Marymount Magazine Spring 2015

arymount MA RY MOU N T IN TER N ATION A L SC H OOL R OM E

spring 2015

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inside

spring

2015

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Greetings from the Head Early Childhood News Venetian Masks

Ziplocs for Zambia Jurassic Art

Secrets of the Pharaohs Iranian New Year

Grade 5 Cell Project

Mother Language Day

The Technology Committee Digital Citizenship

Secondary Retreats

Academic Olympiads

RSHM Sports Festival Return of the Vikings

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MAIS Honor Choir

“The Red Applause” Art of Darkness

“West Side Story”

Sitting with an Author Grade 7 Poetry

The Talent Trap Model UN

The IB Core & Marymount Faculty News

IB Art Vernissage

Marymount Masterpieces Supporting Zambia Summer Camp PTO Gala

ON THE COVER Grade 5 student Jacky Z. shows the Carnevale mask he made in his art class. THIS PAGE High School students use drama techniques to explore fundamental aspects of identity and life.

Marymount magazine is published by the Development Office for the Marymount community.

Designed and edited by J. Dunn Photos by J. Dunn except where noted

© 2015 MARYMOUNT INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ROME

In early March, two groups of Secondary School students enjoyed an educational experience abroad as they spent a few days in London and Berlin. The trips included visits to important historical and cultural sites in these capital cities, including the British Museum, Tate Gallery, the Reichstag, and Brandenburg Gate. The group visiting Berlin is pictured here in front of Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom).

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T. BORTONE

STUDY ABROAD

Greetings Maria Castelluccio

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he 2014-15 academic year is coming to a close. As I reflect on the school year, I am pleased with the learning and accomplishments of our community. Our kindergarteners are prepared to move into the Elementary School and our Fifth graders enthusiastically shift into the world of Middle School. is is also the time of year that our Seniors demonstrate the accumulation of their years of learning as they take their finals and IB exams. All of us at Marymount are proud of their hard work and commitment to their studies. We are confident of their success as they continue their life journey beyond Marymount. It is with a heavy heart that we bid them farewell, yet know they are leaving prepared to carry on the Marymount mission of being life-long learners and the leaders of tomorrow.

We also say goodbye to staff members as they move on to new jobs and adventures in other parts of the world. We wish them all the best.

I know you join me in special recognition of Dennis Cigler, Marcia DoRosario, and Kathy Zappia as they venture into the wonderful world of retirement. Dennis has been part of the MMI community for 32 years, Marcia for 35 years, and Kathy for 43 years.

Head of School Although they will leave our school, they will carry on in our hearts and forever be a part of the Marymount community.

While this is time of year that students are preparing to leave us, it is also the time that we are planning for the 2015-16 school year.

We are working diligently to hire new, highly qualified staff, revising and refining curriculum, creating schedules, and preparing our facilities. We have already accepted many new students across the grades and are still receiving applications on a daily basis. We are excited about welcoming new students and their families into the Marymount community. Next year in collaboration with our Parent-Teacher Organization we will once again host a variety of social gatherings to welcome new families and further strengthen our school community. We look forward to your participation in these events.

International School. I know you join me in wishing him success as he moves on to a exciting journey in San Francisco.

I would also like to offer a special thank you to Jim Dunn, our Development and Marketing Director who has been responsible for all of our communications, including this magazine. We will miss Jim’s beautiful writing, meticulous attention to detail, and commitment to Marymount

As always I am excited about our continued work as partners to provide a strong academic program, a welcoming social environment, and an international community with strong human values.

I wish you all a restful and enjoyable summer break. s p r i n g

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E A R LY C H I L D H O O D

EC1

How We Get Around While learning about modes of transportation, EC1 students made some wonderful interpretations of vehicles using wooden pieces, plastic bottle tops, glue, and paint.

The children then told their teachers stories about where their vehicles were traveling.

EC2

Spring Awakening

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n a quiet corner of the EC2 classroom, a bear had been snuggled down, hibernating the winter away (lucky him!). During the last week in March the teachers heard sounds of movement coming from the cozy cave and realized the bear would soon wake up. As waking up a hibernating bear for spring is such a special occasion, we decided that we would help the bear wake up, so on March 27 the children brought their bears to school to celebrate the event.

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Our day started when both classes came together to wake up the bear (their own bears came with them, of course). e children thought about how they liked to be woken up, and after deciding how this should be done they softly called the bear to wake up. When he was awake everyone went on a bear hunt. en both classes went back to work. ey used their bears to measure – sorting them from smallest to biggest, making

PHOTOS: M. MACKINNON

EC2

Happy Father’s Day March 19 is the feast day of St. Joseph, and in Italy it’s also Father’s Day. The children of EC2 Yellow celebrated this special day here at school by inviting their fathers into the classroom to spend some time together.

Together they played games, built things, read stories, joked, tickled each other, drew beautiful pictures, and spent an enjoyable morning together. The children had a fantastic time and loved having their daddies with them in the classroom. A big “I Love You!” from EC2 Yellow.

comparisons, and working cooperatively as they went. ey wrote about their favorite activities to do with their bears and made some bear puppets. In the afternoon, we went to the garden to have a teddy bear’s picnic to which the parents were invited. We were very lucky as the rain stayed away and the children enjoyed playing with their parents and bears, eating pizzette, teddy bearshaped Nutella sandwiches, teddy bear crisps, and gummy bears. en it was back to class to take tired teddies and tired children home.

– Laurie Berry EC2 Teacher N. PERERA

EC2 students brought in their teddy bears to celebrate the end of winter hibernation. Previous page: The students enjoy a picnic with their bears and parents in the EC garden.

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Mask Makers

by Phebe Consentino Elementary School Art

Elementary students create their own Venetian-inspired masks in anticipation of Carnevale

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n February, students in Elementary School art classes enjoyed creating colorful masks embellished with feathers, plastic gems, sequins, ribbon, paper, and paint to celebrate the traditional festival of Carnevale that ended with the Christian celebration of Lent forty days before Easter.

Students in the lower grades created whimsical masks with colored paper, card, and paper plates. Grade 5 students learned about the Carnival of Venice and looked at photos of the Venetian masks created with

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“gesso” (plaster) and painted and decorated with elaborate and unique designs. e students worked with papier-mâché, a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp made with paste, and mask forms in this lesson. e students were fascinated and totally absorbed in the process of making their masks and found the outcome rewarding. ey painted their completed masks and decorated them to demonstrate each student’s individual sense of design. e masks then went on display in the ES lobby.

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S. KLEIN

Grade 5 student Elisa M. helps Kindergarten student Malibongwe M. and his classmates create the Ziploc bags used to collect money they earned for Zambia.

Ziplocs for Zambia

by Stephanie Klein Elementary School Religion and

Ann Haring

Religious Education Coordinator

Marymount students earn money during Lent to benefit our friends in Zambia

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hat do you get when you give a child a Ziploc bag and permission to charge their parents for doing chores? Initially, you get a bunch of giggles and laughter, but eventually you get more than €1,400 from a group of happy, big-hearted givers of time, talent, and treasure. at is exactly what happened with the Elementary students this Lent as they made sacrifices for Zambia. e Elementary School learned about the Lenten collection at a whole school meeting

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on February 24 celebrating the RSHM Founder’s Day. Led by the Fifth Grade class, the students learned about the need for human rights. ey discovered how RSHM founders Fr. Gailhac and Mere St. Jean worked to ensure that poor children had a right to an education, and how the RSHM sisters of today continue to respond to the needs of our world in more than 13 countries. e students then welcomed Sr. Phillippa O’Sullivan, RSHM, who worked in Zambia for 30 years. She thanked everyone for the

donations Marymount families have made to Zambia over the years and explained how our generosity has helped build schools and educate children. She said that the most pressing need right now was coming up with €15,000 for a truck to transport the deaf, blind, and disabled children who attend St. Mulumba’s School.

Next, Mrs. Haring challenged the students to be like the RSHM founders and sisters by making sacrifices to help the children in Zambia get their truck. She explained how the students could fill small plastic bags with donations. Instead of going home and asking parents for money, students could give their own money, or earn money by doing small jobs around the house. Mrs. Haring added, "at way you will be making real and true sacrifices during Lent."

After the assembly, students were excited and ready to help. ey spent two weeks converting their time spent working hard into a treasure that would help our friends in Zambia.

Kindergarten enthusiastically decorated their Zambia Ziplocs during Religion class before taking them home. Kindergartener Nicolò L. explained how he earned some of his euros.

“My dad said he had to take out the trash, so I asked, ‘Can I help you?’ and he said, ‘Sure!’ So we both took the trash out.”

Nicolò continued, “He gave me two euros.

My mom gave me one for helping her.” rough morning announcement skits, Fifth graders challenged all Elementary students to make the sacrifices necessary to fill their Ziplocs with euros. “I felt it was better for my conscience to give up some of my time

to help my mom,” said Fifth grader Priscilla A., “and then give the money I earned to Zambia so they could buy a truck.”

Added Fifth grader Jerry Y., “I wanted to [help raise money] because it helped my mom. She works so much. It meant she could have more time to relax. At least [together] we could help Zambia.”

