MYP

Grade 8 Community Project:

Grade 8 students are presenting their community projects in advisory. Two groups presented in assembly this last week. Please find their presentations linked below:

• Diego/Kwame/Nina: Quote Website
• Arjun/Siena/Maya: Book Drive

Here is the link to Katie’s website where she has made available to us her mum’s simple Chinese recipes. I think even I can manage them! Whoop!

Here is the link to Diego/Kwame and Nina’s motivational website. A great deal of lovely thinking and meditating here!

ATLs: Managing our reactions and emotions:

Recent developments around COVID have seen many of us expressing our emotions not always in healthy ways. We know that it is healthy to express emotions but we need to be careful of when and how we do this.  We have all experienced times when people react in ways that make us embarrassed or frightened. Or we ourselves have felt so strongly about something that we did not react in a way that we were proud of. Feelings of anxiety, anger and frustration are sometimes hard to control.  Managing emotions and reactions are skills that are part of a group of skills we call emotional intelligence and we need to develop and practice these skills. This takes time and we need help sometimes and that’s ok. 

Tips: when we feel negative emotions we need to 

• identify and name exactly how we are feeling - I feel angry.
• accept the feeling - it’s understandable/reasonable because...
• understand the feeling - I feel angry because the decision does not make sense in that…
• be kind to ourselves and don’t judge ourselves - our feelings are valid.
• not blame others
• not act or speak too hastily
• Engage in an activity we know helps us manage our emotions: journal, engage in self talk, meditate, exercise, talk to someone etc.

There are many websites to read up about this subject. Here are just a few:

KidsHealth
Healthline
Skillsyouneed
Helpguide

Visible Thinking at AISL:

Leslie Jeffrey and Ingrid Turner presented an information session on Visible Thinking on Tuesday 30 November.  These routines enable students to access higher level thinking. The hope is that they transfer these thinking moves to their own lives outside of school. Thank you to all who attended this session. 

Here are some important links for you:

Visible Thinking Presentation
Tips for Parents: Apps for Parents
The routines are 1 of 8 cultural forces: Cultures of Thinking
Access information and routines on the Project Zero Website