ISF's Monthly Newsletter - January 2016

eISF

The Newsletter of the International School of Florence

January 2016 - Volume 45

HEAD OF SCHOOL MESSAGE I would like to extend my best wishes for the start of an exciting new year! I am deeply honored to have been appointed as Head of the International School of Florence and galvanized by the opportunities for continued positive growth that lie ahead!

In particular, I am looking forward to exploring and shaping the idea of the ‘international‘ in ISF. Within the context of its annual recruitment fair in London, which I attended this week, the Council of International Schools organized a symposium on intercultural learning. Keynote speaker Dr. Allan Walker struck a chord with me when he stated, ‘schools have more power than any other institution to create positive change in relation to culture and difference.’ Precisely because research in the field of psychology demonstrates that people see negatives first when they perceive difference, we have a responsibility to lead our students to perceive the positives! Adults must model and shape the way young people make sense of situations, individuals and experiences which they perceive as diverse. Educators - and parents are partners in this endeavor - must use their heads and hearts to ensure that children create positive meaning out of their encounters with what only seems different at first glance.

One of the most powerful learning opportunities that ISF offers its students is the invitation to approach different perspectives with an open mind. We are not all the same – thank goodness – and in our diversity, we can appreciate what makes us unique, while we identify the intercultural commonalities that we share.

A tall order, but an essential one for our children in today’s complex global world!

With my sincere best wishes for the ISF community, Debra Williams

Debra Williams with Horace Gibson, Founder of ISF

News from the School Board

Head of School Search The Board is delighted to announce Debra Williams as Head of the International School of Florence.

So, you ask, how did we get here? The process started over the summer when we contracted with the Council of International Schools to assist with the search. The Board invited interim Head of School Debra Williams to apply, but at that time we did not have an Operations Manager in place, and she declined, as the Head of School job without the OM was more focused on operations and less focused on academics.

So CIS sent us candidate files; moreover they provided us with additional files when we felt we did not have a diverse range of candidates. We long-listed eight and Skype-interviewed six, based on a set of preestablished criteria. At that point we invited three finalists for interviews and consultations with our entire community: Junior School students, Upper School students, the Tuskan Times, administrative staff, faculty, union representatives, parents, and Board.

The candidates provided by CIS were all highly qualified, but no one of them was able to achieve a broad consensus throughout our entire community. After our stalemate, we reached out to Debra once again to ask her to reconsider applying, and she accepted, citing the installation of our new Operations Manager, Lorenzo Ricci, as the primary reason for choosing to go forward. She then went through the same interview process as the other candidates. Happily, the results were unambiguously positive from the greater community about her candidacy, and the Board approved her selection unanimously.

Thanks to everyone who supported this long process. A special thanks to all the representatives who collected survey data and/or reported to the Board: Marleen Custers, Cristina Bini, Danielle Richardson, Gridt Find, Adam Bailey, Stephan Harpham, Carla Benedetti, Roberto Clausi, and Martin Donnellan. We are thrilled with this outcome!

IB MOCK EXAMS

Our 12th grade students are in the midst of 7 days of mock exams and seem to be coping quite well.

The mocks simulate the “real” exams in May and show students where they stand at the moment, allowing them to assess and understand their progress to date. This is essential information for students (and their parents) as they develop and refine their knowledge and skills in the upcoming months. The mock exams are also an important opportunity for students to get used to the official exam conditions and procedures, ensuring that these sometimes overwhelming formalities are not in any way intimidating or unfamiliar in May.

Class of 2016 - Matriculation As our seniors are anxiously awaiting response from the universities and colleges they have applied to, we are pleased to report that so far we have around 22 students who have already either received an offer (UK) or have been accepted (US). Most of the accepted students have received multiple offers. One student received an offer from Oxford, and we have a had an acceptance at Brown University and the New School. In the US, colleges with regular decision dates do not have to apply until April 1.

IN THE DUNGEONS OF SCIENCE What do tomatoes, lemons, vitamin C, aspirin and DNA have in common? And how about soap, toothpaste, baking soda and bleach? Well, the first are (or contain) acids, while the second are (or contain) bases.

