Author Archives: jzraskin@gmail.com

Nanowrimo Novelists

I am blown away.

When I first heard of the Nanowrimo project, I was interested…

Is it true? Students write a novel over November, then revise, edit and publish it through Amazon?

Wow. And then I watched it happen. From 5R 7 students invested many lunch breaks, and countless hours at home in drafting stories. Over the month of November I heard about word counts rising. Then quiet… Revising is hard work. Through the following months though, I was regularly asked “Can I bring my iPad home, I’m working on my Nanowrimo…”

And now, this. Or rather these. These remarkable accomplishments, all published and purchasable through Amazon. Have a look at the range of titles below, read the authors’ synopses and be impressed 🙂

Links to the individual titles:

Student-led Conferences

Student-led conferences are one of my favourite features of the PYP. It’s an opportunity for students to really take control, and demonstrate their understanding of their learning, parents to get a snapshot of their children’s school lives, and teachers to watch their students interact with their families. So many great insights! 🙂

Thank you all for coming out today. Please enjoy these photos and don’t miss Amelie and Rachel’s short film!


What Should I Read? from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.

Math Assessment: Home Today

Today your child has brought home their most recent math assessment, sharing a snapshot of their skills and understanding in multiplication of decimals, some division and interpretation of remainders, along with a reflection document they have used to better understand their work.

As mentioned earlier in the year, these assessments are being sent home primarily to enrich your conversations with your child about their learning. Please take the time to look at them together with your child, and alongside their reflection. Then, sign the assessment and return it promptly to school. Please aim to return these by Friday. If you require more time, please let me know.

5R Documentaries

These are the 5R documentaries. So the idea of these documentaries is that we first made a list of some topics that we would like to make our documentaries about.  After a week MR Raskin made teams of 3 or 4 people. Together we chose a topic that we would like to make our documentaries about. After that we started researching. We gathered facts music and photos. When we gathered our facts we started to film. We did not have that much time to finish our documentaries.We had to edit them, we had to agree were we would put the music, which parts we are going to cut out and we had to keep track of time. It was a challenge for all of us but at the end we finished them and all the documentaries are amazing.

-Filia Anastasiadi

-Evelina Barakou

GMO’s by:Emanuele, Josh, Henrik and David from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.

Ocean Garbage By: Amelia R., Annika F. And Evelina B. from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.

 

Future Foods: Haya, Mathilda, Amelie, Patricia from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.

Future Foods from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.

GMOs In Our World- Filia, Soojin, Sabine 5R from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.

Ocean Garbage from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.

The great pacific garbage patch from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.

Sign Up for Student Led Conferences!

Student Led Conferences are coming up on Tuesday, March 15!  On this day, students will have an opportunity to share their learning and growth with their parents.
Important information:
  • There will be no regular classes on that day.
  • Each child will have a passport.  As they visit the different classes/stations, they will check off or stamp this passport.  In the homeroom class, you’ll hear about their progress in literacy (reading and writing), Unit of Inquiry, mathematics, and on their learning path goals).  You’ll also visit single subject classes (PE, music, German, and art).
  • This is a student-led conference, rather than a traditional parent/teacher conference.  Your child will lead the conference, and teachers will not be involved in giving feedback.
  • Follow this link to open our class’s sign-up sheet.  Sign up for a slot either in block 1 (8:30-10:00 AM), block 2 (10:30 AM-12:00 PM), or block 3 (12:30-2:00 PM).  On the conference day, your child will begin in either our classroom or in the single subject classrooms.  The children and I will work out their starting points together.
  • Please attend during the block for which you sign up, because we want to keep the number of families in at one time to a manageable number.
  • Sibling care will be offered in the library.  However, children under 2 cannot be left in the library.
  • Students currently receiving Student Support Services or students who feel they might benefit from Learning Support or EAL Support in middle school can sign up here to have an informal meeting with Mrs. Steffen and Mrs. Langford to discuss the options available, along with their parents. Any family is welcome to sign up, but this is not necessary for all grade 5 students.

Here are the links to sign up (same as those embedded above):

Student Led Conference sign-up

Meet with Mrs. Langford and Mrs. Steffen to discuss elective options

ISAs and Strep Throat

Dear 5R families,

Today’s first day of ISAs went well. The students chose to set up the classroom “like an English school”, which means I suppose desks in rows. Most students had their water bottles and reading books at hand and worked diligently to complete the tasks in the given time.

Set up “just like an English Classroom” for the ISAs

Tomorrow will be the final day of this year’s testing. You will receive the results in several months. As mentioned in our grade level ISA blog post, these results give an interesting snapshot of student performance in a particular way on a particular day. They are primarily used to collect data about how we at ZIS compare in these sorts of assessments to like schools globally. Students are encouraged to sleep well the night before, and try their best, but not to stress or feel any undue anxiety. Most students find the day’s different structure novel and interesting.


 

On another note, we have just received notice of a case of strep throat in our class. I’ve attached a document to this post which give some detail about the condition, and suggests measures to treat and avoid infection. Please read and keep an eye on your child.

ZIS Strep Throat Guidelines

 

The Great Food Packaging Challenge

How much packaging do we recycle and throw away?

This weekend Grade Five has a challenge… For two days, 48 hours, collect and clean the packaging materials from your family’s food. Then bring it in to school on Monday to add it to our “Mountain of Food Packaging”.

Yes. This means for two days you will ask your family to help you collect and clean all the wrappers, boxes, bags and tins that would otherwise be recycled or thrown away. Please leave the glass bottles at home, we don’t want to have to worry about broken glass!

Start collecting packaging when you wake up on Saturday, January 23. Finish with the final packaging from Sunday, January 24th.

Don’t forget to bring it all in on Monday… Tuesday will be too late!

For 48 hours, don’t throw me out or recycle me… Clean me, dry me and bring me in to school!

Strategies for Division

A quick snapshot of this morning. As we work towards multiplication and division of decimals, we’re revisiting and expanding on division strategies. Students were tasked to work with their Math Buddies to produce a video where they explain not just how a particular strategy for division works, but why it works. Look out for the videos on the student blogs. In the meantime, here are some images… Enjoy!

IMAGES

Be a part of the ZIS TV team!

ZIS LS TV Application – 2015/2016 Terms 3 & 4

Dear friends,

Happy New Year! It is time to welcome new members to ZIS LS TV!

At ZIS LS TV, you will get a chance to meet people, cover events, create documentaries, report the latest happenings in school & more!

Join the media team and put your ideas into action! Create content that you’d like to share via the Lower School online news channel.

Last term, a storyteller/singer/song writer liked the interview ZIS LS TV did with her that she has posted it on her website! Check it out at: http://www.courtneycampbell.com

What? ZIS LS TV application.

Who? A total of 8 students will be selected from Grade 4 & 5. You? Why not?

When? Application deadline: 18 January 2016

Weekly meetings: 3.30-4.30pm, Every Tuesday, After School terms 3 & 4.

How?

  1. Fill up this application form: http://goo.gl/forms/SXAECXTTjv
  2. Create a short video (maximum 20 seconds) about why you would like to be on the media team. See the application form for information.

Good to know – ZIS LS TV is considered a third after school activity. Students in ZIS LS TV are allowed to select a further two after school activities that take place at a different time.

Looking forward to welcoming you as a member of ZIS LS TV!
🙂 ZIS LS TV team + Clement