At their Lenten Mass on March 6, the students prayed for the children of Zambia and brought to the altar bags filled with donations. Overall, Elementary students worked selflessly to help their friends in Zambia. By making sacrifices to help others, students lived out our mission and learned a valuable Lenten lesson: getting closer to God by responding to the needs of our world.

Elementary students present the money that they raised for Zambia during the Offertory Procession of their Lenten Mass in March.

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Jurassic Art

During a recent unit on the Mesozoic Era, or age of the dinosaurs, Third Grade students learned about the various types of dinosaurs that roamed the earth anywhere from 65 million to 251 million years ago. In an example of curricular integration that is typical at Marymount, the students relied on what they learned to create their own dinosaur models in art class. The students modeled with clay, created a landform, made volcanoes, and constructed small plants and palm trees. The finished product formed an impressive display in the Elementary School lobby in March.

Phebe Cosentino Elementary School Art

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Secrets of the

Pharaohs

Grade 4 students immerse themselves in the history and mystery of Ancient Egypt

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he Fourth Grade has been exploring life in Ancient Egypt. After studying a range of topics, from the geography and the gifts of the Nile to the social class system and mummification and burial procedures, Grade 4 students have become experts on many aspects of this amazing ancient civilization.

Opposite page: The richly adorned lid of a sarcophagus created by Federico K. during Grade 4’s unit on Ancient Egypt.

Some students built a settlements using technology and mine craft. Others made sarcophaguses that included a list of the items that they would like to take to the afterlife.

When asked, “Would you like to live in Ancient Egypt? “ these were some of their responses:

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would not like to live in Egypt if I was a slave. Everyday I would wash the pharaoh and it would be hard. e best thing to be is a pharaoh. When I go to meetings, I get gifts and everyone cheers for me.

– Ahmad, 4L

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wouldn’t like to live in Ancient Egypt because it was a very hard job for farmers.

When the Nile flooded, they had to go help the pharaoh build pyramids. It was very hot.

I can imagine being a scribe sitting under the sun writing hieroglyphs. Working in the field was very hard because they didn’t have a lot of tools, and they always had to wear the same dirty clothes.

– Laura, 4L

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Left and middle: A sarcophagus by Nolan W. and a depiction of the Egyptian goddess Nut by Giovanna M. were among the works Grade 4 students created based on their study of ancient Egypt and put on display in the Elementary School lobby. Right: Mr. Costa and his class drew hierogplyphics outside the entrance to the Elementary School. Below: A few more of the sarcophaguses displayed in the lobby.

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would like to live in Ancient Egypt because I think it would be so much fun to be a potter so I can make wonderful creations and then sell them. Also, I would love writing in hieroglyphs. ere are so many secrets of Ancient Egypt that I would like to learn, so if I lived there, I would know all of them. I think that it would be cool to be a sarcophagus maker. You could draw all of the events of somebody’s life, and you could decorate it with lots of bright colors so the person could be happy in the afterlife. I loved studying Ancient Egypt because it helped me and my class learn how most of the stuff we use today came to be.

– Sophia, 4L

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would like to live in Ancient Egypt because if you were a pharaoh you could talk to the gods, and the servants would fan you when it was really hot.

– Rosa, 4L

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would like to live in Ancient Egypt because I could see the pyramids and temples. It would be fun farming near the Nile. I would like to see the pharaoh’s temple with all the jewels and diamonds. If I lived in Ancient Egypt, I would want to be a pharaoh.

– Federico, 4L 1 4

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When asked what they enjoyed learning about most, students in 4P responded:

favorite god was Anubis.

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ow the Pharaohs placed valuable items into their sarcophagus that they believed they would need in the afterlife. e ceremony was very important and the mummification process took about seventy days!

– Ana, 4P

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he archeologist Howard Carter and how he pulled down a hut in the Valley of Kings and found a secret passage into King Tutankhamen’s tomb. I also enjoyed learning about the curse of his tomb.

– Nicholas, 4P

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ncient Egyptian hieroglyphics, the gods, mummification and the afterlife. My

– Leonardo, 4P ummification. We learned that embalming involved preserving the body. All of the organs in the body were removed except for the heart because the heart was the center of intelligence!

– Alessandro, 4P

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ow a money system did not exist in Ancient Egypt, and they had to trade goods by importing and exporting.

– Calista, 4P

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he Nile River. I learned that the Nile was not just a river for the Egyptians. e Egyptians needed the river to survive. e Nile is the longest river in the world.

– Nicolò, 4P

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Norouz Mobarak! n March as part of our continuing One month, One Continent initiative, Fourth Grade students gained some insight into the Middle East by celebrating the Iranian New Year Norouz. The celebration took place in front of a ceremonial Zoroastrian "7 seen" table in class.

As traditional music played in the background, the students learned about the Iranian Zoroastrian culture, in which fire and the sun are considered signs of wisdom and spiritual insight, and they learned about the seven symbolic Norouz dishes, which were set on colorful Persian carpets:

1. Sabzeh – sprouts (usually wheat or lentil) representing rebirth.

2. Serkeh – vinegar represents age and patience.

3. Seeb – an apple represents health and beauty.

4. Sekeh – coins represent prosperity and wealth 5. Sonbol – a pot of flowering hyacinth or narcissus is set on the sofreh 6. Seer – garlic represents medicine.

7. Somaq – sumac berries represent the color of sunrise. When the sun appears Good conquers Evil.

Excellent Science Projects

During the winter, Grade 5 students studied cells in their science classes. They learned about the various components that make up our cells and how they function. To illustrate what they learned, the students created their own models of human cells using various materials from home. They presented their cell models to their classmates, and the results were both informative and artistic!

Top: Kindergarten teacher Mersedeh Cerasoli, who is Iranian-American, and her daughters led a discussion of the Iranian New Year in Grade 4. Bottom left: The students learned about each of the seven symbolic dishes featured in the New Year celebration. The children taste delicate cookies called Nokhodchi made from roasted chickpea flower. s p r i n g

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Unity Diversity through

On February 13, our Elementary School celebrated International Mother Language Day. This colorful day is not only about promoting mother languages but also about celebrating our students' cultural identities. In the morning, the students visited different classrooms in the Elementary School to learn phrases in all of the different languages represented at the school. In the afternoon, the students participated in an International Fashion Parade during which they spoke in their mother tongue, dressed in traditional clothes, and paraded down a runway to an audience of their classmates. With more than 60 nationalities represented at our school, the annual fashion parade always leaves a lasting impression.

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e Technology Committee

A group of teachers and staff charts the future of technology at Marymount

by Sally Cameron Elementary School Librarian

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n December 2012 an intrepid group of teachers, administrators and technicians came together to begin a new project. e core of the group was the schools’ librarians, computer teachers, and technicians. Interested teachers and administrative staff throughout the school also joined, and so the present incarnation of the MMI Technology Committee came to be.

Our first task was to try and decide what direction the committee would take. e concept of technology runs far and wide. We researched, discussed, and deliberated many ideas and in 2013 defined our group’s mission: To research, recommend, support, and ensure the continuity of the effective integration of both established and emerging technologies into the learning environment.

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en we had to work on how to bring that about. Meeting once a month at 7:45am the committed team began working and planning. We collected information from teachers about their technology knowledge and concerns. At this time many teachers were changing over from PC’s to Mac’s, so we set up classes to teach Mac basics and smooth the transition. We also worked together with the PTO and offered a series of Mac and Internet safety classes for parents.

During 2014 the committee branched further out. e Mac lessons for teachers continued, and we organized iPad lessons for teachers with Apple Distinguished Educator Joe Moretti. His workshops for teachers and students helped Grades 4 and 5 become enthusiastic and confident about teaching and learning with iPads.

Additionally, the technology committee talked about how to develop our vision of technology for the school. Up until now we had been solving more immediate and short-term issues, and it came time to address more long-term priorities.

We began by meeting via Skype with a technology consultant from an international school in China. His school had recently been through the process we were facing, and he was able to give tips, pointers and sound advice about the journey that lay ahead.

We then talked about what we wanted for our students in the long-term. One of the most important issues was online safety, and we looked at various programs and took advice from our school counselors. We chose the Commonsense Media Program for digital citizenship, and it is now the basis of our online safety curriculum for all grade levels.

We were blessed to be able to work with another consultant, Kathy Daulton, who helped us develop our technology vision.

During extra committee meetings, we developed our philosophy of technology for the school: The Marymount community of learners is empowered by technology to be ethical, independent, and effective communicators. We are driven by the Marymount Learner Profile to foster digital citizenship and encourage creativity and innovation through an individualized, holistic, and balanced approach to learning.

is bold statement is the WHY? of our vision. Using it as a springboard, we then

had to work out the WHAT? and the HOW?. is involved much discussion about WHAT students and teacher will be doing in technology in the year 2018 and HOW are we going to arrive at that point?

Toward the end of the school year, we shared the results of our discussion with all faculty, who received it positively and provided good feedback.

At this point, we have addressed two recommendations stemming from our vision: a group of teachers attended a Google Summit in Rome, and the school hired a technology coordinator, Mustafa Zwebti, whom we are pleased to have as part of our team.

Working on our vision statement did not mean we could let our other projects slide. ese included: a full equipment inventory, arranging for Eighth Graders to show their videos about cyberbullying to Grade 5 students, setting up a technology help-desk, collecting information in order to plan appropriate professional development for teachers, and sending a group of teachers to an iPad conference.

