SFS Today - October 2012

October 2012 Volume 4 Issue 1

SFS TODAY

Seoul Foreign School, centered in Christ, inspires educational excellence & promotes Christian values, personal integrity & responsible global citizenship through a dynamic international experience.

SFS ES, BS & MS Participants of the Summer Scholastic Challenge

SFS students read the most total minutes of all the international schools that participated.

This past summer Seoul Foreign School participated for the first time in a summer reading program called the Scholastic Summer Challenge. Students read books and logged their minutes online at the Scholastic website or through the free Scholastic Reading Timer App. SFS certainly met the challenge as students in the Elementary School, British School and Middle School, along with students around the world, helped set a new world record for summer reading with 95,859,491 minutes read!

Even more wonderful news is that out of the 32 international schools that participated, SFS earned the top spot with a total of 610,487 minutes. Perhaps most impressive is that overall, we ranked 27th out of 4,446 schools worldwide!

In recognition of being the international school with the most minutes read, the Vice President of Scholastic Asia, Ms. Linda Warfel, flew from Hong Kong to visit SFS and congratulate our students. She presented them with a trophy in recognition of their superb efforts which will be proudly displayed in our libraries.

Congratulations to all of our participants!

We are proud of you and amazed at this first year’s record.

“I really enjoyed the program because it showed me fantastic books and encouraged me to read more.”

Cara Chang, 5W

“The best part is at the end when the world record is reached, you get to say to yourself, look at what I helped out with. I made a world record!”

Emily Leipold, 5W

www.seoulforeign.org

students commented that the experience was valuable, as it equipped them with the initial momentum to get the writing process underway. They also enjoyed Mr. Kent’s fresh-baked goodies for morning tea! Special thanks to Ms. Wiebusch for organizing the morning, Mrs. Sanderson for her presentation on in-text referencing and all the teachers who gave up time on a Saturday to help out.

“I found the tips given to be very useful. However, what I liked most was how everyone was dedicated to writing the EE. The environment really helped me to focus on writing and anyone not On Saturday September 15th, the SFS High Seniors dedicated three hours to the writing attending an EE workshop is School held its inaugural Extended Essay process. Students were given the opportunity missing out” writing workshop for Senior students. After to work one-on-one with high school faculty months of research and preparation 37

who also attended the workshop. Many of the

Siri Kim McFarland, HS Senior

region is the fastest growing region for the IB, and consists of 550 IB World Schools, developing fourteen thousand educators per year.

From Left: Blair LEE, Assistant HOS-Academics, Stuart KENT, HS IB Coordinator/Social Studies, John ENGSTROM, HOS, Ian CHAMBERS, Dir. Of IB Asia Pacific & Kevin BAKER, HS Principal On September 26th 2012, Ian Chamber, Director of IB Asia Pacific visited SFS. Over the past 11 years, Ian has forged a successful career in education leadership

and teaching. As Director, Ian oversees the work of professional development, authorization and evaluation of schools, and the IB Educator Network (IBEN). The Asia Pacific

“Seoul Foreign School represents the pioneer school for the IB Diploma in Korea. SFS delivers an excellent programme and is truly enthused and representative of the IB Mission. It was a pleasure to visit, meet the excellent leadership team and see learning in action. Keep up the great work!”

Ian Chambers

Beyond academics, I believe the community and school culture at SFS were a step in the natural progression into a college community. The single most important way in which SFS prepared me for college was fostering a desire for how to effectively manage my time and academic excellence. SFS was an schedule in order to complete the extended environment where striving for the best essay or portfolios from different classes. My was always encouraged, and that has been successful completion of these long-term invaluable to me during my time in assignments was also the root of my academic college so far.” confidence as I received demanding assignments in college. I learned how to Kevin Horvath, Class of 2010 complete assignments, study for exams, and George Washington University, prepare for presentations with efficiency, i.e., Full Scholarship Student understanding what was being asked of me and what I needed to do to maximize my marks. The IB program made me constantly ask these questions and truly helped me in college, where much of the battle is figuring out what is or will be asked of the student.”

one of the most valuable aspects of my own SFS education because it helped me develop several skills, both academic and non-academic, that helped me through my college experience. I learned

“While attending SFS I completed the IB Diploma. When I went to college, I was

able to transfer the IB credits from High School and use them as college credits. As a result of all of my IB courses, Stephanie Lim, Class of 2007 not only was I used to doing college level work in High School, but I also had enough credits for one whole semester and graduated from college in exactly three and a half years without taking summer/winter courses!”

University of Pennsylvania Graduate

Jennifer Cha, Class of 2002 New York University Graduate Current student at Cardozo Law School

“The IB program helped me to prepare for the workload that I had experienced my freshman year of college. Transitioning into college from

“I was better prepared to face the demands of college, particularly with regards to the reading of texts, writing academic papers, and giving oral presentations. An important factor in this preparation was the IB

“For a student going to a university in the US, the IB program was not an academic necessity. It did however, end up being

diploma program, which seeks to create more well-rounded students and whose exam and curriculum criteria are more akin to that of particular college disciplines directly relevant to my studies.

High School and managing the workload was actually a lot easier for me than a lot of the other people I met. One thing that SFS intended to prepare me for, but I took lightly and now regret, was learning how to introduce myself as a TCK (Third Culture Kid). Identity crisis is something that every TCK goes through, especially in college, no matter how well prepared they feel like they are. Many realized that being a TCK is a very special culture that only a few have the opportunity to even experience, this gives me a lot of pride.”