These two key chemical compounds are found everywhere in our daily life, we need them to stay healthy and clean, but they get really interesting when they get mixed up together: when you add lemon juice to baking soda, for instance, a bubbling wonder may happen!

Upper School Library Corner

There was a lot of holiday spirit in the Library before the break! Many students and teachers got in the mood by making snowflakes or 3D ornaments, and recycling books into gifts.

The Force is alive and well in the Library this month as we start off the new year in celebration of the books that were made into the “Star Wars� films. (Yes, the books came first!!)

Check out the bulletin board and displays for details and books from the collection. The creativity continues throughout the new year with Art@The Library projects being planned for each month.

The next events to watch for: Blind Date with a Book and a colouring station!!

Bike to School

Our two dedicated students braved the dark rainy weather to join us on Bike to School Fridays.

Mr. Boscherini, Mr. Dean, Mr. Harpham and Ms. Russo Scherr are regular bike commuters to ISF and guide our dedicated bikers up the hill from Piazza Ferrucci. Join us next time!

Are you following us? facebook.com/isf.florence - twitter.com/isf_florence - instagram.com/isf_florence - flickr.com/photos/isf-florence

Spanish Grade 11 DOS CLASES DE ESPANOL SE REUNIERON El 9 de Diciembre 2015 la clase de español de la Escuela Internacional de Bologna llegó a nuestra ciudad, Florencia. Logramos adelantar un proyecto muy interesante, organizar un debate entre las dos clases del grado once que nunca se habían conocido antes. El tema del debate era confrontar opiniones sobre los “ninis” españoles, ósea jóvenes que ni estudian ni trabajan.

Desafortunadamente las causas y consecuencia del problema son varias y no fue fácil ponerse de acuerdo sobre las posibles soluciones. Hubo un intercambio de ideas y opiniones. Todo el grupo constaba de nueve estudiantes excluyendo las dos profesoras; éramos pocos y pudimos conocernos hablando la lengua española sin problemas.

Para almorzar fuimos a un restaurante mexicano en el centro de la ciudad, para que después el otro grupo podría llegar a la estación de trenes y saludar a Florencia. Entre degustaciones de nachos y tacos el tiempo voló. Fue una experiencia diferente que nos dio la oportunidad de expresarnos en nuestro tercer idioma.

Por Yolanda Berlot

UPPER SCHOOL ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE / HONOR ROLL Middle School - Academic Excellence Grade 6 Savannah Culpepper Luca Soresina Grade 7 Filippo Giacometti Reina Reilly Antonio Santana Mathias Volkai Grade 8 Maria Sole Franceschi Daniil Tiugaev Pre-IB High School - High Honor Roll Grade 9 Sebastian Arora Grade 10 Adriana Chiesa Nicholas Accattatis Pre-IB High School - Honor Roll Grade 9 Sarah Amantini Costanza Bacci Niccolò Bagnoli Nikita Bezverkhniy Smilla Colombini Luca Fagotti Kayla Middleton Matteo Penlington Pietro Righi Sibilla Venerosi Federico Zheng Grade 10 Elena Bagagli Martina Chen Duuk Junggeburt Ginevra Lapi Kojin Minorikawa Anna Pacciani Niki Sheikh Chen Shih Lisa Xia Sophie Yap

IB - High Honor Roll Grade 11 Diana Barta Michael Chen Sophie Culpepper Elena Ivanaj Sebastian Lindmark Tessa Mair Lorenzo Papini Kathryn Randene Rita Reznichenko Riccardo Talini Gianni Zhou Grade 12 Charlotte Accattatis Bianca Berni Lara Breckon Camilla Callierotti Malcolm Cameron Giulia Chen Natalia Consumi Vivia Marchi Emma Nataloni Nina Podolsky Fabienne Tarrant Jiamian Zhang Grade 12 Honor Roll Claudia Santiago

Ceramic Centre Update

Our new ceramics center is in full operation. We have had several successful firings and we are doing our first glazing firing this week! See some of our works in progress from our various classes.