During 2015, the technology committee is developing a plan, based on our vision statement, to realize all we envisioned for 2018. We began in February by offering classes for parents on Internet safety.

Additionally, members of the committee are studying and taking exams to become Google Certified Educators and Commonsense Certified Teachers, which will deepen the level of professional development and curriculum we are able to offer our community.

Digital Citizenship

Connecting Families with Common Sense Media

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t the end of February, we began a series of classes for parents about the ways in which children are using technology and how they can use this knowledge to discuss with their own children being safe and responsible online.

Among the classes offered so far are:

• A panel of MMI Secondary School students who talked to parents about their online activity. They then answered questions and addressed concerns that the parents had.

• Cyber-bullying – a difficult session in which we watched a video about an extreme case of cyber-bulling and heard teens’ perspectives on how we can help when kids are struggling with cyber-bullying.

• Digital drama – the landscape of digital drama is much more than the horrific stories of cyber-bullying we hear about in the news. We learned about forms of digital drama including fake pages, impersonation, and subtweeting – and read one high school boy’s insightful perspective.

• Digital footprint & photo sharing - we tell students not to share anything online they wouldn't want on national television. The group saw what

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M. HALLAM

During the first Digital Citizenship class for parents, High School students participate in a panel in which they discuss their online activity. This series of classes for parents began in February and meet weekly.

happens when Ellen DeGeneres actually pulls up audience members’ embarrassing social media pictures, and learned how to help kids be savvy about their digital footprints.

We asked some of the parents who are attending the classes to give us their impressions of the course so far:

“The digital citizenship meetings have been a valuable moment to share experiences and advice from other parents who participated.

The discussions about the topics covered during the various meetings have always helped me to think about how to be a better and more conscious parent. They are very interesting and well managed. A great opportunity offered to every parent of the MMI community that should be repeated every year. Thank you for this opportunity!”

“Technology is part of our lives now, and it is important to educate ourselves and be informed, so we can guide our children to use it in safe ways, as a great tool to learn, to socialize, to communicate, etc., in responsible and respectful ways. The digital citizenship classes are a great way to learn

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ad share information about the uses of technology!”

“As a digitally ignorant parent, I needed this series of classes to show me what the 10year-olds and teens are doing in their online world. The classes have been eye-opening, jaw-dropping, emotional, disturbing, and enlightening, but above all, informative.

Thank you.”

“These sessions are providing me with enough information to initiate or follow-up on conversations about digital citizenship with my children. The teenagers’ perspectives were also valuable as I got to see the potential negative impact of parents’ wellintended behavior. The sharing of resources is welcome and of course the sense that my concerns about online safety are shared by other parents is somewhat reassuring. Thank you for organizing these sessions.”

“Digital Citizenship classes have opened up a reality that kids will eventually face, or have already faced, depending on their age. By seeing excerpts from the Commonsense website on kids’ experiences, I began to understand the dangers that come with the

use of technological media such as posting photos, chatting or dialoguing, and how all of this can remain on the web forever. It has been helpful also to have high school kids intervene in the discussions and share their opinions.

It is clear how important and essential it is for parents to dialogue and exchange information with their children in a confidential and safe environment. Safety against cyber-bullying that can affect a child’s life is not something that parents can avoid or overlook. Thank you for all the great information.”

The classes take place every Thursday from 8:45am-10:00am in the Elementary computer lab. We anticipate holding the last class on May 7. Classes are free to parents and facilitated by the teachers who instruct our students in Digital Citizenship. So far, Megan Hallam, Flaminia Vitali, Sally Cameron, Louise Crossan, and Chiara Canepa have all been active in bringing these classes to you.

We hope you can attend at least one!

– Sally Cameron Elementary School Librarian

PHOTOS: A. HARING

up with concrete ways they could all work to make Marymount a more loving community. During Mass, they stopped to reflect and ask forgiveness for the times they have hurt one another and to pray that they could become more like the Good Shepherd. Finally, at the end of Mass they each received a letter full of compliments from their classmates, allowing them to discover the goodness others see in them.

Building Community Secondary students enjoy their annual retreats

by Ann Haring Religious Education Coordinator

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uring the first week of February, students in grades 6-10 traveled to the Fraterna Domus Retreat Center in Sacrofano for their yearly gradelevel retreats. e Marymount retreat days are an important part of our mission to help students celebrate God’s love and to build a strong community. During the retreat, students had the opportunity to take a break from their cell phones and everyday classes to focus on their personal growth, their relationship with God, and their relationships with each other.

Students in Grades 6-8 explored themes from the Good Shepherd parable. rough

various activities, students discovered their incredible value in God’s eyes. ey saw that God’s love for each of us is so great that even if we become lost through sin, the Good Shepherd always seeks us out and forgives us. In small groups, students took time to think and write about the goodness and value they see in each other. e students applied the message of the Good Shepherd parable to their grade-level community. Taking characters from the parable, students worked in groups to identify the wolves (actions that cause division) and the shepherds (actions that bring everyone together). Next they came

e Ninth and Tenth Grade retreat focused on a different theme: Be a Superhero! rough various activities and small group discussions students reflected on many important questions. After creating their own superheroes and thinking about why superheroes are so important in our culture the students began to reflect on why each of us has the desire to be loved and to do something great with our lives.

Students began to understand this desire by turning to Scripture, which reveals that we are all made in the image and likeness of an all-powerful and all-loving God. ey began to see that God creates us to make the best use of the talents he has given us and to live a life of heroic love. is means we must make hard choices day in and day out, which may seem daunting! However, God’s grace and mercy gives us all the super power we need to make the right decisions and be the people God made us to be.

Students also reflected on their prayer lives. ey thought about why it is necessary to build a strong relationship with God in order to grow towards becoming the best person they can be. ey learned a concrete, step-by-step form of daily prayer that will help them encounter God and discover them many ways he works in their lives. s p r i n g

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Grade 5 students, who study math, history, and geography in Italian in a class after school, with their teacher, Charlie Zoffoli.

Organizing the Olympiads

Students in Grades 4 and 5 demonstrate their academic fitness

by Charlie

Zoffoli

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s every Fifth grader who studies storia (history) knows, the Olympic games started in 776 B.C. in Greece, lasted for one week, and took place every four years. ese competitions were so important that even when there was a war raging between two or more cities there would be a one-week truce to let the athletes from every city participate in this event.

More recently, the first International Mathematical Olympiads started in Romania in 1959. Since then the event has been held every year – except in 1980 – and has involved teams of students from approximately 100 countries who compete by solving problems from various branches of math, including algebra, geometry, and, calculus.

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Why shouldn’t we have this type of math event here at Marymount as well? I decided to organize one with my Fourth and Fifth graders. e students divided into groups of up to six students and answered questions and solve problems about everything that had been covered since the beginning of the year. is encompassed a wide range of topics, such as comparing big numbers and decimal numbers; working with relative numbers; rounding; multiplication, division, exponents and their properties; solving expressions with different types of parenthesis; multi-step word problems; fractions and percentiles; units of measurement; simple economy problems (calculating incomes, earnings and expenses); and geometry, especially lines and angles as well as knowing the properties and

finding the area and perimeter of the most important shapes, such as squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, rhombuses, parallelograms, and trapezoids. e success of this experience led me to organize a similar event in my history and geography classes. Working again in teams, the Fourth and Fifth graders had to answer many questions about the history covered this year, including the Romans, the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Babylonians. e Fifth graders also presented to the rest of the class research projects in history and geography that they made for the exams they will take at the end of this year. e Fourth Graders also created presentations on the topics of their choice from among those covered during the year.

e “Math Olympiads” and the “History and Geography Olympiads” at Marymount lasted for a month and ended with prizes for the students, celebrations – just like they used to in Greece 2,000 years ago – and commendations from Ms. Girod-Fedha, Ms. Sweeney, and Ms. Castelluccio.

Additionally, the students’ projects, tests, and quizzes went on display in the lobby of the Elementary School. I am very, very proud of them. ey all were fantastic!

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he purpose of these “Olympic Games” was, first and foremost, to review everything the classes covered this year but it was also a way to encourage the students to become passionate about what they learned, have fun, promote collaboration (within the teams), and instill good competition (between the different teams). e latter proved to be a bit tricky at times, especially with the Fourth graders, whose competitiveness – owing to their

Does it Matter?

PHOTOS (THIS PAGE): C. ZOFFOLI

e crucial part of these presentations was the students’ ability to extrapolate key concepts from history and geography textbooks and phrase them in a clear and concise way on posters that the students received. Two Fourth graders, for example, presented interdisciplinary work they had done about volcanoes, which involved making the volcano and decorating it (art), studying how volcanoes work and where they are in Italy (geography), and making the two different types of eruptions: the explosive one with cola and Menthos and the effusive one with vinegar, baking soda, and red food coloring (science). e other students chose topics relating history, such as “e Hebrews and eir Religion,” “e Phoenicians,” and “e Importance of Primary Sources in History.”

Why young age – at times resembled rivalry. erefore, it was very important to talk to all of the students about how to compete in a good way. We spoke thoroughly about focusing on giving one’s best, being considerate when trying to achieve as much as possible, and balancing one’s attitude towards competition with controlled ambition. e students realized that having a good competitive attitude leads to feeling energized and confident about taking on challenges, whereas yielding to rivalry leads to uncontrolled emotions, stress, and negativity in general. is aspect of our Olympic Games turned out to be as important as the academic part and can be beneficial to the students in other contexts, such as when they play sports.

