ISF's Monthly Newsletter - June 2016

eISF

The Newsletter of the International School of Florence

Endings and Beginnings

June 2016 - Volume 50

HEAD OF SCHOOL MESSAGE Dear Parents of ISF, The end of a school year is a time of celebration and good-byes! This newsletter provides a glimpse into some important moments in our students’ lives.

Whether they are concluding Junior, Middle or High school, our students are making significant and important changes, taking with them the knowledge and skills necessary for the next big step!

Some of our teachers are also facing change as the year comes to a close, moving on to different places and new adventures. I would like to acknowledge and thank all of those people who will be leaving ISF for their work and dedication to our students and school!

Good-bye and sincere well wishes to our teachers, M s . G o n z a l e z , M r. F a i r c h i l d , M r. Va l e n t i n e , Ms.DeAngelis, Ms. Licari, Ms. Shanley, Ms. Rigby, to our PYP Coordinator, Ms. Rossini, to our Business Manager, Ms. Manzini, and to our Junior School Principal Mr. Donnellan. You will be fondly remembered and sorely missed!

As Ella Fitzgerald will remind us with her honey-sweet voice, it’s ‘summer time, and the livin’ is easy’. I wish you all a relaxing summer with family and friends, near or far, and wish you well.

With best wishes, Debra Williams

News from the School Board The Board welcomed several members of the ISF community to its open session meeting on June 6. We hope to increase the frequency and participation of this type of event in the future. During the meeting we shared financial information as well as details of our new campus search. New Board members Reza Sheikh and Marc Magistrali introduced themselves, and we introduced new Board member Simone Zeloni in absentia. A Q&A session followed, in which questions regarding finance and facilities were addressed by Board members.

On the same night we held officer elections: Marco Uzielli and Deborah Sassorossi were both reelected to their respective posts of President and Treasurer, and Silvia Quiroga is the new Secretary, replacing Mary Louise Culpepper, who is leaving the Board. Officers were elected for a period of two years.

We extend our warmest wishes to everyone in our community for a relaxing and restorative summer.

See you in September!

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

Pictures are available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/isf-florence/albums/72157669515322471

Pictures are available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ isf-florence/albums/72157669311133051

Pictures available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/isf-florence/ albums/72157668272902490 Film available at https://youtu.be/PG6yWlm85uo

FLOMUN - Florence Model UN FLOMUN is the acronym for Florence Model United Nations, the day-long conference in which students in grades 9, 10 and 11 have an opportunity to practice debating and build two resolutions on actual MUN topics in a lower-stress environment compared to that of an international conference. Countries from every continent were represented by high school students, and for the most part we remained serious, true to the values of our respective countries’ and priorities and focused on the issues at hand—which were “The question of climate change and greenhouse gases“ and “fighting organized crime in urban areas.”

MUN is a wonderful way for students to practice public speaking and learn about global politics and world issues. Juniors Michael Chen, Tessa Mair, Kathryn Randene and Sofia Volpe presided over the debate itself as chairs and kept everything running smoothly. Each delegate gave an opening speech in the morning, and many merged clauses into the two resolutions throughout the day. Aside from the one I submitted at the end of the day on behalf of the DPRK (which you may know as North Korea) calling for global subordination to our leader (Kim Jong-Un) as a solution to urban crime, the clauses offered thoughtful and interesting solutions to the issues at hand—whether they called for improving education on global warming, promoting renewable energy sources and combatting deforestation, or merging the world’s resources and information to combat urban crime.

Overall, FLOMUN was a fun day for everyone and was an especially valuable opportunity for younger students in that it gave them a feel for MUN involvement in preparation for the larger conferences they will attend next year. Sophie Culpepper, Grade 11

Todos Bombers

Todos Bomber was a multicultural sport event organized by Anelli Mancanti and UISP which took place on the last Sunday this May in Piazza Tasso. There were three tournaments (soccer, street basketball and volleyball). ISF participated in the basketball tournament with a team of three (Federico Zheng, Matteo Penlington and Sebastian Culpepper). Anelli Mancanti is a local organization supporting immigrants and asylum seekers through a school program, as well as medical and legal support among others. The main goal of the organization is to encourage interaction between locals and foreigners who live here. The organization relies solely on volunteers. UISP is a national organization promoting a culture of sport as a way to get together despite differences. Federico Fusco, Spanish Teacher

GRADE 10 SPANISH ESCUELA DE PASIONES - Dos Corazones y un Solo Amor This year, the Spanish class of 10th grade is pleased to present their latest soap opera, which was entirely MADE IN CLASS. Written, produced and performed by the students, ESCUELA DE PASIONES will catch your attention from the beginning to the end. The story takes place in our school and it is a story about LOVE, HATE, PASSION, BETRAYAL and ENVY… You can't miss it!

Watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptOxqJ2hUCE

Grade 7 Art - Self Portrait in Pencil The students studied and copied art historical portraits created before the 1900's in order to learn about shading and proportions from the masters. They then tackled created a self portrait in pencil The results were so good we animated them!


Grade 8 MS Project Days







Grade 8 enjoyed a fresco workshop and learned about Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. The field trip included a visit to the Santa Maria Novella church to explore its facade and frescos.

Grade 10 Art - Surrealism & Metamorphosis After analyzing Surrealism artist Salvador Dali, students used their skills in Adobe Photoshop to merge a photo of themselves with a creature.


Grade 10 Art Collages After working on detailed watercolor landscapes paintings, the students created landscape collages.

Grade 10 Art The students studied Japanese landscape painting and then created a modern watercolor and tempera painting using silhouettes.


Grade 7 Visit to Lanificio Ricceri

Moments of the European Championships - Soccer Both the girls coached by Simone Ocello, and the boys coached by myself, did very well in their first year of Dodd’s Division II. All schools in Division II are bigger than ISF and until last year we were in the smaller schools Div III. Nonetheless the girls (orphaned by several seniors and by our star player Rebecca Grundmann, who could not participate because of the IB exams) played very intense matches, scoring a few goals and demonstrating great sportsmanship and an incredible sense of belonging to our school. The team was greatly coached by coach Simone Ocello who created a fantastic environment within the team.

Our two seniors, Emma and Claudia, gave a wonderful speech after their final match. They thanked Coach Simone and urged the younger girls to continue with soccer. Soccer has been an important part of their education, and it left them with beautiful memories and very intense experiences from the 4 years with the team.

Even though the girls did not make it to the semi-finals, they were very happy and kept singing and cheering all the way back to the hotel continuing with jokes and cheers for their friends (Emma, Jamie and Claudia) also later at dinner. It gives me great satisfaction as Athletic Director to see a joyful atmosphere that clearly goes beyond the mere sport results.

The boy’s team did well too. We played 4 matches in 2 days. The students were unaware of their power and played with no pressure against much bigger and better equipped schools. The first day we defeated Aviano 2-0 and then Bitsburg (American base in Germany) 5-1. Then we defeated Hoenfels (American base in Germany) 5-1, bust lost 2-1 against BFA, an International School located in the black forest in Germany. We passed as second of our pool and then played against Mary Mount International School of Rome (MMI) in the semifinal. During the Italian championships we tied 2-2 with MMI in Rome, but we knew this would be a very hard match since MMI won 5 of the past 6 European championship of soccer.

In five years they only lost a Championship at the penalties ( last year) and only lost one game (against us in Florence). We knew it would be very hard to get to the final but we threw our hearts in the field.

MMI scored 1-0 in the first half. The field was very wet and too heavy for a younger and more technical team like ours. We started the second half very determined and were conducting the play when we missed a penalty kick. Despite the condition of the field, our kids continued with ball possession giving no chance to MMI, that could only try some counter attacks. Twenty minutes before the end time, Sebastian Lindmark made a beautiful free kick that ended on the post and was headed by Giovanni Morescalchi into the goal. 1-1 and big cheers also by our girls who supported the team the whole time.

The team tried to win the match by maintaining the ball possession and pressing the opponent during the last 20 minutes and the extra time (2 x 10 minutes). Despite the tiredness, our team had some good chances to score. During the penalty shootouts, we missed one penalty again, and Mary Mount passed to the final. We ended up in 4th place.

I am very proud of our students for the incredible match they played. We received compliments from the numerous spectators, coaches and players who watched the match and were supporting our team.

Moreover, the opponents congratulated with us, and many of the MMI team players were crying at the end of the match. The girls, as well as our bus drivers, supported our boys the whole time.

It was a beautiful page of sport for ISF. We will try again next year! Roberto Clausi, Athletic Director

UPPER SCHOOL ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE / HONOR ROLL Middle School - Academic Excellence Grade 6 Savannah Culpepper Giangiacomo Rossi Grade 7 Filippo Giacometti Hanna Gualandi Sebastian Iacovitti Jerry Pan Margherita Pratesi Antonio Santana Mathias Volkai Grade 8 Dean Boger Jack Evanowich Maria Sole Franceschi Eleonora Ricceri Daniil Tiugaev Kathleen Zhang Luigi Stefanacci Pre-IB High School - High Honor Roll Grade 9 Sebastian Arora Niccolò Bagnoli Luca Fagotti Sibilla Venerosi-Pescioli Grade 10 Nicholas Accattatis Adriana Chiesa Duuk Junggeburt Ginevra Lapi Sabrina Marrani Pre-IB High School - Honor Roll Grade 9 Sarah Amantini Nikita Bezverkhniy Sebastian Culpepper Dante Fagotti Kayla Middleton Matteo Penlington Pietro Righi Federico Zheng