Alisa Kim, Class of 2010 University of Southern California

One of the things about maths is that there are two camps – those who like it and those who don’t. Whichever camp you fall into, the chances are that the method used in the British School – learning maths through understanding numbers – is very different to the approach used by your teachers when you were in school. Problem-solving has been a major part of what we have done ever since the English National Curriculum first came into being way back in 1988 – and some of us were teaching when that happened!

Each year we run a number of different ‘classroom without walls’, project-based, learning sessions – cross-curricular and often cross–age. Key 21st Century Learning skills – collaborating, designing scenarios to test hypotheses, recording using technology, speaking and listening and IT literacy form the basis of the sessions. In October, all this came together for a fun-filled morning of learning in the Maths Zone – weaving maths with PE, with cooking (always yummy!), with IT, with looking for maths shapes in buildings and with constructing intricate shapes.

Recording with computers, mini-white boards and even with good old fashioned pencil and paper, the students went from the practical hands on to the cloud with a little help from the teachers, the assistants and some parents!

This was the type of morning epitomised by Lucas Remmerswaal, in his book ‘The A-Z of 13 Habits”:

“Think outside the square. Think for yourself, don't just follow the herd. Think multidisciplinary!

Problems, by definition, cross many academic disciplines.”

Maths! Don’t understand it!

It’s all changed since when I was at school. What do you mean they are now taught to understand what they are doing? What’s wrong with the ‘old ways’?

Teachers often hear something like this at Parent Teacher Conferences or read about it in notes in the students’ diaries when the first ‘long division’ homework is sent home?

To try to alleviate some of the parents’ angst in these areas, we have arranged sessions for them to discover for themselves what goes on in their child’s maths class. But these ‘Parent Teaching’ sessions in the past didn’t exactly have parents rushing to attend, so this time the British School tried a new ‘live’ approach.

- to the extent that in some classes, we had as many parents as students!

Parents saw hands-on, practical applications of maths in real life situations from the manipulative level of the youngest Reception class students, to the on-line work using laptops in Year 4, to the practical aspects of planning a dinner and actually making the food! Maths in action!

Problem-solving is a cornerstone of learning maths – applying The teachers across the whole of the what you know to (often) unknown British School opened their doors during situations – and there are loads of websites one morning and invited in parents to see out there to help resource this approach. how we promote the enquiring mind One of the ones most recommended can be through maths problem-solving. In found at: http://nrich.maths.org/public/ parallel, workshops were run explaining the definitely worth a follow-up visit! reasoning behind our approach. The response was better than we had anticipated

During the 2011-12 school year, the Elementary School trained six teachers in Cogmed. Cogmed is a computer based training program that specifically targets the development of working memory skills. The research shows the effects are long-term and suggests that working memory may be even more important than IQ. The Elementary School used normative and summative data, along with teacher collaboration, to identify a total of over 69 students (SK – 5th grade) to participate in Cogmed. To determine the effectiveness of Cogmed for Seoul Foreign School many students were given a brief Pre-test and Post-test in both working memory and processing speed.

The results showed that working memory increased an average 26 percentile points (Range 0 – 72nd percentile)

Teacher observations: “The results and evidence has differed for each individual, but on the whole I have seen an improvement in following instructions and completing tasks...” “… ability to concentrate and focus in the classroom and stay on task has improved remarkably”

Student testimonials: “I can listen to the teacher longer.”

3rd grader “I can do more math problems in my head.” 4th grader “I don’t lose as many things.”

5th grader Our Cogmed students, according to research, have managed to exploit the “plasticity” of their brains and improve their neural proficiency with regards to working memory and their ability to learn.

In 2012-13 we have 1-to-1 laptops in encourage that by giving students Grades 5-7 (British School Years 6-8) and techniques, attitudes and opportunities to Grades 9-10. learn new technology tools and skills independently.

To know more about the technology at SFS and the 1-to-1 laptop program please visit our website at: http://www.seoulforeign.org/page.cfm? p=443

ES Student Giving students 1-to-1 laptops does not automatically improve learning, but using 1-to-1 laptops effectively does improve learning by enabling independence, individualised activities, collaboration, research, communication, media mastery and global awareness. 1-to-1 laptops can transform learning through activities which would not be possible without them. They can also help families learn healthy use of technology with guidance and support from the school.

Students with 1-to-1 laptops do not use them all the time, only when they are the best tool - typically 20-40% of classroom time.

We do not know what the future will be like for our children, but the one thing we do know for sure is that it will be a future of constant change. We can prepare our children for the future by giving them strategies for managing change. With 1-to-1 laptops we can

“My child's command of technology has improved for sure.

He also enjoys the interactive nature of the laptop-based homework assignments. The instructor seems to be present beyond the school hours, which is a positive thing."

"Our son is eager to do the homework directly after school and does not need as much help as before."

"My child gained more confidence to explore solutions by trying different options on the computer e.g. different keys for working on a file, research skills, and communicating with others via email and Edmodo."

Anonymous MS Parents

BS Students

On September 22nd, nearly two hundred swimmers and volunteers splashed their way to success in the SFS Aquatics Center. The first school-wide swim meet of the school year resulted in numerous personal-bests with an assortment of trophies, medals, and ribbons for swimmers representing the BS, ES, MS, and HS. “To have such a large event

that early in the school year, with as many swimmers achieving ‘personal - bests’, really says a lot about the commitment to swimming at SFS”, says Patsy Smith, SFS Aquatics Coordinator.

From students who were just able to swim the length of the 25-meter pool to those who literally left a wake in their path, the swim meet proved to be an exciting and personally satisfying event.

One animated swimmer said, “It was awesome!” With the viewing deck full of adoring fans, and the pool deck full of energetic swimmers, the competitors are sure to look eagerly ahead to the next competition.