Lastly, the Math Olympiads and the History and Geography Olympiads engaged the students and made them very happy. ey all had a chance to show their talent and take pride in what they learned. It was also a way to review the whole curriculum in math, history, and geography and to consolidate and deepen the students’ knowledge in these areas.

During the celebrations that followed the Olympiads, the students talked about the importance of studying history and geography. The students, with a little guidance, came up with these two main reasons: 1. History is important because it makes us understand where we come from and who we are. The students compared a civilization that is not aware of its history and heritage to a person who just woke up, does not remember anything, and feels lost, puzzled and disoriented. They said that not knowing one’s cultural heritage is the same thing as forgetting everything that matters, one’s legacy of artworks, traditions, etc. History makes us aware that there is a “before,” a “now” and there will be an “after.” It is the same thing with geography: without studying it, we would not know where we are.

2. Studying these subjects is even more important from another point of view: by analyzing the cultures and civilizations of the past, one learns to study, understand and interpret the different realities of the past. Once you have learned this, you can apply these transferable skills to understand our reality, the present we live in. If we were not able to comprehend the past, we would not be able to understand what is around us now. This would render us less aware, in general, and it would be easy for other people to impose their vision of the world on us. To recap, as Cicero wrote in his “De Oratore,” history teaches us how to live (“historia magistra vitae”).

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Sports Festival 2015 rshm network of schools

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ongratulations to the Marymount boys team for taking first place at the RSHM Network of Schools Sports Festival held in Paris at the end of March. e RSHM Sports Festival is an annual event that started in Lisbon in 2004 and brings together middle school students from throughout the RSHM network for three days of friendly sports competition.

Each year, students from RSHM schools in Porto, London, Paris, Rome, New York, Bogotá, Medellin, Cuernavaca, Lisbon, and Fatima gather at one of the network schools to participate in a 3-sport tournament of volleyball, basketball and soccer.

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is year, 11 boys and 11 girls represented Marymount International School Rome at the festival. e teams enjoyed the support and encouragement of P.E. teachers Ms. Valentini and Ms. Burbar, Secondary School Principal Danielle Pinkerton, and Head of School Maria Castelluccio, all of whom accompanied the students to Paris.

e sports festival began on Wednesday, March 25 with an Opening Ceremony and Mass held on the campus of Marymount International School, Paris. e sports competition got underway the following morning as the students took part in

PHOTOS: D. PINKERTON

Clockwise from top left: Our students arrive at the RSHM Sports Festival held this year at Marymount International School, Paris. The players received medals at the end of the festival. Our teams from Rome included 11 girls and 11 boys as well as coaches Najat Burbar (standing, far left) and Karen Valentini (seated at right). Our boys team warms up before a soccer match at Stade Montclar, located a short walk from the school. Our girls participate in a volleyball match on the first day of competition. Our boys were named first place overall for the festival, a title they shared with Marymount Paris. Opposite page: The opening ceremony of the 2015 RSHM Network of Schools Sports Festival held at Marymount International School, Paris.

volleyball matches held at the school. As the matches came to a close toward evening, our boys took third place overall while our girls took fourth. e festival continued on Friday morning with the teams playing soccer at the nearby Stade Montclar. Once again, the matches stretched well into the afternoon, and in the end our boys placed second while the girls placed fifth. e last day of the festival, Saturday, was a very full day for all of the participants. ey spent much of the morning and afternoon competing on the basketball courts at Marymount and then joined together in a

closing ceremony during which the players received their medals. While each of the schools demonstrated their own strengths in particular sports, the team from Bogotá took the overall top spot for the girls at the end of the competition while Marymount International School Rome and Marymount Paris tied for the top boys teams overall.

Following the medals ceremony, the students enjoyed a pizza dinner at the school as well as a disco party that followed. e RSHM Sports Festival is one of several opportunities that allow students from within the network of Marymount schools

to collaborate and learn together. Similar opportunities include the annual RSHM Leadership Conference, RSHM Model United Nations, and RSHM Performing Arts Festival, which this year took place at Marymount International School Rome in April. Events such as these not only remind us the RSHM network’s vast reach across countries and continents but also demonstrate to the students that they are part of a large group of people who, though diverse in nationalities and cultures, have much in common through their shared values and beliefs and their commitment to the mission “that all my have life.” s p r i n g

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Vikings

Return of the

During the winter, Grade 8 students took a close look at Vikings in their Social Studies classes. While the Viking Age stretches back to the 8th century A.D., the students brought these seafaring Scandinavians vividly back to life here at Marymount through a series of performances that they created themselves and presented to their classmates in March. e works provided not only historical background on the Vikings but also reenactments of major events that came to define the distinct Viking groups. e students had a great time researching, developing, and performing their plays, which helped them engage more fully in the topic and enjoy learning about an ancient culture.

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ecently, Grade 8 students practiced hard to stage their Viking performances. We put great effort into making them as creative and original as possible. e two Eighth Grade Social Studies classes, under the supervision of Ms. Keating, were divided into three groups in each class according to the different types of Vikings: Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. We were asked to create 15minute plays about this ancient population.

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I was part of the Danish group and found this project really enjoyable. It was an ideal way to help us understand more about who the Vikings were and to help us review for our test. In our groups we each had roles that were crucial to the performances.

Ms. Keating kindly allowed us to perform outside, and this was very important to make us more motivated and inspire us with ideas, which we could then utilize in our short plays.

K. KEATING

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Above left: Grade 8 students get into the spirit of their Viking performances on the school’s front lawn. Top right: Dominic L. and Julia S. protraying the Norwegian father and son, Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky. Bottom right: During the Saga of the Swedes, Rurik the king has just died, and his son, Oleg, played

by Guillermo C., takes over. Opposite page: The Gokstag Viking ship on display in Oslo, Norway.

is was a great performance and experience, but sadly it is over. I would like to thank Ms. Keating for giving us the opportunity to create a project like this.

– Riccardo M. Grade 8

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he Swedes had a super performance and I liked how they included a lot of detail. ey acted it out really well, and they had a lot of props that were effective. e Danes did well at using the space they had to explain their story. Our group, the Norwegians, had lots of fun acting out our part, and we helped each other as a group. We wanted this performance to be entertaining so everybody could have fun and learn something at the same time.

– Dominic L. Grade 8

he Viking performance was an extremely refreshing change to the usual tests and homework. Working on a fun, new play was hard, but worth it.

We got to do lots of dramatic stuff like have heart attacks, gouge people’s eyes out, and become a wind god. Being able to do that again would be absolutely amazing.

– Dubem M. Grade 8

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e rehearsed our presentations for a long time to make it a concise play, making sure our information was accurate. We had to determine the most important information and then put it in the play. I learned a lot from the Viking plays.

– Marcelo R. Grade 8

enjoyed working with my group. Most of the time they were very helpful, and we helped each other stay organized. It was sometimes difficult to work because we got tired and had three guys playing 18 characters.

In all, these presentations were very helpful for me in understanding my heritage. After learning about them, I am very proud to have Viking forefathers since they influenced how the world is now. Everybody did a great job and I am very happy that we had the chance to perform like this.

– Arna M. Grade 8

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Art of Darkness High School students explore fundarmental aspects of life with original works of devised theater When you think of home, what comes to mind? How do we measure the passsage of time? Why are traditions important? Does darkness provoke fear or comfort? ese are just a few of the questions touched on by Secondary School drama students during a unit on devised theater. Incorporating workshops, improvisation and research, the students created works of devised theater based on themes of home, tradition, light/darkness, and time and performed their finished works in late February. What follows are the impressions described by a few of the participating students.

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found the whole process of creating a piece of devised theatre enlightening.

From it, I learned many things that cannot only help me in theatre but in my every day life, too. For example, there is the process of creating the play by adding layers upon layers to the original theme (rather than having planned it all out from the start). From it I have learned that, as in life, you sometimes cannot plan it, and you just have to keep stacking the building blocks to get to where you want instead. e rehearsal also gave me a different perspective. For example, presenting news

reports in different ways helped me understand that even if it is not very obvious, things can be simply linked. At first, I thought adding these performances was a bit off-topic and that it did not go well with the rest of the play. However, with a bit of thinking, practice, and perspective I quickly saw how it fit in well with the rest of the play. Not only did this teach me perspective but also gave me a whole new understanding of television shows.

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experience, I simply accepted the fact that each was different without having really looked at the specific differences. I am certain that devised theatre can offer society as much as it has offered me.

– Umberto G. Grade 10

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really enjoyed this entire process. My group did a great job of sharing thoughts, actions, and ideas throughout the rehearsal time that we had. Our group’s theme was on “darkness” and “time” and how they can have an effect on anything and everything.

During rehearsal, we chose to use a silent approach to acting, meaning that we were going to try to use the least amount of dialogue and sound throughout the performance. We thought that this would give a sense of silence and make you focus and think more about the motions and movement on the stage. For example, when I was alone on the stage setting up the chairs for the other actors, growing older as time went by, we had hoped that in keeping the action silent the audience would pay more attention to what was happening and to foresee the next scene.