Ceramic Guardians

The IB 1 art students are creating a ceramic sculpture inspired by The Terra Cotta Warriors. They began this project by researching the techniques and purpose of these Chinese ceramic army figures. Terra Cotta Warriors were used to guard tombs. Our students are creating a personal guardian to look after them in both life and or death. The first round of sculptures are almost done! Stayed tuned for more image next month's newsletter.

Refugee Crisis Depicted through Collage Transfers

Ideologies is a theme that the 10th grade students are addressing in many of their classes this year. In Art the students are examining their personal ideology about the current Refugee crisis in Italy. The Objective: create a collage transfer that speaks to your opinion/beliefs about the current refugee crisis in Italy and write a paragraph describing how the imagery you chose reflects your ideology.

‘The unfortunate current events in Syria mean many people have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety and other basic needs such as food and even just acceptance. Europe is by far the most popular destination and as a consequence it is struggling to deal with the amount of people.

My Artwork focuses on one specific man, representing the refugees. It shows him struggling with a child.

This shows that many refugees, especially adults, are responsible for adults and this makes their journey even harder. This man has not got the appropriate clothing for walking across countries and this is a problem for refugees especially with the harsh winter coming.

There is a clear change halfway up the piece in the background. This represents what he wants and what he has now (the bottom half being what he has now.) The bottom half contains a gun and a fighter jet, showing the violence on the ground and the threat from the air. This is a major push factor in why many refugees flee. It also has a woman praying which is a good representation of how the people of Syria and refugees are feeling. The lizard and scales represent the harsh conditions of Syria and the land across which they are walking.

On the contrast, the top half shows urban looking buildings, roughly summarising where the majority are heading for work and a better life, the stick changing into a skyscraper emphasises this. The money shows what they eventually are hoping for to ensure that they can live comfortably in their new countries.’ (Alec Campbell)

Refugee Crisis ‘The refugee crisis is and always has been one of the biggest problems present in our world and in our community. Everyone deserves a place to call home, and the refugees have been forced, because of various reasons, to leave their own home.

Most people don’t understand the influence that this change has on the refugees, people tell the refugees to go back from where they came from, but those people don’t understand the circumstances.

I think that we should offer the refugees as much as we can, we can’t even imagine what they have gone through, and giving them a place to call home would definitely help them majorly. These refugees leave their homes and are left with nothing, they have to cross seas or territories that they probably have never been in.

Being in a middle/high class, we don’t understand what they go through, and the fact that many people look down on them is disrespectful and disgusting. The refugees are people, they are like us and we should treat them as we would treat any of our friends. I just hope that eventually we will all respect each other and help each other out. We should be sharing our homes, not giving people a reason to leave theirs.

The pictures that I decided to include in my collage represent the fact that the refugees are usually alone while dealing with the situations that surround them, and of how we should be helping them in every way possible. The kids playing on the car represents the hope for them and how they find happiness in the smallest things, whilst the despair and sadness of the woman represent the reality of the situation and the consequences that all the refugees have to confront after they leave their homes.

I honestly believe that we should do more for the refugees and give them as many options as we can.’

(Emily Blackstone)

Refugee Crisis ‘Europe became a victim of bureaucracy, with initially a wrong approach to the problem - to accept all those, desiring to enter - taking the idea of tolerance too far. It is hard for people from another country and with another culture to integrate into Europe because of the radical differences in the customs and ways of thinking. The immigrants brought down the level of life in Europe and the old Europe that everyone always looked up at as an example of good life is now practically gone.

My collage shows some sort of idyll, the way it should be - all sorts of people being able to live together, despite religion, race, or nationality - but that is only in theory. Meanwhile in practice the situation is different: the EU lets enter anybody willing to, and because of the huge numbers of migrants it is very hard to control and identify those who are entering. At first, the migration flow was actually people running away from war, and some still are, but now most of the people, who come to EU are looking for a rather easy way to get by on the government welfare.

