. It serves as a criticizer, a supporter, or a worrier when its role is to interpret something that has happened in the past or to plan a way of coping with the future. Since we are all destined to have this internal companion whispering in our ears for our entire lives, or what psychologists sometimes call the dialogical self, the im portance of helping our children develop healthy “inner voices” is apparent and clear.

“I remember once when I had to go to the emergency room when I was a kid because my leg got a bad cut from a piece of bamboo we were playing with. There was a nurse that stood next to me the whole time I was getting stitches, telling me I’m going to get through this and about all the things I’ll be doing a month from now. It wasn’t the exact things she said to me, it was the way she said it. For years, I used to think of her voice when I had to get through something painful. I don’t even have any idea who she was besides an emergency room nurse.”

One of the misconceptions about self-talk is that we must always keep it positive and optimistic in order to be healthy.

Research on self-talk has revolved mostly around sports performance, depression management, and stress reduction,

and in these realms positive selftalk has a direct effect on improved performance and mood. Imagining a positive outcome to a game can enhance personal performance. But researchers also point out that “realistic” thinking allows us to cope better in emergency situations, or when challenging problems must be addressed straightforwardly. Meeting situations of difficulty that your child is facing with simplistic, positive messages can feel contrived and out of place.

Your Child’s Inner Dialogue Comes from Many Sources The parental voice is the “deep current” that runs beneath a great deal of your child’s inner monologue, but other sources become more relevant to the child as he or she faces problems outside of the home and family unit. The tone of a coach or the voice of a book character can have a strong impact on a child’s

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Feature

dialogical identity. Looking at trends Facilitating a Healthier in children’s literature, we see that Dialogical Self An overly negative or hostile inchildren, and particularly pre-teens, tend to choose a realistic,genuine ner voice can have an insidious and storyteller rather than a simple corrosive effect on identity developoptimistic one. Barbara Brooks ment from childhood to adulthood.

Wallace’s Diary of a Little Devil The impact of your child repeating (Pangea) is a good example of a a bully’s accusations or the punitive story that balances its narrator’s tone of an angry adult can make him voice between positive and negative or her at risk for lowered self esteem, poles, encouraging late child and poorer performance in activities, and early teen readers to follow her main even depression or anxiety conditions.

Facilitating healthier self-talk involves not only modeling the inner tone you’d like your child or adolescent to adopt, but also exposing your child to other voices that reflect healthier ways of problem solving, moral reasoning, and evaluating their own behaviors and choices. Consider the following activities help facilitate healthier self-talk in your child: 1) Start your child or teen out on a character, Andy Lillibeth, through “facilitated journal” or diary. These her own challenges and observations. journals start each page with a Wallace, a multiple award winning prompt, idea, or picture to get things author, honed her skills through started. writing after school specials as well 2) Challenge your child to draw a as several novels. Children and comic strip based on one of their younger teens relate to the tone of own personal experiences, inventing her characters because theyreso- a comic character that reflects his or nate with and can echo the voices her own viewpoint. they hear in her stories. Understanding 3) Name a character on a TV show the development of a child’s inner or in a movie and ask what that charvoice requires a sensitivity and acter might be thinking in a certain understanding of the problems they situation. What does your child think face in their daily lives. that character would say right now?

4) Remember that you will have a greater impact on your child’s way of relating to him or herself if you

avoid pushing an extreme viewpoint on a particular topic you are trying to influence your child on.Save the strong moral lesson for a different time or discussion, and don’t be overly reactive when your child starts testing you by throwing out an opinion he or she knows that you don’t agree with.

5) Take stock of your own inner voice; are you a worrier, or overly defensive and critical about your own mistakes?

Your child is relationally programmed to be sensitive to your tone, and will adopt some of this in his or her own voice.

Taking some time to listen openly to your child’s self-talk and to think about how that inner voice will influence your child over the next ten to twenty years helps you understand a parent’s priority in this important area of development. Positive, but realistic, curious and action-promoting; qualities like these can assist your child in developing a true inner helper.

Reprinted from Child Development Institute (childdevelopmentinfo.com)

in the next issue

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Stay Tune For Winter Concerts