We also wanted to use confusion throughout our performance. We wanted to irritate the audience almost in a way that they would feel frustrated by what we were doing on stage. For example, when Benedetta and Celine were on stage reading their pieces of paper back and forth at the same time, we wanted to give a sense of confusion to the audience. In doing so, I

believe that we achieved two of our main goals for the final performance.

I thought the final performance went well.

We were very nervous coming into it because the principal and head of school were both in the audience, but then we realized that it was just like any other performance and that we could come out strong. ings went pretty well, but they could have gone better.

For example, I believe we should have practiced our blocking more as a group than as individuals. I also felt that there was a little bit of confusion and too much movement on stage with props, and tableaux, and chairs.

I do think we did a good job of spacing the final performance out. We knew exactly what was coming next, and we took our time in performing each individual scene and not just rushing through them. is process has definitely taught me patience and how to become a better actor.

It showed me how many themes and ideas can come up among just one group of people, and that if you work together as a whole, then your group or ensemble can achieve great performances together. It showed me that learning lines and practicing blocking long before the performance can greatly affect your space for improvement. It also showed me that putting your hands in your pockets throughout an entire performance makes you look like a fool on stage (it was just nerves).

– Isaac D. Grade 9

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rom this experience I have learned many things. I’ve learned that devised theater takes time to think about and develop, but I have also learned that the final performance is worth it. I realized how darkness strikes the mind of many people and we have never-ending questions about what darkness is and why we are scared of it.

Devised theatre helped me to think again, to take more philosophical turns on everyday questions, to value the life we have, and to understand that it’s okay to take time and express yourself and the darkness that society created to surround you. It’s important to find the strength inside of us and to find things that make us happy.

Furthermore, I learned a lot more about myself and about my partners in the performance. I saw how each of us took an approach to darkness. I had a lot of fun as I found out more about who we are. is experience helped us explore a lot more about each person and the darkness that there is inside of us that we should, one day or another, take the time to explore and question.

– Celine W. Grade 9 3 2

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West Side Story

The Marymount Players present a moving production of an American classic

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oward the end of the second act of West Side Story, a grieving Maria weeps over the lifeless body of her lover, Tony, a victim of revenge that percolates between the rival gangs the Jets and the Sharks. Two others – each of the gangs’ leaders – have already died as a result of their ongoing feud. If the creators of West Side Story had followed the plot of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (upon which the musical is based) to its rightful

conclusion, Maria would also meet her death before the final curtain, but instead she survives and sees the gangs move toward reconciliation in a way that the unfortunate Juliet did not.

It is this glimmer of hope at the end of a tragic love story that audiences leave with, in addition to the familiar tunes that helped define West Side Story as one the great musicals of the American stage. e original s p r i n g

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PHOTOS: P. ZINZI

Clockwise from top left: Azzurra M. and Ramzi S. as the star-crossed lovers Maria and Tony. Faculty member Ann Haring makes a cameo appearance as a school administrator. Officer Krupke and Lt. Schrank, played by Lorenzo B. and Matteo R., arrive on the scene. Riff (Giulio S.) and his gang of Jets. Bernardo (Michele M.) and Anita (Alya J.) with their Puerto Rican compatriots during the dance at the gym.

production team, a veritable “who’s who” of the Broadway stage, including Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents, brought Romeo and Juliet into the 20th century, while a new team closer to home, led by Secondary School drama and music teachers, Gina Ferrarin and Rocco Sbardella, brought West Side Story to Marymount.

show is in the students’ hands (with some help from Mr. Sbardella at the conductor’s podium). In just a few months, the students pulled together what is generally accepted to be a difficult musical involving a range of musical styles, from mambo to opera, as well as fast-paced choreography, not to mention the mounting tension that weaves throughout the script.

At the end of the day, though, it was the students involved who carried the production, which ran from March 18-20.

As Ms. Ferrarin explained during her remarks from the stage at the start of each performance, when the curtain goes up the

e students rose to the challenge, led by Azzurra M. as Maria, Ramzi S. as Tony, Alya J. as Anita, Michele M. as Bernardo, and Giulio S. as Riff. A large ensemble of talented Secondary School students rounded out the cast. At each of the three

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performances, a member of the faculty also provided a dose of comic relief during the first act by playing an administrator at a school dance. Religious Studies Coordinator Ann Haring, Biology teacher Pasquale Zinzi, and Head of School Maria Castelluccio each brought her or his own ideas to the character and proved that talent at Marymount is not the exclusive province of the students.

A 17-piece orchestra, including students, staff, and a few professionals, provided the actors with impressive accompaniment while a hardworking technical crew kept the show humming from backstage. Bravi!

“La panchina è un luogo di sosta, un’utopia realizzata. E’ vacanza a portata di mano. Sulle panchine si contempla lo spettacolo del mondo, si guarda senza essere visti e ci si dà il tempo di perdere il tempo, come leggere un romanzo.”

Sitting with an Author

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“The bench is a resting place, a realized utopia. It is a vacation at hand. On benches we contemplate the spectacle of the world, you look without being seen, and it gives us the time to lose time, like reading a novel.”

– Beppe Sebaste from Panchine. Come uscire dal mondo senza uscirne

Writer Beppe Sebaste, center, visited our school in February and spoke with Italian Literature 9 and IB Italian Literature students as well as a number of parents.

n February, at the invitation of Secondary School Italian teacher Ms. Iorio, the Italian author, poet, and journalist for the newspapers L’Unità and La Repubblica, Beppe Sebaste, visited with Italian Literature 9 and IB Italian Literature HL students by discussing and answering questions on his highly regarded novel, Panchine. Come uscire dal mondo senza uscirne. (Benches. How to escape from the world without leaving it.) We were honored to meet Mr. Sebaste, a secluded and diligent writer who spends most of his time writing and rarely leaves his office, except when he walks through the parks of Rome.

Social events are not part of Sebaste’s routine, so when he did arrive at Marymount and saw the enquiring students, and “Il Progetto Panchine” (the bench project) that Ms. Iorio

and her students had organized in the Bosco di Calvino near the Little Free Library, Mr. Sebaste shed a few tears from the impact his novel had on the young scholars of literature.

In his novel, Mr. Sebaste talks about the role of benches in society, literature, history, science, and other areas. He describes benches as places where “we contemplate the spectacle of the world, you look without being seen, and it gives us the time to lose time.” For the author, sitting on a bench is escaping reality while still being present in it. The world stops for you while sitting on a bench and permits you to observe your surroundings while not being observed.

While visiting the Little Free Library, a place created two years ago where people can

borrow and donate books, Italian Literature students and Ms. Iorio noticed something missing. The missing element was both essential and yet hidden: benches. There was no “formal” place to sit and read the books.

Immediately, the “Progetto Panchine”, a plan to construct benches for the Little Free Library, began. Thanks to a benevolent benefactor who donated pellet to the Progetto Panchine, it was possible to create these benches to accommodate users of the Little Free Library.

We inaugurated the project the day that Mr. Sebaste arrived at Marymount, and the Italian Literature students would like to thank him for inspiring us and prompting this improvement to the Little Free Library project.

– Francesco M. Grade 11 s p r i n g

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Making Music in Madrid

Four Marymount students participate in the MAIS Honor Choir festival

by Roger Williams Secondary School Music

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In between rehearsals, which were led by top music specialists, we had time for sightseeing and shopping. Madrid is impressive – elegant and busy yet well organized with great shops and restaurants.

The students performed in two concerts held at the American School of Madrid in their purpose built arts center. It was an amazing experience for them to perform in such a venue. Following the final concert, a gala dinner for the students and staff took place during which musicians entertained us with a 3 6

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fusion of jazz and Spanish folk music. e night ended with a disco in which all of the students danced the night away to music provided by students DJs. MAIS donated the proceeds of the concerts to a charity that helps deaf children by providing cochlear implants.

All of us achieved so much and grew personally from this experience in such a short time. We all are looking forward to the next time!

Above: The MAIS Honor Choir performs at the American School of Madrid. Right: Marymount’s four participants (l-r): Giulianna S., Elisabeth K., Eri I., and Rebecca B., enjoy a visit to Madrid’s Royal Palace.

R. WILLIAMS

ach year, the Mediterranean Association of International Schools (MAIS) hosts an Honor Choir festival.

Rebecca B., Eri I., Elisabeth K., and Giuliana S. travelled with me to Madrid to take part in this year’s festival, which took place from March 18-22. From the moment we arrived we began to rehearse with students from Morroco, Italy, Spain, Tunisia, and Portugal. Initially we felt a little uneasy to be far from home, but after a short while of working together we began to feel comfortable and started becoming part of this wonderful musical group.

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his year we went to the MAIS choir in Madrid. Only four of us came, but it was still really fun. At first I thought we would just talk with the people from our own school, but we ended up making new friends from all over Europe! We had two concerts that both went very well, and we had a great time the rest of the week too. I really hope I can go next year, with hopefully more than just four people!

– Elisabeth K., Gr. 6

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uring the day we rehearsed almost every three hours. It was exhausting but fun. Our choir teacher, Ms. Edenfield, was very nice to us. She taught us many important things about singing and to breathe when we were supposed to. As part of our program we went sightseeing with the whole group to Madrid's Royal Palace, King Felipe's home. After that, Mr. Williams, Eri, Elisabeth, Rebecca, and I went to the Opera House and went shopping and sightseeing on our own.

