Leopard's Tale |
|
|
  Mr. Reinman joined our community as a teacher of Language and Literature and TOK in August of 2020. Although teaching wasn’t something that he initially planned to do, he was inspired to continue doing so after teaching a 7th grade class in the United States. Mr. Reinman enjoys watching students learn and apply their knowledge to their own experiences. He particularly finds it very inspiring how students and teachers are invested in each other's success and happiness, especially when students form great social bonds with their teachers. He would love for our school to reach out and interact with the Zambian community. In fact, Mr. Reinman was able to connect with the local community by sharing his passion for riding motorcycles, which allowed him to make wonderful bonds with locals!
Mr. Reinman describes himself as a homebody, but he still loves to explore different restaurants and venues with his family. He loves Zambia’s nature, especially the array of lizards that go in and out of his house. “I don’t know what kind of person could come to Zambia and not find something to love”, he says. Alongside exploring nature, his occupation as teacher allows him to analyze texts which he didn’t have time to investigate before. Consequently, he would advise young adults, like us, to not be afraid to put in the work in whatever we’re doing. Fun fact: As an ardent traveler, Mr. Reinman is keen on visiting Iran because he would love to learn about the people of Iran! Deborah, Florence, Suchi  The Gr 6-8 Community Connections Flex Time Team is organizing a clothing/recreational equipment drive for young migrant boys ages 14-18 starting March 20th and ending March 31st. These boys are from Ethiopia and were caught in transit on their way to South Africa looking for a better life. They are going through desperate times. Until recently, they were held in a prison, and are now staying in a correctional facility. There are currently 70+ kids in the Lusaka area. They are the ones who survived. Others have died along the way due to being smuggled in inhumane ways.
UpZambia is a local NGO who provides legal representation to these migrant boys. UpZambia has contacted us for support in supplying these boys with the following items:
We are going to collect as many items as we can, but the minimum goal is 200 clothing items (around a couple of things for each boy), 20 sports items, and 20 art supplies. For the hygiene items, we need around 50 bars of soap, 50 toothpaste tubes, and around 90 toothbrushes. Items can be donated any time of the day (while the school is open, of course), from March 20th to March 31st in designated boxes outside the Secondary Office. During the student-parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday, March 22nd, and Thursday, March 23rd, we will be available under the dome to answer any further questions. We count on the spirit and kindness of the AISL community to help these boys! Community Connections Flex Time Team  Dear Parents,
So much going on! As the weather becomes nicer and nicer (in my humble opinion), so does the school get busier and busier. This week alone saw us planning for the upcoming Worldfest (stay tuned for more information), continue our work on Experience Zambia (thanks to all the parents who came out for the informational session last week), holding 3 way conferences to talk about learning, competing in ISAZ tournaments, and this coming Saturday is the ZAMMUN conference! Also, we have the DP Art exhibition going on continuously in the PAC all this week. The campus is abuzz with activity. Please remember that, even though a lot is going on, our focus as always is on the well being of our students. As kids get busy with their various activities, the pace and volume can obscure some real issues that need to be addressed. So, as your kids stay busy with school and fun, take some time to slow down the pace when you can. Ask them how they are doing, and pay attention to whether or not they are getting overwhelmed. Have a great weekend! Rick Odum Open Doors to ParentsPlease don't forget that the library is open for parents to come check out books or sit and work during school hours Monday through Friday. We are also open the first and third Saturday of each month from 9:00-12:00 for parents and students.  Upcoming Event - Book SwapAt the next Friday market on 31 March, we will have a table set up for you to bring a used book in reasonable condition and swap it out for another used book that someone else brings. For every book that you give, you will get a book coupon and for every coupon that you have, you can take 2 books of your choosing home. The library reserves the right to first choice so if any donated books could enrich our collection, we will keep those books for everyone to borrow from our collection. We are asking the PTA to help us find a parent volunteer to run this event from 12:30 to 13:15 so if you would be willing to sit at the book swap table for those 45 minutes on 31 March to hand out and collect coupons, please contact a member of the PTA or Kim at kshumlansky@aislusaka.org. Upcoming Event - Week of CodingG6-12 students are welcome and encouraged to come to the secondary library with their iPads or laptops to do some fun STEM activities from 3-6 April from 14:30-15:30 when there are no CCAs running. Students can program our DJI robots to complete a challenge or try their hand at a dozen different Hour of Code apps which will help them use and practice different coding skills. During the school hours, teachers can sign up their class to come down as well.