Pre-IB High School - Honor Roll Grade 10 Elena Bagagli Mario Bacci Emma Baroni Alec Campbell Martina Chen Adriana Chiesa Clarissa Fraschetti Ginevra Lapi Kojin Minorikawa Anna Pacciani Alice Ren Chen Shih Atharva Torne Eva Vaynshteyn Sebastian Volkai Emily Volpe Lisa Xia Sophie Yap IB - High Honor Roll Grade 11 Diana Barta Matteo Chen Michael Chen Sophie Culpepper Sebastian Lindmark Tessa Mair Lorenzo Papini Kathryn Randene Riccardo Talini Gianni Zhou IB -Honor Roll Grade 11 Luca Maras Giovanni Morescalchi

Awards The CIS International Student Award recognises outstanding students at CIS Member Schools for projects which exemplify internationalism. International Student Awards are presented to an individual student or a group of students in recognition of their contributions to the promotion of global citizenship and the development of international awareness in their communities. Congratulations Nina Podolsky!

The European Council of International Schools (ECIS) Award for the Promotion of International Education (PIE) was designed to recognize those involved in the international school community that are actively involved in promoting international education.

This year, ISF is proud to present this award to a member of our community and parent, Mr. Reza Sheikh. Mr. Sheikh is multilingual and multicultural and models his belief in community collaboration and the potential for positive change. He has actively given feedback regarding school and community relations and was a volunteer facilitator for a student committee on intercultural relations that met regularly throughout the year.

We congratulate and thank Mr. Sheikh for his contributions to ISF and we look forward to working further with him in the future.

Junior School Spirit Club Dog Therapy

The Spirit Club organized a Pet Therapy workshop in collaboration with the Accademia Cinofila Fiorentina, which took place at the Junior School campus on Monday, the 30th of May. Discussing with the specialists and interacting with the animals, students learned that Pet Therapy is used to help people recover from or cope with a health problem or mental disorder, but also to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. It can also increase self-esteem and improve social skills. Students and teachers had a really good time working with Magda, the most humble Basset Hound on earth, and Chusky & Maximilian I, two Yorkshire Terrier full of energy and patience. Good job Spirit Club!

Mangia e Gioca Arezzo Olimpiadi della Nutrizione Progetto rivolto alle classi IV e V delle Scuole Primarie Toscane. Arrivate alla 6° edizione, le Olimpiadi hanno riscosso sempre più successo, fino a coinvolgere nel 2015 circa 600 bambini toscani, con i loro insegnanti e le famiglie. All'evento finale i bambini si sfidano in giochi quali ruba bandiera, corsa delle tre gambe, staffetta,... e rispondono a domande sui temi di alimentazione e attività fisica. Durante l’anno, infatti, gli insegnanti svolgono un percorso di educazione sui temi della corretta alimentazione e del sano stile di vita grazie ai manuali messi a punto dagli specialisti MangiaeGioca. http://www.mangiaegioca.com/progetti-per-le-scuole/

Pre-K’s Sharing the Planet Unit of Inquiry We began the unit by observing and recording the differences between living and non-living things. Then we moved into sorting vertebrate and invertebrate animals. The main focus of the unit was on insects and so to bring some nature inside the classroom, we adopted some caterpillars and observed them through their life cycle. We saw them day by day grow from tiny caterpillars into chubby ones. Then we watched as they built their web and made their cocoon and went into the pupa stage. When we arrived at school ready to go on our exciting Field Trip to the Butterfly House, we were delighted to see that our butterflies had come out of their cocoons and we had beautiful butterflies flying around in our net. The Field Trip to the Butterfly House allowed us not only to have a lovely snack in the Garzoni gardens, but also to observe many butterflies in a natural habitat for them. We were able to observe butterflies flying, eating, changing, and sharing their habitat with other animals who like hot places like turtles, parakeets, bees, walking sticks, and fish. In class we made our last observations and recordings of our adopted butterflies and decided to show respect to them by letting them out in to nature so that they could share the planet with us. Carla Benedetti, Pre-K Teacher

Stay in the loop!

Villa S. Teresa Retirement Home Visit On June 7th, The Singing Club of Junior School visited the Retirement Home in Villa S. Teresa, in order to sensitize students towards old age and respect for elders. The Singing Club directed by Miss Tanja Kustrin prepared a joyful music program that touched old people’s hearts. The ISF students brought the outside world in. There was lots of warmth, exchanged after the performance. They all agreed that we have to come back!

ISF takes pride in its very own Student Newspaper.

The latest TUSKAN TIMES edition can be found at https://issuu.com/ tuskantimes/docs/ merged_document

Have a great Summer!