– Giuliana S., Gr. 6

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had so much fun in Madrid. I met new people and made new friends every day.

We also had two concerts at the American School of Madrid. My favorite song was "Rather Be" and I danced a bit on stage. I also loved going out shopping! I hope I can go there next year too.

– Eri I., Gr. 6

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y experience in Madrid was very enjoyable. I liked it because we sang a lot. I also liked visiting the museums and walking in the city. I loved the MAIS people. ey were all very nice and welcoming. I hope to go to the MAIS next year too!

– Rebecca B., Gr. 6

e Red Applause a short story

by Alya J. Grade 11 Student

People have thoughts in their head but I just have noise. When you think of green, I think of the sound a plant makes. When you think of blue I think of the lullabies the clouds hum to the birds that dance in the sky. No words, just noise. I think it started when I was a child. Mom would scream at dad, and it just sounded like an unpleasant noise, slightly yellow with hints of orange, like the cries of betrayal the sun makes to the earth every time it’s replaced by the moon. No words, just noise. Then dad would come in and the noise would turn into a flashy blue and a macabre green, nothing close to the moon’s melodies to the ocean waves and nowhere near the air’s hymns to the grassy fields.

Then the drums would come, a revolting purple and mom's cue that her song came to an end. Mom, as practiced, would drop to the floor and sing prayers to the river gods that answered back by giving her a pair of eyes that were forever in a drought: no tears, just noise. I never understood as a child whether I should have thanked the river gods for all the music they gave me or cursed them for making my mom hate a song she was born to perform. Sadly for mom, she always had the same songs stuck in her head even if she pretended like they never happened; it would radiate all over her body, purple was always everywhere. With every purple blotch came a new version of the same old song, still with no words, just yellow, blue and purple noise.

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O. FOLEY

When Words Become Art Grade 7 students take a close look at poetry and create their own works

by Lorenzo G. Grade 7 Students

& Vittorio B.

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e Seventh graders recently worked on an interesting and fascinating unit on poetry. Even if we were rather dubious initially, it turned out to be a stimulating, constructive, thought-provoking, and fun.

We commenced our exploration of poetry by studying some illustrious poets and poems as well as some lesser-known poets.

We learned about many poetic devices such as: alliteration, personification, connotation, anaphora, hyperbole, metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, mood, tone, and assonance. We also rose to the challenge of discovering more intricate poetic devices, such as iambic pentameter and iambic tetrameter. î “anks to this precise analysis we acquired further knowledge in the boundaries of poetry, and we were then able to better evaluate a poem.

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We also realized that poetry captures contradiction and this led to lots of class discussion and dierent interpretations of various poems.

Consequently, when our teacher, Ms. Foley, considered the time to be right, we spent time creating a variety of poems using all of the poetic devices we had studied and combined them all in beautiful poetry. We wrote some wonderful poems: an animal poem, a concrete poem, a metaphor poem, a haiku, a diamante, free verse, and, finally, a sonnet! Arranging our own poems was truly challenging; however we accomplished our goals successfully. At last we could consider ourselves poets!

Finally, after reading many forms of poetry, investigating poets, and completing various assignments we were ready for our Class

POETRY Grade 7

Poetry Café. We were required to create an exciting iMovie about our preferred poem incorporating music and images to enhance our audiences’ knowledge and appreciation of the poem we chose to present. We needed to recite the poem distinctly and with musical quality. Reciting a poem is not simple in any way. In fact, you can hear even the subtlest mistake. e diction has to be perfect. We were expected to recite with fitting music in the background and even the timing of the images mattered! If the recitation is not impeccable the audience might not comprehend. To conclude our presentation, we had to speak about the poetic devices and reasons for choosing the poem.

Time flew by as quickly as an impetuous wind, and the day of our presentations arrived. e Seventh Grade prepared a “buffet” with food and drinks for everyone to appreciate and enjoy in a relaxing atmosphere. Struck by a wave of enthusiasm we moved heedlessly towards the classroom and some chips plummeted to the ground.

Luckily, nothing major!

Dreams

by Analisse K. e night is coming, quick, go straight to sleep You would not want the monsters coming in Go to your dreams and sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep When you wake up the sun will be shining So please little one do not be afraid Let your dreams fill your mind with happiness So dream of summer, beach, and lemonade Dream of future days and real blissfulness If nightmares should disturb you, stay happy, Stay calm do not cry it’s only a dream Explore, but remember to stay happy When you wake up you can explain your dreams Go to sleep don’t let them give you a fright Go to sleep and don’t let the bed bugs bite

Wolves

by Andy W. He watches his prey with hungry eyes, He is waiting for his pack of five Knowing it’s only a matter of time, at the musk ox’s death shall arrive. e woods beneath him seem very dull, Especially the lonely wood’s soul, Like the eagle and pigeons and crazy gulls, Have been imaging the woods as infinite poles.

Middle School Hallway Visitors started thronging our classroom, eager at least as much as we were to enjoy our presentations. ough tension was palpable in the room, it did not ruin the café. In fact, the guests gave an encouraging round of applause that abated only when the poets began to speak. When the poetry presentations ended we were actually a little disappointed since everything had been so delightful, but so temporary. We have all relished this unit entirely, and we genuinely look forward to another topic of such significance!

by Costanza D. e crowds are a swarm of bees gathered up in groups, the lockers are the hail rapidly slamming against the street. e chatting is loud engines roaring from a thousand antique cars, the feeling I get is time itself pushing me through the deafening hallway.

If you would like to enjoy some of the students’ favorite poems and learn more about them as poets, please visit their poetry website: http://grade7poetry.weebly.com s p r i n g

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e Talent Trap Hard work and talent can lead to success – but not in equal measure

by Julia S. Grade 8 Student

is year, Grade 8 students are learning to write in a variety of different genres in their English classes. ese range from formal essays to more creative pieces. In this example of persuasive argument, a student contends that innate talent is critical to success no matter how much effort we devote to our endeavors.

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ave you ever heard the story of the tortoise and the hare? In this fable, a hare, claiming to be the fastest thing of all, challenges a tortoise to a race. e hare easily reaches the finishing line but stops just before crossing to take a nap so as to mock the tortoise. e latter, never stopping, slowly and steadily traverses the course until he reaches the finish line and successfully beats the hare. is is a way to teach children that never giving up and always working hard pays off and that being talented at something doesn’t mean you will always win.

I have always been intrigued by whether talent is more important than hard work. I have often wondered if I could ever excel at something I love yet have no calling for.

Believe me, I have a big list of subjects. Can wanting something badly truly surpass ability? Can a talentless person overcome anything with the power of determination? e fable of the tortoise and the hare as well as various people say yes. I, however, say no.

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Unfortunately, the world isn’t that simple.

Even if you work hard at something, it doesn’t mean you will succeed at doing it.

You could be naturally unable to do that. A tortoise will never run fast no matter how hard it tries, while a hare can run at a very young age with ease. Unfair? Maybe.

However, the tortoise is great at keeping predators at bay with its big shell, unlike the hare. If you are not adept at something, no matter how hard you try, then chances are your talent lies elsewhere.

But what if the tortoise tries very hard to run fast, and actually becomes the fastest tortoise of all? Well, even if it’s the fastest tortoise, the hare can still easily outrun him without even trying. A talented person does not need to try hard to excel in something, because it is naturally easy for him. Also, if you try very hard to make something good and succeed at making something decent, a person with talent can do it better with half the effort and time. So talented people can get more done without getting as tired as a

talentless person and still achieve the same or better quality.

Scientifically, a recent study discovered that profoundly gifted people outshine those who have less natural talent but are more dedicated to improving their abilities.

Scientists such as David Z. Hambrick and Elizabeth J. Meinz in their own research promote the idea that the ultimate predictor of success is talent. In other words, talent is not just luck or made up. It’s real and very important.

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ut how do you get talent? Working hard? Many people believe that if you practice enough, you will become talented at something even if you struggled hard to learn it. While it is true that hard work will certainly improve one’s abilities, you do not “gain” talent. You don’t become a talented person; you were born with that potential. When you “acquire” a talent, you don’t gain it. You simply discover the talent hidden within you. It is up to you to hone it

or not, but you will be talented nonetheless.

A talentless person, however, can hone an ability out of sheer dedication, but can never be as good as someone who has talent and has honed it, even to a lesser extent. In other words, you can be good at something but not necessarily be talented at it because talent is something you were born with.

Of course, it is best when a person is both talented and works hard at something because then the finished product of his or her labors is a truly amazing thing. erefore, we should not neglect hard work and simply go about life lazily doing something we are naturally good at. Hard work is still very important. Let’s say that talent gives you a big head start, but hard work makes you finish the race. Like the tortoise and the hare fable, a hard-working person can surpass a lazy talented person if the latter refuses to put any effort into something. Most people have a talent, but whether they like this ability or subject and decide to pursue it depends on the person.

And a person who is not very talented at something can become very good at it if he works hard enough, even though his ability is inferior to someone’s who is talented and works hard or even doesn’t try as hard.