Please come to the opening or drop by to view the show throughout the week. All welcome.   Hope everyone had a good break and got some relaxation with family and friends, and hopefully some outdoor time. Update on Strategy The conversation held in the Protea Room just before the break was very well attended and a great conversation was had with parents, following a brief presentation. If you missed it, here is the Strategy Slide Presentation. One of the four domains in our strategy is the Environment and it is in this area that we seek help from parents and the wider community. Mark James is leading the Green Campus initiative as part of the environment domain with a group of enthusiastic teachers. Our next step is to involve students, who we would like to see driving projects in this area. Parent expertise is critical too! Here is the Environment's Team working document that Mark presented to the parents. Green Campus Group Slides This too sparked a lot of conversation about how we need to prepare our students in our world of exponential change. AI Continues to Expand Our Capacities Indeed this week, the Fourth Iteration of Chat GPT was launched. The parameters for GPT- 3 was 175,000,000,000 GPT- 4 is now 100,000,000,000,000 Also this week Google announced A new era for AI and Google Workspace coming soon to the Google Suite. Fee Letter The annual Fee Letter and explanation went out yesterday. Friday Market Tomorrow is the Friday market. Here is the selection of vendors. (Please consider bringing your own containers to help save on plastic) Hilda - Bagels Ethnix - Crafts Krupa’s Kreations - Baked goods Millie - Baked goods fundraising for GRI Wim Pics - Artwork/photography Mrs Tarney - Fresh fruit juices Rin’s Kitchen - Thai food Joyce/Mary - Burritos Mr. Banda - Wooden carvings Minal - Resin products Baobab Swirls - Soaps/creams Mr Luhila - Roasted chickens Catherine - Fresh fruit/vegetables Yuka - Hana Saku Sushi Shen Jing - Stationery Three Way Conferences Are Upon Us! Next Wednesday and Thursday sees our second round of Three Way Conferences for the school year. Please check the primary and secondary updates for the details. Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible on campus. Re-Enrollment Reminder Thank you to those who have responded about re-enrollment for the next school year. If you have not yet done so, please consider doing this as soon as you are able, as it helps greatly in our planning. If you have any questions, please contact our Admissions Director, Natasha Chalikulima on: nchalikulima@aislusaka.org And to those who celebrate, Happy St. Patrick’s Day for tomorrow. And to ponder: A Traditional Gaelic Poem May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields until we meet again… With kind regards,
Dr. Oli Tooher-Hancock Director Dear Parents,
Welcome back from the break. I hope everyone had a restful, or adventurous, break, and that it wasn’t too hard to remember that we came back on Tuesday rather than Monday. I am still operating as if it is Wednesday. A lot of the following is carried over from the last Secondary Update, but that is ok, it is still relevant. I want to take this opportunity though to recognize the work of the Experience Zambia team, and particularly Ms. Fiona Moss. Fiona has been a huge addition to the AISL team, and has worked tirelessly on this initiative. If you see her, let her know how appreciated she truly is in this community. Today we hosted both a parent and student information session (SLIDE DECK) on this initiative and look forward to having our Gr 5 - 10 students out Experiencing Zambia at the end of May. Conferences: Conferences are coming up March 22-23, please see the section in this week’s LT for more detailed information. In brief, these conferences are an opportunity for the students to demonstrate agency and ownership of their education by leading the conversation about their learning. Please note that these conferences are meant to be:
New Rest: This past Monday I had a meeting with representatives from New Rest to discuss some of the issues that have been brought to my attention in the past few weeks. In terms of some of the ordering issues, they asked me to remind parents that they need to: order before 10 PM the day before the delivery date, 2. Make sure that the selected date is the date the food is delivered, and 3. Make sure that, after you order, you receive a confirmation email. This last point is, I understand, extremely important as the confirmation emails confirm that the order has been received. Additionally, we spoke about account information. New Rest informs me that presently accounts are calculated manually, and that account statements go out every 15 days. They assured me however, that they are working on software that will allow parents to access their accounts in real time with automatic updates. Lastly, they agreed to fully open the Secondary tuck shop by the gym to both food deliveries and sales and to properly staff and stock it for the kids. They let me know that they will not be selling to Secondary kids in the Primary tuck shop. So, if Secondary kids want snacks or food, starting Monday, they will be fully stocked in the Tuck shop next to the gym. Lastly, New Rest has appointed a liaison to work with the school gathering feedback from Parents, Students and Staff. So, if you have any questions or issues, please reach out to the New Rest Retail Manager, Francis at 0973259785. The rains seem done, the cooler weather is rolling in, Baseball Spring Training is back. It’s a great time of the year, and we anticipate great things for the rest of Semester 2. Have a great holiday, Rick Odum  Dear AISL Community,
The Gr 6-8 Community Connections Flex Time Team is organizing a clothing/recreational equipment drive for young migrant boys ages 14-18 starting March 20th and ending March 31st. These boys are from Ethiopia and were caught in transit on their way to South Africa looking for a better life. They are going through desperate times. Until recently, they were held in a prison, and are now staying in a correctional facility. There are currently 70+ kids in the Lusaka area. They are the ones who survived. Others have died along the way due to being smuggled in inhumane ways. UpZambia is a local NGO who provides legal representation to these migrant boys. UpZambia has contacted us for support in supplying these boys with the following items:
We are going to collect as many items as we can, but the minimum goal is 200 clothing items (around a couple of things for each boy), 20 sports items, and 20 art supplies. For the hygiene items, we need around 50 bars of soap, 50 toothpaste tubes, and around 90 toothbrushes. Items can be donated any time of the day (while the school is open, of course), from March 20th to March 31st in designated boxes outside the Secondary Office. During the student-parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday, March 22nd, and Thursday, March 23rd, we will be available under the dome to answer any further questions. We count on the spirit and kindness of the AISL community to help these boys! Have a wonderful rest of your week, Community Connections Flex Time Team LINK TO CONFERENCE SIGN UP (instructions at top of sheet)  Final Logistics for students:
|
RSS Feed