A graphic example is the New Year’s Eve in Cologne, when around a thousand immigrants came out on the main square of the city, and robbed and sexually harassed women. On that night the police of Cologne got over 600 complaints of robbery and sexual harassment, two or three cases even stated rape. This can be compared to a house, whose owners let all and everybody in, not just people, who they are acquainted with personally. Rude and disrespectful “guests” come in, starting to destroy the house, robbing it, harassing the wife and raping the kids. Another factor causing problems is the one that sending refugees over to Europe has become a huge business, the turnover of which, in 2015 only, was equal to 6 billion dollars, this can only be compared to the turnover of selling drugs. This makes it quite challenging to not think that transporting refugees has become an international business, involving mafia and politics.

No one is against the idea of a better life for everyone, and that people, who have been more lucky in their life should not help refugees and immigrants. Sadly, the new reality that Europe has come to in the mass flow of refugees requires new approaches to the realisation of this idea. Europe needs to get quicker in reacting to the problem of migration, taking harsher and more elaborated decisions, so that one day the idea of my collage is not going to be an idyll but the reality.’ (Eva Vaynshteyn)

Refugee Crisis ‘My collage represents the secession of the passages that refugees have to go through. They start their walk towards a new life, they walk all along with hope, each one of them is walking for a new life. Some of the people recognize them as animals, just because they haven't been lucky as us, this is why I used a angry police man looking at a group of cows migrating, it represents how harsh the situation is. The next level is the passage from the frontier, where they are usually bounced away just because they come from a different ethnic group, they are considered DIFFERENT. If they are able to pass the frontier they have to fight for their rights in a new country, they are usually unable to get the work they want, life is really hard when people don’t want to help you. The top of my collage represents the refugee’s dream, a big city to start a new life, where people care for them, where they can find a job and start a new life, create a family and achieve their dream.’

(Damiano Pacchiani) Right now in our world there is more and more cases of the refugee crisis. It is a very serious problem that affects not only the actual refugees but every country in this world. Many of these men and women refugees travel by a boat. Not all the boats make it past the Mediterranean Sea and not all people survive.

Many of these boats tip over due to the harsh waves and underwater currents. Usually there are no survivors. Many of these refugees are forced to leave their home town due to war and hatred in their countries and homes. They seek to find a better life and start all over again to be able to provide for their families. They want to be able to send their children to school to give them an education so that they can have a better future. But right now in our world, people are not being supportive of this idea. They are afraid of letting in “strangers” in their countries due to many acts of terrorism that has happened in the past few years. I believe that we have to open our doors to these people because they are people and they deserve a better life. It was not their choice to leave their homes, they were forced. Put yourselves in their shoes, I am sure that you would want to be allowed into a country to restart your life. Therefore I believe that the refugees have to fight and we have to help them start a new life.

My collage represents my view on the refugee crisis happening in the world right now. It is showing the government that is closing the borders and not letting the people enter. But it also shows the courage the refugees have to carry themselves in such manner, waiting to be accepted. It also demonstrates the people who are praying for the refugees and hoping for a better day/world. We must all help in such difficult circumstances and try to find a way to solve this crisis. Go against the government and do what we know is the right thing in our hearts. (Niki Sheikh)

Emily Volpe

Anna Pacciani

Welcome to ISF We are happy to introduce two new staff members that have just joined us at the Junior School.

They will cover Ms. Regnier und Ms. Scopelitti during their maternity leave.

Elisa Burgio Native of: Italy Joining us from: ISF, Italy Earned: Master’s degree in Literary Translation, Trinity College Dublin Assignment: teaching Grade 2 Personal interests: foreign languages, photography, ultimate Frisbee

Kate Rigby Native of : UK Joining us from Strothoff International School Frankfurt, Germany Earned: Ba hons in Fine Art from Kingston University in London and MA in Art and Communities from Leicester University Assignment: teaching Art Junior Personal interests: running, traveling, art history & sailing

We would like to thank Ms. Maria Troschenkova Pshenichnaya for generously organising the recording of the Winter ‘Festival of Song’ concert. The Junior School is offering DVD copies to families for 5 Euro and they can be obtained from Anna Maria at Reception or Ms. Kustrin at the Music Room. Initially there will be a limit of 2 per family. The monies raised will go to the Music Department towards the purchase of additional musical equipment for students’ use. Miss Troschenkova is applauded for her effort and support!