In conclusion, raw talent outshines raw determination, but to truly achieve success we must be both talented and work hard. If not, we will be talented people who waste their abilities by doing nothing, or we will be hard-working people whose efforts are in vain due to a lack of talent. For all the tortoises and hares, I wish you good luck in your pursuit of happiness.

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Model UN

Marymount’s delegation represents Lebanon at The Hague International Model United Nations

by Yasmin B. Grade 11 Student

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n January 25, twelve Marymount students along with two faculty chaperones embarked on a mission to improve the world. Going with ambitions of decolonizing Western Sahara and stopping terrorism in the area, helping displaced persons in post-conflict zones, financing HIV/AIDS treatments, ensuring human rights for all people across the globe, and making a sincere effort to combat the issue of global warming, these students from Marymount attended e Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) conference.

THIMUN is Europe’s largest MUN conference and hosts more than 3,500 students from more than 200 different schools around the world. e participation of schools from the US, Australia, India, Italy, and Ecuador provides only a small insight into the true diversity students face when attending THIMUN. Imagine walking into a room filled with 200 people – 200 people you’ve never met from different countries, different schools, and each representing yet another country. at’s what THIMUN is like on the first day.

Needless to say, in such a commotion you feel like a ship lost at sea.

However, all the initial disorientation and discomfort recedes once you begin to interact

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with the other students, form alliances, and debate the issues at hand. In that moment, THIMUN truly becomes an amazing experience. e formal nature of the debate (structured like it is in the real United Nations) combined with the formal attire ensured a professional and official atmosphere. However, the fact that students organize and carry out the conference brought a livelihood to the event that prevents it from comparing to any other occasion.

Moreover, THIMUN was an opportunity; an opportunity to learn something new about the world (an occurrence that is not uncommon at THIMUN); an opportunity to learn something new about yourself; an opportunity to develop as an individual while still having the time of your life; an opportunity to broaden your perspective of the world and become open to diversity.

Personally, as ambassador of this year’s THIMUN Lebanese delegation, I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity that I was given. I also couldn’t be more proud of our delegation and thankful for the effort of our chaperones, Dr. Wilberding and Ms. Bortone, who helped to make the trip the success that it was. As a Marymount student and an MUN delegate I strongly encourage participation in MUN as it is the experience of a lifetime.

A member of the Marymount delegation representing Lebanon participates in a vote during The Hague International Model United Nations that took place in January. s p r i n g

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e IB Core

& Marymount

Teaching and learning at Marymount reflect the core of the IB program

by Lucy Alexander IB Coordinator

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ne of the unique features of an IB education is its “core.” is refers to three components that students must successfully complete, in addition to their six academic subjects, in order to obtain an IB Diploma. e core is both compulsory and central to the philosophy of the Diploma Program (DP). It is made up of an extended essay, a course in eory of Knowledge, and a program of extracurricular activities known as “CAS.”

EXTENDED ESSAY e IBO defines the extended essay as an independent, self-directed piece of research concluding with a 4,000-word paper.

Students generally write this paper in one of the subjects they are studying although they also have the option to write an interdisciplinary world studies extended essay. e latter “allows students to focus on a topic of global significance, which they examine through the lens of at least two DP subjects.”

e balance and challenge the core offers to the IB DP falls in line with the ethos of a Marymount International School education. e following is a brief description of the IB Core that illustrates the links each component has to the teaching and learning skills emphasized at Marymount and to our IB Learner Profile attributes.

e extended essay provides students with the opportunity to develop their thinking, time management, and researching skills and helps them become knowledgeable, balanced, thinkers. Work on this core component is expected to occupy approximately 40 hours and is done under

the direct supervision of a teacher at the school.

Much is in place at Marymount to help students achieve their potential on this paper. In their Junior year, the students learn about the Extended Essay at a onehour assembly in January. Over the course of the subsequent 10 months students meet regularly with their advisor and submit at least three written reflections in which they analyze and evaluate their research and writing processes. e students must follow rigorously monitored due dates for each major stage of the essay writing process (from selecting a research question to revising and submitting the final draft).

To help them keep on top of their work students each receive an Extended Essay

Booklet, recently created by the IB Coordinator, to help guide them through each stage of the process. In April, they conduct “work in progress” presentations, and in June they take part in a mandatory two-day Extended Essay workshop. e students’ advisors also send three interim progress reports to parents. e hard work consistently pays off. Again last year Marymount IB DP students achieved grades well above world averages on this paper.

Statistics are provided in the tables that appear on the follow pages.

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE For eory of Knowledge (TOK), a course on critical thinking, students inquire into the nature of knowing and deepen their understanding of knowledge as a human construction. Students are challenged to

make connections between and within each of their academic disciplines. ey make links to various ‘ways of knowing,’ which include, among others, perception, logic, emotion, and language. Students develop thinking, social, and communication skills and are encouraged to become openminded, balanced, and reflective inquirers. e overall aim of TOK is to encourage students to formulate answers to the question “How do you know?” in a variety of contexts, and to see the value of that question. A 1,600-word essay written by the students serves as the basis for an external evaluation of their performance. Students choose one of six prescribed questions such as: “ere is no such thing as a neutral question. Evaluate this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.” s p r i n g

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As with the new Approaches to Learning, the IB Core provides yet another reason why

Marymount continues to celebrate its 30-year status as an IB World School.

Internally, the course is assessed by a presentation in which students identify and explore knowledge issues raised by a relevant real-life situation.

At Marymount, the TOK presentations are held in March before an audience of teachers and students. As with past years, the class of 2015 presented a thoughtprovoking array of situations and issues ranging from the ethics of civil disobedience to the role of imagination in understanding what is art.

As with other components of the IB Diploma, reflection is becoming an increasingly important element of the Core.

For the TOK essay students compile a written reflection document, which records three of their interactions with their teachers. For the presentation students prepare a “presentation-planning document” which they submit for moderation by external examiners. e Extended Essay and TOK are both marked on a scale from A to E (A: Excellent to E: Elementary), and a matrix is used to 4 6

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determine how many Core Points (3-0) are awarded. e charts on the next page, illustrating Marymount’s 2014 results, reveal that last year our students once again outperformed world results in the IB Core.

CAS Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) fosters students’ social and communication skills and helps them become communicators, principled, caring, and courageous. Research conducted by the IBO suggests that creativity encourages students to engage in the arts and creative thinking; action helps to develop a healthy lifestyle through physical activity; and service offers a vehicle for helping others and for new learning with more than academic value. Overall, evidence reveals that the three strands of CAS “enhance students’ personal and interpersonal development through experiential learning and enable journeys of self-discovery.”

To complete CAS successfully, students must demonstrate, through written reflection and interviews with their CAS advisors, that their activities have been

instrumental in achieving the eight learning outcomes of the program. Marymount’s College Counselor, Mr. Terrence McAndrews, coordinates the program and acts as advisor to all the IB diploma candidates. He meets several times with every IB Diploma candidate to discuss his or her CAS plan and to provide guidance in the written and oral reflection process. He also brings attention to the many opportunities that exist, both on and off campus, for students to meet the minimum 150 hours of CAS required over the course of the two-year IB Diploma program.

In fact, CAS possibilities are vast. At Marymount students have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of sports (i.e. volleyball, basketball, soccer, tennis, crosscountry, track & field); creative activities (i.e. drama, band, photography, newspaper, yearbook, computer art, MUN); and community service work coordinated by both students themselves (via NHS and Student Council) and teachers (Caritas soup kitchen and many other local service projects). Furthermore, this coming summer several Marymount students will be

Total Bonus Points

of successful MMI diploma candidates

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MMI Bonus Points

% of MMI Total

World Average

16

42%

47%

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MMI: % of successful DP candidates by letter grade World: % by letter grade

TOK Results

Grade Distribution

MMI: % of successful DP candidates by letter grade World: % by letter grade

26%

3

12%

A

B

23%

C

24%

42%

30%

A

B

13%

11% 9%

24%

45% 32%

travelling to Zambia to work with RSHM schools there. Students are also encouraged to coordinate their own CAS activities. Over the years this has included fascinating endeavors such as competitive fencing, volunteering in orphanages and hospitals in the students’ home countries, building houses in Peru, and participating in summer programs in one or more of the main CAS areas.

As with the new Approaches to Learning (discussed in the Winter 2015 edition of

N E W S

18%

8%

Extended Essay Results Grade Distribution

24%

Faculty

D

E

38%

4%

22%

0%

C

D

E

34% 43%

10% 14%

3%

0% 2%

Marymount magazine) the IB Core provides yet another reason why Marymount continues to celebrate its 30-year status as an IB World School. More information on the IB Diploma Program Core at Marymount is available on the Marymount’s website and on Edline.

NOTE: Information for this article drew from information provided by our CAS coordinator and TOK teachers. Factual information and direct quotations regarding IB policy were taken from the IB website (www.ibo.org).

At the invitation of the Dante Society of Pittsburgh, in collaboration with the University of Pittsburg, Secondary School English and Italian Teacher Marianna D’Ezio traveled to the U.S. over the February break to give a onehour lecture entitled “Italian Women Writers and Garibaldi” at the University of Pittsburgh. While she was there, Dr. D’Ezio was also invited as a visiting guest at Robert Morris University where she participated in an interview for the university’s television channel and on the radio program “Lit Out Loud.”

Additionally, an essay by Dr. D’Ezio appears in a new volume called Cultural Intermediaries, which was published by Honoré Champion of Paris and examines intercultural transactions of the Enlightenment. The book features 13 essays that offer a wide-ranging reflection on questions of agency and materiality as they intersect with specific histories of the transmission of ideas.

Congratulations to Secondary School Italian teacher Giovanna Iorio whose collection of haiku entitled Lucciole & Laterne was published in February by Progetto Cultura (collana Lettere 32).

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IB ART

Congratulations to this year’s IB Visual Arts exam candidates whose work was on display for the Marymount community to appreciate and enjoy at the annual IB Art Vernissage. The exhibition took place on March 27 and highlighted the creativity of 11 talented seniors. The works of art on view ranged from drawing and painting to photography and sculpture and included figurative as well as abstract forms. During the exhibition, the students were available to explain their ideas and answer questions, all under the supervision of Secondary School Art Teacher Dennis Cigler. Well done!

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The 2015 IB Visual Arts Exam Candidates Cristiana A. Caterina A. Carlo Alberto C. Caué C. Olimpia C. Balqis G. Anna G. Ludovica M. Chiara V. Assia V. Alessandra Y.

VERNISSAGE 2015

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“We've been helping the RSHM schools in Zambia for years now, and these schools are an important part of our community. e students in these schools have become a part of us, and we all need to reach out and help.”

– Arwa G. President Zambia Student Committee

Students Support Zambia

by The

Student Zambia Committee

A group of students leads the Secondary School in fundraising for the RSHM missions in Zambia

T

his year, a group of committed High School students has been supporting our Marymount mission by responding to the needs of the RSHM schools in Zambia. is year’s High School student Zambia committee continued some great fundraising traditions and launched a few new initiatives. e students began by selling snacks during the breaks in December’s exams. In February, the committee continued the tradition of selling candygrams and made it bigger than ever, raising more than €1,300. To complement the popular Zambia polo shirts, the committee created t-shirts and hoodies and sold more than 250 of them.

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While brainstorming about ways to make money, the students started thinking about challenging students in the Secondary School to make sacrificial donations. Instead of getting something, like cupcakes or candy, the students could give without getting something in return. Lent was the perfect time to begin a school-wide initiative of making sacrifices for Zambia. e student committee launched their initiative with a Founders Day presentation for both Middle and High School students.

Joined by Sr. Philippa O’Sullivan, RSHM, and Head of School Maria Castelluccio, the committee challenged their classmates to follow in the footsteps of the RSHM

founders and respond to the needs of our world by giving to Zambia. Arwa Gaddur, the committee President, asked all of the students to make their sacrificial donations during a collection at the secondary school Lenten Mass.

During the Middle and High School masses the following day, students and staff generously donated more than €1,200. In the days that followed, they donated several hundred euros more. e student Zambia committee wishes to thank everyone who contributed!

In the next few months, the Zambia committee will keep busy organizing a June student trip to Zambia and fundraising to help defray the costs. ey will also team up with our hard-working PTO to organize a barbeque for Middle and High School students. e committee hopes that everyone in the Marymount community will lend a hand to help Zambia!

Help St. Mulumba’s School Buy a New Truck!

One of the schools run by the RSHM in Zambia, St. Mulumba’s School for the deaf, blind, and disabled, is in desperate need of a new truck or van to transport students. The truck that the school currently uses is an open-air model into which the students are crammed, presenting a safety hazard, especially in light of the students’ disabilities.

Students throughout our school have been working hard to raise the €15,000 needed to buy a new truck, but we are still short of our goal. If you would like to make a donation to this initiative, please contact Marymount’s Religious Education Coordinator, Ann Haring, at aharing@marymountrome.it. Thank you.

Summer Camp Marymount International School Rome

r ’s yea out. t s La sold p ER cam EGIST !

Y R DA TO

June 22 - July 10, 2015

Featuring once again...

• English Language Classes run by qualified, TEFL/CELTA teachers from the British School Group • Swimming Lessons in our on-site pool • Basketball Lessons led by a coach from Stella Azzurra • Soccer Lessons on our full-sized field • plus… Art and Drama Lessons!

www.marymountrome.org/summercamp

www.facebook.com/MarymountRomeSummerCamp

e PTO Gala The Parent-Teacher Organization hosts a festive night in support of the school

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t was a throwback to the 1970’s for guests attending the Marymount Parent-Teacher Organization’s annual gala dinner held this year on February 28. e disco-themed event, called Studio 54 Night Fever, attracted more than 150 participants, many of whom dressed in retro fashions of a characteristic era while a large number also maintained that bigger hair was decidedly better.

In a departure from recent years, the event took place off-campus at the Circolo Antico Tiro a Volo, a private club that provided an elegant setting to the festive evening. Given the unique layout of the club, the gala unfolded in four parts as those attending progressed from room to room to enjoy the various parts of the event.

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As the guests arrived, they enjoyed cocktails on the club’s main level. It was a time to mingle and admire outfits while enjoying musical entertainment by several talented students who performed songs from the upcoming Marymount Players production of West Side Story as well as a few light opera selections. Guests also had a chance during the cocktail portion of the evening to peruse the many auction and raffle prizes donated to the gala by generous families and friends of the school.

Following cocktails, the party moved to the club’s upper level where an enormous buffet awaited the dinner guests with a tempting assortment of antipasti and primi, only to be replenished with an array of secondi, and yet again with a large selection of exquisite

dolci. e dinner had the feel of a large family gathering, as the conversation grew lively, guests circulated between tables, and everyone enjoyed a delicious meal.

Dinner over, the scene of the action moved back downstairs where the master of ceremonies for the evening, well known television presenter and music producer Rudy Zerbi, conducted the evening’s auction and raffle. e sheer number and assortment of prizes, which included weekend escapes, signed soccer jerseys, opera tickets, handbags, jewelry, and many tempting food baskets, among numerous other prizes, attested to the true and meaningful sense of generosity that Marymount families demonstrate toward the school.

e fourth and final portion of the PTO Gala brought everyone to the dance floor in true disco fashion. Here Rudy Zerbi was once again in his element as he kept the music playing and the guests got their groove on. e dancing continued long past midnight, a sign that everyone was having a great time.

Striking a fine balance between elegance and plain fun, the PTO gala also served a more serious purpose, that of supporting school programs and projects. e gala is one of many events that the tireless members of the PTO host each year to raise funds in support of the school. Offering something for everyone, these events range from the colorful Halloween Party in October, to the elegant winter gala, to the ever-popular

International Food Day in May. roughout the year, PTO events strengthen our community while making Marymount an even better school for our children.

Proceeds from this year’s PTO gala will support the construction of a FabLab, a new facility at Marymount where innovation and creativity meet. e first of its kind at an international school in Rome, Marymoun’t FabLab will offer students a place to bring their ideas to life using the latest technology, such as 3D printers and laser cutters, as well as more conventional, creative materials, all in a newly transformed space on campus.

TV personality Rudy Zerbi (right), who served as emcee for the gala, also lent his talent as DJ, much to the delight of those on the dance floor.

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Grazie!

S P E C I A L

T H A N K S

Marymount International School and its Parent-Teacher Organization extend deep appreciation to the following for their generous participation in the gala: Acampora Family Anna & Alex Averni Family Baccini Family Baiani Family Balini Family Bisset Margaret Boccianti Moores Family Briziarelli Family Carraturo Family Casaccia Family Celani Ernesto Conte Family Corradi Family Giordana Danesi Family Daruma, de Nunno Family Didi World Dimensione Ufficio Edoardo Caltagirone Family Elvezia Falini Family Farmacia Vigna Clara Forcina Family Formilli Fendi Family Furnari Family Gaddur Family Gatti Family Giada C Grass Family Gubiev Family Hernanes Family Indrieri Family IT Sport srl LGA Lopez Luciani Family Martinez Family Mazzi Family Meriggi Family Mia Milillo Monaco Sorge Family Mongiello Family Montefusco Family Musilli Family Orsini Family Ortali Family Paglietti Family

Palese Family Marta Paolillo Patano Family Pedevilla Petochi Family Peverini Family Piorico & Matarazzo di Licosa Family Property of Romafeste Royal Service Bus srl Ruggiero Family Salerno Family Sasaki Family Savelli Family Silva & Matos Families Spadaro Family Stella Azzurra Dr. Carlo Capuano Temporini Zerbi Family Traldi Family Trapani Family Vaccarella Family Vagnarelli Family for I Cartai Vanoli Family Venturini Fendi Family Violante Family Waugh Family Yu Family

The PTO extends special thanks to:

Maria Castelluccio Pam Edmonds Gina Ferrarin Michele Massaro Sergio Mazzi Erika Nickel Gia Sales Rocco Sbardella

and the president, members, restaurant manager, and staff of Circolo Antico Tiro a Volo. s p r i n g

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MARYMOUNT

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ROME Marymount International School Rome is a private, Catholic, co-educational day school where each student is valued and nurtured. We offer a challenging Pre-K through 12 American curriculum, the IB diploma program, a variety of extracurricular activities, and a vibrant community life that enriches our beautiful 40-acre campus in northern Rome.

Via di Villa Lauchli, 180 00191 Rome, Italy (+39) 06 362 9101 (+39) 06 36 30 17 (Fax) marymount@marymountrome.org

www.marymountrome.org