SOCIAL & GLOBAL ISSUES - Junior School

Mrs. Hellawell (mom of William, Angelina, and Tatiana) spoke with the 5th graders about digital safety.

Grade 4 - Archaeological Museum Fiesole The fourth grade at ISF embarked on a journey back in time. Twenty-five fourth graders and four teachers went to the Archaeological site and museum of Fiesole. Our in-house expert in archaeology, Kerry Nickels was our guide, helping to transport the students back in time, with important historical information, so that we could actually imagine what life was like in this ancient world. We saw the Temple of Minerva, the Roman baths and the Roman amphitheater. Finally we went into the museum to see some of the artifacts that were found on the site during the excavations. The students busily took notes and drawings of what they saw. It was an amazing day.

Here are some student impressions of the field trip: “ The artifacts that fascinated me were the “pools” from the Roman Terme because it was fascinating how the Romans built and heated them.” Letizia Maranni “Today, the 21st of January, 4th grade visited an archaeological site in Fiesole. We could see the remains of old buildings and other ruins. Our lunch afterward was exquisite ! “ Victoria Magherini “ I think that it was an amazing to investigate and discover ancient ruins and artifacts. It is far more fascinating and exciting than it sounds.” Camilla Mammadova “ It was the best field trip in this unit!! It was the best because we got to see temple ruins and also an amphitheater where gladiators fought. I really, really loved it! With Ms. Rose, it’s always fun!

Alisiya Ermolenko

Junior School - Making the world a better place This past Tuesday, the Junior School assembly was focused on, “Making the World a Better Place.” It was on the day after the US national holiday to honour Dr. Martin Luther King. Many 5th grade students and Student Council members contributed to make this assembly a success. Special thanks to Kevin Lu for creating the Powerpoint, and to Eric Zhao for the iMovie. Both spent many hours outside of class working on these projects. And a very heartfelt thank you to the teachers, Mr Bailey, Ms Dean, Ms Jonnel, Ms Kelly, Ms Ariana, and Ms Tanja for the generous support they gave to the students. Together we are making the world a better place.

First, Christian Skeini and Leo Nemi read aloud “Dear Santa,” as Kevin Lu’s power point of the illustrations were shown on the SmartBoard. This story explains how this famous character spends the other 364 days of the year delivering gifts of a very different nature – the gift of food, the gift of health, the gift of sight, the gift of water, the gift of technology, the gift of hard work, the gift of peace, and the gift of learning, as well as the gift of survival for animals and the planet. Next, the Student Council explained the different ways the Junior School has already worked this year to make the world a better place for others . . . and the various ways we will continue to do so over the remainder of the school year.

Then the 5th grade students of Ms Kerr and Ms Jonnel gave a brief explanation of who Dr. Martin Luther King was, and how he spent his life working to ensure all have civil rights. Eric Zhao’s iMovie was shown of the students delivering Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” It was a powerful experience, as the students did an incredible performance of his speech.

And finally the whole assembly sang “We Shall Overcome,” under the direction of Ms. Tanja. She had introduced and practiced this song with the students for the past week or so. It is a song of hope and confidence that we shall overcome, and walk in peace one day as brothers and sisters around the world.

Melissa Anderson-Rossini, PYP Coordinator

SKI TRIP - 6th Edition!

Mr. Clausi took 33 students from Grade 9 trough 12 on a five-day skiing trip to Canazei (TN), one of the nicest ski areas in Europe. The group even got to watch the Skiing World Championships competition on two days. Even though it had not snowed, the slopes were all well prepared and everybody had a great time.

Read all at issuu.com/tuskantimes

Horace Gibson - Founder of ISF We interviewed Horace Gibson, 97 years of age and co-founder of the International School of Florence, on the occasion of him being awarded with a doctoral degree of the Binghamton University of New York.

Horace was born during WW1 in a town in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina as the eldest of seven children. During the great depression, he moved to Florida at the age of 20. During and after WW2, he lived in Manhattan for a total of 16 years. Today, if he is not in his apartment next to Palazzo Pitti, reading one of his favourite books, you might see him at lunch with an ISF alumni or at St. James’ Church.

You have told your story many times, you have been interviewed by The Florentine, and you have published your autobiography. Still, please share some insights about the history of our school with us.

Together with my dear friend Paul Burke-Mahony, a teacher on sabbatical, we moved from New York to Rome in 1950. We fell in love with the city and wanted to stay. In order to finance our endeavour we decided to teach English, as the language was high in demand with foreigners right after the war. It was 1952 and within no time we had six international students. Being no teacher, I literally taught myself how to teach. Once we had 25 students, we moved to a bigger apartment. Every year, the school grew and we first taught at a three story building for our now 100 students, before taking over a large walled-in villa. The school flourished thanks to the movie industry, with many Californian directors, writers and actors coming to Rome. We taught the four children of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton’s daughter and Peter Ustinov’s son. The curriculum was initially British, as American textbooks were unaffordable and hard to come by. Once the movies were finished, everyone went back home and we lost many students. Around that time, an Englishman felt our tuition was too steep for his five children. He opened his own school and lowered the tuition by half.

Naturally many of our students changed school and we were forced to take a decision. Florence had not appealed to us when we first visited during a heat wave, as the bombings of the war had left much of the centre in a depressing state. But now, eleven years later, Florence seemed much nicer and as an international school was needed, we decided to move. Out of our initial six students, three were American and we taught in a farmhouse on Via del Guarlone, just outside of Florence. I was living at school and earned no salary for the first 15 years. The flood of 1966 brought difficult times to Florence. Our building was to be changed into an apartment complex and we had to look for an alternative location for our 80-90 students.

The Torre Bellosguardo became available in August of that year, as the existing school had gone bankrupt. The monthly rent was $1000 for a home that had hosted Oscar Wilde, Galileo Galelei and Queen Victoria in the past. But we only had one month to take over the building, before welcoming back our students to the new school. After 11 happy years, the owner of the Torre Bellosguardo died and the son wanted to turn our school into a luxury hotel. We had two years to move out. One of the best places we found was an ex facist prison, the Torre del Gallo, but we would have needed two to three million dollars to change the building into a school and there was no money. Then in 1980, practically at the very last minute, we found the present Junior School in Bagno a Ripoli. After the death of the owner Mrs. Farnsworth, a pediatrician from Chicago, her nieces and nephews put the property up for sale. The purchase was to be done in dollars only, as they would not accept foreign currency. We were lucky to find a very wealthy American in Florence to help with the down payment and we received a mortgage, which had to be paid off in 10 years. Again, very last minute, we managed to open the school in September. As a strike of luck, our mortgage was then paid off entirely thanks to the generosity of the Gucci family.

After being the Head of School for 15 years, I retired in 1964. Every year I happily return to the Upper School for graduation, which is always done well. The school is of course a lot bigger now than it used to be, but it is still a happy place. Just like it always used to be.

I am in touch with many alumni, also via Facebook. For example, I just met Kylie Sharp Michell and her husband. They live in Australia, but returned to Florence for some months to have their children experience ISF. I am also happy to see that some teachers that I had hired are still around. There’s Carol Hampton, Paul Cook and Tancredi de Grazia, who’s great grandfather was a famous poet in Florence. American friends of mine visited Rome and had to go see a doctor, who surprisingly spoke perfect English. As it turned out, the doctor had been a student of mine when I was still teaching in Rome. It’s a small world.

Please tell us about the Doctorate Degree you just received.

Every year I would take students from the Catskill Mountains to see Rome. The husband of one of the chaperones, a teacher at the State University of Columbia, was so impressed with my level of knowledge, that he proposed me for a doctoral degree. I was accompanied by Timothy Chapman, the husband of Diane Lutz, ISF's Grade 2 Teacher. It was a great honour to receive this degree.

How do you feel about current events, such as Paris?

The horrendous attack on Paris hit us all, as Paris is next door. But attacks of similar scale are happening all over the world, especially in Asia and Africa. We are too many people with too many religions. But I am and will always remain optimistic.